Ryanair Seat Policy & TDA 1968

alwaystravelling

I recently flew with 3 others on a Ryanair flight to Nuremberg. All of us were scattered around the aircraft, outbound and inbound, as were members of every other group I spoke to. This policy will not be changed by complaining to Ryanair. They have little regard for negative customer feedback.

The company makes it clear that it allocates seats randomly, unless you pay to sit together. However, if it can be demonstrated that the allocation of seats to passengers who check in on the same booking (groups), is in fact NOT random, but is done in a way which would inevitably result in those groups being broken up, then it could be that Ryanair is in breach of Trade Description legislation. It would not matter whether the company allocated middle seats first, window seats first, or even seats by row number order. The point is that the allocation would NOT BE RANDOM, as stated by Ryanair. The 1968 act makes it an offence for a trader to make false or misleading statements about goods or services. Perhaps complaints in this direction might be worth pursuing, to force Ryanair into a full and honest statement of their seat allocation policy.
In the mean time, this policy, and the way the company views its customers in general, demonstrates yet again why Ryanair should be called a cheap airline, and by "cheap", I do not mean low cost.

IAmWales

Do we need a third thread on this?

[Deleted User]

Perhaps if everyone paid £3, all the threads could be put together, rather than spread out as they are currently?

Caz3121

alwaystravelling wrote: »

This policy will not be changed by complaining to Ryanair. They have little regard for negative customer feedback.

Ryanair allow you to pay for seat selection if you want to sit together. If you don't want to pay then you can assume you will not be sat together
(seems fair for the people that do pay)
Of course it is possible that Ryanair can allocate seats together for those that choose not to pay....but then who would pay for a service that is given fee.
I assume you would like the fare increased to include seat selection for everyone as many airlines do...but there are people that prefer to not pay for elements that are not important to them so it is personal choice

alwaystravelling

Ryanair has every right in the world to choose how it prices, markets, allocates seats, and what it charges as extras. The customer has the right to choose what they pay for. The question is not whether it is right that Ryanair should deliberately separate people, but whether they are being honest about their seating policy. Deliberately separating groups IS NOT randomly allocating seats, which is what they claim to be doing, and that arguably contravenes the Trades Description Act.
Perhaps it would be more honest if Ryanair were to say something like "Passengers on this booking will be separated unless you pay for being together".

Rosemary7391

I already offered (in the hen party thread) to do the math to check whether the results are roughly consistent with the stated policy of randomness. No one cared enough to find me the information I needed to do the calculation and I don't care enough to keep checking back or find it myself...

jackieblack

Deleted_User wrote: »

Perhaps if everyone paid £3, all the threads could be put together, rather than spread out as they are currently?

:rotfl: :rotfl: