Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

There's nothing in the OP's post that she didn't pay for a seat for herself.

I think she would have mentioned it!

CAA document is guidance, not rules..and uses "should", not "must".

How far away were they OP, the CAA says no further than one row. You can report them to the CAA if they didn't set them close enough.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/#:~:text=Families%2C%20children%20and%20infants&text=Young%20children%20and%20infants%20who,seat%20row%20from%20accompanying%20adults.

www.caa.co.uk/our-work/about-us/enforcement-and-prosecutions/#:~:text=The%20CAA%20prosecutes%20both%20companies,with%20our%20Code%20of%20Practice.

If OP had paid for the seats she'd have made sure to say so, or come back to clarify that.

I suspect the whole thing is made up anyway.

@NeedToChangeName

I always understood that it was a legal requirement for child U12 to sit with zn adult.

I’m afraid (for operators subject to UK CAA oversight) you understood wrong.

As several pp have pointed out the UK CAA have issued guidance on this, and the guidance uses “should” rather than “must” in most of the relevant statements in the guidance.

The airline may well decided have a more restrictive published policy but those also often state that in any event seating choice cannot be guaranteed on the day.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/

No recent experience of flying with Ryanair but could you have booked seats together. If so then I've less sympathy. It's rubbish having a 4yo sit alone but at the same time, equally so to potentially have to tell other people who did pay the extra to choose their seats that they have to move for someone who chose not to.

Agree with this

I always understood that it was a legal requirement for child U12 to sit with zn adult. So, I never paid for allocated seating. Why would i pay extra for something the airline has to provide?.

We were always placed together, but perhaps we just got lucky

I posted earlier on here as I reserved seats and they didn’t even exist. It wasn’t until I got on the plane and noticed my aisle wasn’t even there. I went all through airport checkin and no body said anything. I was made to wait on the plane until everyone was seated to see if there were even seats for my family. I was so worried I was going to be taken off the flight. I was separated from my 10 year old. Nobody even cared, but I was that desperate to just get home. I can’t believe how heartless so many people are being, calling op tight and a bad parent. Ryan air are a disgusting company and shouldn’t be allowed to operate. When I complained numerous times I had no apology or explanation as to what happened and waited 6 months for a pathetic £40 refund.

Not necessarily. There's nothing in the OP's post that she didn't pay for a seat for herself. She just states that when she went to check in she found everyone had been assigned seats apart from each other. This could mean that Ryanair didn't do as it was supposed to, which is keep the children together with the parents. Ryanair isn't exactly a paragon of virtue when it comes to customer service.

The original poster has not come back so hard to know if any of this even happened 🤔

Sorry you went through this - I would have thought that at the age of the children they would have automatically allocated seats at least 2 of you together. The thing is that the majority now pays and chooses their seats upfront so you get what they are left with

I've always booked and paid the extra for seats when going with DC to ensure they are sat together

Recently went away with DH on our own and paid for specific seats, a woman and her husband got on and asked if we would mind moving so they could sit together, or would we move over to sit next to the window - I said no as I had paid for these seats, and she obviously hadn't, and I was treat like the arsy one, even the cabin crew lady was rude to me after that, but I had paid for the seat specific, I don't like window, OH likes the aisle and we like the back row

Mean girls? Try being the solo traveller who books a preferred seat when they book a flight and but then often hassled by someone to move so they can sit with their partner/mate/family. Even if you decline to move, for whatever reason, are then often made to feel very uncomfortable for the rest of the flight.

Well, the OP hasn't been back so this was just a bash-Ryanair-post. We like them -ideal times, cheap flights with no frills, read the instructions and follow their rules and what's not to like? So many SM complaints are actually the fault of the airport staff, the weather or ATC elsewhere. Perhaps we've just been lucky - must have taken 50+ flights with them and are content to keep using them. Oh, and no, I'd never swap a paid-for seat with someone who couldn't be arsed to do it.

Sad to read of your experiences but not surprised one bit. I would only ever fly with Ryanair to get to a funeral if I really could not find any other options, and thankfully that has never happened.

