Ryanair seat issue. Another airline seat one...sorry

[thinkfast]

Just returned from holiday today. We had booked and paid for tickets including reserved allocated seats in December. Me, Dd8 and DS11 in a row of 3 with DH over the aisle from us.

Board the plane to discover that the layout of the plane has changed and we have somehow ended up in the emergency rows. I ask one of the air stewardesses are we allowed to sit here and she says no...once everyone has boarded she will find someone to swap with us, as children aren't allowed in the emergency row. She finds 2 people to swap with DD and DS- 5 rows ahead of me. I explain she needs to ask a row of 3 adults to swap so I can sit with my children and she says no. I ask several different rows with 3 adults in will they please swap and explain why (and that they would get extra legroom) and they all look at me blankly. DD is crying. Air stewardess insists that I have to sit in my allocated seat and the kids have to be moved. Refused to ask any rows of three adults to swap. The third person in the row the kids have been moved to is an elderly lady so I can understand not asking her to swap, but there were plenty of rows with 3 adults nearby who could've been asked to move.

Previously, if I've ever sat in the emergency aisle I've been asked if I feel able to open the door in an emergency, and been instructed how to do it. None of that today. If they'd asked me I'd have said no. Currently suffering with a knee injury and reduced mobility so I don't think I should've been next to the emergency door anyway!

Luckily, just before take off very kind man across the aisle from where they have moved to eventually agrees to swap with DH.

Aibu that Ryanair shouldn't allow this to happen? Any chance do you think of getting back the extra we paid for allocated seating?

I also agree that you stand a good chance of getting back whatever you paid for the seating, so £20-30 or whatever it came to in total.

Unreasonable of you to expect other people who have also paid for specific seats to move though.

I think this is an all to frequent situation caused by airlines who want to make extra money by forcing customers to pay extra for something most people would want eg to sit with the others they are journeying with.

It's a massive safeguarding issue to have children not sitting with a parent. Sexual assault of passengers by those sitting next to them is not rare on airplanes. Neither is people deciding it's ok to watch porn while on transportation. Little children are not old enough to deal with those situations on their own.

There is also the imposition on other passengers who may have to comfort or attract the attention of a parent when/if the child becomes distressed.

Do they feel comfortable helping a child with an oxygen mask or helping them to evacuate the plane if necessary?

Something I think everyone needs to think about is if there is an emergency and the plane needs to be evacuated where children are seated away from their parents. How many of those parents are going to calmly evacuate not knowing where their children are and how many will be moving in the opposite direction, climbing over seats and other passengers to get to their child? Obviously delaying the timely exit of everyone.

The reality is this is a growing safety issue that affects all passengers that the airline industry is ignoring in favour of more money in their pockets.

Just checked and legally a child under 12 should not be seated more than 1 row away from their accompanying adult. That is in the civil aviation authority website.

The CAA guidelines on this are just that, guidelines. They do not have any legal standing in the UK.

No, it’s actually people like you who are the problem, encouraging people to be wet lettuces and never make a fuss just because you don’t have the nous to make a whimper. Grow up.

You should definitely get your money back for the reservations because that is shit. You did everything right by booking seats so that you could guarantee you'd sit together and you shouldn't be penalised for that. As it's Ryanair though I wouldn't bet on them refunding it but I hope that they do.

and me. It wasn’t as if you were asking people to move to less desirable seats. The air steward was being an arse.

Ryanair, however, is best avoided. (They abandoned me twice with a small child in a city hundreds of miles away from home.)

You didn't get what you paid for. Not the other customers' problems but definitely on Ryanair.

I have a 9 year old DS and would be horrified to have him sitting alone. I'm pretty sure he would get restless (suspected ADHD) and really irritate the people around him.

This thread is peak Mumsnet. For some posters, regardless of the actual situation, as soon as a child is verbal, it seems, then they suddenly become just a smaller version of a fully functioning adult, able to deal with absolutely everything and not be mollycoddled by weak, pathetic parents who might are the root of all societal issues.

Anyway.

