Ryanair wtaf???

[MangosteenSoda]

I’ve never traveled with Ryanair before so had only heard of their awfulness.

Trying to book a flight for my disabled dc (not a mobility disability) and myself and the system will only let me select certain seats for the disabled passenger.

It’s giving me an option of two seats to choose from on the whole plane which isn’t very full at all. Moreover, neither seat has an available seat next to it, so it’s effectively trying to get me to book seats several rows apart (at the closest) for me and a non verbal tween.

Just wtaf?

I think you're making this far more complex than it needs to be. If you want to sit together at the front, book and pay for 2 seats at the front. As there is no physical disability you do not need a disabled seat.

Then if queuing is an issue just don't queue. Chill within sight of the gate and once most passengers have gone through go and have your turn with minimum queues.

If you're at the front you should be one of the first off at the other end.

This. He doesn’t have mobility needs so doesn’t need a disabled seat. Just book 2 seats on the front row?

I have 2 DC’s with autism, one non verbal and one with mild mobility issues (has a blue badge but not in a wheelchair), if I was going on that plane I would just book the front row seats in hope we could get off fairly quickly.

Request assistance, book 2 seats at the front and you should be grand 👍

Unless you have mobility issues, I wouldnt book the disability seats. Assistance will get you boarded first and being at the front, enables you to disembark first

I don't want to sound mean or bad, but the issue may be that disabled seat + accompanying passenger appears to be free of charge, but seats up front are not.

If OP is not concerned that way, then buy two seats up front, wait until everyone else has boarded, and on you go. You'll be first off too.

As pp have said, you could get assistance to the gate and take it from there.

I am not trying to book a ‘disabled seat’ for a mobility disabled person. What I did was select ‘assistance’ like I always do and then selected ‘cognitive disability’ as this 1. Usually alerts the staff that a person requiring some assistance will be travelling (they usually ask when we want to board) and 2. Some airports check that assistance is on the booking (it’s usually on the boarding pass) before allowing access to assistance lanes.

What I didn’t realise is that Ryanair are even more monumentally shit than their reputation and make booking as a disabled person unnecessarily complicated.

So yes, I will not be declaring the disability and will be buying seats up front. But that doesn’t mean it’s ok to be this shit around disability.

This is definitely it. What caused my absolute rage was that their system wouldn’t allocate/let me select 2 seats together. It was forcing me to select a different seat for myself from the blue ones in the photo (not auto allocating next to the seat for the disabled person).

I have only skimmed the responses but it looks like these are the only seats left that would be complimentary. The way round this is to not declare your child's disability at this point, so that the system will let you choose any seats instead. Then you can still contact their customer service after paying to book special assistance and have the appropriate code (probably DPNA) added for him.

I fly Ryanair all the time. These are seats allocated for physically disabled passengers who need a special lift onto the plane. Book the seats you actually want and select priority boarding which lets you bring onboard a wheel bag and additional piece of hand luggage. Depending on your son's needs, either rock up early so you get on the plane first, or alternatively sit at the gate and be last ones on. If you go with the latter, there mightn't be space for your luggage, especially if you choose first few rows.

My point was that if you request the assistance it does not let you select any seat apart from whatever ones are showing the wheelchair icon when you get to the seat selection page. I wasn’t trying to book a ‘disabled seat’ per se, but just alert that some assistance is required as is normal on all other airlines I’ve travelled on.

I’m going to have to not request assistance and just choose the seats I want and hope the sunflower lanyard gets him through the assistance lanes in the airport.

It really irritates me when companies do ‘disability’ as badly as this.

You should be able to click on the other blue marked seats and book them. I always assumed the marker are for physical disabilities as in, may be slightly different space, accessible safety gear

I imagine you'll still get assistance through the airport?

Hello! I always book a wheelchair because standing makes my back hurt a lot. I book my flight on the Ryanair app and then I can freely choose whatever seat/seats I want. So I do this and complete payment.
It is not possible to add special assistance on the app, so AFTER I've booked and paid, I open the Ryanair website and then add special assistance.
I tried doing it the way you mentioned once and saw how limited the seat selection was. So APP FIRST TO BOOK, CHOOSE SEATS THEN PAY.
AFTER ADD SPECIAL ASSISTANCE ON THE WEBSITE.
I know this works because I do it half a dozen times a year.

I’m sure this is it. But other airlines don’t do this and their system should not be allocating an intellectually disabled under 12 year old (the information they had) a seat alone.

Dealing with disability is hard enough. Everything being made harder due to really shitty policies should be called out.

I know what I need to do, but I just needed to vent for a bit while I figured it all out. Essentially, we are legally entitled to book seats without an extra fee, but Ryanair don’t want that so make it impossible. Tbh, this is not about cost, I don’t mind paying for what we need but I really resent the palaver of it all (extra booking stress today/needing to contact them later if wanting to add assistance to the booking after paying for seats together).

They do not let you select any of the other blue seats for the disabled person (even though in this case they are aware that it is a cognitively disabled child). I was unable to select any of the greyed out seats for me.

Ryanair have a terrible reputation for the way they treat disabled passengers, and I would never book with them if I were accompanying a disabled person.

Last time I travelled by air (alone) I booked a regular seat and then rang the airline to advise them I needed assistance as I had mobility issues walking. It was Swiss Air and they were wonderful. I had to report to a special room at the airport where I was assigned a wheelchair and a pusher. I had to change planes at Frankfurt and would not have managed without the lovely man with the electric buggy who picked up me and another couple. I didnt have to do anything. Just hand him my passport. Same on the way back. My pusher even dropped me right at the front of the taxi queue when I got to Manchester. Missed all the queues and got a few dirty looks.

So fly with someone else why don’t you

200th in the queue?! Sadly with Ryanair you definitely get what you pay for.

"... Annoyingly, Ryanair has the only direct flight to the airport I want to go to."

And?

Yes do this, and you will get together.

Well, I won’t be flying with Ryanair again after this.

I think it’s pretty reasonable of me to be rather pissed off with them though and to want to moan about how they deal with disability.

Does really shitty company service/policies never bother you at all?

I love Ryanair. I've visited places I'd never have been able to with other airlines. Time keeping is great, crew fab. Why not try talking to someone rather than moaning on here

I’m glad you have had a good experience. If I hadn’t been trying to book for a disabled person, I would have probably not had a problem today. But that wasn’t the case.

I’m not sure if you understand MN if you think it’s not a place for moaning Tbf, I rarely moan on here and most often post on the holidays board (ironic).

I've used Ryanair many times both with and without assistance.
Once you get used to the way their website works its really easy.
My advice is to play around without putting any card details in until you understand the system.