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.

then surely the system would not let them check the tickets out without the reservations? None of this makes sense

OP when you say no one was with the DC, what seats were you all in?

I travelled with Ryan Air, on a number of occassions, never ever again! My 5 yr had to sit 2 rows down from me years ago.I was terrified if the plane got into difficulty would the person sitting next to him help my son. No was the answer! when major turbulance happened. Have you ever thought of this? This does happen, I have also paid to sit next to my husband who has cancer, heart problems etc. Returning to the Uk, they said no, we cannot sit together as the steward had to sit somewhere! And he was going to another flight onwards!
Needless to say we complained and got our money back. All they are after is b..s on seats.! If they could charge you for going to the loo , they would! Never, ever again. Don't care how cheap they are! Plus I wkd in the industry., and it has got so much worse!! They really don't give a sh..t and make up their own rules when you check in! Don't fly with this airline!

Its pretty common knowledge to pay for the seats if you need to be sat together. I don't know why anyone would risk it? I'm not surprised people didn't want to move if they've paid.
For what it's worth, I don't pay for my seat as an adult and would happily swap but I know many adults who don't love flying so pay to make sure they are sat by their companion.

But you have to pay to reserve a seat for the adult, so that the child can be beside them. Free for the child.

This! Why could one of the adults not have sat with a child each, since you seemed to have two seats next to each other? Then they wouldn't have been alone. Unless I'm confused?

Regardless of the issue that you should have reserved seats, it appears from your op that you actually did manage to get 2 seats together in the end. And instead of sitting the 4 year old with an adult, you chose to sit them with their 7 year old sibling instead? Why on earth did you choose to do that? Unless I've read it wrong, in which case I apologise.

No sympathy.
Pay for the seats like the rest of us 🤔

Maybe OP booked a last minute holiday and all of the seats were already paid for and reserved. Either way, Ryanair are an abysmal company, they don't care and I can believe this happened, I don't it would have happen with someone like jet2. I refuse to travel with Ryanair

If people won’t pay a tenner to sit next to their dc then they can pay triple the price to travel with Jet2 or BA.

Ryanair provides a cheap way to travel around Europe, take it or leave it.

You're not being unreasonable and I don't give a monkeys about being able to 'buy' seats. No child should be sat alone under any circumstances.

Quite.

Had this with Ryanair last year. Me and 2 family members PAID to sit together, cue screeching mum demanding everyone in the flight should move so her family of 5 should be sat together. This is not a passenger issue this is a fault with the airline, they should by policy make sure children under 12 are with an adult in their party so then those seats shouldn't be bookable 🤷🏼‍♀️.

Or just suck it up when you book with a cheap airline spend the pennies regardless of the policy and book together!

Why is everyone assuming that all the people who didn’t want to swap with OP had paid extra to book seats?

Either way they don't have to move seat.

I’ve done it twice and both times I had a much worse journey than if I hadn’t given up my seat (which I had paid extra for). I think the world would be a better place if people organised themselves better, as opposed to relying on everyone else’s good nature to pick up the slack. It’s rude.

Why should you have to pay for reserved seats when legally you and your child can't sit apart?

Ryanair’s own policy is one thing but CAA guidelines are just that, guidelines, and they are not legally binding.

People really need to stop flying with Ryanair.

You aren't going to get the same level of care that you will with a decent airline service. You need to stop thinking you will, and also be ready for any fuckery on their part, because they are notoriously bad. It's one thing to put yourselves through it as adults, but you're a bloody idiot if you put your kids through it, KNOWING what Ryanair are like. You genuinely should have known better.

But the policy says it is a free reservation as it is mandatory for children to sit with adults. So very confused- what would you pay for something that is mandatory. Ie the plane technically shouldn’t take off unless you are sitting together?

It says

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

So an adult must pay for a reservation in order to have their children seated with them for free.

I thought the OP said that, in the end, the 2 youngest were sitting together? Or maybe I misread it.

Yes, die on this hill OP, it's worth it.

I’ve zero sympathy. You should have paid to sit together when you booked your flights. Blame yourself.

But if it mandatory for the children to be with the adult it seems an odd policy for the adult to have to pay for their seat. What if the adult doesn’t mind where they are sitting? Surely if it the airlines policy for the child to sit with the adult then it is the airline’s responsibility to sort out the reservation?

if there wasn’t this policy I’d have zero sympathy but I’m confused how an airline can make someone pay for their policy?

I fly Ryanair lots because it’s cheap. I don’t pay extra to book because my dc are over 12 and I’m happy for us to split up. Their seat allocation system must be shit because 3 times I’ve booked for the whole family and they’ve put my youngest in the emergency exit row and had to move him because they need someone who is big enough to open the door. When I had smaller dc I sucked it up and paid for choosing seats. It’s a pita when people won’t pay for the seats they want and arse about when you are trying to take off. I once had my sons who were about 12 and 16 at the time and had lucked out by being in the same row get embroiled in an approx 50 way swap and ended up several rows apart because some arsehole mother wanted her little boy next to her. Her little boy was about 30. Why is her little boy more important than mine? Just pay for the seat allocation.

I’m honestly not sure it is legal to make someone pay for a mandatory add on.