Beat Budget Airline Charges Article Discussion

Martin_Hill

Why oh why oh why doesn't Ryanair use seat numbers???

All over the world budget airline carriers manage to distribute seat numbers. They then avoid the British phenomenon of a queue and scrum down to get on the plane and the aggro that this produces.

Ryanair give every check in that is made a sequence number. It's not rocket science for them to change this into a seat number. Their IT people could achieve this in a couple of hours.

But NO they insist on treating customers like cattle. Even cattle in fields have allocated numbers in the milking parlours!!

Martin Hill:mad:

richardw

Martin_Hill wrote: »

the British phenomenon of a queue and scrum down to get on the plane and the aggro that this produces.

I think it was started by www.southwest.com in the USA http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool/index.html

Gordinho

MKB wrote: »

Shockingly, bmibaby will now deliberately sit a group of people on the same booking in seats that are not together, if you don't pay for to choose your own seats.

I recently travelled with my partner (on the same booking) with bmibaby from East Midlands to Glasgow. On such a short flight, I thought it not worth choosing particular seats and would take my chances with what the computer gave us at online check-in. Despite 95% of the plane being available, were I prepared to pay, the computer gave us seats on different rows.

This being a subsidiary of bmi, who are renowned for their technical problems, I assumed it was a computer glitch. But no, the woman on the bmibaby desk at EMA confirmed to me that adjacent seats will no longer be assigned, even when there are lots of non-premium ones available.

On board, the flight was only half full, and the moment the doors were shut, about 15 people, me included, all jumped up and started swapping round to be with the rest of their party. What a farce.

A few years ago CAA guidelines stated that families and parties travelling together should not be split up or sat apart, the reason for this being that in the event of emergency parties will not look for exits but for each other instead causing additional confusion. When my children were younger I used to remind check in staff of this when they would attempt to split the family because I hadn't pre booked seats together.
I don't know if these guidelines are still in force as my growing family aren't that inclined to sit with Dad nowadays if they can help it!

Spudkins

Yes, Carolt, I have just booked Ryanair trying to take bag out but return without one, and it won't let me do it, so i have ended up paying £10 for return bag that I won't be using - really frustrating! Hate Ryanair, try to use Monarch when I can, but at the moment the price is too high. At least they allow you to book return separately. Suppose I could have done that with Ryanair by going through the process twice, but only thought of that after I'd booked!

richardw

Spudkins wrote: »

Suppose I could have done that with Ryanair by going through the process twice, but only thought of that after I'd booked!

Yes, that sounds like the way to do it.

apt

Martin_Hill wrote: »

Why oh why oh why doesn't Ryanair use seat numbers???

All over the world budget airline carriers manage to distribute seat numbers. They then avoid the British phenomenon of a queue and scrum down to get on the plane and the aggro that this produces.

Ryanair give every check in that is made a sequence number. It's not rocket science for them to change this into a seat number. Their IT people could achieve this in a couple of hours.

But NO they insist on treating customers like cattle. Even cattle in fields have allocated numbers in the milking parlours!!

Martin Hill:mad:

Ryanair (and Easyjet) have two reasons for this. One is that they get extra money from selling speedy/priority boarding. The second is that the passengers board more quickly when they have to scramble for a seat helping to keep to the short turn-around times.

richardw

apt wrote: »

The second is that the passengers board more quickly when they have to scramble for a seat helping to keep to the short turn-around times.

That's a bit of a myth. People standing in the aisle and sorting out what they need before sitting down slows things down.

Avina_Popp

terry227 wrote: »

Well put it this way...I've arrive at Stansted with 19kg of hand baggage, put 9 of it in my pockets and the 2nd (lightweight) bag in the 1st bag, get through security (of course I hve to take my coat off to be scanned...but it's NOT hand luggage), once thought security, take bag 2 from bag 1, empty my pockets into it, added my coat, and travel that way through to my destination no problem. I do this 4 - 6 times a month. If at some airports, the Ryanair Staff check hand baggage at the gate...just put your coat back on...but in 6 years, I've never been questioned.

I walk from the aircraft at my destination with 2 bags!

I'd love to know why this poster travels with 19kg of hand baggage 4-6 times a month! I wonder what it contains!

Avina_Popp

richardw wrote: »

That's a bit of a myth. People standing in the aisle and sorting out what they need before sitting down slows things down.

In my experience ALL airline passengers do this whether or not they have an allocated seat. Does anyone know why they do it?

chili2001

On a recent trip to Sweden we decided to take 1 check in bag between us and use the new online check in service provided by Ryan air.

Now, you would think this would be easier (and cheaper) but I think it is a cunning ploy by Ryanair to fleece even more cash out of people who don't read the smallprint.

Now you would think that online check in means just that, we printed out our boarding passes (for both outgoing and return flights) and set off to find what we thought would be a machine to print off a sticky label for the 1 suitcase we had to then be chucked on an automated conveyer belt to hopefully end up on the flight we were on.

Imagine our suprise to find out that because we had a hold bag we STILL had to join the queue with everyone else wether they had checked in online or not.

Now, some poor sods who hadn't weighed their bags propelly and because they had already printed out the boarding passes were being turned away to an automated Ryanair "we take your cash" machine (which are everywhere at Stansted airport) and being charged £15 PER KILO! for being over the 15kg hold bag weight. They then had to rejoin the queue at the back and try again.

The whole thing was a farce and took a lot longer than a normal check in because Ryanair LIKE people being ignorant of their many rules and regulations. There was no information on the website about online check in or even at the airport. People were wandering around looking a little lost as like me they didn't think that online check in meant "Normal join the queue check in but you can use your own printer to do your own boarding passes".

The only way this would be quicker, is if you only have hand luggage. Although i'm sure they will find an extra charge for that soon!