Op, you'd be absolutely right to complain and get the money back. I have two NT DC. There's no way, at the ages of 8 and 10, I'd have them away from me on a plane. None whatsoever. There's a time and a place to learn how to be resilient and that is not the time.

Why would she look after and entertain anyone's child at any age?

It was Ryanair so how long was the flight? 5 rows is really not much and your kids need to learn to be 50 metres away from you for an hour or so.

More concerning is that you know that they should have asked you if you were able to open the emergency door, you knew you couldn't (leg issues) and you didn't volunteer that information immediately on seeing where you were seated.
Potentially dangerous for a planeload of passengers. (why didn't you swap with DH? where was he in all this?)

HaveSomeIntrospect
In this situation, I would tell the air steward that none of us would be moving until SHE found us three seats together, if not then they would have to call the police to remove us from the plane.

That's quite a risk to take because people have been put/forced off planes for refusing to cooperate and sometimes charged. It's a very real possibility.

Yes, it's CAA rules.

People need to stop flying with these cheap, crap airlines and put them out of business.

Awful that you paid for this service but were then forced to move. The stewardess should have found you three seats together. Surely it would have been easy enough, use the tannoy, express the fact that there would be extra legroom, don’t understand why she made it so difficult.

You mentioned this to cabin crew, what would have happened if you’d said nothing? Tbh I didn’t know this was the rule on the emergency exit row?

I would have been tempted to take photos of where your DC had been seated, 5 rows away, as proof to get a refund. I’d probably have tweeted them too.

Meaning you asked if you should be seated there.

Yes, it's CAA rules.

They're guidelines. Airlines don't legally have to follow them plus it doesn't have to mean literally next to, as they can be in the next row or across the aisle. Airlines can of course have their own stricter rules too if they wish.

ah i re-read - so why didn't you then swap with DH after take off?
Agree you should at least ask for your seat reservation money back, but the rest of it? meh. It is a huge drama over very little.

YANBU to complain to the airline. YABU to make such a drama out of it though.

If you really did pay extra for a service the airline then failed to provide (ie choosing your own seats which you were then not allowed to sit in because the airline had not previously made you aware that they were emergency exit seats) then by all means complain and ask for the money back. However, there’s no reason anyone else should feel obliged to move for you (bear in mind they may also have paid for specific seats) and all the fuss and talk of tears seems like an overreaction considering that a) your kids are 8 and 11 and b) the situation was eventually resolved anyway.

CAA guidelines should be brought into law. Failure to do so should mean no flights of the airline can leave UK airspace.

Ground Ryanair planes just once and I am sure they will start to treat customers less unreasonably.

What do you mean ‘if you really did pay extra’? Are you accusing her of lying?

The airline should have found seats together for OP, she should never have been placed in the position of having to ask people seats.

Agreed.

Similar thing happened to a family on our Ryanair flight last week.

A family with 2 children had been allocated the emergency exit row so needed to be moved. The air steward walked up and down the aisle huffing loudly that she needed 3 people to move seats and if no-one volunteered she would just be picking people and forcing them to move.

I had 2 children with me so couldn’t move but luckily eventually someone did agree to swap with the family.

I don’t think you have a leg to stand on getting your money back tbh. I’ve checked this before and in the small print it says you can be moved and nothing you can do about it. So it’s just airlines trying to make more mo et by recommending you pay for your seat.

However they do have an obligation to sit families together. Especially those with young children. If there was an emergency can you guarantee that a stranger would help them for their oxygen mask correctly…no. Making your 8year old sit on their own was completely against airline regulations. I would have told them to sit tight in the emergency seats (knowing the plane couldn’t take off with children in them) until three seats together were found. I’m sure the air hostess has a home to go to and would want the plane to take off.

It didn't sound like they were in the next row or across the aisle.

CAA guidelines should be brought into law. Failure to do so should mean no flights of the airline can leave UK airspace

The trouble is that families and other groups don't come in neat little groups that fit the exact configuration of the plane's seating so there's always going to have to be some compromise hence why even when following guidelines, some people are not going to be happy. I've seen plenty of posts on MN from people who aren't at all happy with the idea of their child being seated a row ahead of them or across the aisle.