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.

Those saying she should have paid to book seats are missing the point. They have a policy and they didn't honour it. If people need to pay for sitting together then that should be the policy.

Next time pay for seats. Like the rest of us do.

I wonder if too many parents have been trying to get away with not paying for children to travel beside and adult because they thought they could get that for free coz it's a child...and Ryanair realised that and says no more...ie you pay to book or you takes your chances...

I fly with Ryanair regularly with my family and I’ve only ever had positive experiences. They provide as a good a service as any other airline. They are quite clear on what the basic fair covers - you want seats together - you pay extra, you want to bring a 10kg bag on board - you pay extra, same with priority boarding, etc.

I would never fly with young children without paying the fee for assigned seating. You took a risk, you lost.

God I hate all this money grabbing bollocks that these awful airlines have created. People who book together want to sit together and not pay for that. Sitting with the people you book with is just a basic. It never used to be difficult but they have turned it into an unpleasant charade. I was really pleased to see Ryanair lost a case in Italy about this recently.

This seems odd since it's mandatory on Ryan Air flights for under 12s to have a (free) seat reservation. How did you manage to book?

Because the policy is to seat child with adult? You don’t need to pay extra when that is the policy.

Unacceptable

But you should have paid £50 to sit together

Next time tell your four year old in a very loud voice that you're sure the man/woman sitting next to them will be happy to cuddle them while they're being sick. And if they're worried just scream as loudly as they can.

I swapped in a heartbeat for a child who was about 8/9 years old on a Ryanair flight without needing to get the attendants involved as he was distressed at not being next to his dad.

Don't mind where I sit and anything to subvert their stupid policies, frankly.

Ridiculous to put a 4yo on their own but you should have paid for seats to avoid this situation.

I'm surprised that nobody was willing to swap as I wouldn't want to sit next to an unaccompanied 4yo personally, but equally, if people have paid for their seats, it's totally fair enough if they don't want to move. Is there a reason why you put the two youngest children together without an adult? I'd have sat an adult with the 4yo personally, as a 7yo would more likely to cope alone. I wouldn't have let the situation happen in the first place though...if you can afford to fly, you can afford to pay for seats.

So if other people have paid extra for specific seats together, what do you think should happen?
should they be expected to move?

For safety reasons, children under the age of 12 must sit beside an accompanying adult, and infants (aged 8 days to 23 months inclusive) must sit on an accompanying adult's lap. It is mandatory for an adult travelling with children under 12 (excl. infants) to reserve a seat.

People don't pay to pre book seats and then expect other passengers to swap for them

Ryanair have lots of policies on their website like you can change a name for free within 24 hours of booking. But try to actually do that and you will find that the website returns an error, the chatbot is useless. you cant get through to a service agent without being on hold and paying a premium for it and then they will tell you that in your case they cant change it and its a £110 fee.
They are an extremely low cost airline that makes its money by gouging as much as they can off you on top of the low base price.

I’ve taken dgs on Ryanair many times.
Always we have been given a free seat for dgs and paîd a small amount to book my seat next to him.
I have no idea how you managed to book with Ryanair without reserving your dc seats.
Ime people who complain about Ryanair have usually not understood the process.
If you want to sit with your dc you sort it out at the time of booking.

However a little bit of empathy from the crew wouldn’t have hurt.
In your position I would have stood next to my dc when the seat belt signs were off.

Hmm i flew ryanair this time last yr and it put dp with the kids automatically.

It is rubbish however you were basically expecting other people to give up the seat they paid extra for because you didnt pay or check

How lovely for the poor people who had to sit next to your travel sick children on a flight. You’re being selfish not booking seats together to make sure you can look after your children, I’d have been pissed off if they were sat next to me.

love Ryanair and love their pricing

your choice not to sit with your child when you choose not to pay to sit together.

so YABU.

‘’’’’’For safety reasons, children under the age of 12 must sit beside an accompanying adult, and infants (aged 8 days to 23 months inclusive) must sit on an accompanying adult’s lap. It is mandatory for an adult travelling with children under 12 (excl. infants) to reserve a seat. A maximum of four children for every one adult on the same booking will receive a reserved seat free of charge’’’’

The OP should have booked and paid for a reserved seat for herself or her DH and then her children would have automatically been given reserved seats.

I paid for my husband and I to sit together and we were still allocated seats rows apart...so no guarantee even with paying!

Other people may well have paid extra for designated seating, so not sure why you expected them to move, given you hadn’t had the same foresight or paid for the privilege. I’ve given up my seat twice for people to sit with family and both times I had a worse experience because I was crammed into a middle seat. I’m not sure I would do it again.

It's the risk you take. If I've paid to sit next to my husband and DS, why should I then move so you can sit next to your child when you didn't pay to select the seats? I don't understand the policy of the cabin crew will sort it, when they would need to move 5 people, make everyone happy, and do everything else they need to do before takeoff in what already is a quick turnaround normally. Just pay for seats when you book the tickets in the future.

As I understand it (only flown Ryanair once with my DS) the adult reserves the seats and then the reservations for the child are free - but you still have to “make” the reservation.

With that said, I got completely fed up of the website and booked and paid for reservations for both of us, to ensure we were together, and there was no room for Ryanair to cock up- or at least not in a way that couldn’t be swiftly proven to be their fault.

I never book Ryanair, they are appalling for customer service. I don't understand why you didn't book yiur seats at the time you booked your flight, not a risk worth taking with kids.