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?

Nothing at all wrong with me, incredibly rude of you to imply there is!

The steward was very rude in the way she was speaking to people. She would have probably had more success had she asked politely if anyone was willing to move. Ryanair were at fault for allocating the emergency row to a family with children in the first place!

Give Ryan Air a bad review.😂😂..have you ever heard the CEO refer to his company...he doesn't care ...infact he will say they are shit but people will still fly with them because they have a monopoly for frequent cheap flights

It's the 'don't give a shit' attitude that rankles most isn't it - I've just come back from holiday, having experienced something similar.

Their booking system created the error and yet suddenly your family, who have paid extra money to sit together, are not sitting together.

As a passenger I would have jumped at the chance to sit in seats with extra legroom. Why can't they do an announcement? Even if no takers, you'd feel like they cared enough to try.

I don't know why you are getting such a hard time, OP. They breached their own seating policy and the CAA guidlines and it is a huge safety issue for both your DC and all the other passengers.

In the event of an emergency, children under the age of 12 need to be seated with or in the next row or across the aisle from their parents so their parents can assist them with oxygen masks or to evacuate.

I believe airline staff are supposed to check that anyone seated by the emergency exits are willing and able to help the crew in the event of an emergency evacuation. OP had reduced mobility due to an injury so she was not able and may have needed help herself to evacuate. Everyone who thinks she is unreasonable needs to ask themselves would they be willing to help with an evacuation or would they prioritise making sure their children are safe? The whole purpose of the guidelines are so parents aren't blocking evacuation by going in the opposite direction to everyone to get to their children. Even worse that the person responsible for opening the emergency door is the person is panicing and trying to force their way against the flow to get to their kids. Don't forget that in darkness or if there is smoke and with people crowding towards the exits, OP may not even be able to see her DC if they are 5 rows away.

There is a reason why you are told to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping children... you pass out. OP can't move to help her DC 5 rows away, may not be able to see if they need help, and can't physically get another passenger's attention to help the DC if she can't reach them while wearing a mask, which she could if they were seated nearby.

An 11 year old with SEN can't be responsible for themselves, and they certainly can't be responsible for an 8 year old in an emergency. Ryanair can't put responsibility on other passengers to take care of your DC.

However, it was resolved appropriately in the end but it should have been resolved by the airline staff without customers having to insist. You are entitled to a refund of the money you paid to be seated together but not any compensation as the issue was resolved. However, I do think you should complain to Ryanair that their staff breached their own seating guidelines and CAA guidelines putting both her DC and the general public at risk in an emergency. Their staff need to be reminded of the safety guidelines. If you aren't happy with Ryanair's response, you can also make a complaint to the CAA.

On a lighter hearted note, I once paid extra to be able to have an in cabin bag because I was carrying several laptops, iPads and other equipment that cannot go in the hold for safety reasons because they have non-removable batteries. The lockers were already full when I got to the gate so they were insisting that everyone put their luggage in the hold. They made me take everything out and struggle to walk a million miles then get on a bus to the plane carrying armfuls of electrical equipment while they checked in my empty case. And then, of course, they had to make someone else take their suitcase out of the lockers to be checked into the hold so I could stow the contents of my suitcase... I never got a refund nor compensation for the resulting cracked laptop screen.

Disappointing and upsetting? How the fuck do some people get out of the house alone.

If they were 4 and 5 I would see where you were coming from, but an 8 and 11 year old should be fine on a short ryanair flight without an adult beside them. I don't think it's a huge drama.

I'd ask for money back for the reserved seats but unless you told them your DCs were medically unable to sit alone, those ages are usually fine to be a few rows ahead of parents.

No, but when they changed the plane their data would have enabled them to see that there were children now sitting in the exit row, and effect a simple swap before boarding.

Exactly. This should have been picked up and rectified before boarding.

I’m just saying because it’s happened to me. I paid the money for a seat I didn’t get. It was a different plane than the originally planned plane. I went through a loooong process and got nothing.

Sure, they'd be ok, they'd get there safely. But when you've paid to sit together, why shouldn't you? I teach kids of a similar age and not every 8 year old would be able to cope with this. Of course it's upsetting, if you're looking forward to chatting together or playing a game. It was also presented at the last minute, so no time to discuss, explain, amend plans. It's not awful and it's not the end of the world but it's really fucking annoying when you've paid to avoid it happening but it does anyway, and it's not your fault, and nobody cares, and better solutions aren't even attempted.

