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

watsonworld

No sympathy for this. You must have clearly done the online boarding procedure far too late ! Children on planes are a PITA. Ryanair should sell adult only flights. THIS I would pay extra for.

persil64

Are we not all missing the point here? This is not a FAMILY tax but a people tax, ie it affects everyone travelling together, not just people with children. What about older / disabled people travelling as a couple who really do need special assistance from their carers? What about nervous flyers who want to sit with their partners? If you want to guarantee sitting together, parents have to do what everyone else does and pay for priority boarding and / or be organised enough to check in early. Speaking as a doctor, I would also love to know why anyone takes small babies on aeroplanes with no thought for the impact on their eardrums and respiratory systems from cabin pressure.

jackieblack

Pollycat wrote: »

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'.

As do the CAA
"Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults."
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx/doc/148/docs/80/airport_data/1996annual/default.aspx?catid=5&pagetype=90&pageid=9855

steve1500

jackieblack wrote: »

As do the CAA
"Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults."
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx/doc/148/docs/80/airport_data/1996annual/default.aspx?catid=5&pagetype=90&pageid=9855

The CAA is a toothless qango. Just look at the flight delays board.

The Government should give them some teeth.

People seem to assume that everyone can afford to pay the extra to sit together.

Families invariably fly during the holiday period, when the price of flights goes through the roof.

Until something happens involving a family being split up, nothing will happen. Such as delays getting off the plane in an emergency, Jimmy Saville wannabe's & so on & the lawyers get involved

Then everybody will be screaming why didn't you sit them together, you knew before the flight took off, the ages of all the passengers

le_eswiss

Last summer - traveling to Jo'burg via Abu Dhabi on Etihad. Had pre-assigned seating, me + OH + 6 year old + 2 year old, all sitting together in one row.

When we got to the airport, the staff told us that our seats had been changed for "operational reasons"; and all of us had been seated separated from each other, several rows apart. The ground staff were completely useless (almost rude - saying it wasn't their problem); the staff onboard a bit more helpful. Eventually managed to sit in pairs (each of us with a kid) by requesting people to move.

Luckily the rest of the flights were fine, but not a great way to start our holiday!

Pollycat

persil64 wrote: »

Are we not all missing the point here? This is not a FAMILY tax but a people tax, ie it affects everyone travelling together, not just people with children. What about older / disabled people travelling as a couple who really do need special assistance from their carers? What about nervous flyers who want to sit with their partners? If you want to guarantee sitting together, parents have to do what everyone else does and pay for priority boarding and / or be organised enough to check in early. Speaking as a doctor, I would also love to know why anyone takes small babies on aeroplanes with no thought for the impact on their eardrums and respiratory systems from cabin pressure.

I don't know about anybody else but I don't beleive I'm missing the point.
It's not a family tax.
It's not a people tax.
It's not a tax full stop.

Definition of tax:

a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.

Note "compulsory".
As long as airlines give passengers the choice whether to pay to sit together, then it's not a tax.
if people have specific reasons to sit together then they pay the optional charge to do so or risk being separated.
I don't know if airlines give special treatment to people who are registerd disabled.

kingarhu

I would have let the three year old be seated alone and then tell the cabin crew to deal with it when they started playing up. I am sure seats would quickly be found together.

Pollycat

kingarhu wrote: »

I would have let the three year old be seated alone and then tell the cabin crew to deal with it when they started playing up. I am sure seats would quickly be found together.

Your 3 year old could play with this poster's 3 year old:

joe1906 wrote: »

This happened to me on a flight with Italia we were all over the plane including my 3 yr old son.

I made it the airlines problem.

When the staff complained about my son wondering around the plane and getting in the way I just told them it serves them right for the stupidity of splitting a family and I was not interested in the fact that my son was getting on there nerves and in the way.

MaureenLesley

Sorry, but why would you not book seats on a flight? Any flight, any airline! If you want seats together, then book them in advance - don't trust to luck. Looking at the prices of Ryanair's seat booking, I wouldn't say they're too expensive - in fact, just the opposite, compared to what BA charge.

Tricia1

I disagree with this ridiculous 'family tax' policy also, because it even affects those who have pre-booked seats together. Myself and a friend were pre-booked to sit together on a flight to Greece, but once on the flight we were asked if we would sit separately (quite far apart) so that a family who hadn't pre-booked seats could sit together. We did not feel that we could refuse, and we didn't want to be the reason that a family was split up, but it was very annoying not to be able to sit with my friend on a 4 hour flight, and also because I was no longer in the seat by the emergency exit which I had booked because I have very long legs, so was uncomfortable for the entire flight.