Paid for seats on ryan air and kids still sat separately

[Hookahchakkah]

Has anyone had any success getting a refund and compensati on.? We paid the extra to ensure we were with the kids all together and they sat all four of us completely separately, not even across an aisle or one row away like five and twenty five rows away from each other

I would complain and don’t drop it. I’d ask for full refund of the flight costs (you can only ask!) for causing distress to your kids.
It’s disgusting the way they overbook flights or move people around.

We had a recent trip with a small airline - Eurowings. Booked, paid and selected same seats outbound and return. The day of online checkin the seats were completely different. Split us all up and when I tried to change them back to the original ones I’d booked it wanted to charge me again 😡 So I chose some different ones but still altogether.
When I got to the airport I went to their desk and they said that it was because the aircraft was a different one to the one I’d originally selected seats for. The new aircraft meant the seats I’d paid for were now extra legroom ones so they either wanted me to pay more or just keep the ones I chose second time round.

Genuinely who wants to sit next to an unaccompanied toddler?

If they were in the middle seat presumably the adults both sides were sitting alone and could have moved?

In these situations why is Ryanair splitting up children and adults, rather than adult groups. I'd be a bit pissed if sat away from my husband but less pissed than having to sit next to a random lone child

There are a lot of hypocrites on Mumsnet. If a mother says she didn’t pay to book seats because she has a child young and, as common sense would dictate, she didn’t think they would get separated, then everyone jumps to say it’s her fault for not booking, even though it should be the regulation of the airline not to separate young children from their guardian. Now if a mother’s paid to book seats so she can be with her kids, but the airline chooses to sit them separately anyway because there is no oversight for the crap service they provide, then again, somehow, it must be the mother’s fault. It can’t possibly be that greedy airlines are out of control and need to be held accountable for not providing the service they charge customers for 🙄 Make it make sense.

How very odd that they seem to have put single travellers in your seats!??
I’d be livid with their attitude and lack of explanation and I would def got the names of the staff that were so rude and dismissive.

IBEAN- I just made it up for the fun of it. Likewise when my sister booked easy jet and they split up a group of 4 - 4 yr old in a middle seat, mother 2 rows back in the middle seat, niece 4 rows behind that and other mother 8 rows back in the middle - all on pre booked seats - just never happens.

KLM on the other hand - who moved us from our pre booked seats so a group of 10 could sit together - moved us to business and gave me a glass of champagne - now that I did not mind changing for!

Makes no sense - I’ve recently flown RA and had the seats I picked and paid extra for.

I had a similar experience so I can definitely believe it.
long story short they tried to make my then 3 year old sit on his own a good 10-15 rows back, the crew were awful and eventually other passengers moved as I was ready to get off the plane. They then ignored us the whole flight.
I refuse to fly with them now.
i did complain and even questioned policies but never received compensation

Well, great. I'm sure 95% of the time people get the seats that they've paid for. That doesn't mean some don't just because it hasn't happened to you yet.

This sounds awful & so poorly managed by Ryanair! I'd be have been livid/worried - it's not ok not to sit by your children when you specifically booked seats alongside them. There's probably little point in pursuing as Ryanair are notoriously bad with everything. I refuse to fly with them, flew once and never again.

Sending sympathy & solidarity - why so many on here give such a hard time to posters I don't know.

One part confusing me. When you went to the gate they said this isn’t your seat anymore… would you not have just got on the plane and gone to your assigned seats as a family per your boarding pass? That way the air hostesses would have come over seen the issue without the flapping and hopefully moved whoever was in your seat.

how did you know what your new seats were when your boarding pass had the correct/ original seats?

Aye, I don’t disagree, but up until last year I flew twice a week every week and had no issues, so if it was going to happen to me, kinda think it would of happened at least once.

