* Ryanair * Ryanair * Ryanair *

joeysoap

mattser wrote: »

Did a 4 day check in today for the UK. She's in 10B and I'm 21B. No probs for going to UK. If travelling 3 or 4 hours I'll pay extra for seats.
In all fairness though, it is fairly ****ty for those with kids/elderly etc.

Out of curiosity did you check to see if 10a, 10c, 21a or 21c are still available?

I know of people buying seats who always buy a and c or d and f in the hope that the flight isn't full and they get 3 seats for the price of 2.

A Dub in Glasgo

mattser wrote: »

Did a 4 day check in today for the UK. She's in 10B and I'm 21B. No probs for going to UK. If travelling 3 or 4 hours I'll pay extra for seats.
In all fairness though, it is fairly ****ty for those with kids/elderly etc.

Did you check what was free before you checked in?

RoYoBo

joeysoap wrote: »

Out of curiosity did you check to see if 10a, 10c, 21a or 21c are still available?

I know of people buying seats who always buy a and c or d and f in the hope that the flight isn't full and they get 3 seats for the price of 2.

The trouble with that under the new system is that middle seats are all allocated first, so there's definitely going to be someone for that centre seat. Whether they stay in it or not is another story :pac:

Also, if you try and buy one seat beside your partner on the same booking AFTER check-in, you'll still get charged for two seats. I'm thinking that the best option now is to make two separate bookings for each person from the get-go and check in one at a time. If you are lucky enough, you'll be able to choose and pay for just one seat beside the one allocated 'free' to your companion.

mattser

joeysoap wrote: »

Out of curiosity did you check to see if 10a, 10c, 21a or 21c are still available?

I know of people buying seats who always buy a and c or d and f in the hope that the flight isn't full and they get 3 seats for the price of 2.

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Did you check what was free before you checked in?

No, didn't bother, seeing as I wasn't going to pay anyway. I'm sure there are still seats together though, as others above have been saying.

A Dub in Glasgo

mattser wrote: »

No, didn't bother, seeing as I wasn't going to pay anyway. I'm sure there are still seats together though, as others above have been saying.

I always check before I check in as then I can see if there are seats together. If there is a chance of middle seats and split across the plane and still plenty of seats, I will check in later. It has successfully worked for a family of 4 for about 30 flights now and I have never paid for any seat. Might have to change approach if Ryanair have changed it

testicles

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A Dub in Glasgo

testicles wrote: »

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Seems so, will see when I am flying next month to Dublin

dermiestv

Own goal blunder after working so hard to improve perceptions.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/hundreds-come-forward-to-complain-about-ryanair-seat-allocation-1.3112748

On safety grounds alone, they should revert to common sense.

Fred Swanson

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RoYoBo

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Yes, anything that gets us an even limited one up is worth considering.

Mind you, we took our chances last Tuesday on a Ryanair flight with 'free' seats (both middles) and managed to slip around the plane to get an aisle and a window seat with an empty one between us that someone else had vacated. Never happened before in all the years we've been flying. It was the most comfortable cheap flight we've ever had, especially as the plane had those new seats too. Loadsa room all round!

So thank you, Ryanair, for the pleasure - probably not be as lucky again but hey, I'll take it even once!

mattser

RoYoBo wrote: »

Yes, anything that gets us an even limited one up is worth considering.

Mind you, we took our chances last Tuesday on a Ryanair flight with 'free' seats (both middles) and managed to slip around the plane to get an aisle and a window seat with an empty one between us that someone else had vacated. Never happened before in all the years we've been flying. It was the most comfortable cheap flight we've ever had, especially as the plane had those new seats too. Loadsa room all round!

So thank you, Ryanair, for the pleasure - probably not be as lucky again but hey, I'll take it even once!

Nice one.

MOH

p15574 wrote: »

But what if you do pay the extra to sit with your companion, and there's an emergency, and there's dozens of other people who didn't, trying to check on an elderly parent or teenage children or disabled wife, all blocking aisles with traffic going in all directions? It only takes one couple going in the wrong directions to clog up the aisle.

