Originally Posted by
irishguy28
It might work if you're departing the UK. (Then again, it might not - many check-in staff won't even know what the CAA is. Even for those that do, they may be more worried about the sanctions they receive for not sticking to company policy*, than any potential rap-on-the-knuckles the airline might receive weeks, months or years down the line).
Won't help anywhere else!
*
Ryanair policy is that adults travelling with children under 12 must purchase a reserved seat - for €4 - so that the child(ren) can receive an allocated seat beside that adult for free (up to 4 such free child seats per adult seating payment).
irishguy28, I'm inclined to agree with you. It's not a failsafe protection by any means, but I'm simply quoting it to demonstrate that there is
some - albeit rather weak - regulatory guidance on this. I've seen anecdotal evidence of it being quoted by passengers separated from their children and it working; it's not a given, of course. If I were experiencing difficulty getting non-UK ground staff to understand, I'd probably state it rather more plainly and tell them "it's the law!" (not strictly true, but gets the message across)
Thanks for posting the link to the Ryanair policy - I wasn't aware of that one - but I suppose it's a fair compromise as they're only charging the adult a reduced seat selection fee and then guaranteeing that they can sit with their kids.