Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

I think that any airline that charges people who have paid in 1 booking to sit next to each other are money grabbing leeches. It should be the default option unless you request not to.

That’s interesting! I’ve never pre booked a seat and we’ve always been assigned seats where child is beside an adult.

@elderflowerspritzer
You have interpreted their policy incorrectly

They are stating that children must be seated with an adult so the adult must reserve seats not that Ryan Air will automatically allocate one free

Looking at the Ryan Air website is states that under 12s must be seated with an adult so it is mandatory for the adult to reserve the seat.

Not that Ryan Air will seat you together. The rule is that it is the adult's responsibility to reserve seats so the child is seated with them

When my kids were under 16 (2 years ago) the Ryanair check in process always forced me to buy a seat next to them. Doesn't that happen anymore?
Anyway if you want to sit besde your child you just pay for a seat. Why should another person who has paid for the seat they want have to swap with you.

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
Idiotic comment.
Besude which any parent would ( hopefully)freak out if they saw a stranger cuddling their child.

I’m really surprised at the posters saying the OP should have paid for booked seats! I’ve flown Ryanair with my DSD upwards of ten times with her ranging in age from 3-9 and we’ve never pre booked or pre paid - she’s always been assigned a seat next to either myself or her Dad as per the under 12s with an adult policy. DH and I either swap seats half way through the flight or one flies next to her inbound and one outbound. Granted we only ever do short haul on Ryanair. The point is the airline states clearly that under 12s will be seated with an adult and are in breach of their own policy! I’d complain very loudly and recurrently until someone listens @LHGL!

Are you purposely attention seeking?! Calling OP unreasonable for not pre-empting that the flight attendants would BREACH CAA Regulations?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ryanair's policy is that children under 12 must sit beside an accompanying adult.

That is very clear when booking. Children under 12 should be automatically allocated seats next to adults. They weren't. Ryanair are at fault, not OP.

Their policy is that children under 12 need to sit beside an accompanying adult.

I'm not sure why so many people on this thread are adamantly defending Ryanair when they are obviously at fault here.

If you are just joining this thread, don't bother, OP hasn't returned after her initial post.

Either an MN post for clicks and advertising, or a Ryanair employee seeking some free advertising. Didn't the owner once say ‘any publicity is publicity!
🤔😆

As so many pointed out this simply didn't happen, but it has got the "they are just entitled " "choose to have children" and "everyone is so selfish nowadays" all nicely riled up.

No you can't proceed with the booking and pay until the adult chooses their seat. It is spelled out in their policy, and I just tried a mock reservation to be certain.

Doesn't "with" an adult mean next to, across the aisle or directly behind/in front? It doesn't necessarily mean in the seat right next to the adult. Happy to be corrected as I haven't flown Ryanair in donkey's years but this is the case for most airlines.

YABU. If you're travelling with DC, then you choose your seats when you book, not when you check in. I can't believe you then had your 4 year old sit by herself next to strangers on the plane. You should have gotten off the plane and not travelled. You are totally unreasonable. If you're travelling, ensure your DC are sat next to you. If no seats are available at the time of booking, book an alternative flight.

What if there'd been an emergency mid-flight? And your 4yo is on her own? Ryanair are not the problem here, the 4yo's parents are.

You can book without it being forced. The free kids allocation comes in once you select to book an allocated seat for yourself.

I have a very good reason for always booking an aisle seat. I am quite sure if I was forced into middle or window I would annoy the absolute hell out of the people I would be forcing myself past regularly.

I don't pay for my seat, but I still don't want to move somewhere else because parents don't want to pay for their own seats, and what should I have to?

Well then you should know that on Ryanair, you have no choice but to pay for the adult seat and the children get free seat allocation. Paying for the accompanying adult is mandatory. So I can't understand people still berating the OP for not paying, despite Ryanair policies repeatedly pointed out in the thread. She wouldn't have been able to book the ticket if she didn't pay. In this case it seems like Ryanair messed up.

When I pay to make sure I sit with my family, why should any of us move to make way for people who didn't pay?

When they were under 12, when I paid for my seat reservation, I was then able to select theirs for free on Ryan Air. But i did have to pay for my own reservation. There isn't a chance I would ever risk not booking a seat if I wasn't flying alone.

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.

I’ll happily refuse. I need certain seats and often have to sit beside my traveling companion due to disabilities also sometimes because I’m traveling with another disabled family member so I’m certainly not giving up my seat that I always pay a reservation fee for in addition to the price of the flight. I don’t expect people to pay for my (involuntary) disabilities so why should I pay for the child they chose to have? I really don’t understand why other passengers are expected to care more about some random child than the parents themselves do. Plus personally I’m not in the habit of randomly giving out my money to other reasonably affluent strangers which is exactly what I’d be doing by swapping.

Unless there’s something odd about the IAA/Aer Lingus very much agree.

That claim has been made a few time so as a general point it’s maybe worth emphasising that if people are going to start causing problems on boarding because of seat allocation on the grounds they “know their rights” they’d better be darned sure they really do know their rights…

I agree entirely that this whole issue can be PITA for many people (passengers and crew)… I do wish seat allocation hadn’t been transformed into being another source of ancillary revenue but it’s that’s genie again and the demand for low base fares.

I haven't refused yet, but I HATE it and really hate the parents who put people in that situation. My main problem is being next to my hand luggage. If you have to move when everyone is on the plane you have very little chance of finding space for your cabin bag above your head.
I've been expected to move so two parents can sit with their child so no unaccompanied child anyway.

As well as that I as a lone adult traveller DO NOT want to be responsible for someone else's child on a flight!

I have never paid for seats when with the kids when they were under 12 and NEVER have we been separated, ever. Ever. Always at least once of us right beside them, with another adult maybe infront or across aisle. We fly a lot as both sides of the family are abroad.
But I have also never flown Ryan Air.

RA are a disgrace, and their computers should have allocated an adult with the kids because the LAST thing anyone needs on a plane in an emergency is adults trying to reach their children and slowing down an evacuation. It's why children ARE seated next to a parnt/carer.
Sounds like the staff were too lazy to sort it out.

it’s also breaking the law to fly with unaccompanied minors!

Yet again they are not breaking the law!