Travelling with kids can be stressful at the best of times. But how would you feel if you boarded a plane bound for your family holiday, only to discover that the airline had seated you far apart from your family because you hadn’t paid extra to be seated together?
Rumour has it – if you believe what you read on social media – that Ryanair has started doing just that.
The Telegraph reports:
Ryanair posts a similar warning - pay up or have your seats selected randomly. I don't pay, and have never been separated from my travelling companions on a Ryanair flight. But in recent weeks there has been a surge of complaints on Twitter (search “@Ryanair seats” and you will see what I mean) from passengers who didn’t pay up, and who say they have not been seated together, even though there were plenty of spare seats on the flight.
The airline has denied the allegation and as a reasonably frequent flier with Ryanair, I can’t say I've ever experienced this. I’ve never paid to be seated near my family but we’ve always had seats together and staff have often gone to great lengths to make sure we have what we need when travelling with little ones.
Still, the Telegraph reckons passengers can’t be sure of sitting next to each other on Ryanair unless they pay extra – which could add up to £22 to a return fare.
The whole story hints at how much travel seems to be getting harder and harder for families. If we’re not being threatened with fines for taking our kids on holiday when it’s most affordable, we’re faced with the worry that we night not get seated together if we don’t cough up some extra cash. And don’t even get me started on the angst that comes with travelling when the world seems to be in the grip of threat and chaos.
According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, seating children "close by their parents or guardians" should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.
The website states:
Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. 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. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.
Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.
All of which suggests families need not worry about being separated when travelling together.
Still, I’ve said it before but I look forward to the days when travel companies and airlines catch on to the fact that making travel easier for families is the way forward. Those that do will surely be quids in.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Have you been separated from your family on a flight? Would you pay extra for the assurance of being seated together? Leave us a comment here or come and join the conversation over on our Facebook page.
This happened to us 2 years ago! They had me at the back of the plane, my husband in the middle and my 2 1/2 year old at the front on his own! We had to beg people to swap with us and Ryanair could not have cared less. I have not flown with them since and will never fly with them again.
This happened to me this weekend with Ryanair. Paid the compulsory £4 for seat for myself and 2 children and ended up in row 20. I didn't pay extra for my husband as it's really a tax on families. On checking in Husband was in row 9 each time. Sitting next to me was a single lady so we definitely could have been sat together, so I definitely think it was deliberate.
I haven't taken my daughter abroad yet. But if i did & they did this to my family, I would like to see them deal with the fallout. There is no way I would allow my daughter to sit next to a total stranger. She would be sat next to me & her dad and that's that! Otherwise they would have a major uproar on their hands.
Parents have a duty to care for, protect and supervise their children. How are you supposed to achieve anywhere near this when Ryanair clearly have a lack of duty of care to their customers?. The company clearly has no family values at heart.
The only way to force them to change their money greedy & irresponsible seating policy is for family's to boycott them until the bigwigs at Ryanair start see their figures fall.