Ryanair seating policy!

Mebuntu

Irish Steve wrote: »

Having said that, I'm also aware that some people can be very obstructive about their perceived "rights",

I think that is very OTT to accuse someone of being obstructive because they refuse to move from a seat they've paid for to accommodate someone who hasn't. Far from being "perceived" they have every right to refuse.

theyoungchap

lightpause wrote: »

IMHO You shouldn't be charged more to travel with relatives. A seat is a seat. Fair enough if you are choosing a so called "premium" seat (as if anything could be considered premium on a Ryanair flight).

Another issue I have with Ryanair is that we have 2 toddlers, they cannot travel alone so we are forced to choose seats, even if we don't want but since Ryanair is so customer oriented they give the children's seats for half price, something they are forcing us to do.

There is a place for Ryanair but some of their policies go just a step too far. I'd rather pay 30 quid more and fly Aer Lingus where I can carry my cabin luggage without being asked to pay and can choose my seats. I would normally pay for seats, as a matter of principle though I just don't like being forced to do something.

Well you are not being forced to fly with Ryanair, as you said yourself go ahead and fly Aer Lingus!! Or else holiday in Ballybunion.

plodder

That reminds me, my OH was just telling me on her last flight home, there was a woman in the aisle seat who wouldn't move to let her into her middle seat. She insisted my wife climb over her. So, she climbs in and hears a conversation between the person at the window seat and another passenger in the row behind with a baby. "Oh, are you traveling together?" she says to passenger with baby "we can swap seats, if you want to be together". Ka-ching!! Woman glued to her aisle seat gets more than she bargained for.

Gwen Cooper

plodder wrote: »

That reminds me, my OH was just telling me on her last flight home, there was a woman in the aisle seat who wouldn't move to let her into her middle seat. She insisted my wife climb over her. So, she climbs in and hears a conversation between the person at the window seat and another passenger in the row behind with a baby. "Oh, are you traveling together?" she says to passenger with baby "we can swap seats, if you want to be together". Ka-ching!! Woman glued to her aisle seat gets more than she bargained for.

I would do my best to climb over her with my ass landing on her face

Noxegon

theyoungchap wrote: »

In their own eyes, parents and their children and their entitlements outrank everybody else in this life.

If you think parents are bad, try musicians

A former friend of mine and I fell out over the fact that I wouldn't agree that he should be allowed to store a violin case in the overhead bins on Ryanair despite it being massively over the permitted dimensions.

PlaneSpeeking

Noxegon wrote: »

If you think parents are bad, try musicians

A former friend of mine and I fell out over the fact that I wouldn't agree that he should be allowed to store a violin case in the overhead bins on Ryanair despite it being massively over the permitted dimensions.

Oh the conversations overheard at the steps when young wans won't put their giant sized suitcases in the hold!!!

You know the trunks Kate Winslet's ma took on the Titanic ? These make that look like carry on.

Irish Steve

To clarify yet again.

I am not expecting Ryanair (or any other airline) to provide allocated seating for family groups for no additional fee if that is their policy, what I am expecting, and should be able to get, is seats that are in accordance with Ryanair's own stated policy of sitting minors with an adult that is/are part of the same group. Because of the way the booking and check in systems operate, that is not always operating as expected, despite having paid the relevant fee.

And yes, I'd love to be in the position to be able to charter a private jet, or even own one, but unfortunately, the only way that will happen will be if I win the lottery, so until that happens, it's whatever carrier serves the route I want to travel on. Yes, it was a lot simpler when I could turn up at the airport, throw the bags in the back, do the walk round checks, put the passengers in and go.

The IAA doesn't have an on line source, but the CAA says

Families, children and infants

The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

billy few mates

"Another issue I have with Ryanair is that we have 2 toddlers, they cannot travel alone so we are forced to choose seats..."

Why would you not want to choose the option to select four seats so you and your family members can all sit together...?
You don't have to fly with them at all if you don't want to, there's plenty of choice out there...

PlaneSpeeking

billy few mates wrote: »

"Another issue I have with Ryanair is that we have 2 toddlers, they cannot travel alone so we are forced to choose seats..."

Why would you not want to choose the option to select four seats so you and your family members can all sit together...?
You don't have to fly with them at all if you don't want to, there's plenty of choice out there...

Always love the martyrdom of "forced" to do something.

Having children - a choice
Travelling with them - a choice
Paying for that option - a choice

I see little coersion!!

billy few mates

I fly quite often, I rarely use Ryanair but when I do I know the rules and I can easily accept them.
Regardless of who I'm flying with I never pay to select a seat as I don't mind where I sit.
I also find the later I check in online the better that seat tends to be.
I'm quite happy to let Ryanair allocate me whatever "randomly allocated" seat their computer system decides but once I'm on board I operate a strict no swap policy that even Ryanair would be proud of. I don't care how old your granny is or how young your grandchildren are I'm not moving so you can sit beside them unless you pay me the €10 I pretend I've paid for that seat. This is roughly what it would have cost you if you'd paid for it when you made your booking so you should be no worse off if you really need to sit together.
I think that's fair...

Noxegon

billy few mates wrote: »

I fly quite often, I rarely use Ryanair but when I do I know the rules and I can easily accept them.
Regardless of who I'm flying with I never pay to select a seat as I don't mind where I sit.
I also find the later I check in online the better that seat tends to be.
I'm quite happy to let Ryanair allocate me whatever "randomly allocated" seat their computer system decides but once I'm on board I operate a strict no swap policy that even Ryanair would be proud of. I don't care how old your granny is or how young your grandchildren are I'm not moving so you can sit beside them unless you pay me the €10 I pretend I've paid for that seat. This is roughly what it would have cost you if you'd paid for it when you made your booking so you should be no worse off if you really need to sit together.
I think that's fair...

