Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

Why didn’t you pay for seats together when you booked like everyone else?

But the airline says it is mandatory they sit together! It wasn’t a nice to have. Why isn’t it the airline’s responsibility to have them sit together?

While I don’t like the policy the easy way to avoid this it to book seats together in the first place.
Almost Everyone else will have done so, so unfair to make them move just because you didn’t?

OP seems to have vanished, il get one of the flight crew to put an announcement out for her to return to her seat and explain why she felt she didn’t have to pay for pre booked seats but instead made it other people’s problem!

I would hope anyone who pulled a stunt like that would be thrown off the flight.

Hopefully quickly! Why do people persist with the 'I'll be an obnoxious, demanding twat and of course I'll get what I want, go powerful me....'

Never in a million years would I refuse to swap seats for a family unless I was with a child myself. I just don't understand this mindset.

Agree, makes me angry too. I'd rather the cost be absorbed in the price of the ticket rather than this booking seats nonsense. It creates problems for people who are booking last minute and don't have the option to pay for seats together, and quite rightly someone who has paid for a seat is going to be annoyed at being asked to move.

We flew with EasyJet in the summer, myself, DH, DD5 and DD2.

We had originally booked flights for the week previous (and paid for allocated seating) but unfortunately youngest DD ended up very seriously ill in hospital (ICU admission) over this time due to her severe asthma.

We booked flights for a week later after she was discharged from hospital but at this stage were unable to book seats together. Turned up on the flight with 4 completely different seats, Easyjet staff were very sympathetic and helpful and managed to get us 2 seats together on separate rows once everyone else was seated by asking other passengers if they would move so each of us sat with one of the children. So for all of those posters jumping on the defence and saying “why didn’t you pay for allocated seats”, what would you have done in my situation? Does my family not deserve a long-awaited break because of my youngest’s serious health condition? As I said, we tried to book allocated seating but as it was so last-minute we were unable to.

OP I feel for you and would complain about this, absolutely appalling x

I even pay extra to have my adult DC near me when we fly as a family with Ryan air. I prefer it.
on a full flight where on earth did you think the crew were going to get 5 seats for you all to sit together?

I have a lot of sympathy for you, yes you should have paid for a confirmed seat but you didn’t, lesson learnt. I am annoyed that they didn’t put the kids with their parents. Imagine if the random
adult passenger next to the kid was a predator?? That would have been worse imo

The magic question is ‘can you explain to me how this seating arrangement complies with CAA regulations?

Again they are just guidelines and not legally binding in the UK.

This 100%

It's YOUR 🫵🏻 fault not Ryanair's.

Absolutely your own fault, majorly being unreasonable, and CF too!

You could have paid a small fee to specifically book seats together, but you decided it wasn't worth the cost to do that, and just winged it based on their policy. That bit you in the arse, and then you bugged others who may well have paid to select specific seats, to swap with you for your benefit and their detriment. Probably with some sense of entitlement too from the sounds of your post.
Entirely avoidable and on you, if your kids are traumatised thats your doing, don't go blaming or complaining to anyone else. Next time don't be a cheapskate.

This is such an odd MN quirk, and an area in which humanity has gone backwards.
Since the dawn of flying, airlines have seated people who book travel together, together. A decade ago, or whenever it was, someone had the 'bright' idea of charging people to sit together for no earthly reason other than screwing customers out of more money.
Now here's the really really odd bit. Many people, like me, think that this charge is mad and don't pay it. And around 85%+ of times I've always been seated next to my family. But it seems to make some people who are willing to pay whatever outrageous charge airlines create BATSHIT crazy to see that some people don't want to pay said charge to pay, and then have the audacity to ask often people travelling alone, to swop seats.
However, there is also a safety element. A parent should NEVER be forced to pay to sit next to their own four-year old, for all the obvious reasons.
What people don't realise is, is that in a plane crash, if families are split up, this will hinder safe and quick evacuation of planes, and endanger lives. If I haven't paid to sit next to my teenager, I'll begrudgingly sit apart from them. But if the plane goes down, to hell with everyone else, I'm going to get them. And if you have a plane load of people looking for their kids (worst case scenario) that will cause more deaths.

OP- complain to your MP and the CAA, and the Transport Secretary (who has the right idea about P&O). Ignore the haters who seem to think it's normal to pay next to your family. It isn't!

Ryan Air is a flying bus, don't expect anymore from them especially when you listen to their CEO.

Sorry OP looking at this from another point of view as someone who has kids and just flew Spain this week with them all but did pre paid seats together so dhd sit with her kids. A parent decided not to pay to pre-book seats together with there kids. The parent was then unhappy as there poor young child wasn't sat with them even though they knew that was a risk they took when they failed to book seats in advance.

Other people on the flight (probably a lot of families due to it being school holidays) didn't want to give up there pre paid booked more expensive seats. Ryanair knew this and didn't want to upset customers who had pre paid for seats together. Ryanair policy and UK law states kids need to be next to an adult but actually that doesn't mean there parent so they can legally sit the child in different rows on the plane from a parent.

The moral of the story is if you want to guarantee seats with your kids you need to pay for them.

Bollocks .
Plane safety surely means that children must be seated next to responsible adults.
It's not about choosing specific seats which us what booking seats is about. It's just putting adults and their kids on one booking together. Not tricky. Been done for years.

No they don't. I fly with them all the time and have never paid to pre book seats, and we've never been seated apart.

@Mumofteenandtween that's why I think it's made up. I don't know how they managed to book the seats in the first place. You have to pay for one adult. You don't even need to pay for both. I actually think it's very reasonable.

I had a similar experience with Ryanair in 2009 and for that reason have never flown with them again, even when their flights have been significantly cheaper than other carriers.

People are ridiculous. As long as the OP and her partner were happy to sit separately each with a child, there is no need to pay. She isn’t complaining she couldn’t sit with her husband, it’s young children FFS. Some people on here are just hell bent on making sure the OP is always in the wrong no matter what.

The magic question is ‘can you explain to me how this seating arrangement complies with CAA regulations? If they fob you off ask for the captain to answer the same question.

This. Book your seats!

I can’t work out how the Op managed to book without reserving their seat. We have just booked a flight and were pricing up the different airlines. My two will be 14 and 11 when we fly. Ds (the 11 year old) was not at all bothered about reserving seats (in fact quite hopeful we wouldn’t - random strangers don’t stop him eating his packed lunch at 10am or make unhelpful comments about how maybe he has had enough screens now so perhaps he could read a nice book! 😂) Ryanair insisted that we did though as he is U12.