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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Airline just taking the piss now

105 replies

juststuckinthemiddlewithyou · 07/07/2017 14:16

Have flights booked with a well know budget airline. Lets call them RA.

There are 2 of us going and although we would like to sit together , if when we came to check in there were no seats together it isn't the end of the world. Don't worry we won't be asking for anyone to move for us!

However, went to check in today and there is a diagram showing us all the availble seats we can choose from, along with varying prices. or we can go for the free check in. Now i'd say about 75% of the aircraft is available at this point so there was a lovely selection of seats available. But we didn't really want to fork out another £14 (each way) and are not particulary bothered where in the plane we sit so just checked in using the free option.

So RA allocated us 2 seats. 10 rows apart! BOTH seats are in the MIDDLE of a row of 3, with 2 EMPTY seats either side of them.

It just feels like they are taking the piss really. Its no longer a case of if you want to guantee you sit together you should pre-book your seats early. It is now a case of if you don't pay for seats you will definately be seperated.

Now, if there were hardly any seats left at check in and none together I wouldn't think anything of it, but there were LOADS of them and they deliberately sat us miles apart. I've now paid to move one of the seats to an empty one next to the other.

AIBU to think that if you check in and there are seats available together they should be allocated together as opposed to definately not allocated together? In the past we have always been lucky and sat together, so this is obviously a new thing they are doing to now to force people to pay extra for seats even when there are loads of available seats TOGETHER.

OP posts:

RelaxMax · 07/07/2017 14:19

There have been several threads on this.

Yes, it's a new system and yes, obviously they're doing it to encourage you to pay the extra.

Shoxfordian · 07/07/2017 14:24

If you wanted to sit together which you obviously did then you should have just booked seats together

WhatchaMaCalllit · 07/07/2017 14:24

Can I ask, if these seats are still empty when the plane has left the terminal building, do you get up and move to be beside your travelling companion or do you sit in the allocated seats?

ihatethecold · 07/07/2017 14:25

Another reason why i really dislike RA.There is absolutely nothing pleasant about flying with them.

PlaymobilPirate · 07/07/2017 14:26

Can you check in separately? So check you in the only pay for your partners seat and choose one next to your free allocated one?

theymademejoin · 07/07/2017 14:27

You're better off checking in at the last minute now as they reserve aisle and window seats for people willing to pay. They are only released into the "random allocation" pool closer to the flight time.

Homemadeapplepie · 07/07/2017 14:27

Had exactly the same experience when I checked in this morning, different airline though (J2)- I could see about 9 seats had been booked in the entire plane and we were allocated seats with me at the back in the middle, DH 10 rows forward on an aisle seat and DS 5 rows further forward on a window seat! We don't care anyway, we're not nervous fliers, we all read on the plane and it's not a long flight, but I think it's a cynical attempt on the part of J2 to get an extra £60 out of us.

WhatchaMaCalllit · 07/07/2017 14:27

Shoxfordian - why should they? If the seats are available when you check in, they should be allowed to be seated together if they are travelling together.

This has been covered now a few times on BBC Watchdog. The 'randomness' of the allocating seats is ridiculous. You stand more of a chance of winning the Lottery than you do of being seated together on RA flights....crazy stuff.

cakesandphotos · 07/07/2017 14:31

When DH and I flew J2 at Easter, we chose not to pay for our seats and take whatever but we were seated together on the way out and in. I was surprised but pleased. My mum was ticked off as she had paid for a specific seat a couple of weeks before DH and I decided to join her and someone sat in her paid for window seat anyway

Original poster

juststuckinthemiddlewithyou · 07/07/2017 14:31

Shoxfordian My point is they are deliberately seating people apart so that they pay extra for seats. Before, it used to be a case of if you want seats together guananteed you pay for them as they can't guantee there will be any seats left together when you check in. Now its guanteed you won't be together unless you pay by the looks of it.

WhatchaMaCalllit I guess after take off you could move seats if no one was sitting there.

OP posts:

Original poster

juststuckinthemiddlewithyou · 07/07/2017 14:33

PlaymobilPirate you can go back and choose a seat and pay for it even after you've checked in for free, so thats what I've done now.

OP posts:

Cornettoninja · 07/07/2017 14:33

If I'm being generous I suppose the majority of people have a preference for the window or aisle seat so the middle is worth less and allocated to those who chose a free option.