The unwritten rule is only ask someone tp swap if your seat is better than theirs! So an exit row legroom seat would be considered prime real estate and I'm rather baffled why nobody wanted if?

@bert3400

I've seen several massive companies who thought they were untouchable go bust - and no one was surprised because their customer service was shite.

I don't want compensation, or really even a refund for the extra we paid for allocated seats. My children are perfectly capable of sitting nicely by themselves for a couple of hours. If we'd been on a train this would be a non issue. However they are nervous on planes and this ended up being a very turbulent journey.

They would not be capable of putting on oxygen masks or dealing with any kind of emergency by themselves. Would they be able to adopt the brace position, or would they have been turning round to try to see their parents? The woman sitting next to them was very nice and friendly, held their hands when they were scared etc, but was really quite elderly and I expect she wouldn't have been any help to them in an emergency. She may well have needed assistance herself.

The air steward had a bad attitude and acted like the whole thing was my fault. It really wasn't my fault as I had pre-booked seats that were perfectly suitable at the time I booked them. Had she had one iota of common sense she would have asked / insisted one of the nearby groups of 3 adults swap with the 3 of us. She also had a bad attitude. I heard her saying to another passenger they'd run out of seat belt extenders as there were too many obese passengers on the plane. She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

To the poster who said my anxiety rubbed off on the children - I really don't think it did. It didn't occur to me that we would be separated until the last minute, as there were several groups of 3 adults seated nearby, so I assumed she would ask one of those groups to swap with us.

I'm sure emergencies on planes are really rare, but are you all saying that if there had been an emergency you would've opened the emergency door and jumped down the slide, leaving your children to fend for themselves? If DH hadn't managed to get a seat nearby surely at the very least I would've hesitated / caused an obstruction inadvertently while I considered the dilemma of whether to go out the exit or try to get to my children?

I'm also fairly sure they are supposed to tell you how to open the door in an emergency in case it's needed - but she didn't do that.

So am I! Ryanair normally charge extra for these seats as they have extra legroom. I think I had about 6 feet in front of me!
I think once people have done their seatbelts up, they just can't be bothered to move!

Why only two choices?
Would you not ever complain if you didn't get the service you paid for?
I ordered some clothes recently from M&S. Only two of the three items turned up. I complained and they refunded me.
Should I have let that go as well?

But if you don’t complain and ask for a refund then nothing changes. Do you have her name by any chance?

I had the same scenario yesterday, I was asked to move to an exit row as a disabled person was sitting there and had to move!

I said no. 1) because I’d rather sit with my DD, who wouldn’t have cared either way but we’d paid to sit together. 2) you can’t have your bag on an exit row seat on take off and the pilot had already announced the skies were likely to be turbulent so I’d have been stuck without my bag for over an hour. I need my snacks and entertainment 😂 3) I’d have been sat in a window seat and I hate asking people to move out or the way.

And I also couldn’t really be arsed to move!

Did you book on your credit card? Could you apply for a refund through them for the service you paid for having not been provided?

Great suggestion! Yes I did!

Genius....

OP I think that there was a serious safety issue with that stewardess as she breached 3 safety points - sitting under 12s away from their parent, not checking that you were able to open the emergency exit and not telling you how to open it. That is a really serious problem and she needs retraining. I'd tweet Simon Calder (wel known travel journalist) about this (as well as the not getting the seats together you'd paid for) and suggest that there was a stewardess on flight number x on day y who needed retraining.

As a matter of interest - has anyone ever got any compensation from Ryanair?
We had a flight to Funchal on May 8th which couldn’t land and we got dumped in Lisbon instead. Somehow we had to get to Funchal where we had accommodation booked so we had to get a flight with another airline. Ryanair had no seats to get us there. We incurred costs of £1,222 but Ryanair are not responding to our communications is any way. The online form doesn’t work; you phone them and they tell you to use the online form (!) and then ring off; we posted all the evidence to their Dublin address on June 14th and they haven’t even acknowledged it. My job for today is to contact the Press. I refuse to give in!

Why couldn't dh swap with one child so he sat on the emergency row and mum and other child move?

Because DH was on the corresponding emergency row across the aisle from our original seats (until kind man swapped with him).

This^ you ended up sitting near emergency exit because of them, it wasn’t on you.
and plus you were with children and one of them was upset and crying.
She should have asked a whole row to move . Complain.

Blimey User, maybe start a thread in legal for advice. Can you email and threaten small claims?