To think I should be able to sit next to my 7yo dd on a 4 hour flight?

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

I accept ts part of the risk you take when you fly with RyanAir, but I really thought that either someone would have offered to move or the stewardess would have told someone to move.

We somehow managed to be the last people on the plane even though we joined the queue for check in ten minutes after it opened. We were over an hour queuing for check in, then the queue to go through security was terrible. By the time we cleared security they were tannoying the last call for our flight. DD was desperate for the loo at this point so we stopped quickly at the loo and then ran onto the plane.

No seats together or near each other. I (loudly and infront of a stewardess) told dd she would have to sit by herself. DD was crying and begging not to, screaming that she wanted to be with me. Nobody offered to move, I would have done if the situation was reversed. I asked the stewardess what would happen if there was a crash - who would look after my dd, get her the oxygen mask, etc. She shrugged and told me to get sat down. With hindsight I wish I'd kicked up a fuss but I didn't. I was so stressed and upset myself that I picked dd up and put her in a seat on her own and did her belt up - with her still crying and screaming.

Am mad with myself and Ryanair.

sorry going to go against the grain here. i think yabu. you know what you get with ryan air and if you wanted to ensure your place together you could have paid for priority boarding or simply gotten there ealier.

i wouldn't blame the stewardess for not forcing someone to move as essentially it was your fault for not being organised so in theory why should other passengers be forced to move from their chosen seat because of you when they followed the rules so to speak and got there in time to chose a seat.

i am very at no one offering to switch though and why anyone would choose to sit beside a crying child rather than switch is beyond me. as someone said earlier that's not even selfish it's just stupid as i couldn't imagine a more unpleasant way to spend 4 hours.

Unfortunately, from what I am led to believe, (though I may be wrong.....) the air hostess would not legally be able to ask a passenger to move, because if there was an accident, the seating plan is used to identify the bodies. Can you imagine if there was an accident and they had to find your DC and someone else was in her seat?

However, YANBU, it was awful that this happened to you and they should have rearranged the seating plan once they realised that you were travelling with a child. I'm sure there will be a clause in their booking that a child under x age cannot travel without an adult.

Is your DD ok now? I would have been distraught at that age being left to sit next to someone i didn't know on a plane.

How awful! But not at all surprising with Ryanair.

They are terrible and the man in charge is such a pillock! I'd write and complain, although don't hold out much hope of getting any sympathy.

But Mayor Quimby, the CAA states that every effort should be made to have children seated near parents because it is much safer in the event of an emergency. A stewardess shrugging her shoulders is taking the piss.

However, I would need a gun held to my head to make me fly with that bunch of cowboys.

haven't read the whole thread but i thought it was the law that children had to be accompanied by a parent/guardian and part of that is haveing them sat next to you?

Agree with mayorquimby

You booked with ryanair knowing that they don't allocate seats so it is like hopping on a bus. You could have got there earlier or booked priority board, or you could simply have asserted yourself and politely but directly asked if anyone would swap with you.

People getting on a plane are often in their own worlds or don't speak English well. I am not surprised your DD was upset when you were yourself and you were loudly telling her that she would have to sit by herself and suggesting that if there was a crash nobody would look after her or get her the oxygen mask! It wouldn't surprise me if the person sat next to her thought this was so insulting that they would not do you any favours.

But I don't think they have a seating plan on Ryanair - it's who gets on, gets a seat.

(Oh, and when we've flown airlines with seating plans, we've had stewardesses ask people to move, so we could have bulkhead, or sit together, or whatever. No problem.)

redsparklers but there IS no seating plan. It's free seating thus the problem in the first place! So Ryanair totally able to ask people to move.

mayor I think that's unreasonable. Yes, ideally you would be there earlier. But the bottom line is someone has to be last on the plane - and if it is a child and parent they should be seated together or across the aisle from one another. The CAA regulations that someone posted are very clear.

SKSS - you were unlucky. I fly a lot with Ryanair with my two DC and refuse to pay for the pre-board (not least because they now make me pay extra to actually checkin as you cannot online check in with a buggy - and also because it is not children/parents first, it's join the whole load of other people who have paid extra for pre-board...)

On the couple of occasions when we haven't got seats together the stewards have rearranged things - and the last time a very nice couple offered to be separated so DD could sit beside me (she is only 4 and was crying!). I frankly wouldn't waste my time writing to Ryanair about the CAA regs - they won't reply. They don't give a stuff about customer services and are clearly completely anti-child friendly (thus all their booking policies etc). They will just say you should have paid extra for preboard.

