Ryanair - New reserved seating structure(s)

jimmy180sx

On this evening's flight I witnessed 2 double bookings on one flight with regards seat number. Quickly resolved but didn't think it would be possible with online check in

Lima Golf

Checked in 2 days in advance for a canaries flight. Me and the other half seated 11 rows apart. Paid £20 to sit beside him. On the way home checked in 4 days in advance, seated one row apart on opposite sides of the plane. Paid £13 to sit with him. £33 for 2 bloody seats. I know I really shouldn't have paid it but it's a 4.5 hour flight so I went with it.

HeidiHeidi

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Three of us are flying in the morning. Two booked together, I booked separately.

The other two checked in today, and got seats together - free gratis and for nothing. I just checked in about an hour ago, and got a window seat (hurray!)

So it would seem that the splitting-people-up policy is not across the board.

Hah! I was misled - they're not seated together after all

As you were.

(My window seat is great though!)

embraer170

Lima Golf wrote: »

Checked in 2 days in advance for a canaries flight. Me and the other half seated 11 rows apart. Paid £20 to sit beside him. On the way home checked in 4 days in advance, seated one row apart on opposite sides of the plane. Paid £13 to sit with him. £33 for 2 bloody seats. I know I really shouldn't have paid it but it's a 4.5 hour flight so I went with it.

What rows were they to be so expensive?

embraer170

Lima Golf wrote: »

Checked in 2 days in advance for a canaries flight. Me and the other half seated 11 rows apart. Paid £20 to sit beside him. On the way home checked in 4 days in advance, seated one row apart on opposite sides of the plane. Paid £13 to sit with him. £33 for 2 bloody seats. I know I really shouldn't have paid it but it's a 4.5 hour flight so I went with it.

What rows were they to be so expensive?

cobham

todays Irish Times website

Ryanair has denied its free random seat allocation system is deliberately separating people from their travelling companions in order to force those who wish to sit together to pay for reserved seating.
Up until recently passengers travelling together who did not pay for specific seats tended to be allocated seats side by side, however passengers have contacted The Irish Times over the last week to complain that the policy appears to have changed.
Passengers who have travelled with the airline in recent weeks - including people travelling with children - have expressed concern that they have been separated from companions despite the fact that they checked in early when there were plenty of adjacent seats available.
One frequent Ryanair-flying reader who travelled with the airline twice last week was separated from his travelling companions on both occasions and will be separated from his family again when he flies with the airline later this week.
“The first trip was with a colleague to Manchester,” he said. “I booked the flights and checked us in online. Previously they pretty well always sat you beside each other but I was put in the middle seat in row in front of him,” he continued.
“The window seat was vacant beside each of us. On the second trip I came back from Luton with two others. Again we were all split up. We fly to Portugal tomorrow. I checked in yesterday as soon as free allocation check in opened on line. We were all allocated seats in different parts of aircraft. Significantly our child is booked as a juvenile and you would have thought would be seated beside adult. Always used to be.”
Another reader had a similar experience. “I went to check in online for Ryanair flights on Friday (for myself my wife and our son who is autistic) going to Malaga to find that they have allocated myself, my wife and son three seats as far apart as possible on the plane,” he said.

Lima Golf

embraer170 wrote: »

What rows were they to be so expensive?

Exit row going out as I couldn't move him beside me as no empty seats showing. Row 9 coming home, I was row 10 and it was the same price so it didn't matter who moved.

embraer170

Lima Golf wrote: »

Exit row going out as I couldn't move him beside me as no empty seats showing. Row 9 coming home, I was row 10 and it was the same price so it didn't matter who moved.

A seat in row 9 cost £13?

