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

tomtontom

markandkate wrote: »

Given that a child cannot get off the plane why not agree and then ask the flight crew to supervise the child. Once they have received complaints from other passengers about the screaming unattended 3 year old I feel sure they would find another solution.

If the parents said to the flight crew "lovely thank you for supervising my child I will be the chilled out one at the back with the G&T. By the way he/she is alllergic to nuts and nose bleeds when stressed" and I suspect a solution would have been reached

There has been no suggestion that the flight crew would not have remedied the problem upon boarding.

I do worry about parents who are willing to see their children in distress just to prove a point.

Moto2

tomtontom wrote: »

There has been no suggestion that the flight crew would not have remedied the problem upon boarding.

I do worry about parents who are willing to see their children in distress whilst 'sucking the sauce bottle' at the back of the plane just to prove a point.

Fixed that for you

Alisterj1

Sorry, while not a great fan of Ryanair, I have to say it is quite clear when you book. We travel as family 2 adults and 2 kids, and just pay the extra to be sure. On one occasion I flew I booked and selected the seat, and still at the end to steward had the nerve to ask me to move to facilitate another family, who hadn't booked. Use easy jet but again it when family and young kids are concerned just book speedy board. Totally agree it is scandalous and someone should champion the reductions, but when am travelling alone I'll go for the bargain. Plan and book early my view.

NFH

If airlines do not allow children to travel solo, then they should likewise not force them to sit solo on the aircraft. The same reason for which children cannot travel solo applies also to seating. It's for important safety and welfare reasons.

Budget airlines are always trying to find new ways of facilitating a misleading indication of price. They want to advertise a low headline fare and then sell add-ons that are unavoidable for many or most passengers. Examples include a surcharge of £6 per flight segment to pay by debit card when it costs the airline 20p per booking (Ryanair have since abolished this), a surcharge for normal sized cabin baggage (Wizz) and now surcharges for children to sit with the adult who is responsible for them. When these surcharges and drip pricing start to encroach upon safety and children's welfare, the airlines have overstepped the line.

When you check in online for a Ryanair flight, you can see the available seats if you were to choose to pay for allocated seating. Watching over a few hours, you can see that Ryanair fills the aircraft gradually, row by row and seat by seat. My guess is that when a family checks in online and doesn't pay for allocated seating, Ryanair's system doesn't do this and instead deliberately scatters the family around the plane; this encourages payment of the surcharge. If this is the case, then Ryanair would be deliberately flouting the quoted CAA guidelines.

Lewie

Pollycat wrote: »

The key word in the sentence above in bold is 'feel'.
I am not disagreeing that some people feel they have no choice but (and I've already said this) they actually do have a choice.
Feeling that you have to do something is not the same as having to do something.
And that's why this charge is not compulsory.

And that's the point.
In the literal sense every one knows they have a choice.
You have a choice not to pay a ransom if the life of a loved one is at stake if you refused to pay, but I feel you would gasp, 'there is no choice, of course I'll pay'.

Lewie

Pollycat wrote: »

I disagree with your statement above.

As is your prerogative.
The rest of your statement is hypocritical.
You state that all on here are allowed their opinion.
My post was my opinion but you imply I am wrong to have one????

shaun_from_Africa

Lewie wrote: »

As is your prerogative.
The rest of your statement is hypocritical.
You state that all on here are allowed their opinion.
My post was my opinion but you imply I am wrong to have one????

Nowhere in the post that you quoted did Pollycat state or imply that you were not entitled to your opinion.
"I disagree with your statement above" simply means that they disagree with your opinion.

NS110

If I were travelling with just my husband - we have a choice, you can weigh up the cost of paying for allocated seating versus the length of the flight etc to decide whether to pay or not. When travelling with your kids - well please someone tell me what is the choice ? I either pay and be reassured that I will be able to attend to my kids during the flight or the alternative is that one of you lot (who may or may not have paid for your seat) will be ok after them for me? I just do not see the choice here. So I need to just accept that this is just part and parcel of my choice to be a parent, however I think that you feel exploited when your seat allocation is scattered, particularly when you have booked in plenty of time and you can see that most of the plane is empty.
It is important to note that this is not just Ryanair, and it isn't always just a nominal charge. We recently paid £30 per person per flight with British airways in order to reserve our seats, and you couldn't just reserve seats for some people in the booking (eg we thought we could make sure one of us was with kids at least), it was all or nothing. So that's an extra £240 to pay.

I suppose perhaps the airlines could at least appear to be behaving ethically on this, perhaps they could help out the parents, the air-stewardesses that have to deal with moving families, the people that have to move even if they have paid to accommodate families ....just to make it a little less stressful and safe for all?!

And it isn't the same as being in McDonald's or on the bus, if my kid is sat next to a stranger, and doesn't feel comfortable we have some control we can get up and move or leave, I wouldn't ask or expect a stranger on the bus to make sure my kid is strapped in properly or a stranger in McDonald's to tidy up after they had eaten. But someone will have to do this for a kid on a plane.
Oh and can you properly assist your child with this sort of thing when the seatbelt sign comes on and you are over the aisle or in the row behind?

Reading these posts apparently parents do have a choice, but if they don't pay to allocate the seats they are bad parents for expecting someone else to look after their kids or move to accommodate them.

The fact is if I had known how this worked in reality (as opposed to the apparently family friendly policy on seat allocation) I may have booked with someone else.

Pollycat

Lewie wrote: »

And that's the point.
In the literal sense every one knows they have a choice.

Hurrah! I think we've finally got there!

Lewie wrote: »

You have a choice not to pay a ransom if the life of a loved one is at stake if you refused to pay, but I feel you would gasp, 'there is no choice, of course I'll pay'.

You do come up with some very strange analogies.

Lewie wrote: »

As is your prerogative.
The rest of your statement is hypocritical.
You state that all on here are allowed their opinion.
My post was my opinion but you imply I am wrong to have one????

I believe shaun from Africa has explained this adequately. :T

NFH

NS110 wrote: »

It is important to note that this is not just Ryanair, and it isn't always just a nominal charge. We recently paid £30 per person per flight with British airways in order to reserve our seats, and you couldn't just reserve seats for some people in the booking (eg we thought we could make sure one of us was with kids at least), it was all or nothing. So that's an extra £240 to pay.

You wasted your money. British Airways doesn't charge to choose seats when you check in online 24 hours before departure. Even when a large group is travelling, you will have no problem finding plenty of seats together at T-24. The only reason to pay for seats on BA is to get the most desirable seats, for example green seats at www.seatguru.com. You definitely don't need to pay to sit together on BA.