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.

Cool, so you're one of these people who thinks people travelling without children should sacrifice their own needs and comforts that they have paid for because a parent can't plan properly.

As a disabled adult who flies for work at times and travels without my kids, I can absolutely tell you if you think you have a right to bump me into a middle seat because you have a kid, you would be told where to go.

You are not entitled to know why someone has paid for a particular seat any more than you are entitled to anyone swapping with you.

Ryanair are awful I'd only fly with them if there were no other options. Last time I flew with them the seat was covered in crumbs, so they don't bother to clean the plane between flights.
I hate that airlines charge to book seats in advance. But I pay it because it's important to me we sit together.

If there were no seats together then what can they do? Can they force people who have pre booked and paid for their seats to move?

You are being very unreasonable.

You'd have to be living with a tribe in the Amazon for the last 20 years to not know that Ryanair is genuinely one of the least well regarded businesses (not just airlines) on the entire planet in terms of customer service.

I refuse to fly with them as a result. If you insist on doing so then you have to 100% plan for the absolute worst - which means pre-booking seats to sit next to your children, or flying with another airline if this is not possible.

Booking a 3rd party package holiday that puts you on a Ryanair flight is completely different. I fly RA around 30 times a year and wouldn't advise anyone to use 3rd party booking. They don't want it and won't support it or help you if there are issues.

@Whoknows101 exactly. Only ever flown with them when I've had to work in Dublin and I wasn't paying. I'd sooner hop to my holiday destination than fly with RuinAir

No, they can't, unless they were prepared to compensate the person who moved of course. But it's Ryanair, and getting a refund from them is like getting blood out of a stone.

I've flown plenty of times with Ryanair without paying for seats and one adult has always been sat with the children...I thought their algorithm made sure it happened automatically so surprised by this.

You shouldn't have to pay to be next to a child. (Though you do have to pay if you want both adults travelling next to each other)

I'm my experience Ryanair not much difference than any other cheap airline - and they are the only ones that go directly the route we travel often so we fly with them often. Hope this is just a blip.

I thought ryanair were bad until I flew with TUI.

Never , ever again.

Without paying for it, One adult is probably seated with the child, if the seats are available.

However if other people have paid for a lot of the seats and the OP hasn't paid for any, that's why they weren't together

You could pay for seats when checking in online. This was only available 1 week before flying - I logged in to to it and there wasn't enough seats available for all of us. Since some people were missing seats, I couldn't book only a few... it was all or nothing and I couldn't allocate everyone. Which is why I got in touch with travel agent who assured me it was fine.

I was all for paying for seats together but I'm guessing there was a glitch on the app? I've no idea.

I've never needed to pay for seats together with my children on Ryanair. (Only if I want their dad somewhere near us too)

I think it is unreasonable of the airline to not follow their own seating policy for under 12's, they should have seated the children with an adult even if they had to split the party up.

However, I think you were also being unreasonable in not paying to book the seats, even older children don't like sitting next to a stranger so I see it an extra 'parenting cost'.

I wouldn't expect other people to move because they have probably paid to have their seats together and for some of them it would mean splitting families up.

You can get one adult next to the children without paying in my experience if you select the right options.

I hate when people try to use emotional blackmail. You know pretty well that if you want to get seats together you need to pay for it.
You chanced your arm see if you could get that for free, and it backfired.
I am sorry if your children had a hard a time during the flight. It is not their fault.
But you have now learned the lesson.
Don't make the same mistake again.

Summing up, you failed to book seats and now expect everyone else to fit around you and your entitled family? Got it, thanks for your twattish contribution to the human race. Well done.

Pay to book seats in advance. Don't assume they will be available once check in opens . For European flights I'd expect to pay at lest an extra 30 ish, for international up to 100. Per person. That's how international travel works now.

We could only check in on the app 1 week before hols.
When I logged in, I had to allocate all 19 of us (I was paying for the seats, that wasn't an issue).
The issue was there were only 18 available seats on the plane! As I couldn't allocate everyone, it wouldn't let me go any further and then the option to book was completely gone saying that we had to check in at airport.
I got in toch with travel agent who said everything would be fine.

My situation slightly different to OP as I did TRY to book (and pay) for seats but we just couldn't.

I was empathising with OP about having kids spread out across the plane.

Yes I found that out the hard way. We were lucky that when it came to it there was room for us all together and I paid for that but trying to change it beforehand was stressful. Won’t be doing that again

YMBU I always pay to sit next to my children, I’m always amazed at the entitlement of parents who don’t do this!

I don't think anyone is on the OPs side, because we've all used ryanair, and we all know we'll what we have to pay extra for.

Why should she not pay extra to sit together when everyone else has to.

Company rules.

Then you would have been escorted off the plane if you refused to sit down.

It cost more to fly when those things were included. The model has changed.

She chose the cheaper option of randomly assigned seats instead of paying 8 or 10 quid extra per seat for two seats, to ensure the youngest was confirmed next to one adult family member. Was what subsequently happened worth it to save twenty quid? Barely a round of drinks.

I think this has changed. I booked about 6 weeks ago and wasn't able to complete the purchase without paying for a seat for myself and then getting the one beside it for ds2 free.

It may be that if you book very far in advance, or it's not a popular flight, that there will be free or very cheap adult seats though.

Teen and dh just got the free randomly allocated ones 24hrs before flying so are sitting on their own for a couple of hours. As they'll both be plugged into their earbuds it's hardly a hardship for them.