They really are putting up the price of seats.

joeysoap

cobham wrote: »

todays Irish Times website

Ryanair has denied its free random seat allocation system is deliberately separating people from their travelling companions in order to force those who wish to sit together to pay for reserved seating.
Up until recently passengers travelling together who did not pay for specific seats tended to be allocated seats side by side, however passengers have contacted The Irish Times over the last week to complain that the policy appears to have changed.
Passengers who have travelled with the airline in recent weeks - including people travelling with children - have expressed concern that they have been separated from companions despite the fact that they checked in early when there were plenty of adjacent seats available.
One frequent Ryanair-flying reader who travelled with the airline twice last week was separated from his travelling companions on both occasions and will be separated from his family again when he flies with the airline later this week.
“The first trip was with a colleague to Manchester,” he said. “I booked the flights and checked us in online. Previously they pretty well always sat you beside each other but I was put in the middle seat in row in front of him,” he continued.
“The window seat was vacant beside each of us. On the second trip I came back from Luton with two others. Again we were all split up. We fly to Portugal tomorrow. I checked in yesterday as soon as free allocation check in opened on line. We were all allocated seats in different parts of aircraft. Significantly our child is booked as a juvenile and you would have thought would be seated beside adult. Always used to be.”
Another reader had a similar experience. “I went to check in online for Ryanair flights on Friday (for myself my wife and our son who is autistic) going to Malaga to find that they have allocated myself, my wife and son three seats as far apart as possible on the plane,” he said.

Conor Pope on The Last Word on Today FM. Ryanair wouldn't come on the show, but apparently said earlier that more people were flying with them and more people were buying seats so maybe that was the reason. Caller rang in to say he was seated at front of aircraft last week and his wife in row 33. There was a total of 34 passengers on the plane!

embraer170

joeysoap wrote: »

Conor Pope on The Last Word on Today FM. Ryanair wouldn't come on the show, but apparently said earlier that more people were flying with them and more people were buying seats so maybe that was the reason. Caller rang in to say he was seated at front of aircraft last week and his wife in row 33. There was a total of 34 passengers on the plane!

Ryanair are very clearly lying. It will be interesting how much media pressure they get over this.

I cannot see it dying down quickly, unless they really manage to change passenger behaviour. Will they?

Buying a €2 for a single passenger on a flight to London may not seem like much. Now if you are a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers, on a longer Spain/Canaries/Greek route where the cheapest seats are sometimes €4.50, it very quickly adds up. It is almost €40 on a return, and you are not getting a single thing more than on your previous trip.

joeysoap

embraer170 wrote: »

A seat in row 9 cost £13?

They really are putting up the price of seats.

Picked a flight at random - Dublin to Rome 13th July

As posted previously 4 price bands on offer, dark blue, yellow, light blue and red 'on sale' seats.
These are the actual seat prices starting from row 1.

€16, €14, €13, €10, €9, €7, €6, €15 (rows 16/17) €6, €4 and €2.

11 bands ( and I have seen bands on flights ending in 50c) in a 32 row aircraft.

EverythingGood

joeysoap wrote: »

Picked a flight at random - Dublin to Rome 13th July

As posted previously 4 price bands on offer, dark blue, yellow, light blue and red 'on sale' seats.
These are the actual seat prices starting from row 1.

€16, €14, €13, €10, €9, €7, €6, €15 (rows 16/17) €6, €4 and €2.

11 bands ( and I have seen bands on flights ending in 50c) in a 32 row aircraft.

Haven't all Ryanair aircraft only 32 or 31 rows, as they don't use the number 13!!

joeysoap

From EJ website( note the 30 day free seat check in, no running around resorts looking for an Internet cafe if you like to print off your boarding pass)

Our seating system will always try to group you together and there are usually plenty of seats available, but seats are allocated on a first come first served basis so the earlier you check in the more likely you are to sit together.

Check in opens 30 days before your departure, so please try to check in as early as you can. If you leave it to the last minute it’s likely that there won’t be enough seats for your group and we’ll then have to rely on other passengers agreeing to move once on board the aircraft which can be stressful and cause delays.

joeysoap

EverythingGood wrote: »

Haven't all Ryanair aircraft only 32 or 31 rows, as they don't use the number 13!!

Rows numbered 1 - 33. They don't use row 13 as you post. 31 rows x 6 passengers and 1 row x 3 passengers= 189 passengers on all RY 737 -800 aircraft in 32 rows.

quadrifoglio verde

embraer170 wrote: »

Ryanair are very clearly lying. It will be interesting how much media pressure they get over this.

