Ryanair new seating trick

buglawton

Not sure what's 'new' as there was already a lengthy thread on Ryanair's unrandom way of seating everyone absurdly apart in a single booking.

On a previous Ryanair booking I had to faff around mightily to complete a simple booking as a result of that seating policy. So next time I didn't even consider using them and went for Easyjet.

Yes booked seats were offered during the booking process on Easyjet as with Ryanair. I ignored the offer. Yes we got seated together anyway.

peachyprice

zagfles wrote: »

I doubt many people travelling alone are choosing to pay for their seat, it's more likely to be those travelling in couples/groups.

Oh, I don't know, I fly 3-4 times a month alone, and always pay for a seat, but then I'm a fussy moo, with 'issues' :rotfl:

scd3scd4

JReacher1 wrote: »

I don’t believe they deliberately split up couples for no reason. You’re seeing more in this then there is

Watchdog were pretty convinced it was a system.

Nodding_Donkey

I'm sure a couple of delays while passengers sorted out their own seat swaps would put paid to this problem.

Pennywise

Nick_C wrote: »

I don't have a problem with budget airlines charging for optional services. On board catering and checked luggage cost the airline money, and there is a valid argument for only charging people for services they choose to use. But the airline has to provide you with a reserved seat. It doesn't cost them any more to keep people together than it does to separate them. Charging extra to keep you next to your travelling companion is unjustifiable.

But by charging "extras" they can reduce the basic price. If a lot of their passengers travel alone, then those are the ones who benefit from lower basic prices as they don't care where they sit.

Would you rather pay a higher basic price and sit together for free or pay a lower basic price and pay a small supplement to choose your seats. I don't think there'd be much difference either way.

Nick_C

Pennywise wrote: »

But by charging "extras" they can reduce the basic price. If a lot of their passengers travel alone, then those are the ones who benefit from lower basic prices as they don't care where they sit.

Would you rather pay a higher basic price and sit together for free or pay a lower basic price and pay a small supplement to choose your seats. I don't think there'd be much difference either way.

I'd rather pay a higher price that gave me free seat selection. I wouldn't feel as if I was being ripped off then.

But I'm happy for optional services to be charged for at a rate proportionate to the cost of providing them.

shaun_from_Africa

Nick_C wrote: »

I'd rather pay a higher price that gave me free seat selection. I wouldn't feel as if I was being ripped off then.

But I'm happy for optional services to be charged for at a rate proportionate to the cost of providing them.

If you pay a higher price then how can the seat selection be free?

It's no different to people who complain about the cost of P&P when buying from an ebay seller but who are more than happy to pay the same total price when the selling price is shown with inclusive P&P.

Gavin83

Nick_C wrote: »

I'd rather pay a higher price that gave me free seat selection. I wouldn't feel as if I was being ripped off then.

It is crazy logic but a lot of people feel this way. Given the option you'd rather pay £60 for a plane ticket that allowed you to select your seat than a £50 ticket that didn't let you select your seat, plus a £10 upgrade that did, despite the fact the second option gives you more choice and the first option gives Ryanair more profit. I'd actually go as far as to say if the standard ticket price above was £70 people would rather pay that.

People don't like paying for services they feel should be free, they'd rather just pay an inflated price with it included as standard.

Nick_C

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If you pay a higher price then how can the seat selection be free?

It's no different to people who complain about the cost of P&P when buying from an ebay seller but who are more than happy to pay the same total price when the selling price is shown with inclusive P&P.

I think it is different. If you buy something on line for delivery, the delivery might be included in the price or it might be a compulsory additional charge. Either way, it is easy to cost up the total price of what you are buying. Most importantly. P&P or delivery charges are usually proportionate to the cost incurred by the retailer.

Charges for seat selection bear no relation to the cost of providing the facility, which are negligible. Most airlines choose to provide their passengers with a reserved seat. They need technology to allocate passengers to available seats. Making this a self service facility within the control of passengers shouldn't cost any more than the airline allocating the seats. Indeed, it's cheaper than the old system whereby passengers would take up time at check in selecting their seats.

If the airlines had a nominal charge for seat reservation that was proportionate to the cost of providing the service then I wouldn't have a problem. But the charge is disproportionate to the cost, making it a rip off.

BA charge vastly different prices for reserving your seat, varying from zero to £99. And comments on this thread suggest that Ryanair also have different charges for different seats.

shaun_from_Africa

zagfles wrote: »

We've done it loads of times. Theortically the plane could become unbalanced eg if too many people on one side, but if they were really worried about that they'd weigh passengers (on some small planes they do weigh people and allocate you seats according to your weight).

Passengers moving about on modern airliners doesn't cause any problems as the change in balance is automatically compensated for by a system called autotrim.
This automatically makes tiny changes to the flight controls to cancel out any imbalances caused by the movements of people (and it also does the same to compensate for fuel being used up in the various tanks).