Ryanair yet again!

[Stevemul]

I've just heard on the grapevine that from now on, if you do not purchase a seat when booking or checking in on Ryanair, you WILL be split up from your fellow travellers deliberately, presumably as a " punishment " for daring not to add to Michael O'Leary's coffers.
So if you are travelling with an unruly 3 year old, DO NOT purchase seats and you can relax whilst some other poor sod looks after him/her!

[ajtg1952]

If its true then it makes sense.

[elusive]

Yeah i heard that on i think radio 5 . so true steve great for those with kids!!.

They have also said fares will be reduced again this year so swings and roundabouts.still far cheaper than jet 2 etc etc

[ashtondav]

I can never understand why, if sitting together is so important, people don't just fork out the £10 or whatever. A Ryanair flight from uk to Malaga is cheaper than filling up your car for gawd's sake.

[Pamela1]

It's ridiculous that people have to pay to be seated together, whats so wrong with choosing your seat when booking your flight without charge as you do on a train or on a bus! As for Ryanair it's more expensive to book a seat on a flight to Alicante than it is to Malaga, how they work that out i have no idea..

[wollie]

Pamela, what train/bus goes from Malaga to UK? Just now i came across below...

June 2 2017 7:06 AM



Ryanair is allowing customers to check in up to 60 days ahead of their flight, it has announced... provided they buy allocated seats.

Pre-booked seats cost €2 for rows 6-15 and 18-33, €7 for rows 2 (A,B,C) to 5, and €11 for extra legroom rows 1, 2 (D,E,F) and 16-17.

Customers who do not wish to reserve seats may check in for free between four days and two hours before departure, and will be randomly assigned seats.

Passengers who do not purchase seats are not guaranteed seats together.

Children under 12 get free reserved seats, but at least one adult travelling with them needs to purchase an allocated seat in rows 18-30, the airline says.

Adults purchasing such seats are charged €4, double the standard rate.

Early check-in for passengers purchasing seats had previously been 30 days.

[Pamela1]

Wollie, i didn't say anything about any train or bus travelling from Malaga to Uk...I meant that you can book your seat with trains and busses without charge when travelling to any destination unless you happen to be on a very short journey and it's a case of people sit where they can...I thought it was self explanatory! You may be paying the charges you quote above for a reserved seat but when travelling from the Uk it's a different story and that all depends on where you are travelling to from the Uk, as i said it costs more to reserve a seat to Alicante than it does to Malaga..
It's the same plastic seat!

[wollie]

O'Leary (my hero) describes his planes as bus with wings.
Per mile its the cheapest transport in the world and i won't be switching to bus anytime soon.
You might be lucky and end up sitting next to me??

[Pamela1]

Wollie, i don't mind who i sit next to on Ryanair/Easyjet etc , however it makes it a pleasant journey if they are nice and im sure you are...

[Wicksey]

I wrote last May when we travelled with Ryanair that we were seated separately as we hadn't bought seats, so it's nothing new. This May we only paid 30€ each for our flights, plus an extra 6€ for our seats, so they were still cheap. We pay for seats with Easyjet in order to sit where we want, so for me there's not much difference between the companies.

[elusive]

They have reduced it to €2 for the cheapeat seats .so i dont mind paying for that.helps with getting people on quicker aswell.less messing around with people saving seats for others and trying to mix and match.recently a friend who travels very often and never books a seat but 99% of the time is sat next to her other half. But this time when checking in one was litterally at one end of the plane and the other at the other.so they have as said above prob been doing it for a while

[Stevemul]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/t ... ign=buffer

[markwilding]

They have reduced it to €2 for the cheapeat seats .so i dont mind paying for that.helps with getting people on quicker aswell.less messing around with people saving seats for others and trying to mix and match.recently a friend who travels very often and never books a seat but 99% of the time is sat next to her other half. But this time when checking in one was litterally at one end of the plane and the other at the other.so they have as said above prob been doing it for a while

I would never pay. I'm not bothered at all if I sit next to my wife or not, although I have never had to sit apart from her up til now. On the contrary, if a flight isn't full, we separate to get extra leg room.
BTW, the days of the melees are gone as both Ryanair and Easyjet allocate your seat for you.

[Flexo]

The Ryanair fans will soon be like: https://imgflip.com/i/1q79hr

[Wicksey]

It's not that I am a 'fan' as such, it's just that we use Ryanair, Vueling and Easyjet and there is little to choose between them. In fact, I prefer not to use Easyjet as last time I found the staff quite bolshy, and it annoyed me that I was told to try to squash my handbag into my hand luggage when people were allowed on with huge duty free bags of shopping in addition to their hand luggage.

Ryanair and Vueling have almost always been on time, with only small delays of perhaps 10 mins or so in landing. I choose to travel with low cost airlines and the total cost of our flights are usually very reasonable and they travel at times I want to travel, so I am not complaining if we have to pay a little extra to now buy a seat. I know people who would rather do some expensive and convoluted route in order to avoid travelling low cost, but for me, I just want a direct flight at a reasonable time of day.

[Flexo]

It is much easier to get away from certain problems like delays when you operate from airports where you are the only carrier. If you would extrapolate all the delays caused by other airlines I am sure Ryanair would have a much less agreeable statistic.

[elusive]

They have reduced it to €2 for the cheapeat seats .so i dont mind paying for that.helps with getting people on quicker aswell.less messing around with people saving seats for others and trying to mix and match.recently a friend who travels very often and never books a seat but 99% of the time is sat next to her other half. But this time when checking in one was litterally at one end of the plane and the other at the other.so they have as said above prob been doing it for a while

I would never pay. I'm not bothered at all if I sit next to my wife or not, although I have never had to sit apart from her up til now. On the contrary, if a flight isn't full, we separate to get extra leg room.
BTW, the days of the melees are gone as both Ryanair and Easyjet allocate your seat for you.

Ive only paid once,the last time we travelled as the flight only cost me €20 euros each way to start with and the seats were half price during a sale. Before that i wouldnt as you do feel ripped off. But 2 euros doesnt bother me as family members want to sit together.if they had increased the price then it would be another issue

[wollie]

What we must remember is there is a positive effect with all these charges.
For the most part revenue generated will be invested in the business and
because O'Leary wants to be the best and cheapest this will make likely fares
lower in the future.
Personally in think its a good idea though i unlikely to use, if people want
better service we pay a bit more.
I will fly 20 times this year and only for O'Learys strategy i not be able to
do this.

[Flexo]

What we must remember is there is a positive effect with all these charges.

For the most part revenue generated will be invested in the business and
because O'Leary wants to be the best and cheapest this will make likely fares
lower in the future.

Please elaborate how this will make the fares cheaper and how the fares are more expensive if you can choose among available seats if you already have the seat-less alternative as default.

[markwilding]

I agree that the low cost revolution has meant it's possible to travel more often.

I'm not mind who I travel with as long as they are the cheapest or convenient times and dates. I'm booking now for flights to London in December and January . In December all the low cost ones are quite a lot more expensive than BA, which at 100 euros is the cheapest overall. However, in January I can go for the weekend for under 50 Euros with Easyjet.

Ryanair is not an option for London but I do sometimes fly with them from Santander if I want to travel somewhere else.

In the end it pays to check all the companies before you book.