Fury as Ryanair seats passengers 'rows apart' unless they pay to sit together

lottiegirl

We flew in May with Ryanair, with my elderly father who had special assistance booked for the airport and marked on the boarding slip. On the return journey we were split up in different areas of the plane. This was the first time we have experienced this. We usually fly 4-5 times a year with them.

Normally this would not bother us, but my father needs assistance to go to the toilet and reminders re seat belts.

We spoke to ground crew and once on the plane,we did get the crew on board to alter seats for me to be next to my father, but this did not happen until after take off.

OH missed seeing any box for paying extra, trusting that with special assistance it would be ok, also once seats were allocated we missed seeing where we could upgrade pay to seat together.

PeacefulWaters

It's disingenuous to deliberately sit people on the same booking anywhere other than next to each other unless operationally necessary.

Operationally necessary should only affect the last couple to check in.

agarnett

I haven't experienced this deliberate splitting up nonsense yet.

I have flown Ryanair hundreds of times.

I have a booking coming up in a couple of weeks with the two of us - I'll keep an eye on it - I don't intend to pay extra for us to sit together.

If we get split up, I shall be very annoyed, despite reading it here first, and especially if I see evidence that I can still pay to sit together in normal non-surcharged seats that are otherwise used for free allocation.

It obviously can happen that not all members of a group can sit together with larger groups on full flights where they check in relatively late, but the implied probability that two adults frequently cannot sit together when the aircraft has 33 rows of 2 x 3 seats is a dishonest nonsense, and the probability that a parent and an under 12 cannot be seated together because all other available seats are already allocated is only about 10% less than for adults (I think only 15 seats out of 189 are out of bounds to children due to being emergency exit seats).

Are Ryanair really deliberately splitting up parents/kids, couples and groups and then demanding money to sit them back next to each other? If they do, I can scarcely believe the sort of warped mind that dreams it up and calls it "business". I would never trust that same mind to operate a "safety first" operation. The two types of thinking are incompatible.

Having given Ryanair some plaudits in the last 6 months, I might now still be tempted to collect two or three EU261 delay compensation claims which I was going to let ride ...

Let's see what I observe in the next couple of flights ...

buglawton

There was a BBC Moneybox article on this where a golfing group of 15 (IIRC) all got seated down the middle row. The odds on this happening at random were calculated as very unlikely indeed.

jpsartre

I find it hard to gather much sympathy for people who are caught out by this. A seat can usually be prebooked for £2. How angry can you really be if you don't get something you don't even value enough to pay £2 for?

soolin

buglawton wrote: »

Good for you if you're a frequent flier and know all the dodges, and traveling on your own.

I'm the type that doesn't like stealth taxes or being taken for a fool. As I mentioned on the other thread, the fact that Ryanair takes luggage unpredictably into the hold at the airplane steps without a receipt for it, together with this childishly money-grubbing seat allocation policy that makes the online check in a real faff now, has all steered me towards Easyjet for my next trip.

Will you be paying for seats on easyJet? I've flown with them 3 times now, the first two trips my OH and I were seated apart on both legs of the journey, for the third trip I paid in advance for seats when I booked. I'm going away with them again in a few weeks and have already paid to choose my seats.

I flew out on London yesterday with Monarch and my OH and I shared a row of 3 seats with one half of a couple, his wife was seated about 10 rows away. He said he never pre books seats and just takes what is allocated and they are seated together for about 2 our of every 3 trips.

zagfles

Well, just done a couple of Ryanair flights - outbound we were 10 rows apart but the seat next to my wife was free so just went and sat there for most of the flight (was in my allocated seat for take off and landing).

Inbound we were 2 rows apart and there were a lot of people all around us allocated seats similar distances apart, resulting in a lot of horse-trading of seats! I can see why delays could be caused as someone mentioned earlier.

[Deleted User]

buglawton wrote: »

Good for you if you're a frequent flier and know all the dodges, and traveling on your own.

I'm the type that doesn't like stealth taxes or being taken for a fool. As I mentioned on the other thread, the fact that Ryanair takes luggage unpredictably into the hold at the airplane steps without a receipt for it, together with this childishly money-grubbing seat allocation policy that makes the online check in a real faff now, has all steered me towards Easyjet for my next trip.

" know all the dodges. "
There are no dodges.I just follow the booking procedure as closely as I would with any other airline and book.
If I want to be guaranteed to be sat next to the missus I'll pay an extra measly two quid each but the reality is neither of us care for such a short flight.
Any inconvenience is minor compared to the thousands of pounds I've saved flying with Ryanair.
A knighthood for Michael O'Leary is what I say.

matty_art

It is clearly a deliberate policy given there's a pop up to try and make you buy closer seats when it sits you apart.

I checked in 9 people on a stag at the same time the other day and it threw us all over the plane. Quite funny really, I enjoyed the peace and quiet. A bit cheeky of Ryanair though in my opinion, but someone obviously had a brainwave in their "charge customers for everything we can" team!

PeacefulWaters

matty_art wrote: »

It is clearly a deliberate policy given there's a pop up to try and make you buy closer seats when it sits you apart.

I checked in 9 people on a stag at the same time the other day and it threw us all over the plane. Quite funny really, I enjoyed the peace and quiet. A bit cheeky of Ryanair though in my opinion, but someone obviously had a brainwave in their "charge customers for everything we can" team!

In the case of stag/hen dos maybe Ryanair are doing the right thing!