Ryanair seat allocation

gabbagabba7

Travelled on a Ryanair flight yesterday. Encountered the following.

Can someone let me know if this behaviour is legal at this minute in time as I was of the belief that companies should be allowing social distancing if it is possible rather than taking the approach of we'll let you socially distance at a price?

1. Ryanair still have their seating algorithms set to separate parties traveling together if you do not pay the additional fees to choose seats. Therefore you are forced to sit with strangers if you choose not to pay the fees. The majority of passengers on the plane were placed in the middle section 6 abreast.

2. The first 5 rows of the plane were mostly empty. However the cabin crew refused to let passengers wishing to socially distance use the free seats.

bagand96

gabbagabba7 said:

Travelled on a Ryanair flight yesterday. Encountered the following.

Can someone let me know if this behaviour is legal at this minute in time as I was of the belief that companies should be allowing social distancing if it is possible rather than taking the approach of we'll let you socially distance at a price?

Well I don't believe it's illegal.  As in I don't think any Governments have passed a law stating that Ryanair must seat your party together.

gabbagabba7 said:

2. The first 5 rows of the plane were mostly empty. However the cabin crew refused to let passengers wishing to socially distance use the free seats.

This does often surprise passengers, but aircraft that are lightly loaded can be sensitive to weight and balance.  In such cases the load (passengers, bags, cargo) sometimes has to be planned and weight distributed to maintain balance (known as trim). 

bradders1983

The whole 2 metre thing (reduced to 1m) was never a law, and still isnt. It is/was a Government guideline.

brianposter

bagand96 said:

gabbagabba7 said:

Travelled on a Ryanair flight yesterday. Encountered the following.

Can someone let me know if this behaviour is legal at this minute in time as I was of the belief that companies should be allowing social distancing if it is possible rather than taking the approach of we'll let you socially distance at a price?

Well I don't believe it's illegal.  As in I don't think any Governments have passed a law stating that Ryanair must seat your party together.

 It may well be illegal, but unfortunately nobody has, so far, taken it to court. It is a very odd contract which permits one party to a contract to deliberately do something which disadvantages the other party to the contract.