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.

If it matters to you to sit together, you are unreasonable not to reserve your seats when you book and pay the same as other people. If I've paid for my seat, I'm only moving if the offer is a swap to an even better seat.

Thing is though I do think the airline are irresponsible by leaving it to the last minute and shoving the faff onto cabin crew. It takes much longer than someone using their brain to review seat allocation the day before and if necessary shifting some pre-bookers around.

We were on a flight where a mum and two oldish children hadn’t booked seats so steward needed to find 3 in proximity. We were delayed taking off by over an hour because the reallocation was left to the air steward and no-one wanted to move. He eventually moved a lady who said she was disabled with her child who had an extra seat (her husband hadn’t traveled for some reason). It all kicked off big time- she was claiming discrimination and theft of her spare seat, everyone was getting pissed off and it was just unpleasant all round. But.. I blame easy jet and not the family or steward as they left the crew in a shift situation that should have been sorted before boarding.

I boycotted Ryanair years ago. They do everything to make your flight shit so they can then squeeze more money out of you as you attempt to make the experience more bearable. By the time you have paid to get to Stansted at some god awful time, paid for a seat, paid for luggage and paid for anything else they have thought of, you might as well fly on a better airline.

But why didn't you pay for seats together?

You made your DCs sit alone because you didn't rebook and prepay for seats. Your actions or lack of them caused this issue and nothing else.

It's exactly the same. At present you don't have to pay extra on a bus to stay with your family. Until recently you didn't on planes. It was just normal practice that airlines would sit families together. Some American budget airlines are first come first served- saves a lot of faffing around.

Seating families together is much safer as well in case of plane crashes. I don't understand how on MN, people are quick to defend a profiteering charge that endangers human life.

Also bizarrely on MN, people seem to think this extra charge, made up only to screw passengers over, is sacrosanct and must be paid, and anyone who doesn't is a BAD parent and should be reported to Social Services. There is no extra cost to airlines in seating people together. If no-one paid it, they would not be able to keep charging it. I've never paid it and I am almost always seated next to my family.

I don't think this is real. Every time I have booked a Ryanair flight with my now 4 year old it had automatically added the extra seat cost for the adults in the party and we've had to choose seats together and pay.

You're right in this circumstance but it bugs me when people quote guidance/law that applies to a different territory. Both the CAA and EASA however use the word should and not must allowing wiggle room for the airlines.

RyanAir didn't make your 4 year old sit alone .
You were offered a free seat for the children and you didn't just buy the adult seat beside said free seat .
So it was completely your fault .

That is awful. It's one thing to seat people apart of there are no seats to be allocated but to do this on purpose when their policy is to seat children u12 with adults is crazy.

You get what you paid for...

You've been living under a rock if you don't know you need to book seats together if you want to sit together.

No sympathy, except for whoever was unfortunate enough to be beside your 4 year old.

Pay for your seats so you can sit together. I wouldn’t swap when I have paid for my seats. Why should you get something for nothing?

Agree with you. People sneering at OP for not paying to book a seat like she's a cretin for not doing so need to STFU. She booked her seats in advance and was told they would be sorted.

I choose not to reserve seats as I refuse to pay, that means I may be seated apart (all adults so not a problem) that's our choice. If you want to sit together then just book seats. It's cheap on Ryan air (unlike Virgin who want £36 per person each way!)

Full marks to easyJet who have a really early check in and always seat together in my experience if you check in at the beginning of the window

Wow what a surprise op hasn't been back

If it is the airline policy to seat under 12s with an adult then no, the OP did nothing wrong.

@Garlicnaan given that it's the whole point of the thread and entirely the reason for the situation she found herself in, I'm not sure why you think people should STFU.

Look, if you don't want to pay that's fine. If dh and I travel we'll just risk it and if we don't end up sat together it's annoying but not a big deal. There's no way I'd take that risk with young children. Ultimately people have no obligation to swap. You're at the mercy of other people and hoping they'll be kind which I'd say 90% of the time they probably would be. But it's a risk. And it's really entitled to expect people to move when you haven't paid to ensure your family are together.

It's wrong of airlines to do this because it puts prices up a lot but that's how it is.

She didn't book her seats in advance ? Despite being allowed book a kids' seat for free !!

They are the pirates of the skies - I once heard a pilot say something like that. Since I sat on chewing gum on their flight and it ruined my trousers and they couldn't give too hoots in fact they were rude, I've refused to fly with them. Anyone know if they have a higher proportion of near miss accidents than their competitors?

@Phonicshaskilledmeoff they used to offer a family option that included seats. However, in most cases unlike many other airlines their seats start at such low prices if selected at time of booking that it’s cheap even for a group - anything from £3 to £4 and up. And at check in you can let the system book the first at random then pay for one next to it but of course if the flight is full that close to departure you’re kind of stuffed.

Sorry op but you took a risk. Always pay to sit together.

Where were you in relation to the kids? If I remember rightly the policy of 'next' to your kids could be across the aisle or behind or in front. It doesn't just mean directly next to them

"She booked her seats in advance and was told they would be sorted."
She didn't book the seats. She checked in online in advance and saw the seats were spread about. Is the person at bag drop going to argue the toss about paying for seats? Nope, they'll kick the can down the road to the gate staff. Will the gate staff deal? Nope, pass the buck to the cabin crew. Cabin crew try to accommodate but the other passengers have already paid for their seats so they not moving. Not a lot of options left now. Either accept the seats as they are or leave the flight. For the two seats the OP does managed to blag what does she do? Put the 4 and 7 year old together.

Did you not read the bit where I said the OP has ‘misremembered’? If you believe this actually happened then you’re unbelievably gullible,

I've paid for seats together on Ryan air and when we got in queue were allocated seats all over the plane as after an air craft change our seats were not longer there. As kids are older they were OK. Took ages to get a refund too, only 3 seats were refunded and gave up on 4th as lost will by then! If I had paid for my seat and someone hadn't I probably would move so a young child could be with their family but would be peed off if it was because they hadn't booked and paid for a seat!

I feel deeply sorry for Ryanair staff having to deal with this aggro every flight. It’s why they and Easyjet no longer have reclining seats as they led to too much fighting. It’s a shit system - but I’ll say it again - it’s notoriously shit and they’ve never hidden that fact, in fact they make a virtue of it. There are other, more expensive options available if you want to avoid them.