Ryanair seating policy for kids

[Jonas25]

Checked in for flight and found I am sitting 1 row back from my 5-year old and opposite sides of the aisle. I had assumed Ryanair would have to sit an accompanying adult next to a minor but I have now read that they are forcing you to reserve a seat if travelling with a minor. I was not 'forced' to reserve a seat and actually did not know anything about this new policy until after check in and a quick Google. How do I stand legally?

Ryanair will always seat children under 12 with an accompanying adult. However with can mean in front or behind, or across an aisle, as you've found.

They need to seat you "with" your child, but this can mean behind or in front of them, or across the aisle.

If you want to be guaranteed seats next to each other you need to pay to choose your seats.

I get this but apparently the accompanying adult is now forced to reserve a seat? I actually wasn't..,

Where did Ryanair say they would force you to reserve a seat?

Have you never flown with your child before as I can’t understand why you did not know that you needed to reserve seats (and pay for the privilege) to ensure you were seated beside your young child?

If it’s now too late to check in with adjoining seats, you might have to suck it up for this trip and see if you can pay to reserve seats together for the return leg. As you have been given seats within the vicinity of your child I don’t think you will have much luck persuading Ryanair to make other passengers who have paid to reserve seats next to their own travel companions to move to accommodate your (very natural) preference to sit beside your very young child.

It's worth checking out the seating configuration of your particular plane. On a recent long haul flight, in economy with the 3-4-3 set up, the central seats were off set from the outside rows so seat 24C was actually directly across the aisle from 23D. So you may not be a row back from your 5yo.
As for a parent being "sat with" a minor, it has been Ryanair and other budget carriers' policy for this to be behind/in front of as well as immediately next to your child for years - which is why we have forked out for reserved seating when flying with them for at least the past decade.

You get what you pay for. It's hardly news that it's shit to fly with Ryanair.

When flying budget airlines you do get what you pay for, which may be better than paying as standard for things you might now want on more premium airlines.

In some ways Ryanair is better than others when it comes to paying for reserved seats as you know you will get split otherwise so it it definitely isn't wasted money.

Ryanair absolutely 'forces' you to either pay for a seat of your choice or click through acknowledging that their free seat allocation will be random so you made the choice not to pay for a seat, assuming you'd get one next to your DS without paying for it. That's the mistake you made and you can't assume anything sensible when it comes to Ryanair.
as a rule, the earlier you check in the more likely you are to get seats together (contrary to popular belief they don't deliberately split up groups) but if you've left it too long you'll get whatever the plane algorithm decides is the best placement for weight etc.

Apparently the biooking aysyem changed in Sep so now it is mandatory to book a seat. I booked before that. Silly me to assume CAA rules work be applied!

Tbh I never reserve seats and have always been sat next to my young child on Ryanair and multiple other airlines.

I really don't mean to be pedantic but there's no such thing as a CAA rule. It's a recommendation - the CAA states the child should not be separated by more than 1 row. Ryanair have followed this. If you wanted to be guaranteed a seat next to your child you pay for it. Unless it's a full flight you might still be able to pay the extra to move seats.

To be fair, even if you had booked since then, it says it's mandatory for you to book a seat, not that they would take any responsibility for making sure you did so. So I'm not sure why you'd expect them to "force" you to do so.

Might have to chalk this one up to experience 🤷🏻‍♀️

Please don't try and force other people to swap seats with you either. I see it all the time on flights where people try and get others to give up their seats because they've not booked them.
It's a piss take that we have to pay extra to book seats but it's not a new thing.

Unfortunately OP you assumed you would get a free seat allocation that would work for you and on this occasion it hasn’t. The mistake is very much yours, as you took a gamble and it didn’t work.

You go on about forced but you were given the option to book a seat and chose not to. When travelling with small children, it’s always better to avoid taking that risk.

Imagine thinking £20 quid is better than making sure you sit with your child and not force someone else to move 🙄

If you both have an aisle seat, someone in the middle might be quite glad to swap, if they are travelling alone

No we both have a window seat one row apart which I think is stretching the 'seated with' to the absolute limit i.e. nowhere near.

I'm not saying I should have been forced. Just highlighting that the rule changed since I booked and I was informed/knew nothing about it.

No need for the pile on. The question was where I stand legally and looks there is no comeback so fair enough. Still not going to stump up the 40 EUR required to change seats now though. That is playing right into their hands. Will book a different airline next time.

Wow. I can’t believe you value your child’s comfort and safety on the flight as worth under 40EU. You don’t care enough to pay the relatively small fee to make sure your child isn’t seated next to a stranger and that you are available to assist with putting on the seatbelt, evacuating in an emergency etc? Ryanair might not think that’s important and be happy for you to be an aisle apart but I’m surprised as a parent you don’t value your child over a petty refusal to spend a small fee.

Playing into their hands? It's not some sort of conspiracy. I have been flying with Ryanair for donkeys years and I always booked seats so I knew where I was sitting and who I was sitting with. Seats often start at 3 euro each way. Big deal.

Hopefully, you won't be one of those annoying passengers asking people to swap as you didn't want to purchase seats to sit next to your child.

What do you mean, how do you stand legally? Nowhere, I expect. You presumably ticked the terms and conditions box.

Hardly news, if you want to sit together then pre book your seats

most if not all airlines expect you to pay to guarantee sitting together. Ryanair make it pretty clear at point of booking in my experience.

Judging by your last paragraph, the pile on is well deserved as even with the option of paying to sit together, you’re still refusing to ensure that happens. You clearly think it should all be handed to you for free.

And I genuinely believe you will be that person asking someone to swap seats because of your own decision to avoid paying. CFery at its finest.

It seems you are imagining that Ryan Air is some evil mastermind who is sitting watching over you. Trying to trap you. If you choose to fly with a budget airline then you need to pay for additional things you want. That's how it works.

Like IKEA. If you want a coffee table for £40, go to ikea, get it off the shelves in the warehouse, manoeuvre it into your car, get it out, carry it to the right room, build it, take the packaging to the tip. Or buy one from a more expensive shop and do none of those additional things but pay more money.