I cannot see it dying down quickly, unless they really manage to change passenger behaviour. Will they?

Buying a €2 for a single passenger on a flight to London may not seem like much. Now if you are a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers, on a longer Spain/Canaries/Greek route where the cheapest seats are sometimes €4.50, it very quickly adds up. It is almost €40 on a return, and you are not getting a single thing more than on your previous trip.

Why do 2 adults and 2 teenagers need to sit together though? 40 quid to sit beside each other when at least one will fall asleep, 1 will read a book and 2 will be watching something on their phone. Pointless waste of money, especially when you'll spend the duration of the holiday in each others company as well as the weeks before AMD after

It's the easiest 40 quid ryanair can make AMD if it keeps my flights cheap I say fair play.

grogi

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

It's the easiest 40 quid ryanair can make AMD if it keeps my flights cheap I say fair play.

Would be true if Ryanair was non profit organisation...

EricPraline

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Why do 2 adults and 2 teenagers need to sit together though? 40 quid to sit beside each other when at least one will fall asleep, 1 will read a book and 2 will be watching something on their phone. Pointless waste of money, especially when you'll spend the duration of the holiday in each others company as well as the weeks before AMD after

It's the easiest 40 quid ryanair can make AMD if it keeps my flights cheap I say fair play.

And when the policy involves separating a family of 2 adults and 2 young children, or an elderly couple, is that still acceptable once it keeps your flights cheap?

joeysoap

This is a bit like VW tinkering with the emissions, in that it didn't happen by accident. VW put a lot of money into developing the cheat and I would imagine that this was someone at RY's brainwave, run by the bosses, discussed how best to implement it over many meetings, run by IT to see how do-able it was, trialed over a number of routes, income generated examined etc. All before general roll out.

Lima Golf

embraer170 wrote: »

A seat in row 9 cost £13?

They really are putting up the price of seats.

Yep €15.46 according to my online banking.

C3PO

EricPraline wrote: »

And when the policy involves separating a family of 2 adults and 2 young children, or an elderly couple, is that still acceptable once it keeps your flights cheap?

If you don't like the policy, don't fly with them! If enough people vote with their feet then Ryanair will change the policy! They are a business and will make business decisions. But my guess is that most people will tolerate the slight inconvenience in exchange for cheap flights!

grogi

joeysoap wrote: »

This is a bit like VW tinkering with the emissions, in that it didn't happen by accident. VW put a lot of money into developing the cheat and I would imagine that this was someone at RY's brainwave, run by the bosses, discussed how best to implement it over many meetings, run by IT to see how do-able it was, trialed over a number of routes, income generated examined etc. All before general roll out.

Absolutely. It is not cost cutting measure. It actually costs Ryanair money, but they hope they will, by inconveniencing people, get more money than the cost.

Greed, greed, greed... I understand it, but I cannot understand all the people who say it is good Ryanair is doing it. Stockholm syndrome, love your abuser?

C3PO wrote: »

If you don't like the policy, don't fly with them! If enough people vote with their feet then Ryanair will change the policy! They are a business and will make business decisions. But my guess is that most people will tolerate the slight inconvenience in exchange for cheap flights!

It is pure naïvety to believe the price will get cheaper because of that. As said, Ryanair is there to make money. There will be no reduction of price because of that policy, simple as 1+1.

C3PO

grogi wrote: »

It is pure naïvety to believe the price will get cheaper because of that. As said, Ryanair is there to make money. There will be no reduction of price because of that policy, simple as 1+1.

Ryanair's business model is built on policies just like this one! Cut costs to the bone, cheap seats and charge for everything else! I really don't understand how people struggle to get this! It is not compulsory to use their services.

theteal

I've defended Ryanair throughout the years even though I didn't agree with some of their supposedly "Mr nice guy" changes e.g. allocated seating.

This policy though, is patently anti-consumer and I will be voting with my feet as soon as I figure out an alternative way to get from Stansted to Dublin.....throws a penny in the fountain hoping for the rumored Southend flights to get going again.

grogi

C3PO wrote: »

Ryanair's business model is built on policies just like this one! Cut costs to the bone, cheap seats and charge for everything else! I really don't understand how people struggle to get this! It is not compulsory to use their services.

