Ryanair: Online check-in for children & Priority boarding Q.

WiseInvestor_2

Vendee wrote: »

I think that legally they have to ensure that an under age child is next to at least one of the accompanying adults during the flight.

This comes up regularly and it's not a legal requirement.
Details available on the CAA website.

Vendee

WiseInvestor wrote: »

This comes up regularly and it's not a legal requirement.
Details available on the CAA website.

Which pretty much backs up what I said:-

"Additionally, children and infants should be seated where they can be adequately supervised by an accompanying adult in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin.
Airlines procedures should take into account the following factors:
Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults".

WiseInvestor_2

"pretty much"?

Being seated in A & F on a narrowbody or A & G on a widebody is perfectly legal, as is sitting in separate rows. So there is no legal obligation for the airline (or the cabin crew) to seat adults and children together.

Ryanair offer a service that exceeds the legal position, but it costs extra. As always when flying Low Cost, the choice is yours.

susancs

I always split bookings when travelling with Ryanair. I book DH with a bag (if going for more than 7 days) and myself and the 2 children as online check in no bags. As we do online check in, we also get priority boarding for no extra and save on airport check in fees for 3 of us. In your case you would board and one of the children would sit in the row behind and keep a seat from your OH (We don't do that as DH has to sit with others anyway and rather leave it for families).

Try to pack as much as you can in your 5x hand luggage 10kg allowance (and consider if you really need to bring it) and you may find that you do not need to check in a bag. I actually find it is often cheaper now to buy/hire any extra bits when on holiday now than pack them and pay baggage fees of £28 per bag. Also you do not waste time getting baggage at the other end.

I also have a Halifax visa electron card from a Halifax account which I opened online and received the card a week later to have no card fees. I found the link on one of the discussions on this site. I then paid money into the account to cover flights and keep it just for this purpose.

WiseInvestor_2

susancs wrote: »

As we do online check in, we also get priority boarding for no extra

As above, Ryanair have recently changed their policy

Vendee

WiseInvestor wrote: »

"pretty much"?

Being seated in A & F on a narrowbody or A & G on a widebody is perfectly legal, as is sitting in separate rows. So there is no legal obligation for the airline (or the cabin crew) to seat adults and children together.

So if you are in A and your infant is in F, do you consider that you could adequately supervise him/her in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin as per CAA requirements? Don't think so. Your aircraft has just suffered a rapid decompression. The masks have all dropped down and your kid who is 6 seats away is screaming in terror but don't worry, he'll quieten down in a minute when he passes out because you can't get his mask on.

WiseInvestor_2

Whether I consider A&F to be adequate is irrelevant because it's still legal. The point is, Ryanair have procedures in place (as required by your quote from the CAA) to enable parents to sit with their children but as with most other 'add-ons' you'll have to pay extra for it. If you choose not to, you run the risk of being separated (within the legal parameters) with no recourse on the airline or the crew to help by moving other passengers.

susancs

WiseInvestor wrote: »

As above, Ryanair have recently changed their policy

Thanks for the info Wiseinvestor-was not aware it changed the end of June and online bookers no longer get free priority boarding. With regard to the OP I would book priority boarding for yourself and the younger children. A friend of mine works as a cabin crew member for Thomson and when I queried if they had to seat small children near parents, she said they would try, but at the end of the day they just need to be sitting near an adult (this applies to the long haul flights she is on too).

babybimbles

Thank you for the advice.

It's hard to believe that there might be adults on board who would not be prepared to change seats so that a parent could be sitting with their child. My 7 year old would be fine but my 5 year old would be scared and there's no way my 2 year old could sit separate to me. To be honest I don't think another adult would WANT to sit next to her! :rotfl:

scottishf

I think youd be better paying for the priority boarding to make sure you all get to sit together, I used online check in last month, and although it said you dont get priority boarding free for online checkin my boarding passes said priority boarding so i got it!. After having seen families without prio boarding being separated on my flight i will deffo be paying for the priority boarding from now on.