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Original poster

Paid for seats on ryan air and kids still sat separately

290 replies

Hookahchakkah · 23/07/2025 12:09

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

OP posts:
May913 · 23/07/2025 12:59

I'd have thought it was very unusual for all 4 of you to be sat apart from each other if you paid to be altogether, especially if there were children as well. At what point did you find out you weren't going to get the seats you booked?

Fupoffyagrasshole · 23/07/2025 13:00

how could that happen - you chose your seat at the time of booking!

You must have messed it up

BeltaLodaLife · 23/07/2025 13:12

What actually happened when your boarded? Were you late so they gave your seats away?

FiveCustardTarts · 23/07/2025 13:13

Fupoffyagrasshole · 23/07/2025 13:00

how could that happen - you chose your seat at the time of booking!

You must have messed it up

It can with a last minute change of plane.

MumbleJumble123 · 23/07/2025 13:17

posted in wrong place 🤦🏻‍♀️

Original poster
Hookahchakkah · 23/07/2025 13:25

We paid for the seats next to each other and checked the boarding passes and went to the airport, checked in went through to security, had a sandwich and went to the gate.

At the gate they said these aren’t your seats anymore we have to move you. We said no we’ve paid to sit together and one of us is ten. They said sorry try on the plane, we said no help is now, can you at least switch the seats so the ten year old isn’t by himself they said no. We said who can we speak to they said just get on the plane. We said he can’t sit 23 rows away from us they said madam get on the plane. We were almost last on and tried to speak to the steward was but there was anbkuncmenet which said get to your seats now we are going to miss the air traffic window, i begged someone to swap (which they did reluctantly before I got told to sit and showed the original seats so the kids could at least sit together but they were a few rows from my husband. I went to the other end of the plane and I tried to get their attention and gave up.

as soon as I could I grabbed an air hostess and said my kids are by themselves she said you’ll have to wait for seatbelts

as soon as seatbelts went off I went down to check on them and the drinks trolley was coming up. The stewatdesss told me to go back and wait and I said “my kids have been say by themselves can I check on them”

the other stewardess said very loudly what’s going on and the first one said “she wants to check on her kids”

the other one said very loudly “well that’s convenient timing isn’t it” and I said loudly to her “you’ve sat our kids by themselves even though we paid, can i just check that they are ok please”
qns she rolled her eye and roll ed the trolley back.

I checked very quickly they were fine which was a relief and they were waiting impatiently.

I said “we’ve paid to sit together and you’ve sat us all separately” and she said “oh yeah we did know there was a family of four that had been separated.

I asked what had happened and she said she didn’t know.

there was one spare seat near so me and my husband and I sat five and seven rows back.

it was only a two hour flight and we were about 45 minutes in by this time. She came and asked us if we wanted to all be moved to sit together and most people around us were either asleep or with small kids but I don’t understand if they knew we were separated before we even got on the plane that they allowed this to happen.

OP posts:
MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig · 23/07/2025 13:26

Actually amazed at the amount of people on here who have clearly not flown recently and are adamant that this can’t happen. It can very much happen, airlines don’t give a shit. They will charge you to prebook seats and then they will reprioritise those seats at the last minute, be it a change of plane or they’ve just given them to someone else. It happens all the time. Obviously you can argue your point and hopefully get to sit together but it’s total pot luck.

We haven’t even bothered to book our seats this year; if we get to sit together it will be nice, if not, it’s only a few hours. My kids are older though.

L0bstersLass · 23/07/2025 13:34

junkmaail · 23/07/2025 12:41

Didn’t you have to select your seats when you booked them? I did when I flew with Ryan Air last year.

This.
When I booked a flight with them in Feb, I chose my seats as part of the buying process.
Did you overlook the fact that you have to select you seats @Hookahchakkah?

HerNeighbourTotoro · 23/07/2025 13:36

L0bstersLass · 23/07/2025 13:34

This.
When I booked a flight with them in Feb, I chose my seats as part of the buying process.
Did you overlook the fact that you have to select you seats @Hookahchakkah?

Show quote history

She hasnt which is why she said in the OP they paid extra to sit together.

