Paid for seats on ryan air and kids still sat separately

I wouldn't want compensation, but I would want to be refunded the extra I had paid to choose those seats together. But Ryanair won't refund that if you don't get the seats you chose.

It absolutely can happen . It did to us. I protested on the plane but there were no spare seats so had to lump it. I did claim for my seat reservation fees when we got home and they paid up but it was still very inconvenient & annoying

And also YOU PAID! So you were supposed to avoid all this. This is what happens when you take the chance of allocation at the airport NOT when you pay for the privilege of being sat together. But I'm afraid Ryanair doesn't give a shit so you're unlikely to get compensation.

This is appaling behaviour from Ryan air but they are an absolutely appaling airline who revel in their appaling service.

Absolutely nothing surprises me with Ryanair, and I suspect this is the start of yet another wheeze, whereby the existing charge will be to "request" certain seats and there'll soon be another one which will claim to "guarantee" them

And that probably won't be honoured either ...

For a different thing (Ryanair left us in a totally different city and the coaches to the original city refused to let us on with our 1 year old, so we had to get a bus and train to the city) the only way we got the money back for the hotel, food and transport until we got to our destination was through the ADR, it takes a long time but SO worth it!

This worries me when travelling with easyJet later this year. I’ve paid to sit together with my 10 and 2 year old. If the 10 year old is alone she’ll have an anxiety meltdown on the plane and be hysterical. She’s worried about being alone. Trying my best to build her confidence currently.

God help anyone if they split the 2 year old up from me. She’ll cause chaos on the plane if not constantly held in her seat. I can’t find anything online about age limits on whether they split up from adults. It’s all very vague with “no guarantees”.

I think you've been treated abominably, OP. Have you considered contacting Watchdog or Rip-Off Britain?

Totally unacceptable this from a safety point of view . The government needs to legislate under 12s must not be separated from a parent

You took your children on a plane! 🙈 There is no hope for their futures when there are parents like these! 😡

Honestly anybody who flies with Ryanair deserves all they get. I flat out refuse to fly with them.

You did nothing wrong at all. Ryanair is totally at fault. However, all airlines have a get-out clause saying they can move you even if you have paid to select seats. (But certain airlines do it very much more often.)
So I doubt very much if they'll be interested in giving you compensation even though you were treated very poorly.

Didn't you select seats?

Get a grip. Ask for a refund.

I’ve been very careful to check my bag sizes for recent flights. As I said, the policy isn’t the problem, it’s the way it’s operated that I take issue with.

I think you'll find Ryanair have said they will be changing the size of the cabin bags when their sizers have been upgraded so don't expect it to happen until you've seen an official Ryanair announcement. They've also said they're increasing bonuses for those staff who 'catch passengers out' with bigger bags so expect many more extra charges at the moment.

There should be a standard size of cabin bag for each type of aircraft, regardless of the airline. Any changes to baggage charges should have to give at least 12 months notice, so almost no chance of changing after you book.

No ifs no buts, if an airline fails to comply, they lose the slot.

They’ve increased the cabin bag allowance very recently, it’s now back to more or less what it was before the last decrease. We fly several times a year with Ryanair and have the various sized bags to prove it! My issue isn’t the charges for larger bags but the frequency and lack of transparency when they make changes.

That's not on @prelovedusername if they've reduced the sizer that your bag has previously fit. I thought I'd heard something about bag size allowance actually increasing.

Its an extra faff, but might be worth packing a small tape measure in future if you know your bag is the right size (I've done this previously, ready to show bags are compliant, although never actually been pulled - yet!).

With the apparent staff incentivisation I agree they'll pick the easy targets first. 😡

Same here, I’ve always said you get what you pay (very little) for, and if what you need is to get from A to B on time, which they’re pretty good at, don’t care where you sit and don’t need to carry much baggage, they’re great.

BUT, they do muck about with their baggage sizes and they do it to catch people out. I got stung for £60 because the cabin bag I’d used on multiple Ryanair flights including one only a few weeks earlier suddenly didn’t fit in their sizer. My fault for not checking, I know.

I’d have felt less aggrieved if they’d applied their policy consistently but from what I observed they were blatantly profiling, targeting older passengers who were less likely to make a fuss. And now we know from Michael O’Leary they’re incentivised to do so. It stinks.

Honestly Ryanair are just awful. You absolutely should get compensation, but I expect they will do everything they can to wiggle out of paying it. I haven’t flown with them since 1998 when they double charged me and refused to refund me. Back then the ‘customer service’ phone service was a premium rate number as well.

I've defended Ryanair (and other low cost carriers) over the years on the grounds of so long as you stick to the rules, especially about luggage, they are fine - get you from A-B and often at very good fares. When I was a younger single parent the LCCs enabled me and DS to travel to cities probably unaffordable otherwise.

However... I'm currently in dispute with Ryanair myself. They have cancelled the return part of a flight in December. I discussed with their call centre and agreed to rebook myself on another airline for the original date as Ryanair don't have another flight that day and I need to return for work reasons. Booked an alternative flight (still relatively low cost at £80 and just me travelling) but Ryanair are now refusing to refund! It's taking so much time I was tempted to write it off but am now digging my heels and fighting them because there is no ambiguity in the regs, yet they're still tring to wriggle out of it.

Its true that you only get the measure of an organisation in how they deal with a problem, and this has been a wake-up call for me with Ryanair - all for £80, which they are obliged to refund! I doubt I'll ever book with them again.

This happened to my boss. We booked a business flight from London to Madrid and they changed planes and sat him in economy. They actually sent us an email informing us that as he had been demoted we had a right to be reimbursed for the difference. Well, I put the claim in and they first said that as it was booked through and agency, the agency had to claim. This was months down the line, so we did that, and then months later they told the agency that "seat 14F was a business seat so service paid for had been provided". We are still laughing. 14F a business seat. Right. We claimed again providing proof that 14F is economy, and they have ignored us. That is BA for you now. Shite.

I voted YABU because you chose Ryanair.
They’re a bunch of crooks and nobody should fly with them, ever!

Ryanair claim there's something in their small print that says they can sell you a chosen seat but you may not get that seat if it doesn't suit them. But we already know they are immoral

I think TBF for reasons various the airline (all airlines) have to retain the option to move people from their selected seat...

Where it gets immoral, or at least.down right wrong,.is if they move people and then make it difficult to impossible to get a refund of any seat chouce fee that has been paid