Ryanair new seating trick

unforeseen

I actually pay to achieve that as we each have different preferences. I want leg room and go for the front seats next to the door. This gives me space to put my legs out straight. She doesn't like being there and is normally one or two rows back in a window seat.

Even when we have sat together there tends to be no interaction as, like many people, we plug ourselves into our music.

trailingspouse

Has definitely happened to us recently. We used to fly Ryanair regularly, and never got split up even though we didn't pay to reserve the seats. But recently we've been split up. We just swap with others sitting nearby - people travelling on their own are usually happy enough to swap around.

Re wanting to be close to loved ones in an emergency, this is a well documented thing, and people will go to great lengths (often risking their own lives) to be with their nearest and dearest - even if those people are 'perfectly capable of following instructions in an emergency'. It's just what people who love each other do. So yes, Ryanair's policy could, worst-case-scenario, lead to loss of life.

buglawton

unforeseen wrote: »

I actually pay to achieve that as we each have different preferences. I want leg room and go for the front seats next to the door. This gives me space to put my legs out straight. She doesn't like being there and is normally one or two rows back in a window seat.

Even when we have sat together there tends to be no interaction as, like many people, we plug ourselves into our music.

Never mind the pay aspect. What I hate is the sheer faff of picking out seats and stepping through the accept price bit for each seat. If Ryanair were to offer one simple tickbox 'sit together £x' at the start, I could just about accept it. As it happens, haven't booked one Ryanair flight since the one I took where I discovered this issue, about 12 months ago.

ABC_D_Goldfish

Pollycat wrote: »

From another thread:

It relates to a bit on Watchdog where 4 researchers booked flights on the same booking and were split up.

And this post seems to support the theory that couples are being split up:

It's still going on! Happened to me just yesterday! Checking-in, two of us together, randomly allocated (middle) seats at either end of the plane even though there were seats free each side of those!!
One comment here said it was to do with that people will pay for a window or an isle seat rather than a middle! Why then? did they not seat us maybe behind each other when those seats were
also still free? Don't get me started about the return check in! That saga is ongoing! To avoid the randomly allocated far away seating I decided to go through the pay £7 route. Chose seats close together, then the system chucked me out! I had to log back in! Yes you guessed it, two seconds later those seats had magically disappeared and now the price had gone up to £10 ?!?
So then I choose to check-in later and they say you must check-in for the return journey now!
So try booking the £10 seats next to each other and the payment screen won't come up to allow me to pay.
Very exasperated and I'm on frustration overload about Ryanair check-in! !!!55358;!!!56596; More like Ryan(unf)air !!!55358;!!!56593; !!!55357;!!!56850;
My check-in nightmare is still ongoing but, my rant is over! Just remind me about this when/if I ever book another holiday abroad !!!!!

Caz3121

ABC_D_Goldfish wrote: »

It's still going on! Happened to me just yesterday! Checking-in, two of us together, randomly allocated (middle) seats at either end of the plane even though there were seats free each side of those!!

discussed at length here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5667860/ryanair-sits-hen-party-in-fifteen-separate-rows-as-outrage-over-seating-policy-grows&highlight=hen+party
I reckon you are 99.9% certain to be allocated seats away from each other unless you pay (I guess this is to make it 'fairer' for those that choose to pay the fee) Usually best to factor seats/bags etc into the overall cost comparison

robatwork

Just an aside - I booked on easyjet yesterday and did an immediate check-in. Didn't reserve seats and got them next to each other for both journeys. So it looks like it's just Ryanair at the moment.

zagfles

robatwork wrote: »

Just an aside - I booked on easyjet yesterday and did an immediate check-in. Didn't reserve seats and got them next to each other for both journeys. So it looks like it's just Ryanair at the moment.

Yes AFAIK it's just Ryanair that do this - booked loads of other flights and never been seated apart, never paid for reserved seats.

zagfles

ABC_D_Goldfish wrote: »

It's still going on! Happened to me just yesterday! Checking-in, two of us together, randomly allocated (middle) seats at either end of the plane even though there were seats free each side of those!!
One comment here said it was to do with that people will pay for a window or an isle seat rather than a middle! Why then? did they not seat us maybe behind each other when those seats were
also still free? Don't get me started about the return check in! That saga is ongoing! To avoid the randomly allocated far away seating I decided to go through the pay £7 route. Chose seats close together, then the system chucked me out! I had to log back in! Yes you guessed it, two seconds later those seats had magically disappeared and now the price had gone up to £10 ?!?
So then I choose to check-in later and they say you must check-in for the return journey now!
So try booking the £10 seats next to each other and the payment screen won't come up to allow me to pay.
Very exasperated and I'm on frustration overload about Ryanair check-in! !!!55358;!!!56596; More like Ryan(unf)air !!!55358;!!!56593; !!!55357;!!!56850;
My check-in nightmare is still ongoing but, my rant is over! Just remind me about this when/if I ever book another holiday abroad !!!!!

You might want to try this site https://www.swapseat.net which says it matches people who've had randomly allocated seats - never used it myself and don't know anyone who has but might be worth a try.

Or just indulge in the seat barter which seems to be a feature at the start of Ryanair flights these days. Or you could be lucky and no-one sat next next to you or your partner, that happened to me once.