Ryanair wtaf???

A chip on my shoulder because I just want to be able to book a couple of seats on a plane and choose and pay for them?

What in your world is normal about RA giving me the choice of 2 seats that don’t even fit their own policy of not having an under 12 sit unaccompanied, before even bringing his disability into the mix? That’s entirely what this thread is about.

You have made a lot of assumptions about who does and doesn’t need assistance here. In my local airport the assistance lane caters for people with disabilities and people with young children, usually pram age. Essentially, anyone who might struggle in a massively busy space. I am, by using this lane, managing my dc not having a meltdown. When abroad, again, having assistance just means for us, using the quiter lane. That’s it.

Yeah, I know that. Assistance around boarding is always variable.

The point of this thread was how difficult they made it to actually book the flight to begin with. Once assistance was selected, I only had a choice of two seats on the whole plane for my dc. Neither of which was possible by their own policies, let alone our own needs.

The only way I could book our tickets was to not select assistance. The seat next to one of the ones available for assistance passengers was not available to book when assistance was selected, but was free to book once assistance was not selected (and therefore it could be charged for).

On the actual flight? None, bar a bit of understanding.

In the airport, using assistance lanes and a bit of flexibility around boarding.

As I have reiterated on this thread, some airports require you to have assistance registered on the boarding pass to access that support. UK airports usually just go with the sunflower lanyard but others need to see the booking. We are going to an airport I haven’t been to before so I don’t know and I would have rather had assistance registered.

I’m not. If you register as assistance… any assistance, and their booking process confirms the nature of the disability, you are allocated a choice of seats to choose from on the plane marked with the wheelchair logo.

This has nothing to do with trying to book mobility disabled seats. It has everything to do with RA allocating certain seats for anyone who declares any disability even if they are not suitable (even according to their own policies).

Yeah, you’re right.. that’s what we need. But as I have mentioned numerous times in this thread, some airports only let you use the assistance lanes when you have declared that you need assistance and it’s registered in the booking.

When you check the box for assistance in the RA booking, it massively restricts which seats you can access to the point that it’s not tenable to book them (in this case). I have not experienced it with other airlines.

Maybe the difficulties we face when travelling are the same as a single parent travelling with young children, maybe not 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sometimes we can access quiet rooms, sensory rooms in airports which can be helpful. My point is rather that RA are making it difficult for people with disabilities to fly and book tickets, which is what has happened to us today.

Those were the two seats offered despite him being registered as being under 12. I think once you check the assistance box it just defaults to massively shitting on you.

Firstly, I’m glad you have been well taken care of by the airlines you have travelled on and that you don’t feel like you have been precluded from travel.

I think that my big frustration is that the system , at least in this instance, is totally stacked against travelers with my dc’s disability.

I can’t go to the airport, have long conversations with people to explain what the problem is and then sit around waiting for/hoping for them to fix it. I need to go, check in, walk around the terminal ad infinitum with dc, making sure he doesn’t (try to) get on a different plane in his enthusiasm for getting on a plane.

I just want to be able to book tickets without hassles or hurdles, and have his disability recognised and catered for accordingly. We actually don’t need that much assistance outside of the quieter lanes and a bit of flexibility around boarding depending on whether he’s desperate to board or ok to get on later.

The fact that I checked the assistance box during booking meant that the seats I could select for him were totally untenable (and probably against RA’s own policies for a cognitively impaired person travelling unaccompanied). In fact, selecting assistance during booking made the whole thing ridiculous and, if this was our first time travelling with a disabled dc, I might just give up and never do it again (which I suspect is what RA would prefer).

I couldn’t pick any two blue seats. I could only pick one of the ones labelled for a disabled passenger for the passenger who was listed as needing assistance.

1. this was useless as a cognitively disabled child could not sit alone
2. Ryanair use the wheelchair symbol to show which seats assistance passengers are allowed to choose from - it has nothing to do with needing a wheelchair seat. Their own booking process had already checked that we did not need a wheelchair.

Arrgh. I’ve already booked the accommodation and it was really hard to find something that suited so am loathe to cancel.

I’ve bitten the bullet and booked taking on advice from this thread about the best way to go about it.

I’m never going with them again though! So Brindisi, Carcassonne and a few other hit list destinations are now off my list as only RA flies there from my home airport.

To add insult to injury, once I put the booking through without special assistance being checked, I could see that seat 31C is indeed available to buy, just not when it might be free according to disability legislation.

Massive fuckers.