You’re generous - I typically offer mine for €25

PlaneSpeeking

Noxegon wrote: »

You’re generous - I typically offer mine for €25

Note to self to start that....!!!

Pat Dunne

I am a regular FR user, I use the airline as it is a no frills airline, if I want frills, I'll pay for them. We threat your regular sub 4 hour European destination journey as you would most other journeys, to simply get there safely and within reasonable time.
Ironically, last week we happened to use EI for my most recent flight, as their arrival time appeared to suit our travel plans best. However we ended up been delayed over 2 hours as a result of the aircraft going tech earlier in the day and upon arrival in DUB having to wait over 20 mins before the Airbridge driver showed up.
I along with my regular and long suffering other travelling companion are happy to go with the terms and conditions set down by the airline.

billy few mates

billy few mates wrote: »

I fly quite often, I rarely use Ryanair but when I do I know the rules and I can easily accept them.
Regardless of who I'm flying with I never pay to select a seat as I don't mind where I sit.
I also find the later I check in online the better that seat tends to be.
I'm quite happy to let Ryanair allocate me whatever "randomly allocated" seat their computer system decides but once I'm on board I operate a strict no swap policy that even Ryanair would be proud of. I don't care how old your granny is or how young your grandchildren are I'm not moving so you can sit beside them unless you pay me the €10 I pretend I've paid for that seat. This is roughly what it would have cost you if you'd paid for it when you made your booking so you should be no worse off if you really need to sit together.
I think that's fair...

I thought you aren't supposed to swap anyway??

Squatter

Irish Steve wrote: »

To clarify yet again.

I am not expecting Ryanair (or any other airline) to provide allocated seating for family groups for no additional fee if that is their policy, what I am expecting, and should be able to get, is seats that are in accordance with Ryanair's own stated policy of sitting minors with an adult that is/are part of the same group. Because of the way the booking and check in systems operate, that is not always operating as expected, despite having paid the relevant fee.

And yes, I'd love to be in the position to be able to charter a private jet, or even own one, but unfortunately, the only way that will happen will be if I win the lottery, so until that happens, it's whatever carrier serves the route I want to travel on. Yes, it was a lot simpler when I could turn up at the airport, throw the bags in the back, do the walk round checks, put the passengers in and go.

The IAA doesn't have an on line source, but the CAA says

From your earlier posts, it appears that in the situation that you outlined, the Ryanair computer should simply have refused to process your son's booking as it couldn't abide by the CAA regulation.

Would your son have been happy with that logical outcome?

Irish Steve

Squatter wrote: »

From your earlier posts, it appears that in the situation that you outlined, the Ryanair computer should simply have refused to process your son's booking as it couldn't abide by the CAA regulation.

Would your son have been happy with that logical outcome?

I'm not sure, in one respect, that would be no different than looking at the booking engine and seeing that the flight was full on some dates/rotations. Yes, he wanted to travel, but given the type of holiday he was booking, if one date/flight combination wasn't available, he's have looked at other dates or flights.



On the actual flights, there were people who were happy to swap, but that's not a certainty, given some of the attitudes that have been posted in this thread, and I wouldn't want to be depending on that option.

Squatter

Irish Steve wrote: »

I'm not sure, in one respect, that would be no different than looking at the booking engine and seeing that the flight was full on some dates/rotations. Yes, he wanted to travel, but given the type of holiday he was booking, if one date/flight combination wasn't available, he's have looked at other dates or flights.

Fair enough.

Widening my question from the specific to the general, surely Ryanair's (or any other airline's) booking system shouldn't be able to take a booking when it is clear that the said booking would be in breach of the CAA regulation?

Hitman3000

Irish Steve wrote:

On the actual flights, there were people who were happy to swap, but that's not a certainty, given some of the attitudes that have been posted in this thread, and I wouldn't want to be depending on that option.

Some people would swap their seat once they are paid what they paid for it. I was on a flight recently with RA and was asked to move. I said I would once I was given the 14 euro the seat cost. The person refused to pay, so I stayed where I was.

trellheim

If you are boarding into a window seat and the already seated aisle seat passenger will not move to let you in (WTF !!!! ) do not climb over them, instead call the Cabin Crew, they will sort them out rapido

That's my recommendation anyway

(thinks : who could possibly be such a tit )

Living Off The Splash

You have to pay extra to sit in the first few rows. On a recent flight a family was split up despite the fact that a couple of the front rows only had one person sitting in the window seat. This suggests to me that the first few rows are not randomly
allocated except perhaps when the flight si flying at full capacity?

fritzelly

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

You have to pay extra to sit in the first few rows. On a recent flight a family was split up despite the fact that a couple of the front rows only had one person sitting in the window seat. This suggests to me that the first few rows are not randomly
allocated except perhaps when the flight si flying at full capacity?

Pretty sure none of the premium seats are randomly allocated until the rest of the plane is full

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

billy few mates

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Like me...

raiders11

fritzelly wrote: »

Pretty sure none of the premium seats are randomly allocated until the rest of the plane is full

Came on this thread for quick glance as booked 5 online this morning and obviously as didn't pay for the seats, none of them are sitting side by side.

But in reference to the premium seats, 3 of the passengers got 3B, 4B, 5B and there are plenty of other seats available on the plane. (other 2 got 8D and 10D).