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?

Don’t be daft!
Once everyone who’s happy to pay extra have selected their seats, whatever is left is allocated for those who are either too tight to pay or don’t mind where they sit. It really isn’t a conspiracy!

Booked a ryanair fight today and it would be really difficult not to realise that by not booking a seat, the price of which plus a bag was totally fair, you’d be risking not being sat together

But they DO offer cheap fares, if I’m travelling alone, with just a carry on bag, I do not care where I sit so will forego paying £20 each way to select a seat. Some people don’t mind.

I would mind someone asking me to play musical chairs just because they would not pay the few quid to sit with their own child. Similarly though I would not want to sit with someone elses child either.

I have flown with ours since they were babies and I am fairly sure when they were under 12 you reserved seats, the child was free and the seat next to them was a few quid extra like maybe 5euro or something more for the security of sitting with your own child. I appreciate this may have changed since mine are all older than 12 now but we still always reserve seats to sit as a family.

Your poor kid. You would rather let him sit with a stranger than 'fork out' 40 euros

I thought Ryanair offered a special seat cost if you had an under 8 so it was cheaper than a normal seat would be for the two of you. It's been around for a number of years. I thought it seemed quite sensible of them tbh, they make extra money and parents get to sit beside their DCs rather than behind or nearby.

Quite surprised you were able to book without availing yourself of this and that despite Ryanair putting your DCs close to you, you still think you're entitled to have them beside you for free.

But they DO offer cheap fares

Agreed they do...Ryanair aren't "fuckers", when it comes to these charges, how it works is really simple.

The Ryanair group made just over 1.3 billion euro in 2023, carrying 169 million passengers, big numbers yes, but when crunched it means they are made about 8 euros per flight on the average passenger over the year. FWIW the profit per passenger number is very similar for almost all the LoCos and many of the legacy airlines as well.

Seat choice fees aren't gouging or being "fuckerish", they help the airline ( and pretty much any airline these days) turn a profit...people can campaign/grumble about it all they like but with margins as they are if seat choice fees somehow "go" the pricing structure will be changed to make up the shortfall.

Like it or not, people put different values on different seats... near the front, aisle, window, middle, near companions, not near the toilet etc... People don't want a computer algorithm to work put the best seating arrangement they want to chose.

DH and I didn't pay for Ryanair seats when we went to Barcelona and as a result he was allocated a seat at the bottom of the plane ( centre) and I was at the front. I managed to get off quickly and was on the first bus, but he wasn't and there was a long queue for passports so it ended up taking us an age to get through and as a result we took a taxi rather than the bus to the city, so I do check now and if the seats are miles apart, I'll generally pay extra to be seated together.

Even if I travel alone, with someone like Ryanair I pay extra to choose my seat. So I wouldn’t just swap with someone who couldn’t be bothered to pay, seeing as I already paid myself. If it was for window seat still but row behind I might but you would still need to pay me instead of Ryanair as why should I pay to then not sit in my seat when you haven’t?

That's so strange. We book Ryanair and once we put in the. Kids it forces us to select a seat for us and them. I thought it was a really good idea. I think we pay for the adults seat and the kids allocation are free. But it forces you.

Your indignation about CAA rules not being followed is a bit strange given you don’t actually know what the rules are.

I hope for your child’s sake it’s a short flight and they get someone nice next to them.

Even flying business class requires you to pay if you reserve your sear in advance, on the odd airline you don’t the tickets are more expensive to cover the cost of choosing a seat.

We flew ryanair yesterday, it was only a short flight but we booked a three and a one (we prefer it to a two and a two) so we can take it in turns to sit between our eight and almost two year old. I think it cost in total about £22 in seat reservations, which is still cheaper than booking with an airline that includes the cost of a seat reservation with your ticket. BA also fly the same route, the flight per person is around £80-120 more, then you still have luggage and seat reservation fees on top.

As usual there is always at least one family kicking off because they actively chose not to book a seat next to their child, then they throw a tantrum because they feel their own choices should come before anyone else. Happily no one moved for them, so their darling little poppet (who looked about 13 and mortified) had to sit in front of mummy and daddy and not with them, yes, mummy and daddy were sat together, mummy and daddy couldn’t possibly move so one of them sits with their teeny weeny teenager.

I know - I mean forty euro for the reassurance of a child - nah... let the kid be upset and uncomfortable - that's forty euro more for ME!

What’s frustrating is that so many passengers don’t understand how budget airlines work - they think there’s some kind of dark conspiracy at work over pricing (see the OP’s comments on this thread) when in fact, the advertised price of the flight gets you a seat on the plane. You then build your package according to what’s important to you.

If you’re in a restaurant and you see that X is the price of a main course, I presume you do understand that if you want a drink, a starter, extra sides, a dessert, you then have to pay more for those things? And that you don’t get them all for free, paying the same as the person you’re with who only ordered the main course? I don’t get why it’s so hard to understand that when booking a flight you build the flight you want in the same way you order from a menu 🤷‍♀️

To sit together you have to pay the price to reserve specific seats.

If you can't do that. Just sit behind him so you can see he's OK

And lets inconvenience other passengers by guilt tripping them to change seats!

I am flying ryannair tomorrow, I have paid for seats to be by my teens because that is important to us.

It's a cost you have to factor in seemingly even for a 5 year old. The problem is that if others on the flight have paid for seating together then they are limited in their options. It's not fair to expect a person who has paid for a particular seat to move to accommodate you when you did have the option to resolve this.

Same. You get up to four free child reservations per adult reservations. I've done it with two children and not been able to move past the page until I've selected it. I wonder if the website was glitching when OP booked as she shouldn't have been able to move on. Maybe there were no seats left together to reserve?

The mandatory seat booking has been in place since 2016 so this shouldn't have happened.

Oh for goodness sake. Why won’t people just reserve a seat

Nope. I always pay for a seat, I'm fussy. I like to sit with my travel companions. A normal person wouldn't expect someone who had paid for a seat to move, and a lot of people pay for seats.

My friend is travelling on Monday, she works in a school so it's just her and her husband. She has to sit with him for various reasons. The amount of times people have expected them to be separated because they are two adults flying together in school holidays is awful. She's expected to reel off her medical history or explain why she needs a seat. It's not her responsibility to make up for someone else's poor planning.

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newhouse12345

I won't ever pay and I'm happy to play musical chairs. Iv found that most normal people are happy to accommodate, if possible.”

You expect other people who may have paid for their seat to play musical chairs for your benefit? Tight git.

It’s so obviously a cash grab and the fact that so many of you are so happy to play the game alongside ALL the industries that stealth tax you is laughable. All the faux indignation that others don’t want to play along.

Reminds me of how quickly so many people fell into line with Covid regulations - were so quick to condemn those who wanted to reserve their freedoms and so delighted to tell authorities if they dared socialise.

Exactly this.

Airline seats have got naff all to do with covid, so I don't know why you bothered extrapolating that alleged connection.

I mean fine do what you want but don't blame us if cheap airlines go out of business or if anyone refuses to move for you.