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.

I would swap for a 4yo to be able to sit with a parent. Probably not for a 7yo though, unless they seemed very upset.

In either scenario, though, I would be spitting bullets with the parents for having been so irresponsible and for failing to make arrangements to ensure that they could look after their children properly. Especially if I had paid extra to reserve a seat of my choosing, which I usually do. It is incredibly selfish to just get on the plane and expect everyone else to accommodate because you're too tight to pay a few quid extra to reserve seats like everyone else does.

Pay for seats together. Our flight home this year was delayed for 30 minutes while the cabin crew had to scramble around asking people to swap seats for a family too cheap to pre-book. It was a flight full of families so understandably, no one wanted to move.

A single passenger ended up feeling like they had to move after the whole family stood there looking sad, apparently oblivious to the mood of everyone else on the plane.

I suspect that Ryanair have a very loose interpretation of this, and that it's ANY adult rather than the child's responsible adult that is required to meet the letter of the policy.

So you made your children sit alone because you are too tight to pay to sit with them??
And you then think this is the airline or other passengers problem??
Jesus!

You just have to chalk this up to your oversight here, I think.

I'm happy to be freighted like cattle for the money saved by going with cheap airlines but insuring yourself from situations like this by putting your hand in your pocket to be seated with your children is necessary.

I would swap because I wouldn’t want to sit next to a young vomiting child, but I’d be pretty pissed off if I’d paid for my seat. And to be honest I’d probably make a half joke about the parent reimbursing me. For a slightly older non vomiting child, I would not swap. We all know it’s shit that you have to pay if you want to sit together, but if that’s the only way of guaranteeing it then you have to suck it up. It’s incredibly selfish for non paying parents to assume passengers that paid for their seat will happily swap with them so they can sit with their kid.

Your responsibility at booking stage to pay the extra and book seats together, it's shit but it's the way Ryanair does things. Sound like a horrible experience and if you didn't realise how it works then you'll know next time, if you were hoping for the best and not keen to pay the extra charge then yabu.

DH and I never prebook, we don’t mind not sitting together.
Last time we flew in September there was a family who had had to rebook their flights last minute due to a family emergency so they were no longer seated together. We were as a fluke sat together on this occasion, so we said ok we’ll move. DH ended up with the extra legroom seat on the way there and I got it on the way back. Win win!

Or we've already paid and pre booked our seats and so will not be moving for a family of cheeky fuckers who didn't bother

YABU to not have pre-booked seats. But I’m amazed that any stranger wouldn’t gladly swap seats for the opportunity to NOT sit next to someone else’s 4 year old!

Frankly if you fly with Ryanair it's not going to be a particularly fun experience but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I usually fly with Ryanair because of price but I always reserve seats, particularly as DD has SN.

I've just booked flights with them and had thought of treating ourselves to Jet2. They were nearly £400 more expensive for exactly the same route and with more inconvenient timings. On a relatively short haul flight I'd rather put up with Ryanair and have the extra money to spend on holiday. I wouldn't dream of not booking seats however.

You pay extra for your seats so that you know you will be together. That's what I do for all budget airlines with my young DC.

You don't know why people won't swap... they could have disabilities and with a carer, or with their own children for example.

Thlis thread is pointless until @LHGL explains why she didnt book any seats

If I'd paid to have a specific seat I'm not sure I'd be rushing to waste that money to bail out someone who hadn't bothered. Everyone knows to be super wary of Ryanair

Yh like I said

just back after flying with Ryanair don't love them but only airline avaliable for where we were going. I have to say their website is very clear on what you have to pay for etc. each time you move on it says x y and z cost this if you want it so dunno how you missed this at all. it's well advertised that Ryanair charge for these in the media etc even on mumnets 🤷‍♀️

YOU made your child sit on her own. You booked the seats.

I hope that sooner or later airlines will stop accepting bookings for children unless the adult has prebooked and paid for an allocated seat.

Sorry but if that was me and someone was trying to sit my 4 year old away from me or her father i'd be standing in the aisle until they sorted. While reading their policy word for word direct from their website. Why on earth did you let the plane take off with your 4 year old away from you? I'd have simply refused to sit down until they resolved it. I would accept her in front of me or accross the aisle. As per policy. But not rows away.

Polite bit firm and trust me either they or someone else would have sorted to stop the plane being delayed by hours.

YANBU for not prebooking seats. But you YABU for allowing it.

@ChillysWaterBottle are you going to reimburse me the cost of taking my seat ?

Just buy the seats together. You wanted to save £30 and now want to blame Ryanair.

If you didn't pay for seats together it is you who made your 4yr old sit on their own.

Since having kids, we always pay for our seats together now to avoid this... Sorry but unless there was a valid reason why you didn't, you should've bought your seats.

Stand in the aisle all you want, I wouldn’t be moving for you. Why should someone move because you’re too cheap to book a seat?

Sounds like a good way to get security called and yourself and your family chucked off the plane.

despite total disorganisation for a hen do, even we managed to log on and book seats together for 12 of us. This is your responsibility. Realistically, you’re in the same space as your dc and they were safe. It’s not that traumatic.