Infant on Ryanair

erin

I have bought a seat for my 18 month old on ryanair without knowing that you can do it, it is not written on their terms and conditions but on their how to book an infant which to be honest I never look at.
But the worse thing is when I was leaving Ireland the ground staff never told me I could do it, they just told me to inform the air hotess that I bought a seat but in France, they refuse me boarding until I bought the EUR 10.00 infant fare lap and they told me they would refund the adult fare I bought for my 18 month old. It is according to them a new procedure and that for security reason they do not allow anymore extra seat for infant, I was very surprised because how come they consider it is an extra seat since I have bought the ticket, I am not taking the seat for free, I did bought a full adult price ticket and I did it in the past without any problem
Can someone know the reason why Ryanair do not accept anymore the purchase of a seat for under 2, I don't believe their safety reason since other airline accept you can buy a ticket for under 2 if you wish to have a seat.
Thank a lot for your reply

HarryD

erin wrote:

I have bought a seat for my 18 month old on ryanair without knowing that you can do it,

??? What the hell is you banging on about ?

therecklessone

HarryD wrote:

??? What the hell is you banging on about ?

I suspect that erin is not a native English speaker. Go easy on him/her.

HarryD

therecklessone wrote:

I suspect that erin is not a native English speaker. Go easy on him/her.

Ah I see.. my apologies Erin.. :cool:

Lenny

I think she means she bought a seat for her 18month old and wasn't sure weather or not she was/should have bought one

erin

Sorry, I realise afterwards my message wasn't really clear as I forgot to put a lot of not.
To resume, the situation I bought a seat for my 18month old, not problem in Dublin, the groundstaff just told me to inform the airhotess about it but no mention that i was not allowed to do so. I did not have any problem on the plane, the air hostess did give us the lap belt for the taking and landing as I know it is mandatory.

But in France, they denied us boarding because we bought him a place and I had to buy a lap ticket at EUR 10.00 in order to board the plane and they mention as well that I am not allowed to have any luggage for my 18 month old.

I was furious.

penexpers

In all fairness, it's in the terms and conditions.

http://www.ryanair.com/conditions.html?language=EN

erin

well, I have read their terms and conditions but it really depend how you interprete them. For what I understand an infant under 2 may fly for the EUR 10 on the lap of the parents but there is no mention that you cannot purchase a seat for them if you wish - You could interprete it as since they don't offer child fare and a baby doesn't weight a lot you could have the option on your lap for EUR 10.00. It is not really clear

spongebob

Erin is right.

From that T&C

Infants under the age of 2 years as at date of travel may fly for an administration fee of £7/€10 (or local currency equivalent) per sector provided they sit on an adult’s lap. (One infant per adult). No baby/car seats are allowed on board the aircraft. Infants do not qualify for a free baggage allowance. If the infant reaches the age of 2 years prior to the return journey they must pay the applicable fare, taxes, fees and charges for that part of the journey. Proof of age may be required

At no point did Ryanair say in those T&C's , nor have they since.

"A Child UNDER 2 MAY NOT TRAVEL EXCEPT on its PARENTS LAP and MAY NOT take up its own seat " Logically the No Car Seat/Baby seat part of the rule would prevent a really young child from having his or her own seat.

An 18 month old is well able to sit up so that little logic bomb does not apply there. A 3 month old would HAVE to go on its parents lap. A 1 year old could go either way depending on how THICK the Ryanair staff member was on the day . I'd hate to leave those morons with judgement calls

I'd say that Ryanair were trying to get their own staff out of the toilets Erin .

Email Mick himself with details of the date and time of the flight, you are entitled to your €10 back with an apology , you followed their terms but their thick staff did not read them , thats olearym@ryanair.com IIRC

M

penexpers

Yeah fair enough it's open to interpretation.

It is mentioned here that extra seats cannot be purchased for infants.

A Dub in Glasgo

When you buy the seats though, it asks how many adults/children and how many infants (under 2) you are booking for. You cannot purchase a seat for an infant unless you tell Ryanair that it is an adult/child over 2. If you do this, you are telling lies. There is a link explaining how infants should be booked on the flight when you tick the number of adults/children and infants.

The booking system will not allow a person book an infant into a seat unless the person lies during the booking process and tells the system that the child is over 2.

erin

Fair enough if i was deny boarding in Ireland but that wasn't the case and no mention whatsoever that I wasn't allowed to buy a ticket for my son in Ireland. It is not the first time that I bought a ticket for my child when I travel on my own, it was allowed before but they recently change their policy as per the ground staff at Paris. In fairness who is looking at how to book an infant when you have done it for the past 9 months and it is still not mention in the terms and conditions than you cannot buy a seat for an under 2. When you book your ticket they ask you if you read and agreed with theirs terms and conditions they don't ask you if you have read all their website to make sure they haven't add something else that it is not mention in their terms and condition !!!
I do think it is a stupid rule, why can't you purchase anymore a seat for under 2 as it was allowed before and the only thing we needed to do is to advise the air hotess about it and they give you the lapbelt for landing and take off.
I do think it is a way of making more money for Ryanair with extra weight, have you ever try to travel with a baby when you are on your own and manage to keep the 15 kilos allowed specially if you go abroad for more than 2 weeks ??? And what about the poor person who sit next to you when your not so small little one is kicking like mad because he cannot move an inch so you end up making endless apologies to this person who is telling you Why for god sake are you not buy a seat for this kid, he is too old to seat on your lap and more or less called you mean parents !!!

erin

Just to be fair with Ryanair, I have just received an E-mail from them telling me they will refund me the adult fare following the request from the Paris supervisor.

But I am still not happy that we are not allowed anymore to buy a seat for an under two specially the age bracket 1 to 2. My child is way above average in height and it is very hard to confine him in a small space for more than 10 minutes. You have barely the space for your own leg on the plane so if you add his leg you cannot move on inch without hurting him !! Talk about safety !!!

A Dub in Glasgo

You were never allowed to purchase a seat on a flight for an infant (certainly not from the website). In order to buy a seat for an infant, you have to lie and tell the Ryanair system that the child is over 2!!

I have been booking flights with Ryanair with an infant for the last 5 years. I believe that they recently reduced the baggage allowance therefore this would cause more problems but Ryanair have never allowed seats to be booked for infants. You can check the T&Cs all the time but you have to lie to get a seat booked.

erin

The first time I had to travel on my own with my kid, I rang the reservation to check if I could buy a seat for him and they told me yes. The supervisor in Paris even told me that it was a recent procedure carrying out so I was not lying on my booking.

spongebob

Weird. At least they are refunding you the ticket you could not use because they would not let you .

M

A Dub in Glasgo

erin wrote:

The first time I had to travel on my own with my kid, I rang the reservation to check if I could buy a seat for him and they told me yes. The supervisor in Paris even told me that it was a recent procedure carrying out so I was not lying on my booking.

You booked direct over the phone then? You cannot book from the website.

erin

The first time throught the reservation call center but they told me that I could do it on the web using adult fare because it is what I am paying for.
They did mention to me that you can do it only for one kid under 2 if travelling on your own for eg. if you have two kids under 2, you cannot travel at all as you need to have the child on your lap for landing and take off that was the only restriction that they had at the time (rules applied to all airlines)

Anyway my point is why in Ireland no mention of this rule, I would have been less furious if it was mentionned to me in Dublin and not during the return trip -