Maybe they'll spend their final moments thinking about how much they actually care about their elderly parent, or teenage child, or disabled wife, and wishing they hadn't been too tight to spend a few quid extra to sit beside them.

Anyone who's travelling with a vulnerable person and relies on chance when they could have done something pretty basic to ensure they're sitting beside them probably shouldn't have that person in their care.

dermiestv

"Always getting better" - FAIL

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/irate-passengers-brand-ryanair-downright-10597586

board_walker

If you books seats for any kind of event you don't pay extra to be seated beside your companions so why should airlines be allowed to impose these extra charges. Its time that there was legislation brought in to outlaw this practice and make the true cost of the flights transparent. It should be no problem for airlines to allocate seats at the time of booking.

JCX BXC

board_walker wrote: »

If you books seats for any kind of event you don't pay extra to be seated beside your companions so why should airlines be allowed to impose these extra charges. Its time that there was legislation brought in to outlaw this practice and make the true cost of the flights transparent. It should be no problem for airlines to allocate seats at the time of booking.

Seriously, legislation? Of all the things that need to he legislatied that can be put in the fantasy pile.

It's transparent, you don't need to pay for your seat. I've been scattered all over an Aer Lingus flight before because I checked in at the airport.

If people get very pissed off and stop flying Ryanair or they get very bad publicity, I'm sure they'll change, if not, they won't.

board_walker

If you remember some years ago Ryanair gave a price for a flight but when you went to book it there was taxes, check in fees, debit card fees added .This was outlawed and they were forced to show the full price before booking.

JCX BXC

board_walker wrote: »

If you remember some years ago Ryanair gave a price for a flight but when you went to book it there was taxes, check in fees, debit card fees added .This was outlawed and they were forced to show the full price before booking.

Because they were non optional fees, this is an optional fee.

L1011

JCX BXC wrote: »

Because they were non optional fees, this is an optional fee.

Some of them were notionally optional, if you did such things as buying gift cards and hoping the flight price didn't go up.

I can easily see this nonsense getting banned soon too. Its pretty obvious they were planning to bring this in very gradually and made a mistake

MOH

L1011 wrote: »

Some of them were notionally optional, if you did such things as buying gift cards and hoping the flight price didn't go up.

I can easily see this nonsense getting banned soon too. Its pretty obvious they were planning to bring this in very gradually and made a mistake

I can't see it getting banned, there's nothing wrong with it. The price quoted is the price of the flight. If you want something extra, that's extra.

I think it's pretty obvious when they initially brought in charges for seat selection they mistakenly assumed that people who wanted/needed to sit together would pay the extra couple of euro to do so. They failed to account for the vast numbers of people who were too cheap to do so, but assumed they'd still be seated together anyway, and then would start complaining if they weren't and insisting they had to sit beside their kids.
They've now realised they're not getting the expected revenue from seat reservations and have drastically cut the probability of sitting together without paying for it.

Whatever revenue increase they're looking for is going to come from somewhere, either a base price hike, and increase in baggage fees, some new charge. Increasing the revenue from an existing charge that was always in place but people were avoiding is probably the least drastic thing they could do.

joeysoap

I think despite the publicity this is here to stay. Passengers will pay for seats if they want to sit together, maybe not to UK as much as Europe. The half price seats will also become a distant memory in a few years (these are only there to get passengers 'kick started' in the area of actually buying a seat).

ED E

Checking in is like child friendly gambling.