We flew as a family of 3 children, 2 adults with Ryanair last year and I chose & paid for seats all together (2 in front, 3 behind) when booking. Went to check-in a couple of days before and noticed our seats were all separate and not as booked!
Phoned customer services and they sorted it but their reason given was the flight hadn’t been as busy as expected so they downsized the plane, meaning some seats were made unreserved. I honestly think the same has happened to your flight but everyone whose seat had been unreserved has made a booking and that has been unmanaged, resulting in your family filling in the empty seats….
I could be wrong but it’s not right and you are 100% entitled to take this further.
Good luck

Do you have written evidence of the payment for seats booked together ? Such as booking receipt ? It’s irrelevant what luck people have had - if you contracted with them to book 4 seats together and you can prove that, you then have a claim in law. I’d put everything in writing rather than waste time on phone calls to customer services and address everything to the director of the limited company .

I really wish people would boycott Ryanair. Have you seen their most recent ad campaign?! They openly, literally hate their customers. Of course they ripped you off. And they left it to other ripped-off passengers to make the situation good.

This happened me too. Paid for seats to be together as we were travelling as a family of six - an 11 year old, 9 year old, 4 year old and 1 year old - my husband and I. Our boarding passes said seats altogether and just before we were about to get on the plane they said you’re no longer sitting together. Unfortunately we were one of the last to get on so I just said okay. They had sat us all separately though from rows 1 to about 7. When we sat down they said the kids can’t sit in rows 1 because of health and safety and I was like you moved us. So they moved them around. It wasn’t nice to be honest, I was sitting in middle seat with my 1 year old - we sat on the tarmac for two hours before taking off because there were delays and I didn’t have my bags organised as I thought we were all going to be sitting together. So trying to get her food. Make sure the kids were okay as they were sitting beside strangers. I was glad to get home but didn’t do anything about it - even though I did pay for seats and my boarding passes had us altogether!

I don't understand why you wouldn't ask to be refunded the fee for choosing your seats in this situation? Surely the fee for choosing seats for six people would be worth fighting for?

I wish that was only the start, and the government then stepped in with legislation to stop their worst practices. With the punishment that if they continued, they lose landing slots.

If the seat change is due to a different aircraft being sent the seats probably don’t exist because of the configuration of the plane. That’s what happened to people in front of us at the check in gate. The numbering may be similar but the seats are in a different location and there may be fewer of them, so some people get bumped.

If it was aimed at me (I said I heard something about sizes increasing) I suspect a bigger bag size would apply to new bookings only once implemented, not existing bookings - and it also wouldn't surprise me if they tried to catch flyers out on that one too when the time comes. Also, as it's an EU directive and not Ryanair being generous, no doubt they will take their time.

I am always careful and check size (and weight) regardless. Never been pulled up yet for a check, but flying again next week and will be interesting to see if they're extra strict due to the recent reports of increased staff incentivisation.

It’s an income-generating scam that all airlines use now - even the quality airlines expect you to pay extra to book seats together - and even then have a get-out clause as to why they may not deliver what you paid for. I just don’t see why, when booking 2 tickets on the same flight they can’t just seat you together.

Income generating, yes...'because if airlines don't generate income they go out of business, and one way of generating business/income is being able to legally advertise low (base) fares.

The scam comment might be applicable if you don't get the seat you paid for and you don't get a refund.

Because not everyone can sit together on a full flight. Some people need to sit across aisles, behind each other etc, or just fill gaps in.

Plus some seats are considered better so people pay more for them.

Airlines do it because they realise people do actually want to do it.

Most airlines don't allow for unaccompanied minors below 14 and for some International Services minors can travel alone at 5yrs but you have to pay for a mandatory unaccompanied minor service. The International Airlines are pretty hot on safeguarding, my son travelled as an unacompanied minor at 15 (I paid for the UM service), all the UM's usually grouped together and usually they don't allow other adults to sit near them. An adult male was inadvertently booked into a seat with my son's group of UM's (only 3 of them), but the flight wasn't allowed to leave until the adult had been reassigned.

We booked with and paid extra for legroom this year which we didnt get. whenwe complained they said it was more legroom and refused our money back. not happy and will not do it again with this company