But I would bear in mind quoting the CAA regs to a steward if it happens again. Or the sickbag suggestions!

I am shocked. I always thought that I wouldn't pay for priority seating in that they would have to put a child next to a parent.
I think that I would have refused to sit down until they got us a seat together.
Either that or mention that DC was likely to get airsick and ask the person in the next seat, very sweetly, if they could have a bag out in readiness because she would need looking after!

YANBU - of course you should have expected the staff to ask people to move for you. I used to work as a Stewardess and we would ask all the people nearby, and then put out a tannoy message asking people to move. However I did a flight once where a family group was separated on a full aircraft - Mum with 2 toddlers, Dad with a 4 year old, and a 7 year old all alone. No one would move, and we obviously could not move anyone by force. The family was separated the whole flight - I was so shocked that no one would move even when begged to by family and staff.
Just to add - on an aircraft with Business class seats if you volunteer to move to help the staff out they will sometimes upgrade you or give you a bottle of champagne or something!!! Have done this myself. If you have to be begged to move you will not get an upgrade though!
CrackFox - Am surprised by that quote from the CAA as not sure how that works when there is a group of unacompanied children on board - I had 9 of them once without any adults.
Redsparklers - there is a passenger list, but you are certainly not required to stay in your allocated seat - on an empty aircraft you can move yourself to an empty row if you like.

"But Mayor Quimby, the CAA states that every effort should be made to have children seated near parents because it is much safer in the event of an emergency. A stewardess shrugging her shoulders is taking the piss."

well two points (although i will admit they are very arbitrary and in now way am i suggesting that the airlines response was ideal just that the op has no one but herself to blame)

firstly i'd need a definition of "every efort" and "near the parents" as stated in my earlier post i don't see how they can force people to move, especially when they will have charged many of them for priority boarding. also near the parents could mean 2 rows behind or in front for example.still very near in proximity but exactly the same practical problems.

for some reason i also seem to remember someone on here clarifying before that as far as the caa was concerned "child" was defined as being 5 years old or under with regards to priority (although as i have said tis is just a vague half-recolection so would be glad to be corrected on this one)

as i will freely admit i love ryanair so my posts might seem biased.but the reason i love them is because i go into every transaction with my eyes wide open to what i am paying for. when i travel with them i know that if i want to bring check in luggage it will cost me.if i want to check in at the airport instead of on-line it will cost me.if i want to ensure i'm sitting beside the people i'm travelling with it will cost me or else i can show up to the gate very early and be the first person in the non-priority line.
to me people who gripe about their short comings are akin to people who buy peugot 201 and complain that it doesn't run as well as a lexus.you knew that before you bought it and no one put a gun to your head to do so, to complain now just seems churlish.

however as i said from the start of course another passenger should have swapped,it would have been the decent thing to do.but that's not ryan airs fault, and i doubt discussing oxegen masks and plane crashes moments before take off helped to calm the op's child down

Ryanair are totally shit.
I flew by Easyjet last month, the last to board was a family of 4, the stewardesses asked people to move saying it was their policy to ensure children are sat with their parent/carer. Happily several people volunteered to swap seats so the family could sit together.
That stewardess on the ryanair flight should have done the same, and shame on the passengers who didn't offer!!

We were there plenty early - 3 hours before the flight and before check in opened. We were the first people in the airport - it was deserted, so we went to get a coffee. We got back to check in only 10 minutes after it opened, not expecting that so many people would already be queuing. Flight was at 11:50, I was at the airport at 8:30 and at check-in at 10:10 (it opened at 10:00). Of course we were in the slow queue of the 2 queues and people who arrived after us but went in the other queue got ahead of us. I told DH we ought to swop queues but he said it never works! Maybe I should have started queuing at 8:30 . But in reality how many people would?

DD was crying before I said anything about oxygen masks, etc. When I did discuss this with the stewardess I'd walked further down the aisle from DD and DH and am sure she didn't hear me.

I've never flown with Ryan Air before and thought it would be more like EasyJet. I've not heard of Priority Boarding before - but did assume that from a safety aspect the stewardess would move people. Obviously I was wrong. Anyway even if I'd bought Priority Boarding tickets it wouldn't have helped as I wouldn't have been there in time to get on the plane first.

So your DD was sat with your DH?