Don't blame the staff who are probably bullied by Ryanair management into the way they behave towards you and other people.

Yeh, it was first time in a very long time that I've used a travel agent.
I thought it would be easier to manage since there were so many of.
There were many hiccups so I think you are right on the oversight!

Agreed!

Not sure why that gets offered up when we get similar threads to this because it's really not the reason for (perhaps) denying seat swops...

OTOH there can in absolute extremis on really rare occasions be a balance issue if you allow a swop, hence some companies having rules about no seat swopping at least until after takeoff.

That's why you pay extra to book seats next to each other. Yabu. Why should others move because you didn't buy seats and you don't know the reasons why people have bought the seats they have. We had similar on a easyJet plane with a 3 year old. Kind lady moved so the mum and 3 year old could sit together. The staff did tell the mum and dad (who sat on own elsewhere) next time to pay and book their seats if they want to be together.

You’re not missing anything - the OP has made this up!

It's to do with body identification

OK, so now posters have clarified that Ryan Air does force parents travelling with young children to reserve a seat. Subject to availability, people can choose to sit in an area where the seats for children will be free. If these are all taken, the children's seats will need to be paid for. But the material point is that the booking cannot be completed without you first reserving and choosing seats.

If this is all the case, then how is it even possible that the OP chose a seat for her 4yo that wasn't near enough to either of the parents to meet the minimum requirements? People keep saying that she just assumed that the seats would be "allocated" next to her, but whenever I have reserved seats previously, this has involved choosing specific seats at the point of reservation. If there were no seats together available, then how was she allowed to even proceed with the booking in the first place? Surely she'd have just had to look for an emptier flight?

So does that mean that the whole thread is just a fabrication? Or is it just a massive exaggeration? Did she book seats that actually met the requirements eg seats across the aisle or behind/in front of each other rtc, and then have a tantrum because others wouldn't move to allow her to sit next to her dc? None of it makes any sense.

But this is very weird though. Is reserving a seat an optional extra? If it is mandatory then it isn’t optional by definition. It should fall into the cost of the ticket.

i still can’t work out is it mandatory for a 4 year old to sit with a responsible adult or just any adult? If any adult, who is legally responsible for them in an emergency if the carer is not nearby? If they have to sit with a carer why on earth are the reservations not automatically made for you when you book? If you aren’t bothered about where you sit why do you need to be involved in the process? Why is the plane even taking off if the child is sitting either strangers?

the whole thing doesn’t make any sense.

Hi. I'm a "mean girl" who has flown with two autistic kids many times when they were under 12. I paid for a seat to ensure they were with either me or DH. Every time. I would never, ever have expected anyone else to give up their own paid for pre booked seats to accommodate us. That's nobody else's responsibility. Not Ryanair's, not a random stranger, whose reason/need for pre booking a particular seat may not be visible or anyone's business to know.

I'm also autistic myself and hate beyond anything being in a middle seat with people either side of me, so I pay to book an aisle where I can, or if that is not available, a window or exit seat. It's not other people's responsibility to accommodate my sensory needs either.

I do sympathise of course when people have pre booked and then the system goes down or they change the plane and they reallocate at random. IMO they should refund anyone with a seat booking when that happens, it sucks when it happens on trains too.

Budget airlines are vile, but most people have little choice these days especially from smaller airports. You don't take chances with them, because they don't care about you or your kids. That's your job as a parent.

To call people "mean girls" for taking responsibility for our own families' needs and paying accordingly, and not giving that up because someone else didn't want to plan ahead or pay a few quid is just ridiculous - and very unfair. I would argue it's mean to use your young child to guilt trip and pressure strangers to accommodate your lack of planning and preparation, in fact.

This is why so many people avoid Ryanair like the plague. I decided after about age 30 i didn’t have it in me anymore to fly with them! Such a hassle every time and just really unpleasant. Is it the first time you’ve flown with them? They deliberately seat everyone apart so you have to pay to move your seats together in a group. You could try and complain but they’ll probably not do anything!

No, you made a 4 year old sit alone because you chose not to book seats.