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Ryanair - New reserved seating structure(s)

ekellyie

Hi there,
Could anyone give me advice on how to tackle the new reserved seating/priority boarding structure that Ryanair have in place.
I understand that now you can reserve a seat or book priority boarding with an added on cost, or you can just check in as normal online and they will reserve random seats for you free of charge.

If you haven't reserved a seat or purchased priority boarding and you're checking in as normal, do Ryanair give you the option of a Window or an Aisle seat before choosing it for you?

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Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

joeysoap

Which would be a disaster, as RY could charge the €50 at the airport. I read somewhere that their site was down for maintenance -fairly recently - and not possible to do late check in for early flights, so they sent an email saying if you don't check in before the site shuts down we will charge for airport check in. I guess if their site crashed they might be on thinner ground but with RY you never know.

RoYoBo

This would be a big fear alright

Ryanair Russian Roulette check-in!

Living Off The Splash

trishasaffron wrote: »

I've had this happen to me & was then subjected to extreme embarrassment when the couple (who hadn't paid for their seats) humiliated me by identifying me to their (many) friends on the plane as the woman who wouldn't move despite the husband's "disability". Apparently this was some kind of heart condition......a "heart condition" that didn't stop him drinking, moving up & down the plane chatting to friends & pushing in front of me at disembarkment.

Single travellers are routinely bullied by cheapskates who won't pay for what they want but pressurise others to move.

Probably parks in a disabled space and hands out communion on a Sunday.

LiamaDelta

RoYoBo wrote: »

Not only that, if they assign all the middle seats first, where are the seats together for the supposed paying customers who come after that? Even if only some of the middle seats are gone by the time you check in, you're going to be restricted by what's left.

This is happening all right. I've noticed that they are allocating middle seats first to those that don't pay for seats. On one of my most recent flights I went online to manage my booking before I checked in and there were only single seats at window and aisle left. I was willing to pay for 2 seats together but there were none available - except for across aisle.

Masala

Interesting Stats from some UK maths geeks!!

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ryanairs-random-seat-allocation-not-random-scientists-35880337.html

The researchers calculated that the likelihood of all four travellers randomly ending up in middle seats on each of the flights was around 1:540,000,000.

In comparison, the odds of winning the UK National Lottery jackpot were 1:45,000,000.

So...save your €2 seat money and buy a Lotto ticket!

Bob24

LiamaDelta wrote: »

This is happening all right. I've noticed that they are allocating middle seats first to those that don't pay for seats. On one of my most recent flights I went online to manage my booking before I checked in and there were only single seats at window and aisle left. I was willing to pay for 2 seats together but there were none available - except for across aisle.

That one seems crazy ... I can only assume they will tweak the algorithm as no matter how you look at it, it plays neither to Ryanair nor to the customers' benefit.

grogi

Bob24 wrote: »

That one seems crazy ... I can only assume they will tweak the algorithm as no matter how you look at it, it plays neither to Ryanair nor to the customers' benefit.

I know from a reliable source it is being tested at the moment.

degsie

grogi wrote: »

I know from a reliable source it is being tested at the moment.

RoYoBo

degsie wrote: »

Think this might be the Ryanair future - buy a seat or stand!

sterideal

Ryanair seats

ED E

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Watchdog booked 4 researchers on 4 return flights (32 flights) and did not pay for the seat and checked in when the free seat check in opened. Watchdog checked the seats available before check in and 100% of the time, the seats selected at 'random' by Ryanair were the middle seats dotted around the aircraft. Watchdog then used a statistician to calculate the chances of this happeneing and it worked out that you were more likely to win the lotto than to have 100% of your 'random' allocated seats on those flights being the middle seats

Now everyone feckin knows :pac:

Bob24

ED E wrote: »

Now everyone feckin knows :pac:

They'll look more and more ridiculous holding onto their official line that nothing has changed. Changing their seat allocation policy is fine (even though I don't think it's good for anyone in the long term), but denying having done so while everyone can see it is completely unprofessional and is starting to come back to bite them.

evolving_doors

Deleted post

anewme

trishasaffron wrote: »

I've had this happen to me & was then subjected to extreme embarrassment when the couple (who hadn't paid for their seats) humiliated me by identifying me to their (many) friends on the plane as the woman who wouldn't move despite the husband's "disability". Apparently this was some kind of heart condition......a "heart condition" that didn't stop him drinking, moving up & down the plane chatting to friends & pushing in front of me at disembarkment.

Single travellers are routinely bullied by cheapskates who won't pay for what they want but pressurise others to move.

