{"id":6490,"date":"2025-08-18T06:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6490\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:02:07","slug":"we-dont-have-time-to-waste-with-stupid-follow-up-questions-from-your-readers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6490\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We don\u2019t have time to waste with stupid follow-up questions from your readers\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back we highlighted how a change in Ryanair<\/a>\u2019s policies on minors flying with the airline<\/a> had seen the plans of two separate travelling parties left up in the air. <\/p>\n

In times past, in many cases, children over the age of 16 were able to accompany a child under the age of 16 on Ryanair flights across Europe without any fuss.<\/p>\n

However, unknown to a couple of readers who contacted us, the rules changed \u2013 and now under-16s need to be accompanied by an adult, or they will not be able to fly with Ryanair.<\/p>\n

The airline told us the change was implemented last September and was a result of rules in Spain<\/a> and other countries mandating that children under the age of 16 had to be accompanied by someone over the age of 18. <\/p>\n

And that was that. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Two Ryanair passengers complain to Pricewatch. The airline is having none of itOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At least, that was that until other readers started contacting us questioning what we had been told. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer we went to Portugal<\/a>, but my 14-year old went to Biarritz the week before for a French language camp,\u201d wrote a reader called Paul. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe option of me waiting in Dublin for him to return and then follow the family wasn\u2019t a good one, so he flew out of Bilbao to Lisbon and then on a connecting flight to Faro. He was going to fly with TAP, so my wife rang them in advance to see what their minors policy was. Once you turn 12 you are not a minor with TAP, so he flew out of Spain and into Portugal on his own, and without any issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also heard from a reader called Brid who had a similar experience to the readers who contacted us to say unaccompanied under-16s were not allowed travel with Ryanair this summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe same issue also happened to my son and his friend, travelling to France<\/a> in June this year,\u201d she said. \u201cI hadn\u2019t yet gotten around to making a complaint, but your article has saved me some time and likely fruitless effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says a \u201cquestion though that wasn\u2019t answered, and which they might more readily answer for you rather than us mere customers, was why their systems weren\u2019t updated for the change in policy. The Ryanair booking systems will not allow a child under the age of 16 to be booked on their own, whereas they will allow them to be booked with an over-16 (which is still how their booking system defines an adult, and they don\u2019t specify they must be over 18),\u201d she writes. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, they allow (or at least, when my son and his friend travelled in June) an under-16 to be checked in with an over-16 but under-18. Surely resorting to \u2018t\u2019s and c\u2019s\u2019 [terms and conditions] defence is insufficient from a consumer perspective for such clear inconsistency between their policies and consumer systems. At best, it is completely misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also heard from another reader, Aoibhe, who questioned what Ryanair told us about the timing of the policy change. <\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Our policy is that under-16s must be accompanied by over-18s. We previously allowed them to be accompanied by over-16s, but we suffered some cases where such U18s were denied entry into EU airports. We have to ensure that we avoid this risk\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Ryanair statement<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI would question whether it\u2019s accurate for Ryanair to maintain they changed their minor\u2019s policy last September. We had a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old travel with Ryanair from Spain to Dublin on October 27th, 2024, and back on November 1st, 2024. It was all perfectly acceptable then. I can\u2019t see Ryanair not rigidly enforcing any policy they conjure up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the \u201csame two teenagers \u2013 who have not changed in age since then \u2013 could not fly to Dublin together this month due to the policy change. Thankfully, their mother was aware of the policy change,\u201d she writes, asking how, in an AI age, \u201ccan a system let you make a booking that does not adhere to their policy?\u201d<\/p>\n

She also points out that Vueling Airlines<\/a> \u201chas no problem with a 15-year-old and 17-year-old travelling together, [and] I would question the accuracy of Ryanair saying that Spain is one of the countries where under-16s must be accompanied by an adult, as our friends have just come from Spain\u201d.<\/p>\n

She points out that her son travelled with Aer Lingus to Spain when he was 15 in the company of a 14-year-old in August 2023 and she \u201chad to fill out a \u2018Form Of Indemnity\u2019 to absolve Aer Lingus<\/a> of any liability. The form is for 12- to 15-year-olds. Are Ryanair maintaining that Vueling and Aer Lingus are breaking EU law?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A letter from Michael O\u2019Leary: \u2018MetroLink is a mad, bad project\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

We put these reader stories to Ryanair \u2013 and the response we received was typically robust. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur very sensible \u2018minors\u2019 policy was clearly set out in our July letter, and we don\u2019t have time to waste dealing with stupid follow-up questions from your handful of readers,\u201d the mail begins. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur policy is that under-16s must be accompanied by over-18s. We previously allowed them to be accompanied by over-16s, but we suffered some cases where such U18s were denied entry into EU airports. We have to ensure that we avoid this risk, which is the only reason we changed this policy. If your readers don\u2019t accept this policy, then they should please feel free to fly with other airlines, who may operate a more lax minors travel policy.\u201d <\/p>\n

There was more. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis policy affects tiny numbers of our 206m pax [passengers], since most parents go to great lengths to ensure that U16 children are accompanied by over-18s \u2013 usually their parents! We don\u2019t block such bookings since many families book air travel on different bookings but on the same flight, and we don\u2019t want to prevent such families travelling together.\u201d <\/p>\n

The email adds that this \u201cminors policy was changed in September last year. [Aoibhe\u2019s booking] was made on Sept 17th, before the policy change was made. Still, they should not have been allowed to travel on the Santander-to-Dublin flight. We cannot always catch all pax who break our rules, but if they are denied entry at an EU airport, it becomes their responsibility, not ours.\u201d <\/p>\n

The statement concludes by saying that \u201cinstead of whinging about our very sensible \u2018minors\u2019 travel policy, perhaps your handful of readers would simply ensure that an U16 child is accompanied by an over 18yo adult, or otherwise fly with another airline, who may operate a less sensible \u2018minors\u2019 travel policy, then we won\u2019t have to waste our time, or yours, replying to such stupid follow-on queries\u201d. <\/p>\n

For the record \u2013 and for the avoidance of all doubt \u2013 we entirely accept Ryanair\u2019s position on minors travelling, and it is entirely within its rights to set its own policies irrespective of what other airlines do. We entirely disagree, however, with its claim that the follow-up queries from our \u201chandful of readers\u201d were \u201cstupid\u201d. <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t consider the queries a waste of time either. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks back we highlighted how a change in Ryanair\u2019s policies on minors flying with the airline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2442,79,2190,18,19,17,6642,6641,623,383,6643],"class_list":{"0":"post-6490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-portugal","15":"tag-pricewatch","16":"tag-ryanair","17":"tag-spain","18":"tag-vueling"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}