Ryanair Reserved Seating

benjus

Many traditional airlines where all seats are reserved have been charging a premium for extra legroom seats for ages. Why attack Ryanair for joining in?

macman

How can they allow reservations in the two emergency exit rows? It's a safety requirement that people sitting in those be 'able bodied', which means that the cabin staff have to check that they don't have a wooden leg or a glass eye etc. How can that be determined via an online booking?
Having said that, I once flew Easyjet, where the man sitting opposite me in the e. e. row had a broken arm, with plaster cast clearly visible!

SaveTheEuro

macman wrote: »

How can they allow reservations in the two emergency exit rows? It's a safety requirement that people sitting in those be 'able bodied', which means that the cabin staff have to check that they don't have a wooden leg or a glass eye etc. How can that be determined via an online booking?
Having said that, I once flew Easyjet, where the man sitting opposite me in the e. e. row had a broken arm, with plaster cast clearly visible!

You agree that you are 16 or older, not obese and able to help in an emergency when you make the booking. No doubt the crew would move you to another seat if you weren't.

macman

But I bet you don't get your tenner back if they refuse you...
I'd be interested to know how the Ryanair training manual advises cabin crew to approach people who have booked emergency exit seats and then turn out to be obese...are they going to be weighed in public?

Gloomendoom

Does it actually say "obese"? It is usually worded something like "Passengers occupying EE seats must be an appropriate weight for their height". If you are as wide as you are tall, it's the cheap seats for you.

If you read some of the airline reviews, it's surprising how many people moan that their bums are too big to fit in the seats.

macman

Alternatively, if the cabin crew follow the usual O'Leary approach to tact and diplomacy in customer relations, they'll just shout "Oi, fatty, you can't sit there!"

trolleyrun

This is a worrying development from RYR. It's a legal requirement that there are at least one able-bodied person at each self-help overwing exit. *

Able-bodied means: not disabled/impaired, not obese (as in doesn't need an extension seatbelt), no children/babies.

*The only time there is no need for anyone at the overwing exit would be if the load is very light (as in <50).

Gloomendoom

I must admit the no fatty, no baby rules together with the extra leg room make me more likely to pay the extra to sit there. The disadvantage is that the seats are usually in a cold draft and Mrs G likes to spread her stuff all over the floor, which isn't allowed either.

BusPass_2

Slightly off topic but I thought I would mention Priority Boarding which is different from Reserved Seating.

On a recent flight departure Priority Boarders and Reserved Seating people were given priority in the queue and this gave them the doubtful privilege of being first in the queue to get on the plane. This meant them standing outside in the bad weather with no cover waiting while the newly arrived flight passengers disembarked. The Other Queue people, which included me, had the warmth and comfort of remaining in the terminal until we were called forward.

Very odd, I thought, but something even more interesting occurred at the airport of arrival.

Most of the priority and reserved seating passengers were accomodated at or near the front of the plane. On disembarking both front and rear doors were used. We had to board buses to get to passport control. We disembarked from the back of the plane and got on to the front bus which was parked at the rear of the plane. The people from the front of the plane got on to the bus behind and, of course, we arrived at Passport Control before them.

It appears therefore that priority boarding is exactly that, it affords no priveleges on arrival. We were clear of the terminal building, having hand luggage only, before some of the priority boarders and reserved seaters had cleared passport control.

Personally I prefer to make a quick exit at the other end rather than get some dubious advantage through getting on first.

I suppose the moral of the story, as far as I am concerned, is that priority boarding is not worth paying for.

I am surprised that Mr O'Leary has not hit on the idea of priority disembarking. He could wring even more money out of his customers if he did.

macman

Priority boarding means just what it says-it is not priority disembarkation.
The absurdity of Ryanair priority boarding is that there appears to be no limit on the number of priority boarding cards they are willing to sell. If almost the entire passenger list is in the PB queue, where is the possible benefit? I've been on flights where well over half the passengers seem to have paid for PB.