Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

Ridiculous to put a 4yo on their own but you should have paid for seats to avoid this situation.

I'm surprised that nobody was willing to swap as I wouldn't want to sit next to an unaccompanied 4yo personally, but equally, if people have paid for their seats, it's totally fair enough if they don't want to move. Is there a reason why you put the two youngest children together without an adult? I'd have sat an adult with the 4yo personally, as a 7yo would more likely to cope alone. I wouldn't have let the situation happen in the first place though...if you can afford to fly, you can afford to pay for seats.

I swapped in a heartbeat for a child who was about 8/9 years old on a Ryanair flight without needing to get the attendants involved as he was distressed at not being next to his dad.

Don't mind where I sit and anything to subvert their stupid policies, frankly.

Next time tell your four year old in a very loud voice that you're sure the man/woman sitting next to them will be happy to cuddle them while they're being sick. And if they're worried just scream as loudly as they can.

Unacceptable

But you should have paid £50 to sit together

Because the policy is to seat child with adult? You don’t need to pay extra when that is the policy.

This seems odd since it's mandatory on Ryan Air flights for under 12s to have a (free) seat reservation. How did you manage to book?

God I hate all this money grabbing bollocks that these awful airlines have created. People who book together want to sit together and not pay for that. Sitting with the people you book with is just a basic. It never used to be difficult but they have turned it into an unpleasant charade. I was really pleased to see Ryanair lost a case in Italy about this recently.

I fly with Ryanair regularly with my family and I’ve only ever had positive experiences. They provide as a good a service as any other airline. They are quite clear on what the basic fair covers - you want seats together - you pay extra, you want to bring a 10kg bag on board - you pay extra, same with priority boarding, etc.

I would never fly with young children without paying the fee for assigned seating. You took a risk, you lost.

I wonder if too many parents have been trying to get away with not paying for children to travel beside and adult because they thought they could get that for free coz it's a child...and Ryanair realised that and says no more...ie you pay to book or you takes your chances...

Next time pay for seats. Like the rest of us do.

Those saying she should have paid to book seats are missing the point. They have a policy and they didn't honour it. If people need to pay for sitting together then that should be the policy.

Pay to choose your seats like everyone else does. I wouldn’t have swopped with you either.

Whilst I don't think YABU and I absolutely understand how stressful that must have been, I think it's a hard lesson learned that with young children you have to pay up for seat reservations at the time of booking. I always whine about it to DH when booking, but ultimately we don't want to take the risk, regardless of the so-called policy.

I am surprised that they seat such a young child alone, but Ryanair is Ryanair. I think they are great, but I know their rules which I am ok with in order to get cheap tickets.

Pay for reserved seats; don't expect other people to have to move for your convenience. Stop being so tight, and so selfish.

But their policy says adults have to pay to reserve a seat if there are under 12s in the party, so curious why OP didn’t take advantage of booking the seats when she’d presumably paid.

https://help.ryanair.com/hc/en-gb/articles/12892557860369-What-is-Ryanair-s-Family-Seat-Policy

I thought it was common knowledge that Ryanair deliberately split you up in order to ‘encourage’ you to pay the extra fee to book seats together.

I’d complain as a 4yr old should not be sitting alone. Why should another passenger have to assume responsibility for them in an emergency. I always paid to reserve a seat when mine were little, but you’d expect one parent should be sitting next to a child of that age.

Ryanair will always split up people who book together if you don't pay for assigned seats. This is to make it as inconvenient as possible so you pay for seats. they now even offer you the option of paying an extra £3 for random allocation that won't be a middle seat.
Their whole business model is having a very cheap base price then adding extras to bump the price up.
If you want to sit together on Ryanair you pay for the privilege or you take your chances, but they will never put a whole party together for free.

last few times I booked with Ryanair, they gave us a free choose your seat booking for each child. Have they stoped this?

Pay for seats together.

Nobody on that plane is responsible for you sitting together apart from you.

You know you the answer is to pay for seat allocation when you book.

I've specifically flown with them before BECAUSE of that policy. I would complain and loudly on social media too. That's disgraceful. They know the ages of the children on board when allocating seats and specifically say you don't need to pay for a child to sit with an adult in your party. This is all on them.

What @BarbaraHoward said.

Next to can mean across the aisle, in front of or behind.

People did not want to swap with you because they had paid for their seats.

I do feel for you that you were in this situation but I'm also surprised that you were travelling with young children and you did not book seats. You should have read the paperwork.