On the Beach - Seat Reservations

pollyanna24

Hope someone can help.

I have booked a holiday for me, my parents and my two children (both under 12) with On the Beach.  

At no point while making my original booking did they say I would have to reserve seats.  I have since gone into "Manage my booking" and it is saying it will charge £26 per person per way to reserve seats.  As far as I know, Ryanair only charge about £4 to book seats.  

On top of this, they want to charge a £30 admin fee to amend the booking.

Is this right?  I don't mind paying for seats for my children, but £52 each?  With no warning?  And then a £30 admin fee on top of this as well?

Would a way around it be to wait till I can check in with Ryanair and then reserve seats?  Or will be a even more expensive way of doing it?

bradders1983

Of course you could choose to pay nothing and then you take your chance when you check in as to what you have been assigned.
Did you not get something already to log into the Ryanair website and do it now direct?

pollyanna24

I could take that risk and if it was just me, I would.  But with two children? 

If I had been informed of the extra £260 charge at the time of booking the holiday, I either might have rethought it or at least had the option of deciding whether £52 was worth it or not.

I have the flight numbers, but not sure if I can do it direct with Ryanair.  I could ask them I suppose.

bradders1983

Should have got a reference to log in to the Ryanair website, no? I did when i booked a holiday through Thomas Cook a year or so ago.
And my sister did only this weekend with a booking she did through Travel Republic.

pollyanna24

Plus what if I hadn't realised we mightn't be seated together.  There must be people who would just assume and turn up at the airport with their children only to be told they can't sit with them.  Does this happen?  

pollyanna24

bradders1983 said:

Should have got a reference to log in to the Ryanair website, no? I did when i booked a holiday through Thomas Cook a year or so ago.
And my sister did only this weekend with a booking she did through Travel Republic.

Thanks.  I will have a look at all the documentation they have sent me.  

pollyanna24

Still looking at all the information I have been given, but I have noticed something (from this website I think) that says:-

On Ryanair flights booked from 1 September, at least one adult in every booking which includes children under 12 will have to pay £4 for a reserved seat at the time of booking. All children under 12 in the same booking will receive free reserved seats next to the adult.

But again, I wasn't given this option by On the Beach and if I hadn't realised and trundled up to the airport, what would happen then?

katieort

Don't quote me on this, as I'm not 100% sure.
But wasn't there some recent ruling that for kids, they have to sit with at least one adult with their booking. So I would say leave it as they will be sat next to one of the adults in your party.

Found it:
https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/travelling-with-children/family-seating

pollyanna24

Thanks everyone.  

On the Beach gave me a unique e-mail address and ref number to log in direct to Ryanair (had to ask for it though) and there were seats allocated for me as the lead passenger and my daughters.  As they were middle and aisle seats, I decided to buy reserved seating for my parents for the total cost of £35.

What I am annoyed about though is if I had just blindly gone with "adding reserved seats," On the Beach would gladly have charged me £260 and a £30 admin fee on top.