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’s mandatory for a grown up to book a seat when travelling with a child, how come the OP managed not to?

We’ve flown loads with Ryanair and always had sensible seat allocations without having to pay. I’d complain.

Yes you do, and the booking process takes you through this. The child seat reservation costs nothing, but the adult has to reserve a seat (and priority boarding which of course you can't use because the child you are travelling with hasn't paid to book their seat).

Basically as a parent you need to reserve seats with your child, and this is made very clear.

Nice.

It's not the fault of other passengers, but yeah, you go on and encourage your kid to be an absolute horror.

The OP wouldn't have have had to pay £50 to arrange proper seating, it should have been around £10.

For family bookings, children (aged 2 to 11 years) receive free reserved seating so they can sit beside a parent. When an adult purchases a reserved seat they can select up to 4 children’s seats beside them free of charge.

OP, did you not understand the policy? You would have chosen your seat, and then had the option to select seats for your children in that row at the point of booking.

The policy is:

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.

note where it is mandatory for one adult to pay for a seat ….

Why. Ryanair price their flights in sections you can choose what you pay for. Its your problem if you choose not to pre book.

I love the way Ryanair have changed the way we all fly.

Why do you think this is good course of action? Is the lady who does not want to move somehow more responsible about a random child than the child’s mother?

Also your thread title: Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

No, you made your child do that because you didn’t make provisions. It’s like when people are stuck in a traffic jam and moan… erm, you ARE the traffic!

Why when you originally booked your flights didn't you choose and book which seats you wanted?

Not everybody is an absolutely awful human being though

I would be worried for the child and keen to swap

We always book seats when traveling with kids -maybe consider choosing airline that allows this when you book saves lots of stress

Why didn’t you pay to choose your seats?

Not an airline I’d ever travel with as I don’t like their whole ethos. However, even I know that if you want to sit together then you pay. TBH, it’s common on all airlines now, we have to pay on VA/Delta to go from UK to the states if we want to sit together.

I wouldn’t swap if I’d paid to sit next to DH and someone who hadn’t paid wanted my seat. Happened to DH once on the way back from the US, he had booked and paid for him and then-DP to sit together, cabin crew asked if they’d ‘mind’ moving as a couple who were on the way back from their honeymoon wanted to sit together. He refused as he said they’d known they were on their honeymoon and they should have paid to guarantee seats together like he’d done.

I feel sorry for the poor person sitting next to the 4 year old!

And are you saying that you asked the person to swap seats and they said No, that they WANTED to sit next to the kid? I find that very hard to believe, especially as I bet the kid was in the middle seat so it wasnt as if you were splitting up 2 people sitting together

I loathe Ryanair. They treat customers like cattle. I don't want to trust a company with my life if they don't show basic respect. I'd rather not fly than go with Ryanair or easyJet, after some bad experiences.

Can't afford anything more expensive (and, you know, carbon emissions and destruction of earthly life) so we just don't fly.

That's plain nasty. No reason why people who have paid extra to sit together should be expected to give up their seat to someone who didn't. It's not the fault of other people. It's the airline's policy that is stupid. It ought to be obvious to everyone ( Ryan Air included) that if enough people book to sit together and pay, there may well be people who haven't done so and CANNOT be accommodated to sit together as a result if they waited until they checked in online?

It this policy makes no sense- it is mandatory for children to sit with an adult but yet the adult has to pay to get the mandatory seats next to each other?

Sorry, but if you want to sit together you need to pre-book seats. It's very easy. As a parent, if you are bothered about yoyr chikd/children sitting alone this is a must instead of moaning on mumsnet.

This is why I accept that we have to pay for seat reservations. Leaving it to chance isn’t worth it.

You should still complain OP as it is against their policy.

Ryanair is always late these days, always hours late and the seats are covered in food. Horrible. I beat my colleague to Belgium by going on the train last year, and didn't arrive covered in the partially chewed discarded crisps of a stranger.

You know you have young children and you know they suffer from travel sickness. it is on you to book seats together, there can't be anyone on the country that doesn't know that and that Ryan Air are abysmal.

This is totally on you for not booking seats

If you paid in advance to sit together, which is the responsible thing to do, then YANBU. If you didn’t bother then YABU.

You'll get a load of huffy bootlickers who will always back the big corporation no matter how poorly they behave so I would try to ignore them OP. YANBU at all, notoriously terrible Ryanair are by failing to follow their own policies and having useless staff.

I would always go out my way to help a family on a plane (or any public transport). But some people are poorly raised and don't have much social conscience at all. I'm sorry it was so stressful for you all.

Indeed, one woman was was crying as her child had special needs and wasn't sat with her. Proper tantrum.