Fupoffyagrasshole · 23/07/2025 13:37

how old are the kids? a 10 year old sitting alone for 2.5 hours doesn't seem too bad - my step son has been flying alone as an unaccompanied minor since 7

But i would be at the very least looking for a refund on the seats

LlynTegid · 23/07/2025 13:37

You should like me never fly with Ryanair again. Unless perhaps you are travelling to see someone who is terminally ill or when they have died, to go to their funeral, if that really is the only option (a flight and a five hour train journey would be an option for me to avoid them).

Don't blame the cabin crew who as much victims of Mr O'Leary as you were on this occasion.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/07/2025 13:38

L0bstersLass · 23/07/2025 13:34

This.
When I booked a flight with them in Feb, I chose my seats as part of the buying process.
Did you overlook the fact that you have to select you seats @Hookahchakkah?

Show quote history

Have you overlooked what she says in her OP and even the title?Confused

Kubricklayer · 23/07/2025 13:38

So who was in your original seats? Presumably adults with very young children? If just 4 seemingly healthy adults I'd be well pissed off.

Paying to select your seats is an absolute scam. Also whilst on the subject of ryanair it's ridiculous that if you don't select seats you can't check-in until 24 hours before your flight. Probably create a very narrow check-in window so they can oversell seats.

RigIt · 23/07/2025 13:38

I think it’s pretty shocking that they would do this. Especially when considering a few years back, before get charged for seat allocation, they would not allow young children to be seated without an adult they knew with them for safety reasons. They were incredibly strict about it. The thinking I believe was that a random adult might not help the child in the event of an emergency. Apparently now they can charge people, that safety issue has gone away?!? And even worse you can pay and still be seated away from your child. I wouldn’t be worried about them during a short flight but I would be concerned about what would happen in an emergency if I wasn’t next to them.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/07/2025 13:40

Anyway YANBU, OP - if people pay for specific seats but don’t get them for whatever reason then the extra fee should be automatically reimbursed.

TiramisuQueenoftheFairies · 23/07/2025 13:44

Yes, you should definitely be refunded for the seat allocation if you did not get what you paid for, however, if your boarding passes were for what you'd paid for then I don't see how you can prove to Ryanair that you did not occupy those seats.

I know that they say you "must" occupy the seat it says on you boarding pass, but if my ten year old was on her own at the back of the plane I would not hesitate to swap seats with her so she could sit near DH and her brother.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/07/2025 13:44

Hookahchakkah · 23/07/2025 13:25

We paid for the seats next to each other and checked the boarding passes and went to the airport, checked in went through to security, had a sandwich and went to the gate.

At the gate they said these aren’t your seats anymore we have to move you. We said no we’ve paid to sit together and one of us is ten. They said sorry try on the plane, we said no help is now, can you at least switch the seats so the ten year old isn’t by himself they said no. We said who can we speak to they said just get on the plane. We said he can’t sit 23 rows away from us they said madam get on the plane. We were almost last on and tried to speak to the steward was but there was anbkuncmenet which said get to your seats now we are going to miss the air traffic window, i begged someone to swap (which they did reluctantly before I got told to sit and showed the original seats so the kids could at least sit together but they were a few rows from my husband. I went to the other end of the plane and I tried to get their attention and gave up.

as soon as I could I grabbed an air hostess and said my kids are by themselves she said you’ll have to wait for seatbelts

as soon as seatbelts went off I went down to check on them and the drinks trolley was coming up. The stewatdesss told me to go back and wait and I said “my kids have been say by themselves can I check on them”

the other stewardess said very loudly what’s going on and the first one said “she wants to check on her kids”

the other one said very loudly “well that’s convenient timing isn’t it” and I said loudly to her “you’ve sat our kids by themselves even though we paid, can i just check that they are ok please”
qns she rolled her eye and roll ed the trolley back.

I checked very quickly they were fine which was a relief and they were waiting impatiently.

I said “we’ve paid to sit together and you’ve sat us all separately” and she said “oh yeah we did know there was a family of four that had been separated.

I asked what had happened and she said she didn’t know.

there was one spare seat near so me and my husband and I sat five and seven rows back.

it was only a two hour flight and we were about 45 minutes in by this time. She came and asked us if we wanted to all be moved to sit together and most people around us were either asleep or with small kids but I don’t understand if they knew we were separated before we even got on the plane that they allowed this to happen.

This also sounds like one of the many reasons I avoid RyanAir like the plague!

Its not just the fact there was a mess up, it’s the lack of any customer care after that.

