Ryanair- can one of you save seats for all 4 of you?

[Tansie]

ie if DH got to the front of the queue at the gate, could he get on the plane first and save the rest of us 3 more seats? We'd be pretty close behind, but unfortunately, my DSs don't have an assertive bone in their bodies. I've seen them, at 11, getting shoved off slides in playgrounds by 5 year olds. Yes, I know that there'll be someone who'll just barge in anyway, but is that a strategy?

It's Bournemouth airport, incidentally. I'm going to ask separately if they need to bus you to your plane or if it's a short walk!

I doubt very much that DH will be able to reserve seats for the rest of his family in such a manner. IIRC on Ryanair its everyone for themselves.

Have you paid as a family for priority boarding?.

I never pay for priority boarding.
There are usually 3 seats in a row, there are 4 of us so we take a child each.

There is absolutely no point in paying for priority booking. It is a scam and your chances of actually getting what you want, ie each DC sitting next to a parent is really no higher than joining the free for all. And no, I can't get a reserved seat either! IF I thought my DSs could handle it, DH and I would do the sharp elbowed bit for them to join us from later on in the fray, but I suspect that they wouldn't be able to handle it.

is this the same for easy jet? Are people kind to families?

You could try but if I got on after your dh and they were the only 3 seats left together and dd and dh were with me then we'd have them no matter what your dh says. Sorry.

Just get to your gate really really early.

Easy jet is the same

We didn't have any problem, just got there early and was about 10th in the queue to get on the plane.

I've never had a problem boarding a cheapie flight with all of my party sitting together so long as we've arrived at the gate early.

When we fly Ryanair DH goes ahead (not priority boarding just going with the common herd) and he tries to get four seats together, never had a problem so far. Worst case scenario we hopefully would manage two sets of two seats together. If we ever had the scenario where one of us couldn't be beside each child I'd make sure they were settled in their seat and loudly tell them where the sick bag was and ask the person beside them if they could assist when DS is sick, hopefully this would inspire a bit of a seat reshuffle!

Watching with interest, don't they let families on first anymore

I was once first at the gate and then dd needed the loo so we ended up been last on the plane and separated. I'd taken her to the loo before but she felt poorly. So don't rely on things going smoothly. We were separated for the flight.