OK Ryanair, I’ll pay your blood money

stoneman

OK the title is s bit OTT but quite honestly this practice is beyond anything I thought O!!!8217;Leary could come up with.

So what am I talking about? The deliberate practice of seating people as far apart as possible if they don!!!8217;t choose to pay to sit together. I know it!!!8217;s been discussed before but OH and I had a discussion about this after a recent flight to DUB and not only is it a despicable thing to do to gain a few extra £!!!8217;s but it!!!8217;s downright dangerous and I!!!8217;m surprised the CAA or whoever regulates this sort of thing hasn!!!8217;t clamped down on it.

On short trips we have never paid for seating on RA and every single time we were seated together. Over the past year this has changed, no matter how early or late you check in their system will find a way of seating you apart, then of course you are presented with the words !!!8220;you are seated apart, want to sit together then just pay from x amount and we can guarantee it!!!8221;. You are then presented with a diagram of the seating with almost half of it unassigned, so why couldn!!!8217;t they have seated you together anyway. Major airlines automatically assign groups together in MOST cases, and allow you to pay for more preferable seats if you wish.

OK I get it, this is how companies make money, but at the cost of putting lives at risk?

Let me ask you something, if God forbid the plane you are on has to evacuate quickly and you are in row 5, OH in row 25 and son/daughter in row 15, how many of you wouldn!!!8217;t bat an eyelid and just get yourself off if say there was a fire/smoke/water, without checking on your loved ones, not me that!!!8217;s for sure. So now panic sets in and the evacuation stalls, aisle gets blocked with people not just getting the heck off, and a potential catastrophic event happens.

What really brought it home to me was the discussion we had after our flight to DUB where we hit some horrible turbulence and a landing in thick fog where for want of a better word the pilot dropped the plane onto the tarmac from what seemed like 20 feet. I was a good 20 rows away from my wife and all I could think of was her worrying and thinking that the last faces she ever saw was strangers, not the person she loved. She was in tears thinking exactly that.

You may think all of that is exaggeration and far fetched, but it could happen, and probably has.

So as I started this rant with an OTT title I!!!8217;ll repeat it. In future I!!!8217;ll pay your lousy few extra quid, because the mental health and safety of my loved ones outweighs anything, and that to me is blood money.

Backbiter

stoneman wrote: »

OK the title is s bit OTT but quite honestly this practice is beyond anything I though O’Leary could come up with.

So what am I talking about? The deliberate practice of seating people as far apart .......it’s downright dangerous and I’m surprised CAA or whoever regulates this sort of thing hasn’t clamped down on it.

OK I get it, this is how companies make money, but at the cost of putting lives at risk?

Let me ask you something, if God forbid the plane you are on has to evacuate quickly and you are in row 5, OH in row 25 and son/daughter in row 15, how many of you wouldn’t bat an eyelid and just get yourself off if say there was a fire/smoke/water, without checking on your loved ones, not me that’s for sure. So now panic sets in and the evacuation stalls, aisle gets blocked with people not just getting the heck off, and a potential catastrophic event happens.

Totally agree.

peachyprice

stoneman wrote: »

So as I started this rant with an OTT title I!!!8217;ll repeat it. In future I!!!8217;ll pay your lousy few extra quid, because the mental health and safety of my loved ones outweighs anything, and that to me is blood money.

Or you could do what many of us do and not fly Ryan Air.

richardw

I will not. I do not fly Ryanair anymore.

I agree and have said it many times. Ryanair is a serious accident waiting to happen, it will be on the ground with evacuation being too slow because of too many bags in the cabin and people looking for their friends and family. The UK CAA and government is like a chocolate teapot, absolutely useless.

I used to enjoy trips to places I had never heard of and the run from the plane on a Sunday night to catch the last Stansted Express train.

Just put the fares up or just park the planes, but be safe at the end of the day.

steve1500

This is exactly why the CAA say families should be sat together, but until the CAA make it compulsory RA will continue to keep people apart.


I haven't flown with them since the Volcanic Ash episode.

onomatopoeia99

stoneman wrote: »

So as I started this rant with an OTT title I!!!8217;ll repeat it. In future I!!!8217;ll pay your lousy few extra quid, because the mental health and safety of my loved ones outweighs anything, and that to me is blood money.

Sounds like you want something for nothing. The something being seating allocated to your desires.

In a world where MSE exists, comparison sites exist and suppliers all chase the cheapest headline price by making you pay for every extra they can think of, companies like Ryanair that pare everything to the bone emerge and flourish, because there is a class of people that know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I don't understand why anyone would fly with Ryanair.

Ganga

The simple answer is to put the price of fares up so RA still make their profit and everybody is happy OR ARE THEY single travellers will complain that they are subsidizing couples who will not pay to sit together.
In a world where MOST people want to pay as least as possible to fly there will always be winners and losers.

gazzak_2

With practices like this why do people still use them? It's just horrendous.

budgetflyer

Big tantrum over nothing. Pay a few quid. Sit together. Pay nothing. Sit apart.. You choose.
Or you could fly with another airline, pay double the fare and possibly be sat together free .

iltisman

If your family is spread ot on the plane there is more chance of one or more surviving if the plane stuffs in . Also if you have attrition spares put them on later flights to spread the risk.

MidlandsGlory

Just used them for the first time for a family holiday. pleasantly surprised, at least they got off the ground on time, which was 3 hours better than the last other airline I went with (yes you unEasyjet!).

When we booked we were offered the family plus option for about £100 (on £1100 of flights). For that we got 2 x 20kg bags both ways, pretty much a free choice of reserving where we wanted to sit on both planes, priority boarding ensuring our 4x hand luggage got on board, so another 40kg if needed plus an additional small bag each on board. Considered it a bargain.