They wouldn't get far with me... I'd have eaten the head off them in no uncertain terms if they started that ... if they tried embarrass me I'd confront then head on and tell them to stfu... one thing is who gives a crap about ppl you will never see again ...I'd tell them to drop it....pronto!

dermiestv

UK media coverage http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/ryanair-seat-selection-cost-airlines-easyjet-ba/

Easyjet statement "With regard to families however easyJet understands how important it is that families are allocated appropriate seating together. If passengers choose not to pay to select their seats our seating systems will always aim to seat families together when they check-in online, but clearly we have to allocate customers on a first come first served basis. We utilise a sophisticated algorithm which seats families together more than 99 per cent of the time - at no additional cost.”

.G.

How do Aer lingus approach this? I usually fly with Ryanair but looking at a flight with Aer lingus and I don't want to pay for seat if I can avoid it but my wife is a nervous flyer so don't want to end up away from her either.

Bob24

superg wrote: »

How do Aer lingus approach this? I usually fly with Ryanair but looking at a flight with Aer lingus and I don't want to pay for seat if I can avoid it but my wife is a nervous flyer so don't want to end up away from her either.

As long as you are on the same booking Aer Lingus will automatically seat you next to each other even if you don't pay for specific seats (unless it is not technically possible for them to give you 2 adjacent seats, but it never happened to me).

Ryanair really is the exception here: I don't know of any other airline which doesn't attempt to assign adjacent seats for people on the same booking (and even less so which goes as far as attempting not to assign adjacent seats).

ger664

superg wrote: »

How do Aer lingus approach this? I usually fly with Ryanair but looking at a flight with Aer lingus and I don't want to pay for seat if I can avoid it but my wife is a nervous flyer so don't want to end up away from her either.

You are paying for the seat with Aer Lingus or any other airline

This is just a ploy from RyanAir to drop their base/marketing price to the minimum to drive booking traffic from the likes of skyscanner etc.

I recently booked flights paid for the seat allocation and return trip for 2 of us was still €75 cheaper then any other airlines advertised cost.

.G.

ger664 wrote:

I recently booked flights paid for the seat allocation and return trip for 2 of us was still â‚¬75 cheaper then any other airlines advertised cost.

This is just a ploy from RyanAir to drop their base/marketing price to the minimum to drive booking traffic from the likes of skyscanner etc.

You are paying for the seat with Aer Lingus or any other airline

Yeah I looked into Aer lingus but even with all this chicanery, the Ryanair booking including allocated seats and priority boarding was 50 quid cheaper than Aer lingus was without any of that.

mattser

Just out of interest and not seat related. A lot of times when I'm checking flight prices, and insert dates, the wrong dates come up. Sometimes dates and no prices ( like dub/manc where there should be prices every day ).

Sometimes I have 3 or 4 attempts before success.

Anyone else have this problem ?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

mattser

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

So much for technology, Fred.

Living Off The Splash

The glitch I get on a regular basis is when I click on a country destination, say Italy and I am shown destinations for airports in Hungary. I have learned to click on a country destination three away for my chosen destination in order to see the various airports that I am looking for.

Mr rebel

I wonder do people who don't pre-book seats get offered the priority seats too (row 1-6) or are they always automatically closed off from the random free seating system?

grogi

Mr rebel wrote: »

I wonder do people who don't pre-book seats get offered the priority seats too (row 1-6) or are they always automatically closed off from the random free seating system?

I got 4C assigned last week.

joeysoap

With more passengers pre booking their seats the chances of non bookers getting 'priority' seats increases.

Fwiw I can't afford to hang around Dublin airport when I return shortly. The last Bus Eireann expressway service is at 00:20 ( next one is 7.20). My flight is due to land around 23;00.

I can't afford the luxury of hanging around a conveyor belt waiting for a cabin bag that they might put in the hold.

So essentially I had to purchase a seat @ €3 and priority boarding - think it was reduced to €2.50 at the time as I don't want any delays at Dublin immigration excepted. Sometimes you just have to pay up.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

joeysoap wrote: »

I had to purchase a seat @ €3 and priority boarding - think it was reduced to €2.50 at the time

3 euro is a bloody bargain in comparison to some airlines.

If your plane lands at 23:00 and you miss the 00:20 bus, you are doing something wrong.

Mr rebel

grogi wrote: »

I got 4C assigned last week.

Nice one, and as you had a priority seat were you allowed to board first too?

Bob24

Amayah Uptight Soprano wrote: »

If your plane lands at 23:00 and you miss the 00:20 bus, you are doing something wrong.

Except if there's a need to go through non EU border control. Lately the queue can sometimes be very long and slow (the EU one can sometimes seem long but it is very fast). But having a front seat wouldn't make a huge difference.