Priority Boarding - WHY???

Kintarō Hattori

jester77 wrote:

But they didn't have to go all Ryanair about it!

In fairness to them Aer Lingus staff are still a hell of alot friendlier than Ryanair's. The last Ryanair flight I was on I was seriously considering making a complaint about the main hostess, I felt she was very hostile towards the passengers and she was most definetly rude. I've never experianced that with anyone from Aer Lingus.

r3nu4l

SofaKing wrote:

To get the better seats nearer the exits, no?

QFT!

mcauley wrote:

Also to save the 8-10 minutes it takes to get off the plane...only to rush to the luggage belt where again everyone must wait another painful amount of time for their feckin bags!!

Not everyone has luggage in the hold you know! On 90% of my flights in the last 3 years I've only had cabin baggage.

I rarely pay for priority boarding but on the times I did pay for it I did so to ensure that I got a seat near the exit and could stow my bag above my head for a speedy getaway when I landed.

angeldelight

I can see why families might do it to ensure they get sitting together... I wouldn't pay for it myself. I'm travelling to Blackpool with Ryanair in October with my bf and his family and family friends but if I don't get to sit next to him... so what? I'll see him as soon as I get off the plane and I've been with him a while so doubt I'll forget what he looks like!

As for Aer Lingus and their "scam", it's not the same, you CAN if you wish pay extra for seat selection on their short haul flights but you don't have to and will still get to stay with your group and probably still get a seat you want esp if you do Fast Pass and select your own seats for free anyway. You can also still check in online so it's not the same at all. I hate Ryanair and avoid them as much as possible but I'd never have a problem flying with Aer Lingus.

Rob_l

Cake Fiend wrote:

Ha, I'm the exact opposite - at boarding time, you'll likely find me in the pub, keeping an eye on the queue over my Guinness until everyone else is almost boarded!

I follow this approach also

And also like to remain seated when the plane lands while everyone charges at the exits if you bring luggae all your saving is no time and with just carry on at most your saving five mninutes

I prefer hassle free living to rushing about for a few minutes

cjt156

Collie D wrote:

WTF kind of bus are you using? Takes me twenty minutes to travel ine mile some days

Clarify;
couple of posters snook in ahead of me.
I was referring to a post about going all Ryanair; do you honestly need free booze on a flight across Ireland, or anywhere in Europe for that matter.

I don't fancy no frills long-haul, but if you're paying less than 100Euro for a ticket lets stop whinging about the quality of service/loss of "free" booze/foot massages...whatever.

I remember flights to London costing 250 pounds back in the 80's...believe me Ryanair is the way to go.

DaDa

Use it when we have a few of us travelling and we want to sit together.

Funny story... 2 out of 8 of us went for it while checking in at Salzburg... but sure it only meant they got on the bus to the plane first... and as a result were last off the bus and last onto the plane. Hilarious!

timmywex

i figure that in foreign countries, they throw u on a bus anyway, and everyone reachs the plane at the same time, what a waste of money buying it!!

TCollins

eo980 wrote:

In fairness to them Aer Lingus staff are still a hell of alot friendlier than Ryanair's. The last Ryanair flight I was on I was seriously considering making a complaint about the main hostess, I felt she was very hostile towards the passengers and she was most definetly rude. I've never experianced that with anyone from Aer Lingus.

Ryanair staff get a bonus for that

dak

I think prority boarding is a farse! I only get it when travelling with the wife and kids! Ryanair used to board the young and the old first and free. It was probably the only time someone had a good word for them for service.......maybe that why they took it away.

On a recent trip to Barcelona about 60% of the people or more had priority boarding. 100% and Michaels smiling!

blorg

cooperguy wrote:

What I dont get is the queue that builds up in front of a boarding gate for all the other airlines. You have a gauranteed seat in a certain part of the plane and that isnt going to change but there is people queuing in front of every gate. They are going to spend the next 3 hours on the plane, why the rush to get on?

You would think that, but I had an exit row booked on a night transatlantic flight that was swiped by a grumpy woman from Quebec claiming leg trouble and didn't have the heart (or neck?) to evict her out of it. People may also have a large bag they want to stick up. Personally it doesn't affect me as I am generally the one sprinting to the gate with his name being called out on the intercom ;-)

Seamus- Aer Lingus charges if you want to book a specific seat, the plane is divided into sections with the emergency exits most expensive (€15), the front next (€10) or the rest of the plane for €3. If you are happy to be allocated on check-in you don't have to pay. I think it is only short-haul flights they do this.

smemon

priority boarding is grand..

but luggage is the problem- it's what delays things..

there needs to be a self-service automated system to check in luggage.

that would clear check in queues, reduce staff costs and be a win win situation for all.

dingding

To get a warm seat

Deeyasee

I personally always try to get the emergency exit seat because I need more leg room. That's the only reason I like to priority board.

blorg

Deeyasee wrote: »

I personally always try to get the emergency exit seat because I need more leg room. That's the only reason I like to priority board.

