Ryanair - New reserved seating structure(s)

Gatica

They don't have to sit on your lap, you can buy a plane ticket for an infant and use an aircraft approved baby carrier.
As already mentioned you can check in as soon as check-in opens and you're 99.99% guaranteed to be seated together. They haven't been splitting parties on purpose yet.

kell1

Hi Everybody,my friend and I are flying Ryanair to Birmingham on Saturday morning and returning on Sunday afternoon.Both flights appear to be fully booked and flight duration is approx 50 minutes each way.Haven't checked in yet on the Ryanair app and was hoping that both of us can sit together. The cost of reserving two seats costs €32 even though the actual flights cost approx €120.We will be automatically allocated seats if we don't pay for reserved seats.From experience,is it likely that both of us will be allocated seats together or is there a chance that we'll be separated?

Would really appreciate a reply.

Thank You

Atlantic Dawn

All depends on how heavily booked the flight is and what groups of people are booked, the earlier you check in the best chance of sitting together.

The flight is about an hour, not worth paying €32 for to sit together.

Wheety

Just check in as soon as it's allowed. You should get 2 seats together. but even if you don't it'll be a very quick flight. Just grab a newspaper or something and you'll be landing before you know it.

munchkin_utd

Wheety wrote: »

Just check in as soon as it's allowed. You should get 2 seats together. but even if you don't it'll be a very quick flight. Just grab a newspaper or something and you'll be landing before you know it.

+1 . Spending 32 euros just to avoid the possibility of not being beside someone for a flight that isnt even an hour is madness.

and even if you cant sit together, its not like one of ye is 6 years old on an 8hour+ transatlantic flight separated from their parents (happened a friend at Christmas a couple of years back)

lc180

I once tired this with my mate. We both checked in online individually at pretty much the same time. We by chance got seats right next to each other. Obviously not guaranteed but both a shot.

OldNotWIse

I'm curious about this too. I recently checked in my parents and called and explained to them that they could either pay 48euro return to be guaranteed a seat together or pay nothing and take a chance. They bought their seats :rolleyes:

Perhaps I am bad minded but I have a feeling if people book together but don't buy seats together, Ryanair might deliberately scramble the seat allocation, so that the same people will make sure to book seats next time? You know what Ryanair is like, up to every trick in the book.

miezekatze

My boyfriend and I always got seats next to each other with random allocation. We usually check in about a week in advance, I wouldn't leave it until the last day or so.

schemingbohemia

Got seats beside my brother when I checked us both in a couple of weeks ago for a football trip, both directions. If you booked together I'd say you'll get seats beside each other and in any event paying for seats on a 40 minute flight is mad.

Kolido

Curious, did you book the flights together or separately? Either way, the earlier you check in the more chance you have of getting seats together.

Berberis

Checked in 4 of us (all adults) on the same booking the other week on return flights to Malaga.
Both flights were nearly booked out with only a handful of seats unsold and on both flights all 4 of us were seated in same row. 3 in one row and the 4th personj at the aisle.
I checked us in within hours of the free check in becoming available on both trips

eeguy

The system will hopefully put yous together if you check in at the same time.

Flew with 3 friends this year. We all booked and checked in separately, but at the same time. We were put beside each other.

Wheety

OldNotWIse wrote: »

I'm curious about this too. I recently checked in my parents and called and explained to them that they could either pay 48euro return to be guaranteed a seat together or pay nothing and take a chance. They bought their seats :rolleyes:

Perhaps I am bad minded but I have a feeling if people book together but don't buy seats together, Ryanair might deliberately scramble the seat allocation, so that the same people will make sure to book seats next time? You know what Ryanair is like, up to every trick in the book.

Nope. I have always got seats together with my partner when checking in together. People thinking like you and your parents are what gives Ryanair free money and keeps the cost down for the rest of us.

OldNotWIse

Wheety wrote: »

Nope. I have always got seats together with my partner when checking in together. People thinking like you and your parents are what gives Ryanair free money and keeps the cost down for the rest of us.

