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Fury as Ryanair seats passengers 'rows apart' unless they pay to sit together
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It was the same when they were forced to stop charging silly fees for using virtually any payment method, other than some obscure card that hardly anyone had. They could have kept the exact same prices by increasing the headline price and giving a discount for the obscure card, but that would have defeated the whole reason for their pricing structure.
I remember that caused some serious whinging here
Imagine being furious, irate and calling an airline despicable for giving you exactly what you paid for. How dare an airline do that! :rotfl:
without paying for allocated seats.
We have previously had seats several rows apart on Jet2 and have heard of other airlines doing the same.
Another non story from the media. If it bothers anyone, it's their choice, and they know in advance they might not sit together. We have booked about 8 or 10 Ryanair flights in the past year and only once were the seats not together.
Use the savings towards a meal out at your destination.
On the other hand, Ryanair is the perfect way to experience steerage class from the Titanic era.
I had a really uncomfortable night about 30 years ago, packed into a long distance train in China. You are the lucky ones if you managed to squeeze under the seats, smelling feet. I couldn't even stand up straight, because there was no where to put my feet. Nowhere to put my rucksack, so it was on my back for at least ten hours. Eighteen hours later, I actually got a seat, because it thinned out. I could have bought a sleeper berth, at three or four times the price, but I wanted the "authentic" travel experience.
KLM does something more subtle.
When you book initially, you can choose your seat if you pay a little extra, but I find that if you wait till the ~30 hour check-in window, you can choose a seat for free, but from a reduced selection, since some seats had been allocated already. I am talking about the cheapest, most inflexible tickets (what else would an MSE buy
Just got offered an upgrade to business class, during online check-in, at what KLM claimed was 80% discount. I grabbed it like a shot. About 90% of the (business class) seats were empty, so I had plenty to choose from. I wonder whether they would refund the money if I had paid to pick an Economy seat previously? Great minds think alike, as business class was 90% full when we lifted off. How many were MSEs? Hehe.
It has occurred to me that I only got the 80% discount because more seats were empty. As the number of unsold (business class)seats disappear, it makes sense to reduce the discount.
All in order to squeeze a little more out of me, but nobody seems to bat an eyelid about KLM.
Watching their passengers unpacking pairs of socks, etc. to reduce their luggage weight by a few milligrams became good entertainment for us as we checked-in with other airlines.
If you must travel Ryanair then you should know, by now, what you're letting yourself in for.
I've flown eight legs with them this year. One ninety minute delay. A couple of the longest flights were hard sell on the coffee and scratch cards, but nothing I couldn't ignore.
I saw one customer taking the pi$$ with hand luggage the size of Ayre's Rock but overall I've been quite impressed.
I've flown Ryanair probably 150 or so times over the years - I commuted several times a week between Ireland and England for a while and took many weekend breaks in Europe.
Because I followed the clearly marked instructions on the booking website,used a trusty rucksack that fitted Ryanair's size restrictions and prepared for my flight properly I have never experienced a single issue.
Virtually every flight has been on time or early and every single one of them has been cheaper than the competitors.
EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.
In a week in which BA has suffered another PR disaster Ryanair recorded record annual profits of £1.1Billion while at the same time driving down fares by 13% in three years.
It seems people are not that worried about being separated on a plane for an hour or two .....
Ryanair are not my favourite airline anyway and I don't mind paying a few pounds more for airlines that offer a better travel experience - so Ryanair is always a last resort option.
I have no hassle sitting separately but I think it is poor customer practice without advising customers of a change in policy.
You pay your money and take your choice. For a 2 1/2 hour flight we don't care. Ryanair have fairly new aircraft, arrive on time and have given us no hassle. In addition, they are invariably cheaper than their rivals.
Go with whoever you like, it's your choice. Ryanair must do something right to record the profits they do, and order new aircraft from Boeing. Compare that with Monarch who asked for yet another bail out recently and Jet2 who fly old bangers of aircraft...
Obviously never flown BA then, we've seen people get onto Ryan air craft barely able to carry their luggage, on BA we've seen it unpacked all over the floor whilst people struggle to wear an extra pair of socks just to get the weight down.
I suspect it all depends on the check in and gate staff and how stroppy they feel that day. We've certainly never noticed any difference between the airlines, they all do it.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.