Ryanair new seating trick

zagfles

Barny1979 wrote: »

Well the example I had was two empty rows of seats, then one row with a girl on, her bf was sat 6 rows in front, I was sat on the row behind my gf even though spare seat next to her

There's now the usual pre-flight seat barter on Ryanair flights, or the chaos where eg the wife realises she needs her book/tablet which is in her husband's bag 10 rows behind etc. If it starts to impact their turnaround times they might reconsider...

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Barny1979 wrote: »

Well the example I had was two empty rows of seats, then one row with a girl on, her bf was sat 6 rows in front, I was sat on the row behind my gf even though spare seat next to her

What matters is what the seating plan was at the time they allocated your seat to you. They would be trying to preserve as many pairs of seats together as they could. If you check in first and don't pay, you WILL be seated apart, so they preserve more pairs of seats.

zagfles

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

I don't get this. Ryanair say "You can have X if you pay for it". Customer says "I don't want to pay for X". Ryanair says "OK". The customer says "Hey, I haven't got X!" Of course you haven't. You chose not to pay for it. What are you complaining about? Yes, they could have given you X, the same way that Tesco could give you a loaf of bread you chose not to pay for. Instead they keep the bread for possible paying customers, just as Ryanair keep seats for possible paying customers for as long as they can.

The point is, the customer has the option to choose where they sit, some customers want to sit in eg 4A and 4B, others don't care where they sit.

In the past, even if you didn't want to select specific seats, you'd still normally get allocated seats together unless it wasn't possible to do so.

zagfles

dacouch wrote: »

I have just made a number of flights in Thailand, the airlines offered to pay extra for choice of seating. I did not take up their offer but on every occasion myself and gf or myself / gf and her family were all seated together

Yes, same on other budget airlines here eg EasyJet. We've been on loads of flights with them, never paid to select seats, always been allocated seats together.

zagfles

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

What matters is what the seating plan was at the time they allocated your seat to you. they would be trying to preserve as many pairs of seats together as they could. If you check in first and don't pay, you WILL be seated apart, so they preserve more pairs of seats.

That makes no sense at all. The more couples they split up, the less pairs of seats together they end up with.

They seem to be allocating people who don't pay middle seats. So if a couple who don't pay get allocated 2 middle seats, that creates two window seats which now can't be used for a couple who want to sit together!

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

zagfles wrote: »

That makes no sense at all. The more couples they split up, the less pairs of seats together they end up with.

They seem to be allocating people who don't pay middle seats. So if a couple who don't pay get allocated 2 middle seats, that creates two window seats which now can't be used for a couple who want to sit together!

They are not necessarily allocating middle seats; according to the example cited two window seats were allocated leaving 2 free seats in each row.

YorkshireBoy

es5595 wrote: »

And especially not when the cost to sit together is more than the cost of the flight!

We choose to pay £3 each. Cheapest flight I've had this year is £24.99 to the Canaries. That's £12 extra on a £99.96 spend (around 8%). Sounds high, but it's almost cost neutral if we don't have a coffee!

...Ryanair don’t care because in the meantime it can flag their falling profits a bit.

Profits are far from "falling" according to...

http://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RYAAY/profit-margin/ryanair-hldgs-gross-operating-net-profit-margin-history

Net margin looks to have more than doubled over the last 7 quarters.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

zagfles wrote: »

The point is, the customer has the option to choose where they sit, some customers want to sit in eg 4A and 4B, others don't care where they sit.

In the past, even if you didn't want to select specific seats, you'd still normally get allocated seats together unless it wasn't possible to do so.

At the time they allocate your seat they don't know what will and won't be possible when the flight fills up, so they put you wherever it suits them to put you. After all, you don't care. If you don't care, why on earth would you complain?

zagfles

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

They are not necessarily allocating middle seats; according to the example cited two window seats were allocated leaving 2 free seats in each row.

From the article linked above

Of the 26 people, 21 had been allocated middle seats, and in 11 of the total 13 groups assessed, each person had been given a middle seat.

So middle seats seem to be the most common "randomly allocated" seat. Though when we flew Ryanair in June we got allocated aisle seats, about 10 rows apart one way and 3 rows apart the other IIRC.

It would have cost about a tenner to move my seat to the one right next to my wife or a fiver for the one behind, I asked her if we should pay and she said no. Wasn't sure whether to be pleased she's as tight fisted as me, or offended she doesn't think it's worth paying a few £ to sit next to me

zagfles

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

At the time they allocate your seat they don't know what will and won't be possible when the flight fills up, so they put you wherever it suits them to put you. After all, you don't care. If you don't care, why on earth would you complain?

I'm not complaining, I'm just discussing. I was pointing out the difference between selecting specific seats, and getting allocated seats together.

Generally if they want to preserve as many "together" seats as possible, it's more sensible to allocate seats together for those who don't pay since you don't then isolate seats or split rows.

But it would appear Ryanair's policy is not an attempt to preserve "together" seats for those who want to pay, it seems more to be an attempt to persuade people to pay by splitting them up if they don't.