Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

Easy solution. Pay for your seats. I can’t believe people still complain about this!

Guessing it was a full flight and others had paid. You could have done the same. No they shouldn't split you up but to guarantee this you could have paid

Let me guess, you think TFL should introduce a policy where you have to pay extra to sit next to your family on the 381?
No?
Well that's how much of a scam paying to sit next to your own family on the plane is...

This. I honestly hate it when everyone is straight away, why didn't you pay to prebook? It is disgusting the way things have got, this never ever used to be an issue. I am agog that they allowed a 4 year old to sit on their own, I know my own 4 year old daughter would have been hugely distressed at this. Definitely write a complaint, absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Didn't get the responses they hoped for...

If ryanair are acting against their own policy (i'd double check this before reacting) then they can try and chuck me off all they like. Calmly and politely outling their policy to them isn't aggressive or illegal. It's asserting your rights. If they've misold you a service then they're in the wrong. If they haven't then sure chuck me off.

Ryanair get away with this stuff because we're all such pushovers. I refuse to fly with them. Have flown with them once before. Never again. They're rarely cheaper anyway. Why people continue to use them is beyond me.

‘You have to cuddle my child then, here’s their teddy’

these people are insane

no one assumes responsibility for a child sat next to them

OP has not returned.

If you don’t pay to sit together, ryanair will split you up. No matter the ages. I thought that same as the OP when I and my 2 year old flew with them. They put us separately. The flight attendants refused to help and I had to beg other passaengers to move, who were most pissed after paying for their seats. (Which i didn't.)

Moral: ryanair are totally in the wrong, but you get what you pay for.

When you book with Ryanair it asks if you want to pay extra to sit together even before booking - I know as I was recently looking at some flight options and had to factor in the higher cost of booking to sit together.

It’s shit that they make people pay for this. That is not on the flight attendants though, but the people in charge at Ryanair. It’s also a supply/demand thing as people just pay it.

But it’s also shit that people just wing it, knowing this is what happens and delay the flight getting people to switch seats etc. fly Ryanair, expect to have to pay to sit together.

Nobody is entitled to anybody swapping seats with them. Especially if they've paid for an aisle or a window and the parent who wants the swap wants to dump the other person in the middle. That's beyond entitled to expect it and call others "miserable" if they won't cater to your poor planning.

@Boobygravy "more fool you" why? Being forced to pay extra to have a (in my case at the time) 2 year old child sit next to me is not something which was made clear at the point of booking (in 2009) nor is it on any view humane conduct. I'm more than happy to pay a decent airline which makes its terms clear at the point of booking, and have done so ever since.

This is what I do too

This is why I will ALWAYS pay for my seat.

And why I get pissed off at the people who don't pay and then expect people who have paid to move.

Came onto say this!

PS Ryanair are awful. I flew with them alone as a 13yo years ago and the staff were so horrible.

I am puzzled how she managed to avoid the policy. When we flew with Ryanair, the system forced the adults to pay for seats and automatically assigned the child next to them. We couldn't proceed with the booking without paying

I would.
I like to sit in the aisle and I wouldn’t move for anyone.
The cf families are banking on folks like you saving them money.

Sorry OP, it sucks they couldn't follow their policy, but they can't force people to swap seats, especially if other passengers have paid. They can't make others give up their paid for seat for one that's worse than the one they booked, especially. If it's a busy flight, with lots of pre booked seats, then they can't always honour what they say about children being sat next to an adult from your party. I've seen it happen, and I've seen people refuse, quite reasonably, to swap, leaving families in a difficult spot. I've got two SEN kids and there's no way I'd have left it to chance when they were younger, and I certainly wouldn't have given up a seat to someone else who didn't plan ahead and wanted to inconvenience others because they didn't want to pay a few extra quid.

I agree the whole system sucks, and it's a massive rip off, but if you choose to fly Ryanair this is what you're accepting. Pre book your seats.

They have two separate policies from the looks of it:

1. if you're travelling with an under 12 you must reserve your own seat (and subsequently will get an option to reserve the kids seat for free) -mandatory, responsibility of the booking adult

2. kids under 12 should sit beside an adult (note, not parent and should rather than must) - preference of the CAA, so consider as a guideline

Ryanair further cover themselves with For family bookings, children (aged 2 to 11 years) receive free reserved seating so they can sit beside a parent. Again, the language here is "so they can" rather than "as they must".

I suppose you could argue the OP should have been refused boarding because she failed to reserve her seat, but overall the onus is on the passenger rather than the airline.

I think they should 100% have moved people at thr gate, terrible to leave a 4yo alone. Also incredibly miserable of people not to swap; lots of people won't have paid for their seats. If their policy is that one adult must pay for a seat so young kids don't end up alone the system should flag that up to you when you book your tickets.

Someone else who has swallowed the obnoxious O'Leary's propaganda hook line and sinker. It's 100% Ryanair's fault as they have created an unsafe booking system that forces families apart....hardly progress.

I've recently booked Ryanair flights for our holiday next year. Our kids 20, 17 and 9 are flying with us and I had to do seat allocation on booking as youngest is under 12. It cost something like £10 each for the rest of us for seat allocation.
Didn't you get this option on booking?

Have you read any of the thread, especially where Ryanair’s policy is explained?

The adult has to pay to reserve a seat and then the child is allocated a seat beside them for free.

This adult didn't follow the policy, if she had her four year old would have been sat beside her.

More fool you.