Cheap airline seating

nuala2411

I have just booked a flight for my son with Ryanair - my laptop auto filled in my name as the passenger - I noticed when I got the confirmation email seconds later - I assumed this was an error that probably happens to many people - so I tried to change the name - They have charged me £115 for this - surely this can't be right? I phoned their customer care line - at a cost of 13p a minute and was told there was nothing they could do - I asked to speak to a line manger and was left on hold for 15 minutes - finally I hung up.

I am so upset that a moments lapse of concentration can be so heavily penalised - it wont cost them anything like that to change - it's just a way to rip people off.

Pollycat

nuala2411 wrote: »

I have just booked a flight for my son with Ryanair - my laptop auto filled in my name as the passenger - I noticed when I got the confirmation email seconds later - I assumed this was an error that probably happens to many people - so I tried to change the name - They have charged me £115 for this - surely this can't be right? I phoned their customer care line - at a cost of 13p a minute and was told there was nothing they could do - I asked to speak to a line manger and was left on hold for 15 minutes - finally I hung up.

I am so upset that a moments lapse of concentration can be so heavily penalised - it wont cost them anything like that to change - it's just a way to rip people off.

It was discussed here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/12/ryanair-passengers-risk--115-fee-after-system-changes-surnames/

According to the MSE article:

Some Ryanair customers who've booked flights for groups have reported a bizarre problem which apparently results in the group's surnames being changed to be the same – and those affected could face a £115 fee to correct the booking.

MoneySavingExpert.com has seen multiple reports of this issue in the past week, with Ryanair passengers travelling with partners or friends with different surnames claiming that their companions' surnames were automatically changed.
Passengers who book Ryanair flights with an incorrect name have 24 hours to correct it for free. But if they spot the problem later, the fee to change a name is £115, which can be significantly more expensive than the original cost of a ticket.
We first asked Ryanair about this issue on Monday, and on Friday – after we first published this story – it finally responded to say it had been unable to replicate the problem. It insists there is no problem with its booking system, and says customers whose booking is in the wrong name will have to change it within 24 hours or pay the full fee.

The article was published December 2018 but it says that you can change the name for free within 24 hours.
How soon after booking did you contact them?
Did you tell them that their booking system auto-filled your name instead of booking in the actual passenger's name?

And - most importantly - did you book direct with Ryanair?

Nick_C

nuala2411 wrote: »

it wont cost them anything like that to change - it's just a way to rip people off.

Absolutely. But it's Ryanair. What do you expect?

https://youtu.be/uVASZ2lCY5Y

Nick_C

Thanks Pollycat. I wasn't aware of that. (But I would never be seen dead on RyanAir). In that case they have a similar approach to BA in this regard.

Although with BA you can cancel a future flight for any reason within 24 hours of booking, which is fair and generous.

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/askbainter/public/en_gb?p_faqid=4072

degeneration

Quick query for anyone who's in the know.

I'm flying with my family (2 ad; 2 ch, aged 4 and 6) return from LGW to Orlando next year in premium economy with B.A.

Only 52 seats in that cabin each way, with 6 lots of 4 in the middle. As we're a family of 4, we'd like one of the sets of 4 in the middle. To pre-book those is going to cost 56 euro each per flight, so a total of 448 euro.

As B.A. guarantee children of the age mine are will be sat next to an adult on the booking, do you think this will work as intended:

I only book three of us (both adults and one child) in one of the rows of 4, leaving an empty seat next to one of the adults. That will mean one of my children will not have an allocated seat, however as B.A. guarantee they'll sit next to an adult on the booking, the only way that can happen is if they allocate that seat to my child.

If that is how it goes, that'll save me 112 euros.

Is that likely to be how it goes? Or would they potentially re-allocate an adult to an alternative seat with the child, even though the adult has pre-paid for a seat?

Or even more savings, I only book the two adults in the inner most seats on the set of 4, therefore to comply with their child seating policy the children will then need to be sat in the outer most seats in the set. That would save us 224 euro.

Would either of those ideas work as intended?

bradders1983

I think the above is asking for trouble, what happens if someone else then purchases the outer seats of the 4, you are then forcing someone who has rightfully paid for a seat to move. And why should they?

Also can you actually only book seats for part of a party, surely it is all or none?

Pollycat

What is the percentage of the seat booking fee compared to the total cost of your holiday (xfer to & from airports, parking, flights, hotels, food & drink, spending money, park tickets)?
Why wouldn't you rather pay to choose seats for all 4 of you in a limited space cabin and then relax in the knowledge that there'll be no unpleasant surprises when you get to the airport?

silvercar

You can't book for part of your party and you can't split your children onto a separate booking without an adult with them.

It's a small cabin and BA would try to sit a group together. Worst case you could end up with 2+2 or 3+1 across an aisle. I doubt I would pay anything at this stage.

bradders1983

I would be more annoyed about screaming brats in Premium, to be honest :beer:

Nick_C

I'm assuming the plane is a 2-4-2 configuration. I think as a party of four, you will almost certainly be allocated four seats together in the middle block.

The pairs of seats are very popular with couples or two people travelling together.

I wouldn't pay for seat selection. BA will make every effort to seat you all together. When you check in on line 24 hours before the flight, you will see the seats that you have been pre allocated. It is often possible to change them at that stage.

And I'm sure your children are well behaved!