Ryanair - do you get seated with your family if you book the most basic tickets?

[Fivemoreminutes1]

We’ve got the cheapest of the cheap tickets - no selection of seat beforehand and they get allocated to us when we turn up at the airport. When we had the option to pay extra for seat selection, it warned us that if we didn’t cough up we most likely wouldn’t be sitting together. Just wondering whether they really do that though.

i flew to Dublin last year with Ryanair with DH and DS15. No booking and it was great…for me as I got front row. DS got back row and DH somewhere bang in the middle. Definitely a split you up algorithm in play.

They 100% split you up on purpose. Coming back from Tenerife a few years ago I was sat next to a random man and his wife was further down the plane sat next to my husband.

The whole plane was like this. Some passenger organised an industrial scale seat swap before takeoff and the air steward went mad! Said we all had to stay in the seats we’d been allocated and we weren’t allowed to move.

Can anybody say what Jet2 are normally like?

Last time I flew Ryanair, it was a 3 x 3 seating arrangement. We (4 of us) were sat in a row together plus the seat on the opposite row. The other 2 seats were occupied by two extremely large people who I’d guess weighed well over the combined weight of us four. If they were doing weight distribution, the heavy couple should have been seated on opposite sides of the plane 😂

The staff wouldn't have known the size of the people when they were allocating the seats! And weight distribution is absolutely a thing, it's often why the crew will let you move seat mid-flight but you need to be in your allocated seat for take off and landing, they're not just being difficult.

Ryanair started splitting people up on purpose as a policy about 6/7 years ago.

Previous to this they did as all other airlines do - if unallocated, all party members together if there's space, if no space then wherever there is space.

The point of choosing your seat was to be able to choose where exactly in the plane you sit, and to guarantee sitting together but it was a pretty good chance you'd be sat together if you didn't choose.

It's a pain because it leads to people standing around in the miniscule aisle or doing musical chairs as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off.

If you have kids in your party they now do free allocated seating for minors but they force all the adults in the party to book seats at a cost!

Which goes to show that they do it deliberately!

@RichardsGear I've just checked in on a Jet2 flight. Didn't pay for seat allocation and have been seated next to my Dd(16).
We were quite quick off the mark to check in though

They do deliberately do it because they do it even on empty flights. I'm sure it would be understandable on a full flight but it's always the way even when there are free seats, hence why you are, at that point, 40 says before the flight, still able to pay to get seats together, they want your money.

As an aside, I've just booked with jet2 and didn't pay for seats but checked in as soon as I could and we were seated together because they obviously aren't money grabbing dick heads like Ryanair!

Re weight distribution, yes it's important but I suspect it's not the whole story with Ryanair:

There's usually a far bit of latitude in aircraft loading but yes there are limits.

As long as the aircraft is loaded iaw with the loading plan which ensures it's in limits, and the paperwork representing that plan gets into the hands of the Flight Crew for the stuff they need to do then all should be good.

You need people to stay where they are supposed to be, for at least takeoff, it's generally not as important after that but sometimes depending on loading it can also be a requirement for landing.

There are (depends to some extent on aircraft) performance and economic advantages to actually getting the weight biased slightly aft but within limits, and randomly dotting passengers fore and aft won't achieve that but I guess Ryanair can make the economies work in other ways.

I booked ryanair recently. The family ticket solves this problem. It hardly cost any more.

I was just about to post this. It was absolute bloody mayhem as if people weren't all going to get a seat. People would get on and try and reserve seats. Others would just sit in them. It took an age to resolve every single time.

I was travelling a lot and flying solo, so lucky it didn't worry me but it was a mess.

They are masters of this kind of trick ...

A few months ago I bought flights from me and 13 year old daughter. I bought one checked in bag against my name. So that gave me priority boarding (which I didn't care about in the slightest) but not her.

It then allocated us rows apart on the basis that priority boarders get different rows and said 'don't like this selection?' with the option to pay. It wouldn't let me put her next to me even tho the seat was empty because she wasn't a priority. So I then had to pay for two seats together elsewhere.

Easyjet in my experience always allocate together if availability.

You have to stay in your allocated seats in case of a crash so they know who you are!

No you don't. You have to pay extra to sit together

Just book seats, no doubt you don’t book travel insurance either, which should be illlegal if you don’t

I’ve heard this before but don’t think it’s true. If I died in a crash and had been allocated seat c1 they won’t just say the body in seat c1 is me. They will do extensive checks up to and including dna if necessary.

But that is the whole point of the no-frills airlines. When they started in the 90s they were cheaper because they were doing something completely different. The ticket price is the basic flight and that's it. You pay extra for everything - food, drink, checked in bags, sear reservations.

Personally I think Ryanair is a dreadful organisation and we choose not to fly with them but if you do, you know the deal. My kids are older teens, wouldn't care at all if they were next to me or not. But if your kids are younger then whatever the airline you should book a seat. It's a twat move not to, then expect others to move around for you.

No, that's simply not true but it's a myth that gets repeated every time seat swops or movement gets mentioned here.

Many many airlines allow seat swops between adults on boarding, and also allow limited movement of individuals during boarding (e.g. upgrades) as long aircraft balance allows it.

Many also don't insist that you return to nominated seats for landing (again if the loading allows it).

Thank you!

Bear in mind that this, with most airlines not just RyanAir, can mean one row in front, one row behind or across an aisle. It doesn't necessarily have to mean on the adjacent chair to yours.

Almost all airlines allow you to swap and move.
Occasionally they ask you to remain in your allocated seat for take off, but not often ime.

Sorry the exclamation mark was to indicate a joke. I've often been allowed to move seats on a plane 😊

Yes, but the difference with Ryanair is that they enforce mandatory seat reservations for under-12s and one adult, so you can choose where to sit and you have some degree of control over the process (unless you have booked really last minute and many of the seats are already taken).

Fair enough..I was passenger on a flight a few days back on a airline which is usually OK with some movement between seats but it just so happened on this particular flight they genuinely had Centre of Gravity restrictions.

An announcement was made that people had to stay in assigned seats for take-off and landing and immediately from an adjacent seat somebody piped up soto vocce with "ah they would say that, the real reason they don't tell you is......"

🙄

No. I quite enjoyed being seated away from my teenagers though. I had a nice flight reading my book.