Didnt pay, rolled a window seat(A)! Huzzah.

picturehangup

A group of 5 of us, including my 79 year old mother flew to and from Glasgow within the last two weeks.
We were deliberately distributed throughout the aircraft, on both outbound and inbound flights, with me in 4B, and my mother in row 30, despite the fact that there were empty seats beside us. All in row B.
This is very deliberate on Ryanair's behalf to make the consumer cough up more.
Flew with Ryanair at least 8 times last year, never happened.

yabadabado

picturehangup wrote: »

A group of 5 of us, including my 79 year old mother flew to and from Glasgow within the last two weeks.
We were deliberately distributed throughout the aircraft, on both outbound and inbound flights, with me in 4B, and my mother in row 30, despite the fact that there were empty seats beside us. All in row B.
This is very deliberate on Ryanair's behalf to make the consumer cough up more.
Flew with Ryanair at least 8 times last year, never happened.

Of course it's deliberate. You either pay for a seat or roll the dice .
I don't think Ryanair really give a **** unless they start losing passengers this is here to stay.

Fred Swanson

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joeysoap

It's also not a coincidence that the empty seats were all in row B. Expensive to purchase. I think I a few spotted this trend in a previous post, poster paid €20 to get two together. The cheapies will in all probability be purchased early.

AL allocate seats at checkin and I have been asked at the actual boarding gate if I was willing to exchange seats. This was to accommodate a family who also checked in late and requested seats together. ( I think if a family are looking for seats together they should at least turn up at the airport for early checkin but clearly they were after me that day, and I wasn't early by any stretch).

RoYoBo

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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That's a good re-frame right there!

If only Ryanair had been upfront with changing their policy and put a similar slant on it, perhaps people wouldn't be feeling so hard done by and deprived? Or utilised some kind of informed phase-in of the changeover? Pretending that it's the same as it always was is disingenuous and just creates resentment.

filbert the fox

yabadabado wrote: »

Of course it's deliberate. You either pay for a seat or roll the dice .
I don't think Ryanair really give a **** unless they start losing passengers this is here to stay.

if I'm in the waiting area what's to stop me touting for a seat - my wife is in row 7 and I'm in 24. :mad:

Fred Swanson

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lawred2

MOH wrote: »

I can't see it getting banned, there's nothing wrong with it. The price quoted is the price of the flight. If you want something extra, that's extra.

I think it's pretty obvious when they initially brought in charges for seat selection they mistakenly assumed that people who wanted/needed to sit together would pay the extra couple of euro to do so. They failed to account for the vast numbers of people who were too cheap to do so, but assumed they'd still be seated together anyway, and then would start complaining if they weren't and insisting they had to sit beside their kids.
They've now realised they're not getting the expected revenue from seat reservations and have drastically cut the probability of sitting together without paying for it.

Whatever revenue increase they're looking for is going to come from somewhere, either a base price hike, and increase in baggage fees, some new charge. Increasing the revenue from an existing charge that was always in place but people were avoiding is probably the least drastic thing they could do.

You mean they failed to account for customers presuming that it would be the way it's always been...

joeysoap

filbert the fox wrote: »

if I'm in the waiting area what's to stop me touting for a seat - my wife is in row 7 and I'm in 24. :mad:

Remember all those videos on YouTube with passengers taking clothes out of bags and wearing them?


Wouldn't it be gas to see videos of passengers trying to swop seats on before boarding

This only one there's lots more.

https://youtu.be/4OO_zUw8AiA

lawred2

I didn't last 30 seconds of that..

RoYoBo

[QUOTE=joeysoap;103854481
Wouldn't it be gas to see videos of passengers trying to swop seats on before boarding

[/QUOTE]

The logistics of that is frying my brain! I imagine there'd be a fair few swaps to go through before you'd get 2 seats together.

filbert the fox

RoYoBo wrote: »

The logistics of that is frying my brain! I imagine there'd be a fair few swaps to go through before you'd get 2 seats together.

Any statisticians on here who can help with this one?

joeysoap

filbert the fox wrote: »

Any statisticians on here who can help with this one?

They're all working for Ryanair

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Checking in is like child friendly gambling.

Didnt pay, rolled a window seat(A)! Huzzah.