My thoughts are free, I haven't given him my money

My parents did because they are elderly and nervous about sitting separately. Don't know why, as I said to mam, if the plane is going down it doesn't matter a damn who you are beside - for some reason this didn't calm her :pac: I'm pleasantly surprised that he hasn't opted for seat scrambling to ensure people buy their allocations in the future. He slipped up there I'll be sure to tell them about all the feedback here so they don't pay in future!

toadfly

We always get seated together and have never paid for seats before they are available for free. I think I would only pay for a long haul flight - not worth it to me to pay for less than that.

kell1

Tired to check in online but computer wouldn't allow me to (without reserving seats) for 24 hrs.I'll let everyone know how I got on and hopefully we'll be allocated seats together.For future reference it'll be interesting to see what happens!

A brilliant response from everyone,Thank You

kell1

toadfly wrote: »

We always get seated together and have never paid for seats before they are available for free. I think I would only pay for a long haul flight - not worth it to me to pay for less than that.

Hi,checked in online yesterday and and opted for free random seats.We were allocated two seats together and saved €32 !

Thanks everyone

eeguy

Much like priority boarding, seat allocation is an unnecessary expense for nearly everybody.

Unless you absolutely NEED a window or aisle seat of course.

Troy McClure

I have just come across this change now as we are flying with our 2 young kids to the UK this weekend.
This is Ryanair simply price gouging as, apart from a minority, no one cares where they sit.

They seem to be gerrymandering families with kids into rows 18-30, forcing them to pay for seat allocation in areas where no one would otherwise buy them. Kids are not allowed on exit seats.

I never had or seen any serious issue's with families getting on planes or traveling, that this would solve. While traveling alone I never recalled planes been held up by families over the last 30 years. Does any other airline do this anywhere? However it does pose a dilemma now for families on tight budgets. Pay for 2 adults seating or otherwise Ryanair will place the other adult somewhere down the back of the plane.

I just had some complete moron in poor English on the Ryanair customer service online platform keep reciting this is the terms and conditions now.
It's stuff like this that makes people hate Ryanair and they are supposed to have improved their CS.


Personally I will use Ryanair from now when it suits us/me as a last resort, and will never buy so much as a coffee from them as this is the contempt they have for people. This is purely based in greed by Ryanair and should be seen in this light. So the same is required in reciprocity.

Worst of all the seem to have spun this in media who were too lazy to read into it further as 'free seat allocation and reduced seat costs' when it's purely a revenue generating exercise.

What's next for them higher fare for the over 65's for been too slow boarding planes!

Bring on the the O'Leary fanclub and apologists! I wish he'd run the public service..

billie1b

Troy McClure wrote: »

I have just come across this change now as we are flying with our 2 young kids to the UK this weekend.
This is Ryanair simply price gouging as, apart from a minority, no one cares where they sit.

They seem to be gerrymandering families with kids into rows 18-30, forcing them to pay for seat allocation in areas where no one would otherwise buy them. Kids are not allowed on exit seats.

Totally incorrect, the system is made that way due to the fact Boeing aircraft are a nose heavy aircraft. When more pax sit towards the back of the aircraft it trims it out better and leaves for less shuffling of pax around to retrim it at the end of boarding. Plus it's only €4, not too bad in the bigger scheme of things.

meeeeh

There is a safety reason for not letting kids seat on exit seats. We didn't pay for seats when we didn't need to but I understand why Ryanair want families to buy seats, especially for full flights.

Troy McClure

billie1b wrote: »

Totally incorrect, the system is made that way due to the fact Boeing aircraft are a nose heavy aircraft. When more kids sit towards the back of the aircraft it trims it out better and leaves for less shuffling of pax around to retrim it at the end of boarding. Plus it's only €4, not too bad in the bigger scheme of things.

Utter Rubbish I believe. I have a friend of mine who is an aircraft mechanic for over twenty years and has just chuckled when I call him to read your post. Ryanair's PR company must me on there was the reply, or another kite flyer (whatever that is!).
Even if you were right then why not just keep and assign those seats to families without having to charge them. They already know from the bookings the ages of younger travelers. On top of that they have no problem with kids sitting at the front as long as you pay extra of course. So Ryanair don't even subscribe to your argument either.

