Airline just taking the piss now

[juststuckinthemiddlewithyou]

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.

We are going on holiday soon with Thomson. They emailed this week about check in being open. But it was only open if you could pay £9.50 each way. Even then the availability of seats looked horrific. So I called Thomson last night to ask what's the deal? Our holiday isn't cheap, and I resent being asked for extra money on a seat I'm already paying for. The lady told me the hold some back until the actual 'free' check in - this must clearly panic some people into coughing the money to secure a seat when there will probably be more choice at free check in! Something about this was on Watchdog this week, might be worth posting the link to this thread to them.

The RA business model only works if people pay for extras that used to be free, they know how much they need you to pay, and rather than charge that first then discount to fill empty seats, they tempt you with low prices in advance, but work on the principle that they need X% of people to pay more than the basic to make it work.

I'm flying RyanAir this summer as they are the only airline running a route I need to go to visit my parents (they've moved overseas to the arse end of nowhere). Wherever possible it's better to avoid them. Its worth paying a bit more 'headline' price to get treated like a customer, not like they aer doing you the biggest favour.

We are flying tomorrow with Ryanair. 3 seats all middle seats one row behind each other. 1 seat 25 rows back. I refuse to pay on principle

I can't find it but didn't some university study this and find that they definitely did this?

Why not pay dora?

Be angry so and suck it up. It's the way it's going. You can always just NOT pay, and have a rant, or choose another airline.

I don't get this. Sorry I don't want to hear about skinflints anymore but at the same time driving me mad with their righteous indignation.

If I book Ryanair I pay for priority and pay for my seats. Priority means hand baggage is guaranteed in the cabin.

You get what you pay for. Otherwise shut up. Sorry that was harsh but I can't help it sometimes!

Yes this wAs on Watchdog last week loads of people were complaining!

Watchdog has to be the most negative and depressing show on TV.

OK it might show up some cowboys, but I refuse to watch it. Such grumbling and negativity.

Ryanair will not cave in. They are not being taken to task by consumer overseers or safety concerns (adults MUST accompany a child and pay for a seat for example).

You are all on a hiding to nothing. Either pay for your seat or sit in the middle seat. Someone has to! And it's freeeeeeee.

I've had to come back to apologise. When I was moaning earlier about flight times it was another budget airline! We shall call them EJ. Any old excuse to have a whinge has me chomping at the bit.

If you aren't nice to your customers you cannot expect them to keep coming back to you.

Not necessarily. People fly with them because it's cheap. I would rather pay £50 to fly Ryanair than pay £200+ to fly the same route with another airline. I don't pick RA for good customer service - I pick them cause they're cheaper than anyone else and nobody else beats them when it comes to price.

I'm amazed they haven't missed s take off slot yet due to the seat swapping saga.

I flew on Tuesday and people were still trying to harrange other folks into swapping seats as we starting pushing back.

The cabin crew had a heck of a fine making people sit down. They must get so sick of the palaver.

If I book Ryanair I pay for priority and pay for my seats. I assumed that by booking with them I was paying for a seat.

Good on you Dora. I have done exactly what they wanted and paid. So its in total an additional £24 on my holiday to sit in a seat which was already unoccupied when I checked in.

And I resent being called skinflint sodablackcurrant just because I think the airline are taking liberties by purposely seating people in the same booking apart. As I said, we don't care where we sit on the plane. We don't need a particular seat but when we are seated miles apart with loads of spare seats right next to us it feels like they are just taking the piss out of us all.

Wowser,

this is MN, apologies are very rare and rarely necessary either!

Whinging is great so is ranting. Go for it! But be prepared for the responses!

Bunnyfuller if you book with Thomson & pay to select your seat Thomson won't let you choose the aisle & middle in a row of 3 you have to book a window seat, the only way we could have had an aisle & middle is if there had been a row where the window seat was already taken! My partner always wants an aisle seat, so last week when checking in/selecting seat online we have ended up selecting 2 aisle seats (across from each other) but I shall never again pay to select a seat with Thomson as I think it's very unfair that you aren't able to actually choose the seats you want despite paying to do so!

just stuck

You need to put your thinking cap on here and realise that Ryanair are doing this to MAKE people buy a seat if they want to be seated together. Correct?

So if that's what you want, you pay for it, Correct?

I wasn't singling anyone out for the term of skinflint either. But take umbrage if it makes you feel better. Rest assured I am not in charge of Ryanair so I don't invest too much time in other people's isshhhoooos.

2quid for a seat together. What is the problem exactly anyway?

Surely you will spend many multiples of that in your destination? Again I don't understand.

Ryanair have actually admitted that they do this (sort of). They say that it's because the middle seats are less popular so they want to give the people who pay first choice.

I assumed that by booking with them I was paying for a seat.

Did you really expect to have all the frills included when you buy a £10 ticket?

We rarely do flights longer than 2-3 hours. As we've been married for nearly 30 years, I think I can manage to be separated from DH for that length of time, especially as I am likely to be spending the whole of the week with him on holiday. RA and the likes will never be getting extra ££ out of us for specific seats

If there actually are spare seats then you can just move when the plane takes off though

Airlines charge you to pick a specific seat because they can. I don't care if I sit with my partner so I don't bother. If you do care then don't just rely on being lucky; pay to sit together.

OP, how long is the flight?

Does it really matter that much if you don't sit next to your companion for the duration of the flight? Most people just read, sleep or watch their iPad. Unless you're travelling with young children it's not really necessary to sit together for short-ish flights.

I think we should just refuse to pay any extra to these airlines and give them the message that we don't care if we don't sit together!

One company I will be avoiding then! Look after your customers and they will look after you and all that!

Thank you Soda. I didn't realise it was only 2 quid to book seats next to each other. I stand corrected as I thought when I checked in this morning they were asking me for 14 quid each way.

sodablackcurrant it isn't 2squid a seat though is it.

EyeHalveASpellingChequer they were not £10 tickets. RTFT the flight is included as part of the package deal, airline just happens to be RA and we have to do our own online check in. The weeks holiday is over £1000 per person.

Its not to do with being a skinflint or not affording the fee or even not that bothered to sit together anyway. Its just the fact that RA are totally playing us all. They may as well just say 'If you don't cough up extra to pay for a specifc seat you WILL NOT be sat together even if there are available seats. Allocating a middle seat proves that 100%.

Checkin opened about 3 weeks ago for those who wanted to pay for specific seats. free check in opened yesterday for everyone else. But you can still pay for a seat if you want a particular one. 75% of the plane haven't paid for seats in the 3 weeks running up to now so there are loads of seats available together.

I fly Ryanair all the time - they are cheap, I would rather not pay the extra to fly with say KLM and have to start selling kidneys etc

If I travel with DS then I pay the small amount extra to make sure we are sat together and have priority boarding.

If its adults only then we sit wherever.

I really don't see the big deal. If you would prefer to fly with other carriers then prepare to fork out the big bucks required. I would rather have the cheap flight.

In my experience the worst thing on a Ryanair flight is the passenger. Just stow your bag somewhere and sit the fuck down and let the plane depart.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM

Seems appropriate for this thread

Book ahead and it's 2 quid a seat. Leave it later of course it is more expensive. Be savvy. Get with the program.

Anyway Ryanair are not going to change this because some of us on the WWW are having conniptions.

This is a new business model even though they haven't said it was, but it is.

Adults have to travel with children and pay for a seat.

I pay for a seat and priority because I want to and I can.

There is a special place in hell for those who constantly moan and do not choose other airlines, or buy a seat, or whatever. Feck sake.