But yes it's a con, I miss the days when flying wasn't such a racket.

caffeinestream · 07/07/2017 14:33

They do it to make money. If you want to be sure you're seated beside your partner, pay the extra. If not, save the money so you can sit separately.

It's not taking the piss, it's business. They want your money, they're not in business to be nice!

BarbaraofSeville · 07/07/2017 14:34

Lets not be coy, we all know who we are talking about. I've suspected jet2 of deliberately separating couples in a ruse to get people to pay, but last time we travelled with them, I checked in early (they allow check in from 28 days in advance) and we got seats together for free both ways - window and middle, which is our preferred option.

Perhaps Ryanair have got bored of their previous 'we're going to have a go at being nice to people for a change' strategy and gone back to being as deliberately petty and irritating as possible, in a 'my airline my rules' fashion?

AngelaTwerkel · 07/07/2017 14:35

Wow, that is taking the piss! Would it do the same thing if your companion was three years old, for example? I guess so? We paid to sit together last time we flew as a family as I didn't want to chance it (having read too many horror stories here ).

Bitchywaitress · 07/07/2017 14:38

Vote with your feet and don't fly RA, I don't.

Blobby10 · 07/07/2017 14:39

There was something on BBC's 'Watchdog' about this - they were pushing the RA rep to admit the seat selections weren't random but she insisted they were - they just blocked off all aisle and window seats for people who were prepared to pay to book their seat as those were the most popular.

The only time I fly is on my own for business and I always book an exit seat ( I have long legs) as the company is paying for it and its still cheaper than other airlines

bumblingbovine49 · 07/07/2017 14:44

I think this now policy in some airlines to separate people unless they pay extra, they also sometimes allocate middle seats by default if you don't pay to book.
Ryanair have denied doing this but a lot of people seem to think they are - www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-flights-middle-seats-assigned-passengers-pay-reserve-changed-seating-policy-a7750581.html#r3z-addoor

It is a game really, the airlines want us to fly with them, we as passengers want the cheapet possible flight so they try to offer that to get people to book, but they need to recoup their costs in order to make a profit so they make the "cheapest" flights as uncomfortable as possible and charge for every additional "luxury" like sitting with the people you booked with.

I personally would rather pay more but a more transparent process rather than this game of I will try and get out of paying as much as I can and the airline will try and stealthily force me to pay more than the advertised pice but I appreciate lots of people don't agree

Some airlines even want people to stand!!
see here: www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/colombia/articles/colombian-airline-wants-to-introduce-stand-up-flights/

PoorYorick · 07/07/2017 14:45

Ruinair.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/07/2017 14:49

They can't reserve all the middle seats to give to people who won't pay for a seat or else they wouldn't be any available to be next to people who pay for 2 or more next to each other including a window or an aisle seat.

I suppose what they must be doing is allocating a section of the aircraft for those who will pay and another to be given out as unpaid middle seats and randomly allocate from those? So your random middle seat is a randomly allocated middle seat from their selection of available middle seats, as opposed to all those on the aircraft.

They had a statistician calculate on watchdog that the chance of a group of 15 people all getting middle seat if it was all truely random for all seats on the plane, was millions/billions to one. You would have more chance of winning the lottery and be struck by lightening on the same day.

HipsterHunter · 07/07/2017 14:50

Ryanair have denied doing this but a lot of people seem to think they are

They DEFO allocated the middle seats first!

problembottom · 07/07/2017 14:51

I booked a return flight for me and DP to Gran Canaria recently. We only booked two days before we went and the outward flight didn't have any seats left together we could pay to reserve. And we couldn't check in online, the website said we had to do it at the airport for operational reasons.

So I fully expected us not to be sat together and probably in crap seats to boot. We actually got two of the best seats on the plane - leg room and by the exit - sitting together. Wtf?!

bruffin · 07/07/2017 14:51

On watchdog a party of 12 were all allocated middle seats, so nobody sat together. Seats were apparently random allocated
We are flying to stockholm on sunday. One suitcase is costing us more than the return ticket for all 3 of us.

problembottom · 07/07/2017 14:51

It was Jet2.

Flippetydip · 07/07/2017 14:53

Pay to fly with a more expensive airline if you don't like it. They are ridiculously cheap. As the expression goes - you get what you pay for.

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