Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

It’s so obvious. Just pay and pre book the seats.
I just don’t understand why people don’t understand it’s menu pricing now.
Do you want hold luggage
Do you want seats next to each other
Do you want front seats and first off plane
Do you want extra hand luggage

It keeps the base price down for people who don’t want any of the above. You then pay for the extras you want. You didn’t and got their policy of seat allocation.

I mean, Ryanair is shit. They're very uncomfortable. And there is often a delay.

TUI are useless aswell. They cancelled the last two flights that I booked with them.

This is why I try to go to Europe by Eurostar now. Much better experience!

Why didn't you get your 4 yr old to swap with your 9 Yr old? Also book seats in future.

So I paid extra on Ryanair so me and my young son could sit together, got to the gate and they told me it was no longer valid as it was now a different plane!! One woman got split from her foster child despite her paying and saying it was a safeguarding issue!! Dreadful money grabbers. Other airlines generally you book together you sit near each other.

You pay for what you need. People with children need a seat so that is part of the tariff.
People without children don't
Its like saying its ridiculous buying a child seat for the car. You have to because its a legal requirement if you a travelling with a child in your car. I dont have a child, therefore I dont have to buy a car seat.

They ought to build it into the price (like airlines always used to) so that consumers have true visibility of the actual price of the flight including necessary things like children being seated with a parent/adult from the same booking.

Plenty of other airlines manage to do it without this issue. Ryanair actively promote themselves as fucking people over, i don't know why anyone flies with them.

That is terrible and your last sentence sums it up

I genuinely think the law needs to be tightened up on companies doing it. Its not safe, and it's not fair to other passengers, and everyone knows they do it on purpose. Its not hard to seat young children with a parent, and their overt refusal to do so without additional charges essentially means they are falsely advertising the price of flying with them imho.

You have to pay to sit together on ryanair when u check in there is an option to change seats right up until the day you fly. With easyjet it automatically puts you with children under 12 I think. It should have been sorted at the arrivals not on the plane as u do have to pay so they where wrong to tell you otherwise

What pisses me off about parents in these situations is you all want all of the get out clauses while simultaneously claiming to know I all. Make your mind up, are you all knowing or completely clueless? You can't have it both ways. Also, keep your kids quiet. Thanks.

The 100per cent!

But Ryanair knew you had children when allocating the seats, so why didn't they put the children with an adult? We used to fly with them regularly, never paid the extra (we fly with them because they are affordable) and they always put the DCs next to one of us.

Unless they have changed the way they do things, definitely complain! Your poor kids.......

I think this has changed. I booked about 6 weeks ago and wasn't able to complete the purchase without paying for a seat for myself and then getting the one beside it for ds2 free.

It may be that if you book very far in advance, or it's not a popular flight, that there will be free or very cheap adult seats though.

Teen and dh just got the free randomly allocated ones 24hrs before flying so are sitting on their own for a couple of hours. As they'll both be plugged into their earbuds it's hardly a hardship for them.

She chose the cheaper option of randomly assigned seats instead of paying 8 or 10 quid extra per seat for two seats, to ensure the youngest was confirmed next to one adult family member. Was what subsequently happened worth it to save twenty quid? Barely a round of drinks.

It cost more to fly when those things were included. The model has changed.

Then you would have been escorted off the plane if you refused to sit down.

I don't think anyone is on the OPs side, because we've all used ryanair, and we all know we'll what we have to pay extra for.

Why should she not pay extra to sit together when everyone else has to.

Company rules.

YMBU I always pay to sit next to my children, I’m always amazed at the entitlement of parents who don’t do this!

Yes I found that out the hard way. We were lucky that when it came to it there was room for us all together and I paid for that but trying to change it beforehand was stressful. Won’t be doing that again

We could only check in on the app 1 week before hols.
When I logged in, I had to allocate all 19 of us (I was paying for the seats, that wasn't an issue).
The issue was there were only 18 available seats on the plane! As I couldn't allocate everyone, it wouldn't let me go any further and then the option to book was completely gone saying that we had to check in at airport.
I got in toch with travel agent who said everything would be fine.

My situation slightly different to OP as I did TRY to book (and pay) for seats but we just couldn't.

I was empathising with OP about having kids spread out across the plane.

Pay to book seats in advance. Don't assume they will be available once check in opens . For European flights I'd expect to pay at lest an extra 30 ish, for international up to 100. Per person. That's how international travel works now.

Summing up, you failed to book seats and now expect everyone else to fit around you and your entitled family? Got it, thanks for your twattish contribution to the human race. Well done.

I hate when people try to use emotional blackmail. You know pretty well that if you want to get seats together you need to pay for it.
You chanced your arm see if you could get that for free, and it backfired.
I am sorry if your children had a hard a time during the flight. It is not their fault.
But you have now learned the lesson.
Don't make the same mistake again.

You can get one adult next to the children without paying in my experience if you select the right options.

I think it is unreasonable of the airline to not follow their own seating policy for under 12's, they should have seated the children with an adult even if they had to split the party up.

However, I think you were also being unreasonable in not paying to book the seats, even older children don't like sitting next to a stranger so I see it an extra 'parenting cost'.

I wouldn't expect other people to move because they have probably paid to have their seats together and for some of them it would mean splitting families up.

I've never needed to pay for seats together with my children on Ryanair. (Only if I want their dad somewhere near us too)