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.

Normally I’m firmly in the ‘want to sit together, pay for the privilege’ camp but expecting a 4 year old to sit on their own is completely unreasonable 😵

Maybe restaurants should then charge extra for a party to sit together on a table instead of randomly scattered around the restaurant? No? Because it's a stupid idea and so is doing the same in a plane. If they actually gave something that was genuinely an extra, rather than taking something away until you pay, then people wouldn't mind paying the extra.

Restaurants can change the size of their tables by rearranging chairs.

You can't rearrange the seats on an aircraft.

Not everyone can sit together on a dull booked plane.

Thanks for the update OP. Good that you have the boarding passes in order for the return journey and hope all goes well. Ignore all the ridiculous comments from those who don't understand the first thing about the Ryanair family seating policy, and how it actually works during the booking process, and the troll hunting posts.

Why not? If they have more passengers than seats then they shouldn't have sold the extra tickets. There is always a way to arrange it so that people are on the same row or if needed in the row before or behind. They have the AI technology to make it work. They would have to if everyone bought the "upgrade" to sit with those they booked with. They deliberately make sure that they don't.

To everyone saying if you want seats together to pay for them, I just have to let you know that isn't a guarantee. I'm an anxious flyer so we always book and pay for seats together. Coming back from Frankfurt last year we were told we were in different rows and when I asked why when we paid to sit together they told us they "were fully booked" which shouldn't have mattered considering our seats together were booked and paid for (this wasn't Ryanair, I can't actually remember airline). Luckily the person in one of our paid for seats was happy to swap and I complained and received our seat money back.

If this hadn't happened to us then I would be fully agreeing that it wasn't the airlines fault and it's on the parent to ensure they sit with their child.

Sometimes it's just not that simple.

This. You need to book seats together.

@LHGL

So you bought Family Plus and you were still seated apart?
That sounds like they cocked up. I guess the learning from this don't wait until the airport/ plane to sort it out.
I would go absolutely mental at them.
TBH whenever I have bought Family Plus on Ryan air, we have always been sat together.

Family Plus doesn’t reserve seats though … it just says free seats for kids. Think the OP got confused as to what she bought

I refuse fly ryan air. They are fucking shite.

@youheard
Family Plus does include reserved seating

Yes but you have to actually select them during the booking, it's not clear if OP did that.

The seat numbers are on the confirmation email if you book them.

My bad then !

No, I'm absolutely not one of those people, and indeed mentioned in another post on here that I'm not expecting those who need to be near toilets etc for health disabilities etc to move.
I'm just saddened that so many people (without any addtional needs) would just see pound signs over a child's welfare. But hey, money talks and to hell with everyone else who dared to not pay 20pounds or indeed as OP has updated been done over by Ryanair and their race to the bottom capitalist policies.....hence why I don't fly with them unless no other option.....they clearly bring out the worst in people too.

So you'll know just by looking at people on a plane who has additional needs and should therefore be exempt from your expectations of swapping, and who is fair game to pick on? You've a magic radar that can tell who has picked their seat for a valid reason and who just cares about the pound signs, right?

Ryanair are indeed awful, but so are people who fly with them knowing full well what CFs they are and try to cut corners and expect others to bail them out. Both things can be true.

I think its a safety issue as well as a safeguarding issue.

I loathe Ryan air..
.

This happened to us once. The website was confusing to me and I thought I’d done everything right (neurodivergent). Got on plane and no, seats not together. Luckily the staff were lovely and I explained my daughter has anxiety disorder. People should be more forgiving in society. Seeing it play out in Big Brother right now. You’re not allowed to get things wrong anymore as this forum shows. So no, YANBU!

No I don't, and I never said that. I was taking about people in this thread who said why, because of health or disability they need a certain seat, in response to my intitial comments . I conceded on that point recognising why they couldn't move/swap.
Not sure why you're trying to push an argument on this and make me out as if I have something against people with disabilities? That has never been the point of my post other than I didn't explicitly mention that group of people as being reasonable not to move give they need that seats .
I still think a person who let's a 4 year old sit by themselves on a plane is not a good person and if they don't need that seat, other that they've paid some rip off addtional cost then I think that motivation in life sucks.

Yep! The website is a total clusterfuck I can't even begin to navigate it....I feel bad that so many people are dismissive of an error like this just BeCAUse tHey haVE PAID!!!!

The simple answer is for the practice to be banned and all airlines required to offer seat selection at the time you book and pay for flights. Or they are charged double or triple air passenger duty.

Make Ryanair very expensive unless they stop all these rip-offs, they will comply.

It's not a simple answer it's a crap answer that makes single travellers subsidise families.

The easiest and cheapest passengers to accommodate are those who don't care where they sit ir who they sit with. Why shouldn't they get a discount? The problems are caused by freeloaders trying to get the upgraded service at the discount price.

Nope. The simplest answer is for it to be impossible, once you've entered a child-aged passenger, to not book a reserved seat for them which is next to the parent. If the plane is full then it should be impossible to book onto that flight.

Single passengers deserve to have the flexibility of travelling without this requirement if they choose. We already spend far too much on single subsidies as it is.

Absolutely. As a lone traveller I already pay supplements that couples and families don't have to pay. I'm not keen to have their need to sit together incorporated into the base price. I'm also not going to be guilted into giving up a seat if I've paid extra for it.

I agree with this. And the cost of this should be passed on to the people needing the reservation, not passengers in general. And I agree if the seats together are not an option, then they should not be able to proceed with the booking

It feels so unfair for people to be forced to swap once on the plane (as is some people's experience on this thread) because some with children have chosen not to reserve seats together (or not realised they need to do this) and then realise they need to change seats once on the plane.

These are budget airlines, which keeps the cost down and single passengers/those who dont care where or who they sit with should still have the option of these cheap seats and those who need the extra should be the ones paying for that

I am epileptic and always booked to sit next to my husband and got very fed up of having to explain my disability to a whole plane while entitled parents who had not booked seats were trying to get me to move so they could sit next to their child. Then I more then likely had to explain again because they got the cabin crew involved.

Now we have a son we still book so we are all sat together.