Ryanair, has anyone tried an infant as a child to save fee's?

kikismummy

Hi,

I took advantage of the 1p flights and booked some for a few weeks before my daughter turns 2, i have put her as a child thought as i was unsure if i would be able to take advantage of the flights so didnt want to pay the full infant price and airport check in for myself and my 2 children if i wasnt going to go ahead with the flights.
has anyone ever tried this, obviously im doing online check in so didnt know if they check more or less? half of the trip is newquay to london so im thinking maybe she wont need id but the other part is london to germany so she will need her passport.
any advice as to if its worth a try and is the worse they will do charge for £20 infant and then x3 airport check ins or could they stop us fliying all together? i didnt put any dates of birth in so could it pass off as an honest mistake?
coming back she will be 2 years old so its just the outbound journey im concerned about.

many thanks in advance

kerry

vickylee

On the aircraft itself, an infant, which is defined as a child under 2 years old, needs to be seated on the lap of an adult (defined as 16 years or over) with a special infant seatbelt for safetly purposes for take off and landing. If you've paid for a seat, then you are entitled to use it during the flight (when the seat belt sign is switched off).

I'm not sure that there would be a problem if you say you wanted to pay for a seat for the extra space, particulary when your little one is almost 2 anyway.

Woby_Tide

vickylee wrote: »

If you've paid for a seat, then you are entitled to use it during the flight (when the seat belt sign is switched off).

I'm not sure that there would be a problem if you say you wanted to pay for a seat for the extra space, particulary when your little one is almost 2 anyway.

I don't think that is particularly true, if they are under 2 then they aren't allowed a seat regardless of the seatbelt lights 'officially'.

Ryanair view:Children aged between 8 days and less than 2 years as at date of travel cannot travel in their own seat and must sit on an adult's lap. (One infant per adult). N.B. Extra seats cannot be purchased for infants.


The grey area is the fact that they are 2 when they return, most holiday companies use the age on return as the deciding factor, not sure what the Ryanair take on it is(and most websites wouldn't allow it as a factor either which doesn;t help)

Ryanair info:

If the infant reaches the age of 2 years prior to the return journey they must pay the applicable fare, taxes, fees and charges for that part of the journey. Proof of age may be required so please have the infant's valid photo-id available for inspection (or birth certificate if traveling on a route that does not require valid photo-id. No baby/car seats are allowed in the cabin of the aircraft. Please click here for further information regarding Additional postural supports for children or adults with special needs.

Leigh-Anne_60

Hiya

I would say reading from there T&C as above - as he/she is 2 on the return journey you'll be fine..... But hey its Ryanair

LA

MarkyMarkD

No, you wouldn't be reading that right, Leigh-Anne.

Ryanair sell all tickets as singles. So you would have to book a seat for a 2 year old on the return journey, and could NOT book a seat for a nearly 2 year old on the way out.

Regarding the OP, I don't think Ryanair will be happy at all as it is specifically forbidden in their Ts & Cs to book a seat for an infant. It's not an "innocent mistake". It's a deliberate attempt by you to avoid paying the right price for your travel.

Incidentally, we HAVE booked seats for an infant with other airlines, because they allow you to do so. By doing so, we gained an extra seat - more room - and more baggage allowance. And the baby could sit in the extra seat all the time except when the seatbelt signs were on. No problems at all with bmibaby on quite a few different flights and also with thomsonfly.

spiro

I think if you selected 'Return' when choosing your flights and then read their info which says "If the infant reaches the age of 2 years prior to the return journey they must pay the applicable fare" (from post 3) you could claim you believed you were required to pay the fare. Depends on what mode the staff are in.

angelkay

i booked my daughter as a child when she was an infant checking in online on the way out and at the airport on the way home (at the time you couldn't check in online more than 5 days in advance) we got out no problem but on the wa y back we checked in and were told we had to buy an infant seat even tho we had already paid for a seat which was more expensive. I wouldn't chance it if i were you the queue we had to stand i to buy the infant ticket was huge resulting in us nearly missing our flight