Fury as Ryanair seats passengers 'rows apart' unless they pay to sit together 1 June 2017 at 5:27PM in Flights, currency & car hire 129 replies 19.6K views

antenna

agarnett wrote: »

'Stearage' sounds to me like there might be soap involved - I don't think that's what you meant?

I wondered if anyone would spot that?

agarnett

antenna wrote: »

I wondered if anyone would spot that?

Oh yes me ol' mate, - I never got where I sit today (usually having blagged seats 16 or 17 A or F) without realising that steerage was the seats the lesser blaggers settle for, soap or no soap

StuieUK34

we flew with Ryanair last week (3 seats, 2 adults 1 child)
When check-in online, the system automatically splits you up, as others say, to force you to pay the £4 or £5 to get seats next to each other....

I paid £4 to sit the wife and child together, and I was 4 rows in front...
Its wrong what they are doing, but its right in a business/making money sense......

jpsartre

agarnett wrote: »

An outright lie by Ryanair, like the above quote appears to be, is an insult to the intelligence of those of us who have flown with Ryanair since before jpsartre was out of short trousers (if jpsartre is yet out of short trousers).

I actually pointed this out on the Tripadvisor Air Travel forum yesterday (short trousers or not) Look for the thread called "Ryanair [seats together]".

Falkirkgal

Checked in yesterday and got seats 8D and 23D. There were plenty of seats together including the seats either side of the ones we were allocated.

agarnett

jpsartre wrote: »

I actually pointed this out on the Tripadvisor Air Travel forum yesterday (short trousers or not) Look for the thread called "Ryanair [seats together]".

Is it you who wrote "This is hilarious, yes there absolutely is."? Because that sort of construct in the English language is very Michael O'Leary. Is it really you, Michael? Have they let you out to play?

jpsartre

No, I wrote:

"From the article:

"the company provided The Irish Times with a statement which said customers who do not wish to purchase a seat “are randomly allocated a seat, free of charge. (This has been our policy since the introduction of allocated seating in February 2014.)"


That's simpy not true, they used to put people on the same booking together and explicitly stated this on their website. The website has now been changed as far as I can tell. It's kind of pathetic that they try to cover up what is obviously a change in policy."

agarnett

So you are steering along a very narrow path, jps? If I get you right, you defend the airline's right to make the group of changes which makes up the whole of what this thread is about, but you do think it is pathetic that they are claiming to have made no change to their previous book together / generally wherever possible automatically sitting together policy?

OK right ... let's see if I've got this ... so with you on the last part, diametrically opposed on the main part of the discussion (I think -
do correct me if I am wrong!)

Look at this mess on the Ryanair FAQs currently (put your parenting head on, and you wish to travel in July or August and you find that there are no available free seats for your children to sit near you in rows 18-30 even if you pay to reserve yours - ask yourself "then what?"):

Reserved seating
Customers can select and buy their preferred seat online from the time of booking right up to 2 hours before each booked flight.

There are 3 types of allocated seat available for purchase:
Priority with extra legroom Seats from £/€ 11.00 - Rows 1,2 (D,E,F) & 16,17 (includes priority boarding)
Priority Seats from £/€7.00 - Rows 2 (A,B,C)3 -5 (includes priority boarding)
Passengers who have purchased Priority Boarding will not be asked to place their cabin bag in the aircraft hold, unless necessary due to operational reasons.
Standard Seats from £/€2.00 – Rows 6-15 & 18-33
Allocated seat fees are non-refundable except as provided in Articles 4.2, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4
Customers who do not wish to select and purchase their preferred seat, can check-in online between 4 days and 2 hours before each booked flight and will be randomly allocated a seat free of charge.
Online Check In Procedure
Between 60 days and 2 hours before each booked flight you can select and purchase your preferred seat onboard.
Or
If you do not wish to select and purchase your preferred allocated seat onboard then between 4 days and 2 hours before each booked flight you can go to online check in and will be randomly allocated a seat free of charge.
NOTE: Customers who change flight dates/routes or names are not able to transfer their reserved seat to the new date/flight/name.

Seat Restrictions

We reserve the right to reassign seats at any time, for operational, safety or security reasons.
For safety reasons to sit in an emergency exit seat (rows 1, 16 & 17) you must be:

16 years or older
Willing and able to help in the event of an emergency
Not traveling with an infant (in addition includes rows 2 A,B,C, 15 and 18)
Not be a large customer requiring a seat belt extender
Not have not booked an extra seat (comfort or additional item)
Not requiring airport special assistance of any kind
For safety reasons a maximum of 2 infants can be seated in any row (one on either side of the centre aisle).
We reserve the right to reassign allocated seats at any time for operational, safety or security reasons.
Family Bookings - Reserved Seats
Effective from October 2016 for an adult travelling with children under 12 (excl. infants) – it will become mandatory for one adult on the booking to purchase a seat, so that the children in his booking get a free reserved seat. A maximum of four children for every one adult on the booking will get a free reserved seat. It will not be mandatory for any other adults or teenagers in the booking to reserve a seat; however they may choose to do so.
For adults required to purchase a reserved seat, a reduced fee of €4.00 will apply. These standard €4.00 seats are available for selection in rows 18-30. Seats in rows 18-30 will be free for children.
If an adult required to purchase a reserved seat selects a seat in a different row, he must pay the difference in price. Children will be charged the full price of these seats.
If due to high demand standard €4.00 reserved seats in rows 18-30 are unavailable for everyone on the booking, adults required to purchase a seat can select another reserved seat for the difference in price or try different travel dates. Free reserved seats for children will then apply to rows 11-15. For travel in July and August, children will be required to pay the difference in price also.
If there are no available seats together on the flight, a different flight can be selected.

Then for an extra 5 marks if you finish the above question early, part two of today's Ryanair exam question in the seat syllabus:

In the light of your answer to question one, explain what Ryanair are trying to tell you in the following extra snippet to be found elsewhere on their website - specifically, what do you think Ryanair mean when they say "we may try to assist you"?:

If you have purchased an extra seat, please contact our call centre to assist you with seat allocation. Click here for our contact information.

If you chose not to select and purchase a seat and have been allocated seats which are not together please contact our call centre so that we may try to assist you, alternatively you can online chat with one of our team.

Allocated seating in emergency rows 1,16 and 17 may not be purchased if you have purchased an extra seat for item/comfort.

And finally, for the real smarta$$es who have finished already, 2 extra marks if you can explain the difference between the standard €4 seats mentioned above in rows 18-30 and the standard £2 or measly €2 seats in rows 18-33 (hint: the correct answer is not '3 rows of seats')

jpsartre

agarnett wrote: »

If I get you right, you defend the airline's right to make the group of changes which makes up the whole of what this thread is about, but you do think it is pathetic that they are claiming to have made no change to their previous book together / generally wherever possible automatically sitting together policy?

I don't know in what sense it's a narrow path but Ryanair can make any rule they want for all I care as long they are legal and conveyed to their customers (which they curently are since the website now correctly states that seats are allocated randomly to those who don't pay). But yes, it's rather pathetic that they refuse to admit the policy has changed when they've even changed their website to reflect it.

agarnett

jpsartre wrote: »

But yes, it's rather pathetic that they refuse to admit the policy has changed when they've even changed their website to reflect it.

Can you show us evidence of the website change? I had a quick look on archive.org, but it looks like those clever people at Ryanair have spoofed the Wayback machine so that even though archive.org says it's grabbed 7 captured snapshots of one of the relevant Ryanair help pages they've managed to get every one on archive.org to say "We're sorry! We can't find the page you are looking for."