F, in the rear near the door. Win again! (Check in late ladies and gents)

RoYoBo

ED E wrote: »

F, in the rear near the door. Win again! (Check in late ladies and gents)

I've been monitoring a few random flights lately from when free check-in opens 4 days in advance until last check-in 2 hours beforehand and definitely notice the same (I need to get a life!). Once all the middle seats are gone, the rest of them on offer are grand for me.

If you leave it until the last minute ( a tad risky maybe) you might even get a priority seat! I mean, what can they do? You've bought a seat on the plane, right? From what I understand, once they've booked the plane fully, you must be seated and they don't overbook ... yet anyway. Or am I wrong?

Fred Swanson

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joeysoap

But does that also mean once all the middle seats are gone, and we all appear to agree they are dishing those out first, that couples are less likely to get two seats together? If the middle ones are gone, all that's left are aisle and window.

RoYoBo

joeysoap wrote: »

But does that also mean once all the middle seats are gone, and we all appear to agree they are dishing those out first, that couples are less likely to get two seats together? If the middle ones are gone, all that's left are aisle and window.

That's exactly what it means and why I said earlier that Ryanair appear to be shooting themselves in the foot. Before now, we had either an incentive to book early for a good seat and/or the option to pay extra for 'chosen' seats at almost any stage.

Now, the opposite is true for booking early and if you book late you cannot get a seat together, even if you pay! For us, we'll live with the better seat at late check-in, even if apart from each other for the duration. Ryanair will, in addition, suck up the loss of our food and drink purchases as neither of us care to be Billy-no-Mates dining and drinking on our own.

Beefy78

RoYoBo wrote: »

If you leave it until the last minute ( a tad risky maybe) you might even get a priority seat! I mean, what can they do? You've bought a seat on the plane, right? From what I understand, once they've booked the plane fully, you must be seated and they don't overbook ... yet anyway. Or am I wrong?

You're not wrong - if the only seats left are the priority seats then they dish those out.

ED E

We should probably say nothing or the wider public will get in on the action

L1011

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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There have been GDS screenshots on A&A showing in excess of 200 seats sold on some flights - only on routes with high frequency and clearly with history of a large number of unused seats.

RoYoBo

L1011 wrote: »

There have been GDS screenshots on A&A showing in excess of 200 seats sold on some flights - only on routes with high frequency and clearly with history of a large number of unused seats.

Are there any reports of people being bumped off flights?

MOH

lawred2 wrote: »

You mean they failed to account for customers presuming that it would be the way it's always been...

No, I mean what I said.

Presumably by "always" you mean "for the last three years", given that they only started allocating random seats to everyone in Feb 2014.

L1011

RoYoBo wrote: »

Are there any reports of people being bumped off flights?

Some of them finding volunteers with bribes; none of refused boarding. People not under time pressure will often take a bribe of less than the normal refused boarding compo, basically; and Ryanair would always have a good % of leisure passengers.

joeysoap

I was half offered €200 once by AL at Faro but I turned it down.

A) it was an evening flight and the official wasn't overly clear I could get a flight the next day (perhaps she genuinely didn't know)

didn't mention transport to an hotel, meals or an hotel itself for that matter

C) I know for certain that others were offered €400 at Dublin for overbooked flights

D) it was only half hearted it in first place, we were fairly near the end of the queue, and as the AL mobile boarding app dosent work at Faro lots of passengers in the queue. Free checkin is only 30 hours before flight, and most passengers (self included) couldn't be arsed to look for an Internet cafe, so we just queued up for the boarding pass. The conversation went something like 'would you mind not getting this flight? It could be worth €200 not to fly' or something along those lines. She wasn't t pushing it, maybe hoping a few wouldn't turn up.

Fred Swanson

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Fred Swanson

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joeysoap

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Never got that email from them. Would cover most resort airports in high season but particularly Faro, which is a building site for the past 2 years.

https://en.aeroportodefaro.com/news/faro-airport-fully-renovated-by-2017

Completed by spring of 2017 - in their dreams. :rolleyes:

L1011

The Portuguese airport company appear to be at least slightly incompetent from experience.