You seem not to get the clue - it is not cost cutting.

In the past they were cutting cost wherever possible - reducing airport service staff (by forcing you to check-in online), reducing airport costs (exp. bridge vs stairs boarding), charging for food on-board (it costs fuel, thus money, to carry food on-board) etc. This policy is not cutting cost, it is generating costs.

C3PO

grogi wrote: »

You seem not to get the clue - it is not cost cutting.

In the past they were cutting cost wherever possible - reducing airport service staff (by forcing you to check-in online), reducing airport costs (exp. bridge vs stairs boarding), charging for food on-board (it costs fuel, thus money, to carry food on-board) etc. This policy is not cutting cost, it is generating costs.

I don't believe that I ever suggested that this was a "cost cutting" policy?

It is an income generating exercise, plain and simple! As you point out, it will also mean some additional costs for Ryanair but probably fairly marginal after initial software development?

To be clear, I don't usually fly Ryanair and would prefer to use other airlines even if they are a little bit more expensive! But I don't understand the attitude of people who want to avail of Ryanair's cheap flights but seem to feel an "entitlement" to have additional services included in the price!
I know I'm repeating myself, but Ryanair are really clear about their offering - take it or leave it!

grogi

C3PO wrote: »

I don't believe that I ever suggested that this was a "cost cutting" policy?

Exactly. That's what pisses people off.

Previously they would inconvenience passengers and justify it by cutting cost. People were not happy to pay for various things, but they understood that it is the way to get cheap flight.

Typically a service company would take additional costs in hope to boost revenue above that, but would offer something additional, increase the comfort and convenience. Ryanair are purposely inconveniencing passengers while increasing costs in the process! I simply cannot applaud policy like that.

C3PO wrote: »

It is an income generating exercise, plain and simple! As you point out, it will also mean some additional costs for Ryanair but probably fairly marginal after initial software development?

This will increase the boarding time and quite possibly cause moderate delays when some of the flights to be pushed out of their landing slots on busier airports.

C3PO

grogi wrote: »

This will increase the boarding time and quite possibly cause moderate delays when some of the flights to be pushed out of their landing slots on busier airports.

Why should it increase boarding time? People have allocated seat numbers in either case. I would be surprised if Ryanair deliberately would introduce a new policy if they thought that it could lead to losing "slots" and thus increased cost.

The Caveman

We were on a flight 2 weeks ago, and we had seats in row 2 E & F ( we paid for our seats)

Flight was full, and there was 2 major holdups.

Family was not seated together, and a their young child was sitting someware alone. i can only guess , but he was younger than 9

and it was a heated debate between the parents and staff on the plane.

Than, another couple told us we are in their seats. so we had to show our boarding pass, but they were in my jacket in the over head bins, and it took us a while to get them out as we were right in front. On their boarding pass it also showed Seats Row 2 E & F

We showed them to the staff ,and they saw we paid for our seats, and this couple did not, so they had to wait will the end, and sit on the last 2 seats.

did not think anything of it at the time, but, small knock on effect...

grogi

C3PO wrote: »

Why should it increase boarding time? People have allocated seat numbers in either case. I would be surprised if Ryanair deliberately would introduce a new policy if they thought that it could lead to losing "slots" and thus increased cost.

The Caveman wrote: »

We were on a flight 2 weeks ago, and we had seats in row 2 E & F ( we paid for our seats)

Flight was full, and there was 2 major holdups.

Family was not seated together, and a their young child was sitting someware alone. i can only guess , but he was younger than 9

and it was a heated debate between the parents and staff on the plane.

Than, another couple told us we are in their seats. so we had to show our boarding pass, but they were in my jacket in the over head bins, and it took us a while to get them out as we were right in front. On their boarding pass it also showed Seats Row 2 E & F

We showed them to the staff ,and they saw we paid for our seats, and this couple did not, so they had to wait will the end, and sit on the last 2 seats.

did not think anything of it at the time, but, small knock on effect...

2+2?

C3PO

Both of those incidences could have happened whether the seats were paid for or not? Don't see the connection!