We had the same problem with ryanair when we flew back from Spain this year, we had checked in online and when we got to the airport there was 2 queues, one for passengers with priority boarding or online check in and one queue for everyone else. We got in the queue which included online check-in but when we got to the front of the queue the airport staff said the rules had changed a month before and that now this queue was only for priority boarding. When I pointed out that wasn't what the sign said I was told tough. We were then one of the last people to board, DH sat on his own near the front of the plane, dd2 who was 6 had to sit across the aisle from me, she wasn't happy as she is quite shy but was still close so not a huge problem, dd1 who was 8 at the time had to sit next to a man a few rows in front of us, she was fine with it until she fell asleep and leaned on his shoulder, he didn't but she was really embarresed when she woke up.

Take your point to a degree mayor. I fly with Ryanair a lot too. And yes, you get what you pay for. I think what gets my goat is their attitude. Yes, you may (or may not) have paid rockbottom prices to fly with them. Either way, you have PAID and you are their customer (and their pricing structure still works for them to make millions in profits. So, why do such a numebr of their staff have to be so f*igging rude and unhelpful all the time? I think the OP's post illustrates the case in point. The feeling that their passengers are scum starts from Michael O'Leary and permeates to every level.

Easyjet on the other hand, operates at the same price level - but the staff are CIVIL. They let you go first with children under 5, after they have let those who have paid for pre-board have gone, which seems like a reasonable compromise.

I once sat on a Ryanair flight with my two DC whilst DD was quite sick into an airbag. The steward standing beside us didn't so much as ask was she OK, was there anything he could do ... (even though his alleged role is passenger wellbeing/safety). he was too busy trying to flog overpriced coffee, scratchcards, phonecards, train tickets etc. Tw*t.

That's what is wrong with Ryanair!! And it needn't be. End of rant

ksld loving your normal airline perspective! seating plans, business class etc! Ryanair wouldn't so much as give you a free coffee for moving. For dear sakes they wouldn't even give water to passengers stranded on the tarmac for 5 hours....

well, that would have made your dd an UM (unaccompanied minor) so the cabin crew had responsibility for her during the flight- bet she wasn't traeted as one, though.
Quite honestly, I don't know how these (so called)low cost airlines get away with such low safety standards.
A letter or email to the CAA if definitely in order, cc'd to RyanAir 'customer services' and the Chief Exec 9is it still o'Leary?)

Probably won't achieve much, but it will make you feel better :-)

(Changing seats is allowed-as far as I know the emergency services and Air Accident Investigation board may use the passenger manifest as a guide to identifying victims of a crash, but they won't rely solely on it- because pax do move, get the wrong seat, and of course if they die during an evacuation, no-one is in their correct seat number!)

on the other hand, my parents paid extra to enable them to sit together when booking tickets with ryan air

on the flight , a similar situation to yours arose, and they were asked to move, so ended up sitting apart for the 5 hour flight. The family involved didn't offer to reimburse them, nor did the airline.

Couldn't you have paid extra at booking to ensure seats were together?

you'll know for next time.

it wouldn't have been so bad if a) you'd have been early to queue..ie not leaving it to 10 minutes to go and b) if your dd hadn't needed a wee on the way to board.

hold on, x-posted...your dd was sitting next to your dh, then?

still think people should have moved though

Fly BA. We arrived early as were flying with ds3. However, for some reason every man and his dog were flying from Aberdeen to Stockholm and we were in a very long queue. Several people ahead of us were told that the plane was full and they were now on standby. Hearts in mouths we approached the desk and were told that our seats were x & y. They had automatically reserved our seats (effectively like online checkin) as we were travelling with a child. How fab is BA

Everyone knows you don't get much when flying with Ryanair, if you wanted to sit with your dd you should have paid for priority boarding.

In saying that, it is shameful that nobody offered to move.

I moved when returning from honeymoon in Jamaica. The stewardess had went right round the plane and everybody else refused. DH and I were last to be asked and happily swapped so that a 5 yo could sit with one of her family rather than on her own for 10 hours.

We got upgraded to business class and were given loads of goodies!

Alas, BA don't fly to as many shorthaul european places as Ryanair. Often I have no choice but to fly with them.

No DD wasn't sat with DH, when I left her with him we were all stil stood in the aisle (they were further down the aisle). We all eneded up sitting seperatly.

And I didn't check in 10 minutes before the end of check in, bt 10 minutes after check in opened. So 1hr50mins before it closed.