Paid for seats on ryan air and kids still sat separately

I really wish people would boycott Ryanair. Have you seen their most recent ad campaign?! They openly, literally hate their customers. Of course they ripped you off. And they left it to other ripped-off passengers to make the situation good.

Do you have written evidence of the payment for seats booked together ? Such as booking receipt ? It’s irrelevant what luck people have had - if you contracted with them to book 4 seats together and you can prove that, you then have a claim in law. I’d put everything in writing rather than waste time on phone calls to customer services and address everything to the director of the limited company .

We flew as a family of 3 children, 2 adults with Ryanair last year and I chose & paid for seats all together (2 in front, 3 behind) when booking. Went to check-in a couple of days before and noticed our seats were all separate and not as booked!
Phoned customer services and they sorted it but their reason given was the flight hadn’t been as busy as expected so they downsized the plane, meaning some seats were made unreserved. I honestly think the same has happened to your flight but everyone whose seat had been unreserved has made a booking and that has been unmanaged, resulting in your family filling in the empty seats….
I could be wrong but it’s not right and you are 100% entitled to take this further.
Good luck

Aye, I don’t disagree, but up until last year I flew twice a week every week and had no issues, so if it was going to happen to me, kinda think it would of happened at least once.

One part confusing me. When you went to the gate they said this isn’t your seat anymore… would you not have just got on the plane and gone to your assigned seats as a family per your boarding pass? That way the air hostesses would have come over seen the issue without the flapping and hopefully moved whoever was in your seat.

how did you know what your new seats were when your boarding pass had the correct/ original seats?

This sounds awful & so poorly managed by Ryanair! I'd be have been livid/worried - it's not ok not to sit by your children when you specifically booked seats alongside them. There's probably little point in pursuing as Ryanair are notoriously bad with everything. I refuse to fly with them, flew once and never again.

Sending sympathy & solidarity - why so many on here give such a hard time to posters I don't know.

Well, great. I'm sure 95% of the time people get the seats that they've paid for. That doesn't mean some don't just because it hasn't happened to you yet.

I had a similar experience so I can definitely believe it.
long story short they tried to make my then 3 year old sit on his own a good 10-15 rows back, the crew were awful and eventually other passengers moved as I was ready to get off the plane. They then ignored us the whole flight.
I refuse to fly with them now.
i did complain and even questioned policies but never received compensation

Makes no sense - I’ve recently flown RA and had the seats I picked and paid extra for.

IBEAN- I just made it up for the fun of it. Likewise when my sister booked easy jet and they split up a group of 4 - 4 yr old in a middle seat, mother 2 rows back in the middle seat, niece 4 rows behind that and other mother 8 rows back in the middle - all on pre booked seats - just never happens.

KLM on the other hand - who moved us from our pre booked seats so a group of 10 could sit together - moved us to business and gave me a glass of champagne - now that I did not mind changing for!

How very odd that they seem to have put single travellers in your seats!??
I’d be livid with their attitude and lack of explanation and I would def got the names of the staff that were so rude and dismissive.

There are a lot of hypocrites on Mumsnet. If a mother says she didn’t pay to book seats because she has a child young and, as common sense would dictate, she didn’t think they would get separated, then everyone jumps to say it’s her fault for not booking, even though it should be the regulation of the airline not to separate young children from their guardian. Now if a mother’s paid to book seats so she can be with her kids, but the airline chooses to sit them separately anyway because there is no oversight for the crap service they provide, then again, somehow, it must be the mother’s fault. It can’t possibly be that greedy airlines are out of control and need to be held accountable for not providing the service they charge customers for 🙄 Make it make sense.

Genuinely who wants to sit next to an unaccompanied toddler?

If they were in the middle seat presumably the adults both sides were sitting alone and could have moved?

In these situations why is Ryanair splitting up children and adults, rather than adult groups. I'd be a bit pissed if sat away from my husband but less pissed than having to sit next to a random lone child

We had a recent trip with a small airline - Eurowings. Booked, paid and selected same seats outbound and return. The day of online checkin the seats were completely different. Split us all up and when I tried to change them back to the original ones I’d booked it wanted to charge me again 😡 So I chose some different ones but still altogether.
When I got to the airport I went to their desk and they said that it was because the aircraft was a different one to the one I’d originally selected seats for. The new aircraft meant the seats I’d paid for were now extra legroom ones so they either wanted me to pay more or just keep the ones I chose second time round.

I would complain and don’t drop it. I’d ask for full refund of the flight costs (you can only ask!) for causing distress to your kids.
It’s disgusting the way they overbook flights or move people around.

Ryanair were completely unreasonable and you should complain. What is the point of paying to book seats then they ignore your booked seats? Sounds very odd.

Dear god...they were last on board because they were trying to sort out the issue with the seating not because they were tardy.

Ugh I hate ryanair, always avoid if possible! Agree that they should refund you the seat reservation but they'll probably be difficult because theyre Ryanair

It’s utterly appalling.

I generally use Jet2 and likewise, Have always checked in well in advance though. We were moved once to accommodate a family but were still in 2 2’s.

There is a weird attitude on mumsnet though that if you have children it’s ’part of the cost’ to pay for seats. We never have.

Ryanair have a policy of deliberately splitting up groups who don’t pay for seats, so I imagine most families do pay. Most (all?) other airlines will sit families together if they can even if they’ve not paid for seats. I’ve never paid with EasyJet and always been sat with my family, same with Jet2 and BA.

And if they are sitting next to another child with parent, or a disabled passenger with carer?

Can't believe a flight attendant would actually do that, sounds like a discredited TikTok hack...

Yes had this happen to me. Waited 6 months just to be refunded for the seats we paid for. No apology or anything. Will never fly with Ryan air again, awful company.

People in school holidays already subsidise those who travel at other times. Parents should not have to pay more to travel than others, it’s grossly unfair. If this means everyone has to pay an extra £2 that is a hell of a lot fairer.

I don’t have young children now, but I strongly disagree with unfairly discriminating against parents.

As a flight attendant in the US, I see this happen frequently, but it is usually when families have NOT paid the extra money to reserve their seats. I would be upset if I paid extra for a reserved seat and got moved. All that being said, I try to help families sit together. I always tell them to sit their child in their assigned seat, pull out the vomit bag and set it on their lap, and then tell the person next to them that your child gets sick easily and can you help them if they do? "I'm just over in seat xyz, if you need me." MOST people will then volunteer to switch seats. 😂 Works almost every time.

One for the daily mail I think.