MSE News: 'Family tax': Dad's outrage as Ryanair tries to seat 3yo away from family

capondoug

The last time my wife and I flew with Jet2 from Majorca, we were separated. Indeed everyone around us had been separated from their partners or groups. It was up to the passengers to sort out the seating. although one particularly nasty woman refused to co-operate.
Jet2 denied there was a deliberated policy to split passengers in order to encourage seat selection at a price; however, it is just impossible to believe that this situation was down to poor computer allocation.
This is also a serious issue, on top of the inconvenience and stress, given that, in the event of an accident, surely seat shuffling would interfere with the identification process of victims.

[FONT=&quot]From Jet2[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dear [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Mr[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Capon[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Thank you for your email received by us on the 10th October 2014.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I was sorry to read that you were disappointed with the seats you were allocated for your recent flights with us to Palma. I understand this it is disappointing to be allocated seats separately from Mrs Capon.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I would like to explain that for customers who choose not to pre-book, seats are allocated in a sequence that starts from the back of the aircraft working forwards. The system will always miss out any seats that are already reserved or that are located within an emergency exit and it is for this reason, we cannot guarantee seats will always be allocated together. We do not want customers to be surprised by this and so we explain how the system works during the booking process.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Nevertheless, I assure you that our system is not designed to intentionally split up customers. If the next available seats in the allocation sequence are adjacent, then customers will find that they have been given seats together, without having to reserve them. However, this cannot be guaranteed and is the reason we do encourage customers to pre-book, for the extra peace of mind.[/FONT]

Pollycat

capondoug wrote: »

The last time my wife and I flew with Jet2 from Majorca, we were separated. Indeed everyone around us had been separated from their partners or groups. It was up to the passengers to sort out the seating. although one particularly nasty woman refused to co-operate.
Jet2 denied there was a deliberated policy to split passengers in order to encourage seat selection at a price; however, it is just impossible to believe that this situation was down to poor computer allocation.

Maybe that 'particularly nasty woman' had opted to pay to choose that particular seat (as you and your wife clearly didn't) and couldn't see why she should move for people who weren't prepared to pay to choose their seat.

In her position, I'd would have done exactly the same.
Not nasty, just holding onto what you've paid for.

When we fly long-haul charter we pay to choose specific seats for a number of reasons (which may not be obvious to other passengers).

Unless I was instructed to move by the captain, there is no way we would give up our seats.

My OH & I ended up with a row of 3 seats each on a fairly full flight.
Cabin crew asked if we were travelling together - we were sat in aisle seats one behind the other - they were looking for 2 seats together for passengers who had obviously decided not to pay to choose their seats and wanted to be moved.
I told her that we had paid for those specific seats and she accepted that and carried on down the cabin.

Pay for this optional extra or accept that you may be separated.

Claire4321_2

Wow!
We came back from Portugal on Saturday and had the exact same thing, our 3 year old and all of our party 5 in total, were in different seats spread from the front to the back, so we had no way to swap amongst ourselves and were very casually advised to ask someone to switch with us. Luckily some kind fellow passengers were happy to oblige, but what it they weren't ?!

As it was we were either side of the aisle even after the switch, which is not ideal but luckily she a very relaxed flyer, but could this be a safety issue if anything happened, emergency landing, oxygen masks, finding the emergency exits etc. as well as the simple things like who will take them to the toilet and comfort them if they are not used to flying, as stranger ??

It seems strange that this happens so often if it is accidental and pure coincidence, perhaps they need to look at how their booking system works if they say this is not intentional, and I think the question is, do Ryanair and other airlines have a policy to enforce a seat change in order to ensure all children are sitting next to at least one parent ?

We have all decided not to fly Ryanair again as this was a final straw after suffering excessively long queues on both legs of the journey, which meant we had no time to buy food and when we were on the plane on our outward journey the sandwiches had frozen and so there were only crisps or chocolate by the time the food trolley got to us, not ideal for small children in a confined space ! and of course paying £240 extra for 3 hold bags probably meant they weren't even the cheapest airline anyway !

danyosan

This happened to me recently as well. There was myself, wife, a 5yr old, 3 yr old and a 1 year old(who didnt have a seat).

The program sat the 4 of us at opposite sides of the plane, and an aisle apart. It didnt even manage to get 2 seats together.

You could argue that they were the only seats left, but it did the same on the return flight, and on the outward flight, there was an empty row behind us.

Seemed dodgy to me at the time.

catwoman73

I have also experienced deliberate splitting by Jet2 on more than one occasion so their reply to capondoug does not tally with my experience of them. I could see that there were plenty of pairs of seats but on checking in online they allocated split seats. This was early in the check in window (Jet2 allows online check in up to 28 days in advance).

