Infant on Ryanair

Mr_Wang

Just about to book a weekend away with my kid, he's only a year and half and when I came to book with Ryanair something got my attention.
I remember hearing somewhere that you can't class an infant as an adult on Ryanair and pay for a seat. Can anyone clarify?

Given the obvious issue that an adult fare is £7.99 and an infant fare £30 each way.

Thanks

eezer

From the Ryanair website:

Travelling with an infant?

Infants up to 7 days old (inclusive) cannot be accepted for travel on Ryanair flights.
Infants (aged 8 days to 23 months inclusive) travelling must be accompanied by an adult aged 16 or over (one infant per adult). Click here for details of the infant fee.
If you are travelling with an infant they can be included on a flight reservation by adding an infant during the online booking process. All passengers must check in online for their flight and print both the adult and infant boarding passes. The online check-in service is available from 15 days before each flight and closes 4 hours before each flight.
An infant must sit on the adult's lap, an infant seat belt is provided by the cabin crew; please note that extra seats cannot be purchased for infants.
If an infant reaches the age of 2 years prior to their return journey, they must pay the applicable adult fare, taxes, fees and charges for that flight, please contact our call centre to book

Tyzap

Can anyone tell me if there is any way of avoiding any the cost of taking a baby on a Ryanair flight. It seems to be a right old rip off.

We have just booked flights on Ryanair for four adults and an infant.
The adult fair, including 10kg of hand luggage and your own seat of course, is £57.98, that also include taxes, fees and charges. Net of taxes etc the cost of the ticket is £43.98.
They have charged us £60 for the baby which seems not to include any taxes or fees etc. The baby does not have a baggage allowance and does not have seat, he also weighs very little compared with an adult.

Under these circumstances how can Ryanair justify charging £16.02 more for a baby than a full fare paying adult?

The true cost of carrying a baby to Ryanair must be virtually zero.

If you try to book a seat for the baby, to avoid some of the cost and get some extra room, you MUST buy a harness which costs in the region of £79 (link from Ryanair web site) so they have you every which way.

jpsartre

What makes you think they have to justify it? It's supply and demand, if you don't want to pay the cost then fly with someone else.

budgetflyer

So £60 rtn is now considered a rip off.

Moto2

Just wait until the adult price goes up before buying the tickets - you'll feel better about it then :undecided

Delree

Don't fly and give all the other passengers a peaceful flight rather than being forced to listen to your baby scream the fuselage down for any of the myriad reasons. That'll save you loads of money.

jpsartre

budgetflyer wrote: »

So £60 rtn is now considered a rip off.

I guess it really says something about today's level of airfares when someone complains about having to pay £60 to be flown hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.

borokat

No other airline that I've come across does this, it is ridiculous when the £30 each way to fly a baby is higher than the fare for a seat. Is there even an option to book a seat for the baby? I don't think you can, I think you have to have them on your lap. Do Ryanair let you take a travel cot and pram in the hold?
Anyway I agree that it is just another way to rip off a captive audience. Oh and not all babies are noisy nuisances on a flight, in fact under 2s are probably the best behaved certainly better than the groups of stag dos getting tanked up on the flight!

claire16c

That is really weird. Aren't under 2s free on other airlines? How can they charge £60 if you don't even get a seat for them?!

EmmaParsons

Most airlines charge a small fee for infants.
Easyjet charge £22 each way
Thomas Cook charge £20 each way (flight only)
Thomson charge £35 return
BA charge £3 + taxes (around £34 total for a gatwick to alicante flight)
Jet2 charge £20 each way.

So ryanairs fees are similar to everyone else. Whilst it costs more for the infant on this flight, on many occasions the flight will be more than £57 per adult and the infant will then be significantly cheaper.

Ryanair do allow you to take a pushchair with you right up until you reach the steps to board the aircraft. I would suggest you double check this with them but this has usually been the case.