That said, a 10 yo with something to do (even if a tablet or whatever) ought to be OK by themselves if it came to it - ie it was a customer service / financial fuck up on their party not an actually dangerous one.

Kubricklayer · 23/07/2025 13:45

Also whilst on a ryanair rant we're going to Tenerife in a few weeks. I booked morning flights from Glasgow Prestwick, paid for carpark and overnight airport hotel all 6 months in advance. 6 weeks ago receive an email to say outgoing and return flights had moved to 9 hours later both days. The original flight date/times magically appear at Edinburgh airport the same day.

So you try and be organised and book things well in advance only for the airline to find a way of screwing you. The whole reason I booked morning flights was I was sick of missing the first day of holiday because of annoying afternoon flights.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/07/2025 13:46

ErrolTheDragon · 23/07/2025 13:40

Anyway YANBU, OP - if people pay for specific seats but don’t get them for whatever reason then the extra fee should be automatically reimbursed.

Should be, but I bet they’ll try their best not to!

Not trying to be negative but RyanAir and similar can be fuckers

Original poster
Hookahchakkah · 23/07/2025 13:47

Of the four seats that we had booked, paid for, selected, checked in on and been given boarding passes for, one was free and next to another one with a man about thirty who moved reluctantly so the kids could sit together. The other two had an old lady who didn’t speak English who looked very upset and confused and a man who completely ignored me and I was being told to sit down.

OP posts:
GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/07/2025 13:48

Only other thing I wonder is, what was your husband doing whilst you were up and down, running about the plan and begging flight crew?

JealousyIsADisease · 23/07/2025 13:50

You have a ten year old that you wanted to check on, but not the other child, so I’m assuming they are older. How old? A two hour flight they should be fine on, get them to treat it as an adventure. Nothing is going to happen to them, they’d be fine sat on devices/reading a book/colouring or whatever. I’m assuming they swapped you for people with young children who needed caring for. It’s shit, and I’d be pissed off too, but I wouldn’t be worried about a 10 year old on a flight tbh, although I would definitely want the extra cash refunding. It would be nice if it was out of the pockets of the cheapskates that didn’t pay extra but took your seat though!

Kubricklayer · 23/07/2025 13:52

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/07/2025 13:48

Only other thing I wonder is, what was your husband doing whilst you were up and down, running about the plan and begging flight crew?

Why is that what you wonder? Are they supposed to tag team the staff or try to bully them together?

You only need one adult to advocate for the family in this instance? Either the mother and father are capable of this. So not sure why you're trying to shift focus on the issue and turn it into 'look at the terrible man doing nothing whilst OP struggles'.

May913 · 23/07/2025 13:52

Kubricklayer · 23/07/2025 13:45

Also whilst on a ryanair rant we're going to Tenerife in a few weeks. I booked morning flights from Glasgow Prestwick, paid for carpark and overnight airport hotel all 6 months in advance. 6 weeks ago receive an email to say outgoing and return flights had moved to 9 hours later both days. The original flight date/times magically appear at Edinburgh airport the same day.

So you try and be organised and book things well in advance only for the airline to find a way of screwing you. The whole reason I booked morning flights was I was sick of missing the first day of holiday because of annoying afternoon flights.

We had similar with easyjet, morning flight out moved to afternoon so overnight stay that we'd paid for was no longer needed. Fortunately we were able to change the dates on the overnight stay but still very annoying.

That's pretty rubbish OP and airline staff never seem to give a shit no matter who you fly with tbh. Wouldn't it be nice if they said 'I'm so sorry that happened to you, I don't know what went wrong but I'll see what can be done as soon as possible.'

Definitely put in a claim to get your money back.

Jeregrettetous · 23/07/2025 13:54

there are a lot of people on this thread who are clearly not regular fliers with this complete armpit of an airline.

Like others I only use them when there is no other option, or the costs of another option are so prohibitive that I’m left with Ryanair. The only time I’ve had a pleasant experience with them was when Michael O’Leary was on my flight.

@Hookahchakkah I have had success with their complaints procedure in the past (not for this, for something else) but be prepared to be in for the long haul and to be told that the T&Cs mean that they can make changes even if you’d paid. Also, depending on whether you were flying from one of their hubs, they may well blame the third party ground staff.

Good luck.