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

melanzana

Seems to me the children should be minding their parents sometimes.

The sniffiness and sense of entitlement is gross. Pay for the blimmin seats, forget the stress.

But on the other hand, let the kids see all the palaver on the plane, it's good for their development or something surely!

musicmonkey1

Thomson charge to pre book seats but allow you to 'check in' 7 days before the flight when their website gives you the impression you can choose your seats. However I flew to Croatia recently and checked in online 7 days before (as soon as it opened) only to find that Thomson had allocated me and my wife two seats across the aisle. There were plenty of other free seats but if I wanted two seat together (rather than across the aisle I still had to pay extra.


The situation is the same on a forthcoming Easyjet flight to Barcelona.


This is just another way of extorting money from so called customers. If the seats offered extra leg room then fair enough but otherwise this is just a rip off and should be stopped.

melanzana

musicmonkey1 wrote: »

Thomson charge to pre book seats but allow you to 'check in' 7 days before the flight when their website gives you the impression you can choose your seats. However I flew to Croatia recently and checked in online 7 days before (as soon as it opened) only to find that Thomson had allocated me and my wife two seats across the aisle. There were plenty of other free seats but if I wanted two seat together (rather than across the aisle I still had to pay extra.


The situation is the same on a forthcoming Easyjet flight to Barcelona.


This is just another way of extorting money from so called customers. If the seats offered extra leg room then fair enough but otherwise this is just a rip off and should be stopped.

At this stage all flights should include the seat allocation price, and then you can choose your own. NO angst or stress, the price includes you being able to choose your own seat/s.

Extra for first three rows, exit rows and so on. Premium in other words.

Sorted.

canddski

Michael O'Leary's promise to change the company culture to "Stop !!!!ing off our customers" does not seem to have lasted long. I am not surprised.....

legal_magpie

I don't have a 3 year old but if I did I'd be glad to be able to palm him off on some other passengers for 4 hours or so. Keep up the good work Ryan Air

MarkTd

Easyjet did a similar thing with my family. Seated me across aisle from my 5yo daughter and wife behind. They blamed it on me not paying. So if easyjet say they don't split up families not sure that is really true.

a.ferra

Sick of all these threads where everyone's suggesting the easy solution is for the dad to have swapped seats with his daughter. Seriously, do you guys not know how hard it is to look after a baby on flight where they need to sit still and keep quiet, but you all act like it's a piece of cake to also entertain a 3yr old as well, crikey give the poor mum a break!!

Spook93

It's not just families who are the victims in this scenario. Carers of disabled people are also treated with the same disdain. I have had occasion in the past to cite the Equality Act at check in, in order to protect myself from the risk of having my carer sitting elsewhere unless I payy a fee. Patiently explaining to airline staff that I am prone to dropping into a coma - something that my carer can predict, treat and thus avoid - would save them far more than the silly seat fees as they would not have to incur the costs of diverting the plane (this is a fact, not a wild exaggeration!) that the risk of sitting us apart would expose them to. I am also registered blind - and they have still argued, even though they have the privilege of eyesight to presumably notice the White stick, particularly when it is politely waved at them! I have now set precedent with these people and have never actually ended up paying, but the battle to get to this stage was undignified and unnecessary - and I'm sure many others could do with a voice or lobby like this thread to push the airlines to behave themselves and not discriminate against disabled travellers by virtue of the seat charge.

Pollycat

MarkTd wrote: »

Easyjet did a similar thing with my family. Seated me across aisle from my 5yo daughter and wife behind. They blamed it on me not paying. So if easyjet say they don't split up families not sure that is really true.

I don't know Flybe's seating policy but some airlines class seats across the aisle and seats one behing the other as 'sitting together'.

dascam wrote: »

This one cuts both ways. We were booked on a Jet 2 flight in allocated seats we had reserved and paid for.. As we boarded the plane we were moved to different individual seats. Turns out a family had occupied our seats.

Do you mean cabin crew had given them your seats or they'd ust decided to sit there?
What did cabin crew say when you pointed out that they were sat in your seats that you'd paid for?
Did you get a refund for the amount you'd paid?

dascam wrote: »

Lesson here? it is not a 'tax' - just pay and everyone is happy..

I agree is not a 'tax'. It's an optional chargeable extra that anyone can choose or not choose to pay.

But you paid and you weren't happy so not sure what the lesson is.

Moto2

A serious amount of new posters on this thread.

I'd be suspicious if I could figure out a plausible reason for suspicion