to travel with Ryanair? To have DD miss days of school?

[HappyHippie]

I'm trying to book the flight to see my family in half term, but prices vary a lot from one day to the next one. Also, Ryanair is much, much cheaper, than other airlines, but well... we all know Ryanair, don't we? The other option is Easyjet, but even they are much more expensive in those dates.

So, 2 AIBU questions...

• Do you think it's OK for a 5 year old to miss 2 days of school right before the holidays? Should I ask for permission or just go ahead and book the flights?

• Does anyone have anything nice to say about Ryanair?

School (well, education) becomes compulsory the term after a child turns five. If your DC has just started reception, they must have turned 5 this half term so won't be of compulsory school age until after Christmas. If you are going away autumn half term, you can't be fined.

Might be different in Scotland, their school age start dates are weird ;)

I have a feeling school 'fines' are about as enforceable as NCP car parking charges

I just flew Ryanair on Weds. No probs whatsoever. Flight left on time, arrived early @ Stansted. If you know what you're getting yourself into-completely aware of all the fees upfront when you book the flight online-they're fine. Absolutely fine.

I find the priority boarding premium (it was only 5 quid per leg of the flight) WELL worth the investment if you're flying with children.

Ok, whatever, since you will insist on missing the point.

My dd's school does not authorise holidays. I booked a mon-fri sun holiday (all we can afford :( ) for a week when there was a bank holiday monday so my 2 dds missed 4 days of school. I asked a teacher there how to go about asking and was told not to bother and just take them. So the Friday before we went I sent in a note saying we were going on holiday so my dd's would not be in. I've heard nothing since about it so the fines must not be in here yet.

FWIW both my dds had 100% attendance up to the holiday. The only thing dd1 missed was learning fractions (she had tests 2 weeks after and still got 2 levels above what she was expected to get) dd2 was only in nursery so she didnt miss anything really.