Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

[LHGL]

We had a really stressful experience recently and I don’t know if it’s just me who finds this completely unacceptable but I just feel the need to get this out there.
Family of 5; DH, myself, DD 4 and 9, DS 7. Both DD’s get very travel sick.
Just under 3 hour flight to Italy and we check in online in advance, and I notice nobody is sitting together. I mean nobody is even on the same row - 5C, 32F,19B etc. We click ‘change seats’ but there are no options. I read up on kids sitting alone and am relieved to hear that Ryanair policy is that anyone under 12 needs to sit next to an adult.
We get to the airport and tell the Ryanair woman at baggage, she’s says not to worry and they’ll make sure we’re sitting together at the gate. Get to the gate, same story but the cabin crew will sort us out.

we board the plane and the two flight attendants tell us the flight is busy and they can’t help. DH reminds them of the policy of kids and adults sitting together, and they shrug and tell us we’re blocking the aisle. After a little more polite protestation we’re told they’ll sort us out once seated.
They don’t. We tried to swap with people ourselves but only managed to get the two youngest together, people weren’t terribly helpful and luck was against us with language and some odd folk.
The long and short of it was that the flight was a very distressing experience for all, not least the kids, and I was really taken aback by how uncaring the Ryanair attendants were. They put more effort into trying to sell us scratch cards than attempting to stop my kids being terrified of ever getting on a plane again.

Nobody is entitled to anybody swapping seats with them. Especially if they've paid for an aisle or a window and the parent who wants the swap wants to dump the other person in the middle. That's beyond entitled to expect it and call others "miserable" if they won't cater to your poor planning.

When you book with Ryanair it asks if you want to pay extra to sit together even before booking - I know as I was recently looking at some flight options and had to factor in the higher cost of booking to sit together.

It’s shit that they make people pay for this. That is not on the flight attendants though, but the people in charge at Ryanair. It’s also a supply/demand thing as people just pay it.

But it’s also shit that people just wing it, knowing this is what happens and delay the flight getting people to switch seats etc. fly Ryanair, expect to have to pay to sit together.

If you don’t pay to sit together, ryanair will split you up. No matter the ages. I thought that same as the OP when I and my 2 year old flew with them. They put us separately. The flight attendants refused to help and I had to beg other passaengers to move, who were most pissed after paying for their seats. (Which i didn't.)

Moral: ryanair are totally in the wrong, but you get what you pay for.

OP has not returned.

‘You have to cuddle my child then, here’s their teddy’

these people are insane

no one assumes responsibility for a child sat next to them

If ryanair are acting against their own policy (i'd double check this before reacting) then they can try and chuck me off all they like. Calmly and politely outling their policy to them isn't aggressive or illegal. It's asserting your rights. If they've misold you a service then they're in the wrong. If they haven't then sure chuck me off.

Ryanair get away with this stuff because we're all such pushovers. I refuse to fly with them. Have flown with them once before. Never again. They're rarely cheaper anyway. Why people continue to use them is beyond me.

Didn't get the responses they hoped for...

This. I honestly hate it when everyone is straight away, why didn't you pay to prebook? It is disgusting the way things have got, this never ever used to be an issue. I am agog that they allowed a 4 year old to sit on their own, I know my own 4 year old daughter would have been hugely distressed at this. Definitely write a complaint, absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Let me guess, you think TFL should introduce a policy where you have to pay extra to sit next to your family on the 381?
No?
Well that's how much of a scam paying to sit next to your own family on the plane is...

Guessing it was a full flight and others had paid. You could have done the same. No they shouldn't split you up but to guarantee this you could have paid

Easy solution. Pay for your seats. I can’t believe people still complain about this!

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe they will come back on and enlighten us or maybe not.

OP with Ryanair your should have selected your seats when you booked, not when you checked in. By then everyone else will have selected their seats so you'd only have what's left.

FeatherBoat what would you pay for something that is mandatory. Ie the plane technically shouldn’t take off unless you are have paid to be sitting together? or you leave the plane.

I don't know what you mean.

Yabu

You didn't adhere to the terms and conditions of booking

You only had to pay for ONE seat reservation (not 4) and you could have booked for the children to sit with a parent. Doing this is mandatory under their Ts&Cs.

Neither the airline nor the other passengers are responsible for you choosing not to do this.

Organising a seating plan where everyone is happy has a cost. It is Ryanair policy to make the people who care where they sit and who they sit with bear 100% of thar cost so that those who don't care can fly more cheaply. You bought tickets at the "I don't care where I sit or who I sit with" price. YABU to then not accept the consequences of that (rather foolish) decision.

Ah ok that changes things. It isn’t mandatory for children to sit with adults then. If that is the case then yes you would have to pay.

I find it weird they don’t ensure children, say under 7, are with a responsible adult. In an emergency it is terribly unfair of an airline to put the onus of putting masks on them and helping them evacuate to a complete stranger

The answer is you pay to book a seat next to the person of your choice. You don't ask others who've paid to sit next to the person of their choice to move, so you don't have to pay.
You know this.

Pay to sit together. It really irrates me when I see families expecting people to move to accommodate them because they won't pay for seats. I travel with my kiss regularly and always pay for the seats.

In the unlikely event that OP is actually reading this, you obviously pay to book the seats together when you book the flights. It's basically part of the ticket price.

Let me guess, you think TFL should introduce a policy where you have to pay extra to sit next to your family on the 381?
No?
Well that's how much of a scam paying to sit next to your own family on the plane is...

Where do you live that you can get on a bus as a family of four, like the OP's family, and be able to sit together? This doesn't happen where I live. On the bus, you sit where there is a space.

This, imagine you've gone out for a meal, you've ordered and paid for a fillet mignon then the table next to you has ordered chicken nuggets, but now don't want them, the waiter then tells you you must take the nuggets and give them your steak or you'll get nothing and be made to leave the restaurant. Would you say 'of course, give what I've paid for to them.'?!

👏👏👏

Right or wrong of Ryanair to have this as a policy, OP was in the wrong not booking the seat as required.

Same here, and we were told - same as the OP - to just sit down and they'd sort it out later. They obviously had no intention of sorting it out, they couldn't have given less of a shit.

Easily sorted OP - next time pay to reserve seats together before you travel. You didn’t do that this time so I that’s why you were separated. I think you are unreasonable to expect others to swap for your convenience- they likely wanted to sit next to their own family.

I’m confused – the OP said in title the youngest had to sit alone but then they say the two youngest were together – obviously that is still not ideal but it doesn’t sound like the four-year-old was completely on their own! I agree with everyone- it must’ve been upsetting but Ryanair are notorious cunts and if you don’t pay for every possible “perk” upfront you can expect to be fleeced and/or have a miserable flight