Paid for seats on ryan air and kids still sat separately

Why would you think this post is helpful?

This can happen if there is a last minute change of aircraft that has a different configuration. I think it's awful not to a. Prioritise families with children and b. Automatically give a refund, as its legally dubious and morally wrong to keep money for a service they haven't provided

I think you overlooked her post explaining it.

I agree. Their customer service is shit and they know it.

DH and I flew with Ryan Air a couple of months ago. I’m shit scared of flying so we had paid for seats together. Checked in online in plenty of time, arrived at the gate fairly early. When we went to board found we’d been separated. They didn’t give us a reason

Asked what to do about a refund and was told by the cabin staff to contact Ryan Air when we got home. Contacted Ryan Air to be told we should have spoken to cabin staff at the time and it was too late. I gave up. I don’t think they have any intention of refunding people when stuff like that happens.

It was only a short flight thankfully.

We sat in the seats we’d paid for on the way back.

My friend got stung with an excess baggage charge from Ryan Air the other day as her carry on bag was too big. The same carry on bag she’s been using for years, when measured with a tape measure is well within their published sizes and it fit in the bag gauge at the check in desk perfectly fine but had magically grown by the time she had got to the gate.

They book the same seat to different people and you paid the consequences looks like.
You can't do nothing now other than put a claim back and make them give you the money back plus compensation if applicable if you have the time to do it.
It is tedious to deal with them.

Airlines are not usually the bad people, but every rule has an exception. Ryanair are that exception. Do not excuse their behaviour.

Someone pursued a debt/refund and ended up at the airport with a demand that could have meant they could take chairs and other equipment. Cannot recall the details and which airline, but it had the desired result.

There's a way Mumsnet threads on plane seats normally go and posters usually get to enjoy berating someone for not paying for seat allocation but expecting to sit with their toddler.

Airlines are not usually the baddies of these threads so this has thrown everyone.

Plus what you said.

I’d be putting this on Ryan Air’s social media and seeing what their response is.

Some posters are simply not very bright and quite gullible.

Sadly the usual public social media strategy which works on other companies does not on Ryanair. They absolutely know their reputation for shit customer service, and they lean into and positively revel in it.

Do complain and pursue a refund however, OP.

That's truly bizarre OP.
I can't think of a reason why they'd move a family of 4 who'd paid to sit together, and replace them with 3 people who were strangers to each other.
I would definitely complain.
Did you ask to see the boarding pass of the one man who did agree to move, to see where is seat was meant to be?
The only possible explanation I can think of is if you checked in particularly late, and they maybe thought you were a no-show.

Ryanair are totally shit but I would fight for a refund on this.

LemondrizzleShark · Today 14:17
They’ve likely changed aircraft last minute and just allocated everyone randomly.

If the aircraft was changed at the last minute, only the seats that did not exist on the new aircraft would be re-allocated. The only other reason that a seat would be re-allocated is that the row was an exit row in the new aircraft.

This was not the case for the OP. She claimed her seats existed on the aircraft and had been assigned to random adults.

Wow that is terrible service!! We have flown with Ryan air a good bit and thankfully always been fine. We will be flying with a 1yr old and 3yr old in a few weeks, I've booked our seats together hope we don't have any issues.

I also don't think it is your fault for not being on the flight first to avoid the issue. You paid are allocated a seat it shouldn't matter. I am usually the last onto any plane.

So your boarding pass said the correct seats that you had paid for? I wonder what the other peoples said. Was it a f'ck up on the booking system and let those seats be double booked. Or was your row not there? That happens if they change the airplane sometimes

What an absolute joke. Is be furious too, there must have been multiple other people who could have been shuffled about to at least get two pairs of seats together if nothing else.

Really?

@Hookahchakkah How old was the other child?

Is it possible the OP booked an exit row without realising it and at the last minute the check-in or gate staff realised the safety implications of children in that row?

We were once delayed 13 hours by a technical fault on a Ryanair flight to Dublin before Brexit. Staff proceeded to hand out notices to all passengers claiming (erroneously) that EU compensation rules did not apply to Ryanair.

Op, you should def put this all over social media- make parents aware not to pay for seating as you don’t get the seats anyway!

We went with Ryanair recently and didn’t pay for seats and we were as far from each other as possible, which was fine but my youngest started getting upset as she’s developed a fear of flying (that we knew nothing of until we got on the flight the week previously) so as soon as the person with the ticket next to her got on I asked if we could swap which they did.
you do have to get on first and ask before people sit down to swap- as soon as people sit down they don’t want to move. However with paid for seats this shouldn’t be an issue!

hope you get the refund xx

That's outrageous! I would kick up a massive fuss over this! How stressful for you!

A 10 year old is indeed fine many rows away from their parents, until there is an emergency and the parents then want to go and help their child, or the plane is being evacuated and the parents are trying to move 20 rows back to ensure their child gets out, but the aisle is full of other passengers trying to get to the emergency exits.

I don’t know why people are bending over backwards to try to make it your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. We had this happen to us with another airline and a four year old. Maybe people don’t realise how often it can happen.

Everyone kept saying that they couldn’t do anything and pushing us to the next person. It wasn’t until we were at the gate refusing to board that they finally changed seats so that at least one of us could sit with our child. We were prepared to give up on the flight entirely as there was no way we could travel sitting separately.

Sounds like he was sat closer to the children for one thing. And possibly not on rhe wrong side of the drinks trolley.

And yes I was thinking “what a terrible man sat doing nothing whilst OP struggles”.

Unfortunately, it is often the case in our society that if a man asks, everyone is suddenly all too happy to help.

Unlikely they will give you a refund, even if you deserve one, but will tie you up in knots till you give up.
Make a stand on social media...FB, Instagram, X .....post on all platforms on their pages and just keep reposting when they try and delete you! If nothing else they will get as annoyed as you are! This us the only way I have got answers from companies who try to ignore me. Doesn't always work....

It's Ryanair. Why would you find this hard to believe?

Or have you not flown with Ryanair?

The op has clearly stated that she asked for answers, as to why they'd been moved. She obviously found this hard to believe to.

Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it hasn't happened to anybody else.