MSE News: 'Family tax': Dad's outrage as Ryanair tries to seat 3yo away from family

Diesel269

My family were allocated seats scattered all over the plane on a 10hr flight back from Cuba with first choice. My 2 yr old and 7 yr old both given seats alone not even close to myself and my husband. Will always pay for allocated seats from now on. Luckily had friends on same flight that traded with us, both my 1yr old and 2yr old were travel sick all the way back so not sure how that would have worked out with strangers sat next to them!!

Bernice50

What about the rights of the child- child safety and protection... what would happen heaven forbid for a child to be harmed by stranger sitting next to them......grrr this needs to be looked at seriously quickly- never mind thinking about the profits of allocated seating....will never fly with these airlines!

kjm16

Apologies if this has already been covered but Thomas Cook did not guarantee that me or my wife would be seated next to our 12 & 9 year old daughters on a flight to or from Orlando in May/June without paying £100!

Percy_Globetrotter

This is an absolute disgrace and should not be allowed. Not only do families often have to pay the highest airfares oweing to school holidays but to add insult to injury RyanAir and some other airlines use the fear factor to extort even more money. SHAME ON THEM!

Drakonix

This is where international law should be made so that anyone that is not considered to be an adult MUST be seated with someone that is old enough to supervise them, why this incident happened at all is beyond me, seems that common sense is no longer a requirement for any officials (which includes anyone that has an authoritive role, as flight attendants, bus wardens, etc. should already have).

Byngdesign

Has anyone tried reporting any of these cases to the Child Protection Agency?
This is exactly the sort of situation which if done deliberately by a parent could result in their child being classed as at risk and taken into care, so why should airlines be exempt from the same duty of care towards children?

k3rryb3nnett

I have flew with Ryanair and with my 2 children and just to avoid ths situation I have booked and paid for allocated seating just for peace of mind so I know I will be sitting by my children, I cannot understand why any parent would not do this.


I have been on flights with a group of friends who have all paid for allocated seating and have then been asked to moved by the airline so a family can sit together, needless to say a few in our group were very disgruntled that having aid for allocated seating so we could sit together we were then being moved apart!


I think if the airline insist on continue with this practice then it should flag up at the point of booking and entering the date of birth of the child that seating next to each other is not guaranteed and then asking if they wish to continue.

FSH

We had a similar situation recently flying to Limoges with Ryanair and I simply contact them via their live webchat function and the agent was really helpful and changed our family of five sat in three separate parts of the plane all to the same row. Can't complain - great service for the price!

HebdrideanTeuchter

It's a fair assumption for parents to make that their young children will be seated next to at least one parent without having to pay extra to do so. This is not just for the 'convenience' of the parents/children - this is to make it more agreeable for all passengers, since nobody would want to sit next to a howling child if they are not next to their parents.

Trust me, they will scream! Anyone who thinks they won't has no experience of parenthood!

Parents should not be forced to pay this extra amount - it's not an 'option' to not sit next to your young children, like it is for adults or older children.

At the very least, airlines should make it explicitly clear on their websites that their children will definitely not be seated next to them unless you pay this ridiculous charge - then we can make an informed choice whether to continue with the booking.

FSH

TrinaA wrote: »

I have never travelled with Ryanair before, and booked two tickets to travel to Lanzarote on 14th Dec, returning on Jan 13th, 2016, I have just found out that to get free seats we have to book in online & print Boarding Passes within 7 days of travel date or pay and book in within 30 days, ok if you don't mind paying and only going away for 1-2 weeks or so, you can print all boarding passes before you go, or again if you want free seats, find somewhere whilst on holiday to print off the passes. This is the problem we have for our return journey, as I`m away for 31 days, ( I cant do this before I go ) I either have the inconvenience of having to hunt around for somewhere to print off Boarding Passes, in Lanzarote, or turn up at the airport, (and I`m told get charged a booking in fee + £40 for boarding passes ) & pay. I really think Ryanair should make you aware of this before booking, as I had no clue. I have never had to do this with any other airline. Again another case of hidden charges. Contacted them regarding our return journey, really unhelpful, and told " I`m sure a printer can be found " Needless to say wont be booking Ryanair again.

Ryanair now offer an app for smart phones where you can use an electronic boarding pass which is excellent and very user friendly. All you would need is access to wifi to use it to check in 7 days in advance and then you can present your boarding pass on your smartphone or tablet at check in - no paper copies required.