Aer Lingus cottoned on to that one- they now offer prebooking of emergency exit seats for €15 extra per leg. I'd actually pay that long-haul but no way short-haul.

WexCan

It's quite a big money spinner for them.

For anyone under about 5'8", normal Aer Lingus seats will be fine, wheras with Ryanair this goes down a bit. At 5'6" I find Ryanair seats a bit cramped, though it's probably just the yellow closing in on me because the same (well, 1" smaller) pitch on easyJet is fine for me.

With Aer Lingus, just wait until checkin and you'll generally be able to pick an exit seat from Fastpass. They seem to have blocked the first rows and the exit seats from online checkin now unless you've paid for seat selection.

Savman

Anyone who pays over extra cash to choose a specific seat on any 35min flights to Manchester, Birmingham etc frankly needs their head examined.
Half the time the damn plane isnt full and you can sit where you want anyway. If it's a "free" extra, fine by me, but personally I wont be lining Mr O Leary's pockets any more than I need to.

But hey, to each his own.

Owen

Came back from Rome with the Missus last month on a Ryanair flight. About 20 people made a huge fuss about having priority boarding, as if they had paid 500 Euro for first class, instead of 3 Euro for priority booking. The hilarity of it all, was that after they let the priority people through, they merely went onto a bus, and waited for the rest of us to get on the same bus. Because the priority people went in first, they were last off the bus. So it completely defeated the purpose altogether!

WexCan

Exactly, longer flights I can see the point if you really do need the legroom, otherwise just pop in an aisle seat.

Problem with Ryanair's priority boarding is there's no limit to how many people get it, so 100% priority boarding will probably happen eventually.

At easyJet, they only sell "speedy boarding" to the first 20 passengers, and the price varies. For example, if you'll definitely be getting a bus to the aircraft, it's £2.50, if there's a chance of being bussed, but not too likely it's £5 and if you're definitely not using a bus it can go up to £7. Bit much to pay really but a) easyJet makes a fortune from ti and b) it's handy for the likes of Athens flights.

Pythia

The boyf and I booked priority boarding on our flight to Faro. We got the first row of the plane which meant we could stretch out for the whole journey.

TomPich

I always use webchek in, this gives you free priority boarding if you only have hand luggage. This is great for me as i am going back and forth from England to Ireland.

I get on the plane 1st, get off 1st, go straight to the car park without any fuss.

Dont see the point in Priority boarding if you have luggage under the plane as you will have to wait for it to come off.

However another reason is large families like to sit together and not have 2 here 3 there and so on!

WexCan

TomPich wrote: »

Dont see the point in Priority boarding if you have luggage under the plane as you will have to wait for it to come off.

Exit seats - extra legroom.

mikemac

Deeyasee wrote: »

I personally always try to get the emergency exit seat because I need more leg room. That's the only reason I like to priority board.

At the risk of dragging this off topic, I've been told that the aircrew want strong and able men in the emergency exit seats.
For the simple reason that a small man or most women would not be able to open the door in an emergency. And probably would be a liability in an emergency too.

So if you take a vacant emergency exit seat and claimed you need it as you were on crutches for example, would the staff kick you out?

BendiBus

Online checkin & priority boarding with Ryanair is free again

It's the online checkin that I like. I usually have hand luggage only.

WexCan

Airlines generally don't allow the following to sit in exit seats:

Children under 12/14/16 (depending on airline)
Passengers with sight/hearing impairments
Passengers with reduced mobility
Infants
Pregnant Passengers
Prisoners
Deportees
Passengers of "physical size"
Elderly passengers (if frail)

To sit in an exit seat you need to be an "able bodied person". Basically, able to open the exit (window exits can be very heavy, as can some main cabin doors if the "power assist" fails), get out fast, down the slide and able to help people off the slide. In an emergency, if there's enough notice of the possibility of an evacuation the crew will move the most suitable passengers into the exit seats. Preference goes to flight/cabin crew, then to those who work in the armed forces/emergency services, then to big strong men

If you were on crutches, with the majority of airlines you would not be allowed into the exit seats. If the cast is below the knee they'll usually try to find you a bulkhead seat with a tad more legroom, it it's above you'd generally need to book three seats.

WexCan

Hahaha just booked (approx 1am) a flight LGW-DUB with Aer Lingus for today at 2pm-ish. Didn't select seat while booking, went straight to online check in and allocated 12A - an exit seat. Lovely stuff.