I have flown with who know how many airlines and have never heard of other airline doing this.
On the 4€, charge it in the fare if you like, but this is a stealth fare for parents have no choice but to pay it. They're bigger scheme of things may not be the same size of yours my friend.

As for the other post I was pointing out there are exit seats in this same area and for good reason kids are not allow to sit at them.

billie1b

Troy McClure wrote: »

Utter Rubbish I believe. I have a friend of mine who is an aircraft mechanic for over twenty years and has just chuckled when I call him to read your post. Ryanair's PR company must me on there was the reply, or another kite flyer (whatever that is!).
Even if you were right then why not just keep and assign those seats to families without having to charge them. They already know from the bookings the ages of younger travelers. On top of that they have no problem with kids sitting at the front as long as you pay extra of course. So Ryanair don't even subscribe to your argument either.

I have flown with who know how many airlines and have never heard of other airline doing this.
On the 4€, charge it in the fare if you like, but this is a stealth fare for parents have no choice but to pay it. They're bigger scheme of things may not be the same size of yours my friend.

As for the other post I was pointing out there are exit seats in this same area and for good reason kids are not allow to sit at them.

Utter rubbish! You're mechanic friend has no clue! I've been dispatching aircraft for 15 years doing load sheets and drop line load sheets on -200's up to -800's and the odd A320, your friend might know how to fix the aircraft but he has no clue how to trim or do a loadsheet for the aircraft. I'll trust myself and what i've been doing for 15 years and not some imaginary mechanic in your head.

Troy McClure

You could be one of the Ryanair customer service guys if you ask me.

This seems to be a viable issue for you and Ryanair alone to defend. I have not come across this on other airlines with my kids or without them. I guess they are been incompetent so. Bless Ryanair for been so prudent!

I suspect your interests are aligned for whatever reason. Always a problem with boards forums I guess.

Fagashlil

Troy McClure wrote: »

You could be one of the Ryanair customer service guys if you ask me.

This seems to be a viable issue for you and Ryanair alone to defend. I have not come across this on other airlines with my kids or without them. I guess they are been incompetent so. Bless Ryanair for been so prudent!

I suspect your interests are aligned for whatever reason. Always a problem with boards forums I guess.

Think I'll trust a dispatcher over a mechanic any day for this discussion! I frequently have families with small children booked in the forward part of the cabin. It's a legal requirement that to occupy an emergency exit row (1ABC, 16/17 on a FR737) that you must be over 16.

The charge is €4-and all the children on the booking are allocated seats next to the paying adult. The reason for it was during high season, child heavy flights, the flights were departing late as crew were having to relocate passengers to accommodate families sitting together, which whilst perfectly reasonable, was delaying everybody, so to avoid this and make it simple, they brought in this policy. Add €4 to your overall flight cost, fairly simple and inexpensive

Kolido

billie1b wrote: »

Totally incorrect, the system is made that way due to the fact Boeing aircraft are a nose heavy aircraft. When more kids sit towards the back of the aircraft it trims it out better and leaves for less shuffling of pax around to retrim it at the end of boarding. Plus it's only €4, not too bad in the bigger scheme of things.

If the airplane is nose heavy, would it not make more sense to put the kids at the front as they are lighter or am I misreading it?

billie1b

Kolido wrote: »

If the airplane is nose heavy, would it not make more sense to put the kids at the front as they are lighter or am I misreading it?

Sorry I just re-read my OP, I have the word 'kids' in where it shouldn't be, it should read 'pax'.
The seat system generally chooses seats at the back of the aircraft first and makes its way forward, it makes no difference really if its adults or children but when a family of 5 book and they have to choose seats, the system allows it for the back first as it knows its a guaranteed weight of 2ad 3ch (300kgs) toward the back instead of in the front thus meaning the aircraft is staying in trim. If the system didn't allow this and pax choose at random where to sit, most people would choose the front, so the aircraft would then be out of trim and needed to be re-trimmed by way of moving pax around or bags and cargo around. When the flight is full you obviously cant move people around so it would be bags and cargo that have to come off or be moved etc etc. It doesn't happen very often because of the system but when it does there's such a thin line between the trims it can be a nightmare to correct.
Also to state, if you're interested, Boeing uses average weights on their loadsheets, the aircraft is never the exact weight at take-off but never too far off of the weight. On the 737 series each adult is on average 84kgs, including their cabin luggage, and each child is on average 48kgs, including their cabin baggage and each bag is given an average weight of 13kgs, even the bags with excess baggage wrote on them and heavy wrote on them, the extra weight is not accounted for, it's still all averages.