The most bizarre thing was that we were given seats B and E, ie the middle seat in each row, despite all four other seats being free when I checked in. It was like I was being punished for refusing to be duped into paying extra, particulary as the middle seats are the worst ones, being squashed between two strangers and not even being able to see out of the window properly.

Next time I fly Jet2, if they offer separate seats on check in, I might leave it a few days and try again as might then be offered a pair as their 'sequence' will have moved on.

However, despite having quite a few grumbles about them, they are based at our nearest airport and usually have better flight times than our other main option, Ryanair, and are usually comparable on price, especially when adding a checked bag, which is usually needed due to sports equipment so I have nothing to gain from saying 'I'll never fly with you again and will use someone else' as that will mean either paying more, having a very early or very late flight, or travelling further in the UK to fly out.

oligopoly

It really is a sad overview of today’s society – moaning and complaining about every possible grievance in the hope of some sort of compensation. I've always felt that this site is here to help people save money, not be underhand or manipulative with it.

As someone who has always paid extra to guarantee plane seats next to my wife, it annoys me that the people in this article are aggrieved that they don’t have adjacent seats. It’s the feeling of being hard done by that irks. If you want seats next to each other, then pay for the privilege like everyone else. The thought of heading onto a plane flight without sorting adjacent seats with my wife and baby and hoping to just wing it is just crazy! (excuse the pun).

It’s a similar story with the PPI saga (and the mention of Sentinel card protection in today’s MSE email) – it seems everyone that took out these policies – many in good faith – can’t believe their luck that they’re now in line to get a lump sum refunded. Severe lack of respect and dignity these days. Rant over.

TrinaA

I have never travelled with Ryanair before, and booked two tickets to travel to Lanzarote on 14th Dec, returning on Jan 13th, 2016, I have just found out that to get free seats we have to book in online & print Boarding Passes within 7 days of travel date or pay and book in within 30 days, ok if you don't mind paying and only going away for 1-2 weeks or so, you can print all boarding passes before you go, or again if you want free seats, find somewhere whilst on holiday to print off the passes. This is the problem we have for our return journey, as I`m away for 31 days, ( I cant do this before I go ) I either have the inconvenience of having to hunt around for somewhere to print off Boarding Passes, in Lanzarote, or turn up at the airport, (and I`m told get charged a booking in fee + £40 for boarding passes ) & pay. I really think Ryanair should make you aware of this before booking, as I had no clue. I have never had to do this with any other airline. Again another case of hidden charges. Contacted them regarding our return journey, really unhelpful, and told " I`m sure a printer can be found " Needless to say wont be booking Ryanair again.

rob67uk

Ryanair is actually my preferred carrier these days. Check-in opens 7 days before departure for free seat allocation and boarding passes can be sent to a mobile phone. In all the times with this new system I have never been split up from my family. Of course you do have to take responsibility and go onsite as soon as the free allocated seats are released. Job done. Far better than some of the other low cost carriers I could mention

jk0

A guy is sitting in the bar in departures at a busy airport. A beautiful woman walks in and sits down at the table next to him. He decides because she's got a uniform on, she's probably an off-duty flight attendant.

So he decides to have a go at picking her up by identifying the airline she flies for, thereby impressing her greatly. He leans across to her and says the Delta Airlines motto 'We love to fly and it shows'.

The woman looks at him blankly. He sits back and thinks up another line.

Undeterred , he tries again, this time saying the Malaysian Airlines motto 'Going beyond expectations'.

The woman turns to him and says "you really are an annoying little t w a t, why don't you just shut the f e c k up and leave me alone".

'Ah!' he says, sitting back with a smile on his face.

"Ryanair"

tomtontom

TrinaA wrote: »

I have never travelled with Ryanair before, and booked two tickets to travel to Lanzarote on 14th Dec, returning on Jan 13th, 2016, I have just found out that to get free seats we have to book in online & print Boarding Passes within 7 days of travel date or pay and book in within 30 days, ok if you don't mind paying and only going away for 1-2 weeks or so, you can print all boarding passes before you go, or again if you want free seats, find somewhere whilst on holiday to print off the passes. This is the problem we have for our return journey, as I`m away for 31 days, ( I cant do this before I go ) I either have the inconvenience of having to hunt around for somewhere to print off Boarding Passes, in Lanzarote, or turn up at the airport, (and I`m told get charged a booking in fee + £40 for boarding passes ) & pay. I really think Ryanair should make you aware of this before booking, as I had no clue. I have never had to do this with any other airline. Again another case of hidden charges. Contacted them regarding our return journey, really unhelpful, and told " I`m sure a printer can be found " Needless to say wont be booking Ryanair again.

Your check in options are explained when you book. It's a shame you failed to read them.

You make it sound like you're flying to some remote destination, not Lanzarote! I'm sure if you start a thread on here on TripAdvisor someone can let you know where to find a printer.