Ryanair Question

PolishBigSpender

Ah, Ryanair flights are so much fun when you see families split up. I've seen mothers throwing hysterical tantrums, fathers threatening to hit other passengers- I've seen it all. Perhaps the best one was watching a father demand that some middle-aged gentleman give up his seat next to where his daughter wanted to sit because "he might look at her". There was also the highly amusing incident of a family paying for priority boarding, then being overtaken by a vast amount of people - the rage on their face was...well, highly amusing.

Usually the worst behaviour was on 6am flights from Stansted, funnily enough. Usually I found - the more inconvenient the time, the worse families behaved.

thegirlintheattic

Debbie_A wrote: »

This is a key issue. Across the aisle and one-behind-the-other would be fine ... from there you can assist with oxygen masks (if that ever happens) and supervise the child should the plane need to be evacuated.

But if the parent is sat half a dozen rows away and things went wrong in an emergency (parent running towards child against the flow of people, etc), then the CAA would be throwing the book at everyone concerned from the cabin attendent right upto Mr O'Leary himself.

I am sorry but I really don't see why this should ever be an issue. Why can't people just be kind to one another and simply move from one seat to another? I am not getting at those who have paid more to secure better seats, or a better view, or indeed those who are already sat together. But there are loads of equivalent seats. When I am by myself on trains and planes I would always move to another seat if it meant that two people could then sit together. Costs me nothing. I am sure that lots of others think in the same way.

Why should other people move because someone else didn't pay extra or didn't get to the gate early yet still wants to sit together?

I was on a train this week at one of the 4-person tables, a woman with three children got on and asked the three of us (strangers) to move so that she could sit down. Lets just say we told her where she could go. I booked the seat I wanted (in this case one with a power point and a table to work on with a laptop) and that was the end of that. Similarly on aircraft I pay extra for extra leg room and wouldn't waste my money moving for someone else.

I personally agree that parents and children should be sat together, but this is the parents/airlines responsibility not the other passengers.

OP if RyanAir will not assure you seats then either pay or turn up early.

zagfles

ceebeeby wrote: »

However, recently travelling BA - I checked in as soon as poss on-line and selected the seat I wanted (aisle seat at front of plane). Then along comes Mum with 2 kids and realises on boarding that they're not together, she had the two inside ones to me, so air hostess asks me very nicely to move to window seat at back ... and I very nicely said "no thank you - but happy to move to business class if it helps you out" to which she politely said bog off

Well worth a try though! Many years ago I was on a flight where a family were split, there were a couple of empty seats a few rows apart. The steward asked one bloke if he'd mind moving, and got an aggressive rant off him about having reserved his seat early etc and he wasn't giving it up. The steward then asked a bloke a few rows further back, and he said OK, and while walking past the aggressive bloke told him in a loud voice that he'd been upgraded to business class as a thankyou