Troy McClure

Fagashlil wrote: »

Think I'll trust a dispatcher over a mechanic any day for this discussion! I frequently have families with small children booked in the forward part of the cabin. It's a legal requirement that to occupy an emergency exit row (1ABC, 16/17 on a FR737) that you must be over 16.

The charge is €4-and all the children on the booking are allocated seats next to the paying adult. The reason for it was during high season, child heavy flights, the flights were departing late as crew were having to relocate passengers to accommodate families sitting together, which whilst perfectly reasonable, was delaying everybody, so to avoid this and make it simple, they brought in this policy. Add €4 to your overall flight cost, fairly simple and inexpensive

I never argued children should been allowed to sit at exit seats, so I think you misunderstood. It clearly is an adult role if required.

Ryanairs reason for this change is to ensure families who want to sit together have control to do so without causing issues at boarding point. That's it! Nothing else according to them.

However this could be done without charging them. They already have the age profiles when bookings were made, to which they can allocate any sections of the plane they want upon online check in. So seats could be allocated accordingly to how they see fit at check in, as was before this change.
They have actually decided to do this, but also to sneak a charge into the equation that's mandatory if you have children U12 telling parents you get to choose. The amount is irrelevant but this 'issue' could be solved easily without an extra charge.

Before last October seats were allocated by Ryanair at checkin, seating you where they choose to put you, unless you elected to pay for otherwise.
So thus, with this charge, it cannot be argued in has anything to do with sitting in wrong areas, for the planes sake. People still can change around after take off to other empty seats on emptier flights anyway.
It's just pure spin and opportunism.

What other airlines do this? No one else but Ryanair. Please!

mattser

Troy McClure wrote: »

I never argued children should been allowed to sit at exit seats, so I think you misunderstood. It clearly is an adult role if required.

Ryanairs reason for this change is to ensure families who want to sit together have control to do so without causing issues at boarding point. That's it! Nothing else according to them.

However this could be done without charging them. They already have the age profiles when bookings were made, to which they can allocate any sections of the plane they want upon online check in. So seats could be allocated accordingly to how they see fit at check in, as was before this change.
They have actually decided to do this, but also to sneak a charge into the equation that's mandatory if you have children U12 telling parents you get to choose. The amount is irrelevant but this 'issue' could be solved easily without an extra charge.

Before last October seats were allocated by Ryanair at checkin, seating you where they choose to put you, unless you elected to pay for otherwise.
So thus, with this charge, it cannot be argued in has anything to do with sitting in wrong areas, for the planes sake. People still can change around after take off to other empty seats on emptier flights anyway.
It's just pure spin and opportunism.

What other airlines do this? No one else but Ryanair. Please!

Use another airline. End of.

A Dub in Glasgo

Troy McClure wrote: »

I never argued children should been allowed to sit at exit seats, so I think you misunderstood. It clearly is an adult role if required.

Ryanairs reason for this change is to ensure families who want to sit together have control to do so without causing issues at boarding point. That's it! Nothing else according to them.

However this could be done without charging them. They already have the age profiles when bookings were made, to which they can allocate any sections of the plane they want upon online check in. So seats could be allocated accordingly to how they see fit at check in, as was before this change.
They have actually decided to do this, but also to sneak a charge into the equation that's mandatory if you have children U12 telling parents you get to choose. The amount is irrelevant but this 'issue' could be solved easily without an extra charge.

Before last October seats were allocated by Ryanair at checkin, seating you where they choose to put you, unless you elected to pay for otherwise.
So thus, with this charge, it cannot be argued in has anything to do with sitting in wrong areas, for the planes sake. People still can change around after take off to other empty seats on emptier flights anyway.
It's just pure spin and opportunism.

What other airlines do this? No one else but Ryanair. Please!

You are a bit late with your observations