Anyone aware of a new Ryanair boarding card policy?

Why would the EU require this? If a group get onto a bus they aren't guaranteed seats together, if they get onto a Luas they aren't guaranteed seats together, if they get onto a train they aren't guaranteed seats together*. So why do you want airlines to do this when no other transport operator has to?

If you want guaranteed seats on a plane go with an airline that offers it for free and pay sustainably more for your flight than paying for seats on Ryanair. Even AerLingus charges for seats.

*You can get free assigned seats on a train, but all trains are heavily subsidised so they can do this. If the EU subsidises airlines then they can tell them to give away free seats.

UK to non-EU destinations (and intra-UK) FR flights are operated by Ryanair UK, which is legally and operationally a separate company. Of course the same corporate branding applies but it operates as a UK rather than an EU carrier.

At what point did you know you had to join the queue, and how did you find out?

Literally when I was checking in the day before. It tells you straight away on the app that you will have to go to the airport desk to get your boarding pass. But you can get it now if you pick (and pay) for a seat.

Happened to me last Friday evening when I went to check in for a flight roughly 12 hours later. Couldn't believe it, I assumed it was a tech issue.

Regarding overbooking, I've seen manifests at the gate which had 191 people booked (on a NG) but only 160 something had checked in. So you can certainly see why they do it.

Overselling flights?? I've never seen this happen in all the years that I've flown Ryanair. I don't think they oversell at all. Neither do Aer Lingus. This is more a US carrier thing to do.

The Ryanair app is absolutely fantastic. This will ruin it.. I fly short haul with them a lot. My suspicion is that because it is so cheap if you book early,they are getting a fair few people booking two or three flights and taking whichever is the handiest. This will hit their revenue, so they are trying to work around it whilst staying within the law would be my initial thought. It makes no sense at all otherwise. I fly Ryanair a lot simply because the app is so good.

That's not what they are doing.

You checked in, in plenty of time.

It's does leaving it until the last minute (eg 2-3 hours before departure) to check in, that are caught by this policy.

If you check in the day before, I don't think you'll have any problems.

I couldn't check in all week. I was constantly getting a message telling me to go to the airport and check in there.

Only got the email this morning 22 hrs before the flight, telling me to check in online as usual.

Just their normal policy.

From their website: "If you have pre-reserved a seat, you can check in online up to 60 days before scheduled departure. However, your outbound and return flights must be within those 60 days of departure. If you have not reserved a seat and this is being assigned to you randomly, check-in opens 24 hours before your flight and closes 2 hours before."

The very avoidance of comment on the specific issue (i.e. paper pass at desk) makes me think it is a new altered policy.

Since the kids came along we have to book seats anyway so this does not directly impose upon me for the most part, still it's enough to move Ryanair down the list of options. The whole point of the app was to avoid paper and queues!

They used to deny it, but don't deny it anymore. I had it recently on a flight I checked in (quite late) for. Your boarding pass just says 'assigned at gate' and your sequence number is 187. In my case it updated with a seat number after check in closed, presumably as someone that had paid for a seat was then a no-show.

Had the same happen to me in September. Had to go to the desk to get the seat assigned.

Also what is the reason for Ryanair insisting on non-eu people getting a special stamp on their ticket which no other airline requires.