Ryanair to Introduce Mandatory Seat Selection Fee for Young Families

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The low-cost European carrier says that the introduction of this charge will ensure that families will be automatically seated together on its flights.

Ryanair has announced that, as of September 1, it will be introducing mandatory seat selection fees for all passengers traveling with children under the age of 12. This reservation system, the low-cost carrier explains, will ensure that family groups will be allocated seats together from the time of booking.

The exact cost of this mandatory fee will vary. The Telegraph reports that, depending on the location of seats in the cabin, these fees will range anywhere from €8 ($8.89) to €26 ($28.89). However, in a statement issued by Ryanair, the carrier said that this charge will be levied at a cost of €4 ($4.44).

The airline has also advised that only “one adult in every booking with children … must purchase a reserved seat at the time of booking … then all children in the same booking will receive free reserved seats.”

Teenagers and other adults in the booking are not required to reserve a seat, but the carrier says that this fee will guarantee that those traveling as a family group will be seated together.

The carrier has stated that it “is introducing this initiative after a busy summer when most of Ryanair flights were full … but many adults traveling with young children did not select reserved seats and accordingly were randomly allocated seats that were not together (due to the large number of Ryanair customers who are already reserving their preferred seats).”

This, it explained, was problematic when cabin crews attempted to reseat families with young children.

The carrier said that it “cannot move customers who have already paid for their preferred seats to simply accommodate other customers who are traveling with young children, who declined to reserve their seats and chose to have randomly allocated seats.”

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, explained that, “This will guarantee that adults traveling with children under 12 will be able to select their preferred seats at the time of booking … and fly safe in the knowledge that they are getting Europe’s lowest air fares while ensuring that they always sit together with their children.”

[Photo: Ryanair]