Aer Lingus booking a flight then paying for seat??

raspberrypi67

Hi Folks,

Long story short, my wife is saying she booked a flight to the uk. Is it possible to book the ticket and NOT have to pay a 5euro each way for the seat. She's being asked to pay this each way. Does the seat automatically get allocated or what?

Thanks

highlydebased

Check in online within 24 hours of the flight and you can pick your seat. Or just checkin at the airport and ask then.

coylemj

raspberrypi67 wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Long story short, my wife is saying she booked a flight to the uk. Is it possible to book the ticket and NOT have to pay a 5euro each way for the seat. She's being asked to pay this each way. Does the seat automatically get allocated or what?

No it doesn't get allocated automatically, it may be suggesting that she book the 'Plus' fare which includes 'free' seat selection and a bag, or it may be encouraging her to select a seat in a clever way that conceals the fact that you don't have to. As with Ryanair and insurance, study every option on the screen and keep an eye on the price on the righthand side of the screen, do not advance to the next screen if the price goes up.

And as already pointed out, you can select the seat for free, it's actually within 30 hours of the flight so check-in online from home the day before and select the seat for free. With Aer Lingus this is called 'web check-in'.

http://www.aerlingus.com/travelinformation/knowbeforeyoufly/check-in/web-check-in/#

You can also expect an e-mail a few days before the flight, again encouraging you to select a seat while conveniently omitting to mention that it will cost you, just ignore it.

-=al=-

I Recently used Ryanair and Aer lingus to book flights and mt god it's a minefield!

I was convinced I rented a car and was bringing an insured surfboard with me by the time I was paying for the thing!

Just check the options. They word it that it sounds like you have to pay for a bag on Aer Lingus, but the cabin bag is always ok. And when you check in you get your seat too, I believe. Aer lingus allocates seats when you check in I think, but not 100% on that.

It has gotten so sneaky lately and they're trying every trick in the book to get you paying for the extras.

Miaireland

Your wife does not have to pay extra to book her seat. When she checks in at the airport she can use one of those check in machines. She will be allotted a seat free of charge.

coylemj

Miaireland wrote: »

Your wife does not have to pay extra to book her seat. When she checks in at the airport she can use one of those check in machines. She will be allotted a seat free of charge.

You can select a seat for free from the comfort of your own home the day (actually 30 hours) before which increases your chances of getting a good seat.

Even if you don't have a printer at home, you can do the check-in online, select a seat for free and then elect to print the boarding pass at one of those green self-service kiosks.

endofrainbow

coylemj wrote: »

You can select a seat for free from the comfort of your own home the day (actually 30 hours) before which increases your chances of getting a good seat.

Even if you don't have a printer at home, you can do the check-in online, select a seat for free and then elect to print the boarding pass at one of those green self-service kiosks.

I checked in online recently for a flight to MAN but apparently, if you check in online, you can't print your boarding pass from a kiosk but need to go to a desk to produce your i.d.......

This defeats the purpose of online check-in imho

coylemj

endofrainbow wrote: »

I checked in online recently for a flight to MAN but apparently, if you check in online, you can't print your boarding pass from a kiosk but need to go to a desk to produce your i.d.......

This defeats the purpose of online check-in imho

That doesn't sound right, did you not have the booking ID or did you not fancy swiping your credit card in the green kiosk?

I have definitely checked-in online (to select a seat) and collected the boarding card from the machines, it can be done. If you can check-in from home and download and print the boarding card on an A4 sheet, why would they not allow you to get the boarding card from the machine in the airport? Doesn't make sense.

endofrainbow

I honestly don't know what happened. I checked in online 30 hours beforehand, opted to print boarding pass at kiosk. I entered my pnr and error message came up. Check-in lady said it was because I had already booked in online.....

perhaps it was just an additional id check.

raspberrypi67

Thanks for all the help folks. Turned out that , yes, she had to wait 30 hrs before hand and then she could allocate a seat. Kinda silly you have to wait....Anyway, thanks again for the replies

munchkin_utd

raspberrypi67 wrote: »

Thanks for all the help folks. Turned out that , yes, she had to wait 30 hrs before hand and then she could allocate a seat. Kinda silly you have to wait....Anyway, thanks again for the replies

actually, it isnt.

you can choose to pay or you can choose to save the cash and not.

and the more people go for optional extras, the cheaper flights are then for the rest of us.

coylemj

munchkin_utd wrote: »

actually, it isnt.

Actually, it is

This is the question the OP asked in his first post....

raspberrypi67 wrote: »

.... Is it possible to book the ticket and NOT have to pay a 5euro each way for the seat.

munchkin_utd

coylemj wrote: »

Actually, it is

This is the question the OP asked in his first post....

i meant that its not "silly" that aer lingus have a system where your pathological need to have a boarding card in advance (thanks to mental conditioning by travelling to often with Ryanair) is soothed with a 5euro fee, but the rest who know that AerLingus is not Ryanair can simply checkin free 30hours beforehand and print the pass, or checkin for free at the airport, or checkin for free online and print the pass for free at the airport.

(possibly should have underlined the bit i was responding to)