Paid for seats on Ryanair then told to move...would you complain?

[plinkyplonly]

I suffer with quite bad vertigo and anxiety when flying.
I've realised if I can look out to the horizon I can stop going really dizzy.
I reserved seats 6a and 6b 3 months ago.
We boarded and took our seats.
After boarding was complete we were told we had to move to 8b and 8c (Middle and aisle ) for takeoff and landing.
She said it was to even the weight.
(Not sure why she couldn't move people who hadn't paid and it was only 2 rows behind )
I explained that I had paid for seats and explained my vertigo but still had to move.
The seatbelt signs didn't go off for 35 mins so we were stuck there.
It was awful and I felt so dizzy
Especially the turns and I couldn't see

Would you complain ?

Yes I would, particularly because you paid for a specific health reason.

I would complain although I guess they were moving you because that was made the most sense in terms of counterbalance - there's no way of telling without knowing the configuration of the plane both in terms of passengers and how the cargo was loaded below. (Plus the type of plane and the angle required to take off/land at each airport). I imagine what happened is that the pilot did his calculations and made it very clear to the hostess that you were the two that needed to move to give him the confidence that the plane was evenly weighted. No harm in complaining however, sorry you had an uncomfortable time.

I spoke to someone on live chat
They said they won't refund me as it's for safety and the crew have the final decision

That’s outrageous. Sure, they have the ultimate right to move you for safety reasons, but that shouldn’t be a right to keep the fee for a service they didn’t deliver.

If it is a genuine medical need, try booking your seat via special assistance next time.

It’s basically pointless complaining to Ryanair. They just laugh at you. Better to resolve never to fly with them again.

Um…..well looks like FR aren’t going to budge but …..

Unless Ryanair use a very very bespoke weight balance system the lateral move, A/B to B/C wouldn’t be sufficient to change anything when it comes to paperwork and left/right balance…

TBH a move of just two rows (aft in this case) by just two adults isn’t likely to make much of a difference to things either unless on that flight Ryanair somehow got the centre of gravity just forward of the front limit of where is allowable, in which case yes they’d have to move somebody or something and you were it.

Can I ask - Was the flight full/half full/almost empty and did anybody’s else get moved, especially from the more forward rows?

@notimagain no it was quite full but it seems they allocated mostly middle and back.
Every row was taken but three of the rows only had 1 person in .
Nobody else had to move but us.

Why couldn't you look out of the window from the middle seat?

I wouldn't expect a refund unless you paid for a different seat type (e.g. extra leg room) and didn't get it.

It's not about just looking out the window
I need to be able to sit turned sideways looking out the window or I go really dizzy

I paid for the window seat specifically so I can do this.

I've never heard of balancing weight on an aircraft unless it's a very small plane. I've been on an 8 seater and was weighed with the luggage 🙂

You paid for a service and didn't receive it... they dont have a choice on refunding you at minimum the cost of the seat.

They could maybe insist your move was safety related but they can't then profit off it and keep your money for the service you paid for that they then denied.

It’s assessed/calculated on every commercial flight (on large aircraft with the airlines usually by using assumed weights) to ensure amongst other things that the centre of gravity (balance point) sits within a fore/aft range specified by the aircraft manufacturer- getting it grossly wrong can be catastrophic

Where I worked we used to have a rule that people couldn’t move from their assigned seat until after takeoff and in theory they were meant to return to their assigned seat for landing.

I’ve never heard of an airline/crew doing a reassessment and have to start moving people around post boarding. The only real explanation for what happened to the OP is (speculation here) just maybe there were a whole load of very last minute “no shows” from one part of the aircraft which screwed the loading figures.

Thank you, very informative.

I guess I meant I've never been aware of balancing the plane as a passenger or been asked to move except on a very small plane.

Yes I would
An email would take about the same amount of time as posting on here.
You can only try
It seems v unreasonable that you didn't get what you paid for

@SharpOpalNewt

I guess I meant I've never been aware of balancing the plane as a passenger or been asked to move except on a very small plane.

I’ll admit this is a slightly strange story….

If you really want to shift the center of gravity significantly on something like a 737 you’d be moving x number of passengers from e.g. Row 1 to Row 25….

Moving 2 passengers back just two rows (both rows fairly far forwards in this case) isn’t going to shift the centre of gravity far aft at all….in the days when this sort of things was done by hand on a graph the move would would probably result in the mark on the paper shifting by the width of a pencil line….

These days it’s more computerized and it would be interesting ( to me anyway) to see what the numbers that necessitated the OP +1 needing to be moved.

Basic physics of flying: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/the-art-of-balancing-a-plane/ - the pilot will be doing it, even if you don't know about it. The reason you get weighed on a much, much smaller plane (I used to regularly fly on nine-seater Britten Normans) is because the balance is more delicate - they estimate average weights on larger aircraft for passengers and luggage. It does happen.

I absolutely would complain. These cheapskate airlines have turned the cabin experience into a money grabbing bunfight and they can't have it both ways. Either charge people for every last thing, and provide it, or don't, and have the flexibility to ask people to do something to help out.

@Arlanymor

the pilot will be doing it, even if you don't know about it…

For info these days at most of the airlines the detailed load/balance work usually gets done remotely by suitably licenced individuals, often at company HQ.

The completed the paperwork gets sent out electronically to the origin airport/aircraft by for checking and final signing, usually by the lead loading official and certainly by the captain.

It’s done like that for various reasons, main one of which is it stops the crew getting bogged down drawing lines on graphs and doing weight calculations during a turnaround when the clock is running.

There is (or at least was) a licence requirement for crew to be retain the skills to do load and balance from scratch, so that they can spot if they are presented with an incorrect loadsheet that has come from HQ but also, for example
, to allow them to prep the required paperwork in the event of a diversion to somewhere with poor communications where they can’t talk to HQ..

Very annoying and I would complain but I can’t see you getting anywhere with them. I got moved on a RA flight last Christmas, there was hardly anyone else on it and apparently they needed someone to sit in the emergency door section. Some other guy was put in the one accross from me. Not a massive deal but I had no armrest and wasn’t allowed to have my bag with me. In your situation though it’s medical so obviously it is a big deal to you. Good luck!

It happened on my flight last week too its a safety measure

Sorry I meant that the final decision was down to the pilot/captain, but you're right they get plenty of support to make that decision - in terms of bigger planes. But on the nine-seaters, it's just them!

TBH if this is happening a lot and the claim is it’s a “safety measure” then maybe Ryanair are planning to load routinely right tight on the edge of the acceptable limits (which in itself can sometimes be justified for aircraft performance reasons and is perfectly legit).

Problem is if that is the case it looks like they might have left themselves no wriggle room to cater for “no shows”, either of passengers or cargo/baggage and their only option to cater for that is then to move people, possibly out of seats they have paid for.

As you book, travel to and then board a Ryanair flight, you MUST keep reciting The Serenity Prayer in your head.