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

londonTiger

Modern britain = where nobody likes to talk to each other and send all their complaints to the press and twitter. If I saw a family of 3 which no adjacent seating I would gladly work something out so the family can sit together. Or at least 1 parent is with the child.

londonTiger

policeman Chris was horrified to discover his three-year-old daughter, Lily, was seated a few rows away from him, his solicitor wife, and their six month-old, Harry.

Why didn't horrified policeman Chris swap seats with his daughter so that the kid can be with the mother?

19lottie82

As the other posters have said, why didn't one of the adults sit in the single seat, while the other sat with the kids? hardly rocket science, is it?

DTDfanBoy

The better question is why didn't the Ryanair seating allocation program seat the father away from the family rather that the three year old child, the airline already knows the passengers ages, it's completely unnecessary for this sort of thing to happen.

I'd hate to be the airline whose emergency evacuation was held up by parents trying to reach their children, I don't imagine the CAA would be taking any prisoners.

jamichi1

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

The better question is why didn't the Ryanair seating allocation program seat the father away from the family rather that the three year old child, the airline already knows the passengers ages, it's completely unnecessary for this sort of thing to happen.

I'd hate to be the airline who's emergency evacuation was held up by parents trying to reach their children, I don't imagine the CAA would be taking any prisoners.

At last someone with common sense...It's not a matter of professions or house value (F.G.S.)! Airlines should do ensure that at least one parent seats with the children. End of story and it's not a matter of a "business model" or "cheap options". It's a matter of health and safety.

tomtontom

londonTiger wrote: »

Why didn't horrified policeman Chris swap seats with his daughter so that the kid can be with the mother?

Because then he couldn't be outraged and horrified

In the end, I was sat on my own with our six-month old

How can someone be on their own but with their six year old?

I'm with the majority, this is a non story. There is no health and safety issue because they were allocated three seats together, there was always going to be an adult with the two children.

Former_MSE_Paloma

Hi there, thanks for your comments. The parents couldn't have swapped with the child as they were also allocated seats in different rows. I've amended the story to make this clearer:

Ryanair's system had seated himself, his three-year-old daughter, Lily, and his solicitor wife in three different areas of the plane. Their six month-old, Harry wasn't allocated a seat as he was going to sit on the lap of one of his parent's

Many thanks, Paloma

richardw

Re "In the end, I was sat on my own with our six-month old, with my wife sat with our daughter two rows further up" this is all that the CAA suggests that airlines should do, if MSE is not happy about this then MSE needs to direct its campaigning at the government and the CAA.

tomtontom

MSE_Paloma wrote: »

Hi there, thanks for your comments. The parents couldn't have swapped with the child as they were also allocated seats in different rows. I've amended the story to make this clearer:

Ryanair's system had seated himself, his three-year-old daughter, Lily, and his solicitor wife in three different areas of the plane. Their six month-old, Harry wasn't allocated a seat as he was going to sit on the lap of one of his parent's

Many thanks, Paloma

And if they'd explained the problem to the crew, they would have resolved it.

This happens everyday, and I've not yet heard of a case that has not been resolved prior to take off. It is also not limited to Ryanair, but the other airlines don't make for sensationalist stories like this do they?

mjm3346

It's not a 'family tax' any group wanting to sit together has to pay more and why not - it is far simpler to fill up with single seat bookings than various size groups so make them pay for it.

Any outrage should be directed against the parents for being so mean they risked sitting apart from their children instead opting to pay the very small amount to ensure they sat together.