Recent articles in the Irish Independent suggest that people are making complaints about Ryanair’s seating policy. The summer season is in full swing and people are complaining about being split up when travelling.
Passengers who do not select a seat on Ryanair are automatically allocated a seat. The issue is that people on the same booking are being seated in different parts of the aircraft and not beside each other.
The Evidence
According to this article, people can see free seats together but their party is still being split up rather than allocated seats together.
In my experience, the seat map does not necessarily reflect the reality of the situation. A lot changes between booking and online check-in and even more between the start of online check-in and the flight.
The Defense
Ryanair make a logical defense. They state that most people choose aisle and window seats which means that the middle seats are the ones that are usually free. Everyone knows this is completely true. I have sat in the middle 11 times in 417 flights to date and not once did I actively choose this.
Seating Costs
Seating on Ryanair is not exactly expensive. The majority of the seating is priced at €2 which is peanuts. If you want to save yourself the €2 then you get what you’re given.
Other seats such as exit rows and seats at the front which include priority boarding cost more. Even so, I think €2 is very reasonable to select a seat. It is certainly far below the €15 that Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) charge per seat within Europe.
Overall Thoughts
This is a storm in a teacup as far as I am concerned. If someone is too cheap to pay the €2 or forgets to check-in online early then there is no reason why there should be any complaint. Everyone in Europe is well aware of Ryanair and the way they operate so none of this should come as a surprise.
What do you think about this? If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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People who pay the least complain most
Wise words!
Checking in early (15 mins after opening), had a reservation for 3, on what turned out to be ~50% LF flight. All 3 split up, in rows 11, 14 and 25, all middle seats. Also turned out that both window and aisle seats adjecent to the assigned seats in rows 11 and 14 were empty. 2€ seats only during booking, the prices double afterwards.
Kinda sucks that they do it, but I understand.
I think people complain mostly because they didn’t use to do it. Before, they’d hand out seats to families together. Negative changes get people to complain 😉
That’s an interesting example to be honest. Perhaps people were no-show on the flights? Though it does seem unlikely on a flight that lightly loaded. I’ll have to give it a try myself – make a Ryanair booking and not select a seat and see what I get. Judging by the evidence it appears I’ll get a middle seat 🙂 Thanks for adding this example – I appreciate it!
I’d say the chances are pretty slim of 4 no-shows at those exact seats. 🙂
When I looked at the seatmap later (dummy booking), much of row 5-15 only had middle seats taken. Onboard that appreared to be very much the case.
And yep, I’d bet on a middle seat. 😉
Looks like you put your mind to it and have definitely caught them out on that one. I’m booking with Ryanair soon so I’ll make sure I do some further investigation myself. Hopefully I also catch them out. I don’t like it when companies are deliberately unfair.
On the other hand, though, waiting to get seat assignments might be the next best thing to do in the future. Just let everyone get their crappy middle seats and then end up in window/aisle.
On the flight back I actually checked in late, and while everyone was split up once again, we ended up in 2 emergency exit seats free of charge 🙂
Hahaha! Funnily enough I read an article in the Irish newspapers where someone suggested doing exactly this – check in as close to the closure of check-in as possible and snag decent seats from the batches of unassigned ones. Food for thought!! 🙂
I agree that 2 euro’s apiece is a pretty small price to pay to sit together and to avoid a middle seat.
It really is a tiny amount, so I think it’s quite able to be paid. People are far too quick to complain.