Help! Booking a seat for a nearly 2 year old with Ryanair

[DrWhy]

Can anyone help?!
We want to fly with Ryanair in September just before our son turns two - I’m pregnant so we really need the extra space of DS having his own seat and we are quite happy to pay for it. Also quite happy to have DS on DHs lap for take off and landing.
The Ryanair website suggests this is possible if we call their call centre (at 13p per minute!) to book an ‘infant comfort seat’ but that is gets no luggage allowance except the standard infant allowance. The website also talks about being able to book an actual seat for an infant between 1 and 2 years old if you use a CARES approves restraint and that comes with a 10kg hand luggage allowance and the ability to book hold luggage but there is no info available on how to do this.
It seems like it would be far simpler to just book a bloody child seat online and put him on our laps with an infant belt for take off and landing and suck up whatever minor cost difference there is once you’ve dealt with their call centre fees. However I’m worried that we’ll get to the check in, they’ll see his date of birth and have a fit that we haven’t booked the right kind of seat and no-one will get anywhere!
Has anyone tried just booking their one year old a child seat and how did it work out?
Alternatively is the process of booking with Ryanair through the call centre as horrific and expensive as I think it’s going to be?
DH is obsessed with us all being able to book a hold luggage bag as he wants to be able to take his dive gear - along with all the stuff a small child needs for 10 days plus the buggy and car seat (we may have had ‘words’ about this but I’m loosing!). He eventually humphed that I should “just ask Mumsnet” and went back to cooking dinner!

Sorry I can't help with your actual issue, but if you package your car seat in a really big box/bag you could pack ds' things in with it to "pad it out".

I wouldn't fly with Ryanair if you paid me.

They have a "livechat" option on their website. May be worth giving that a try. I found them very helpful (even though I didn't get the answer I was hoping for!

Here is the missing end bracket )

Thanks folks
Anotherdayanotherdollar thanks, we have a car seat bag and have occasionally put other bits in it but this being Ryanair I can imagine them asking us to open it and show that it's a car seat inside! We also still have to navigate the seat options.
HolyPieter Not entirely constructive! They wouldn't be my first choice either, especially with the strikes they have ongoing but the alternative requires a change in a major hub airport, an extra day of leave in one direction and a missed day of holiday in the other and starts from about 3 times the price! Given the dreadful service we've had recently from a supposedly premium airline I'm not sure they are worth the extra money and inconvenience.
gussiefox thanks very much - that's actually a really helpful idea. I am waiting on their webchat now - sadly its a 33 minute wait! Although if that's indicative of the phone service centre it's avoiding about 5 pounds of being on hold charges!

They've never asked to see my car seat but it has to be padded out with something!

I can't remember the airline, but a friend and I flew with our one year olds a couple of years ago. We sat together with them on our laps and a spare seat inbetween us but got told we couldn't sit together as you could only have 3 people, including infants, per 3 seats and we had 4 people. So even though you don't pay for a child's seat you get one. They'd have to be on your knee for take off, but once you've taken off, they can sit there quite happily.
It's worth asking if they have this policy as it'd save a lot of money.

I also don't know how you will sort the extra child seat but they allow 2 pieces of equipment per infant or child of any age for free. Can check in car seat/travel cot at check in desk and choose to tag buggy there too and either check it in or take it to gate. They are usually strict about having under 2s on lap and over 2s not allowed on lap for take off and landing regardless of what seats are free in the row. Both of which I've had trouble with, with tired uncooperative toddlers. Good luck.

Using the online chat is also what I would do for any non-standard requests. And screenshot and save anything they tell you so you have it in writing!

Fannyfanakerpants I think that is related to the number of oxygen masks in a row. Every airline I’ve been on, if you have an infant on your lap you have to sit in a specific row where there are 4 oxygen masks for 3 seats so there is one for the baby. If the airline you were on didn’t have a row like that I guess they would have to leave a seat free. Unfortunately you definitely don’t get a bonus free seat for having a baby with you on any of the airlines we’ve been on so far (about 6!).

daisysinherfootsteps I did exactly as you suggested and spoke to the web-chat and screen shot the answer so I have it writing. Turns out that was a good move.

After a 30min wait on the webchat and a very confusing conversation I got a clear statement that I could just book a child seat and enter the infants details and that would be the extra comfort seat - great I thought. I took a screenshot of what the advisor had said. So I booked it all paid the fare then tried the check in. The check in won’t accept DS passport details because they make him under 2 at the time of the flight.... it just rejects the DOB field.

So I have now submitted a complaint with the screenshot to customer services via their complaints form and am waiting to see if and how they fix it.

I am already loathing this airline and I haven’t even got to the airport - they just really are our only sensible option for the flight. Thinking back I’m pretty sure we flew with them last year where we just had DS on our lap between us and there was no drama.

The irony is, we picked these dates so he’d be under 2 and it would make the holiday cheaper, we’ve ended up booking flights and accommodations where it hasn’t made it cheaper at all and just more complicated!

I hope you manage to sort it. It’s a few years ago now (8 I think!) but we booked our ds2 a seat on a ryanair flight when he was 11 months old not realising that infants can’t have their own seat. They actually wouldn’t let us fly! We got as far as the gate and they refused to let us board the plane!

Alyx80 what a nightmare! I’m just glad we tried to check in now and not a few days before! During our very confusing conversation in which I was initially told that I had to book an infant comfort seat (probably the right advice as it turns out) and when I asked how I was told to pay the full adult fare and just put Comfort Seat as the name in the web booking (clearly wouldn’t have worked as I’d have needed passport details for the check in!). I asked expressly what would happen if I just booked a child seat, would DS be refused boarding. That’s what lead to the ‘oh no, that would be fine, just fill his details in under the child seat’ - grrr. I have no idea whether Ryanair will process a refund given that I have proof that it’s their error - they don’t exactly care about maintaining the customer service reputation!

We had a similar issue trying to book flights a couple of weeks ago. We decided we would book a comfort seat for our 1yr old and have her on our lap for take-off and landing.
I noticed on the website it said that this would have to be done via the call centre but web prices would be honoured. Explained all this to my husband as he would be making the call and paying on his credit card.
He tried to get through the next day but had to hang up after being on hold for 20 mins and then couldn't get though again as they shut at 6pm. He got through the following day after 15 mins. (The call centre was busy due to pilot strike)
Anyway, he finally got through only to be told that it would be much more expensive to book through the call centre and he'd be better off booking online. When he said that the website advises booking a comfort seat through the call centre he was told "oh no, you just book an extra seat online and when it asks you to input the passengers name you input "infant seat" then call us and we change it to the child's name"

I was actually really annoyed at him for not challenging this. For a start it clearly says to phone up and book and web discounts will be applied. Secondly, it doesn't say anywhere about just booking the seat online and then calling up to get the child's name added, so if this is their procedure, how are you supposed to know? I really don't think the person he spoke to knew what they were talking about, but my husband hadn't paid enough attention when I was explaining it all to him (or bothered to find out himself) so just took what was said at face value and hung up,
When we went back online to book the seats they'd gone up by £50 each so we just thought sod this, and just booked seats for the 2 of us. Our daughter will just have to sit on our lap for the whole flight. Hopefully nobody will book the seat beside us but I doubt we'll be that lucky.