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.

Sorry you went through this - I would have thought that at the age of the children they would have automatically allocated seats at least 2 of you together. The thing is that the majority now pays and chooses their seats upfront so you get what they are left with

I've always booked and paid the extra for seats when going with DC to ensure they are sat together

Recently went away with DH on our own and paid for specific seats, a woman and her husband got on and asked if we would mind moving so they could sit together, or would we move over to sit next to the window - I said no as I had paid for these seats, and she obviously hadn't, and I was treat like the arsy one, even the cabin crew lady was rude to me after that, but I had paid for the seat specific, I don't like window, OH likes the aisle and we like the back row

The original poster has not come back so hard to know if any of this even happened 🤔

Not necessarily. There's nothing in the OP's post that she didn't pay for a seat for herself. She just states that when she went to check in she found everyone had been assigned seats apart from each other. This could mean that Ryanair didn't do as it was supposed to, which is keep the children together with the parents. Ryanair isn't exactly a paragon of virtue when it comes to customer service.

I posted earlier on here as I reserved seats and they didn’t even exist. It wasn’t until I got on the plane and noticed my aisle wasn’t even there. I went all through airport checkin and no body said anything. I was made to wait on the plane until everyone was seated to see if there were even seats for my family. I was so worried I was going to be taken off the flight. I was separated from my 10 year old. Nobody even cared, but I was that desperate to just get home. I can’t believe how heartless so many people are being, calling op tight and a bad parent. Ryan air are a disgusting company and shouldn’t be allowed to operate. When I complained numerous times I had no apology or explanation as to what happened and waited 6 months for a pathetic £40 refund.

Agree with this

I always understood that it was a legal requirement for child U12 to sit with zn adult. So, I never paid for allocated seating. Why would i pay extra for something the airline has to provide?.

We were always placed together, but perhaps we just got lucky

No recent experience of flying with Ryanair but could you have booked seats together. If so then I've less sympathy. It's rubbish having a 4yo sit alone but at the same time, equally so to potentially have to tell other people who did pay the extra to choose their seats that they have to move for someone who chose not to.

@NeedToChangeName

I always understood that it was a legal requirement for child U12 to sit with zn adult.

I’m afraid (for operators subject to UK CAA oversight) you understood wrong.

As several pp have pointed out the UK CAA have issued guidance on this, and the guidance uses “should” rather than “must” in most of the relevant statements in the guidance.

The airline may well decided have a more restrictive published policy but those also often state that in any event seating choice cannot be guaranteed on the day.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/

If OP had paid for the seats she'd have made sure to say so, or come back to clarify that.

I suspect the whole thing is made up anyway.

How far away were they OP, the CAA says no further than one row. You can report them to the CAA if they didn't set them close enough.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/#:~:text=Families%2C%20children%20and%20infants&text=Young%20children%20and%20infants%20who,seat%20row%20from%20accompanying%20adults.

www.caa.co.uk/our-work/about-us/enforcement-and-prosecutions/#:~:text=The%20CAA%20prosecutes%20both%20companies,with%20our%20Code%20of%20Practice.

CAA document is guidance, not rules..and uses "should", not "must".

There's nothing in the OP's post that she didn't pay for a seat for herself.

I think she would have mentioned it!

@LiquoriceAllsorts2 the flight was busy. The staff couldn’t help. How do you think it was an easy fix? I suspect you’re getting mixed up with another comment who said their flight was empty and they moved themselves to have full rows each. This is completely on the OP. Let’s hope she learns from it. It’s really not fair to her children and other passengers.

Did you miss the part of the story where when they did get 2 seats together OP put the 2 youngest kids together rather than an adult sit with the youngest? Surely no one is really that stupid

With Ryanair there is no choice but to pay for the adult's seat when travelling with children under 12. It is their policy. If OP was travelling with her children, she HAS to pay. There's no way around it, it's not her choice. The booking will not be complete without it. Ryanair will then seat the children next to her. That is in their policy which I have copied and pasted in another previous post.

Ffs you chose to fly with 3 kids under ten on a budget airline and not prebook seats wtf would you do that

You mean you didn't pay to book seats together for the benefit of your young children and expected everyone else to sort it out for you - passengers and Ryan Air.

I once had a woman just take my seat without asking, so she could sit next to her partner.

She said "oh other people can move for you it s no problem"

I said "I want my seat!"

She rolled her eyes at me like I was the problem!

The air hostess made her get up

The far more likely explanation is that OP made it up, it's telling that she hasn't been back.

Ryanair don't tend to randomly reassign seats that have been paid for.

OP wrote "we check in online in advance, and I notice nobody is sitting together". If she had actually paid for 5 seats next to each other I think she would have told us that nobody got the seats that they had paid for. Also, for all their faults, Ryanair never, ever double books. If OP had booked and paid for seats, she would have got them (except perhaps for an IT failure, which would have caused everyone on the plane to be in the wrong seat, so people wouldn't have all been saying "I paid for this one").

Next up, Ryanair's policy that people sit with their kids under 12. What this means is, "it's our policy that you sit with your kids, and to do that, we're going to ask the adults to buy a seat". It's not "We will ensure that adults always sit with their kids, no matter how many they are, how late they check in, and how many other people who chose a seat, perhaps for medical or MH reasons, we have to move while trying to get the plane off on time". This has been the case since 2016 and it's all over the pop-up messages when you book. Indeed as some PP are saying it may not even be possible to book the way OP described (I notice she hasn't come back to tell us).

expecting too much from those on this thread to care for a 4 year old over some £££

OP wasn't sitting on the pavement in the rain begging for £5 to buy food for her child. She was going on a foreign holiday with DH and 3 children, on return flights that won't have left much change from £1000 by the time you include luggage. She thought she could save £20 or so on seat reservations for her and DH with a bit of moral blackmail of other passengers. That's CF behaviour right there. (If the entire story happened at all, which I am increasingly doubtful about.)

Surely if it's going to be an issue you pay to sit together? Which is probably why everyone else had done and hence why they wouldn't move .

People shouldn’t have to pay extra to be seated with whom they booked with. It is a gimmick money making scheme but since it is in existence- I now have to pay extra to ensure that we have seats next to our children. If I had paid that extra money then no I would not move unless the person asking me to move refunded me.

airlines just need to stop charging

So sorry OP. Even if I'd paid for my seats I would have definitely swapped with you in this scenario. A 4 year old being terrified is just bloody awful.
Shame on Ryan air and shame on the other passengers.

So if airlines stopped charging g...

• they put the base price up.
• no one chooses their seat, an algorithm does it. That algorithm will still need to split groups, as passengers don't come on groups of 3, or which ever seating configuration the plane is.
• people will still be unhappy, but would have paid more than before to have the middle seat on the back row next to the toilet.

People pay because they do care about their seat basically.

I understand Ryanair do have such a system... but I think all airlines should have to have a pop up that makes the guidelines clear... that together means across aisles or behind/in front, its not whole party together and if the seats aren't available they can be bigger distances

No they didn't. Ryanair have a clear policy that children under 12 need to be seated with an adult. Ryanair violated their own policy by separating them.