Ryanair - check in, no seat reservation

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I've booked a flight and didn't book a seat reservation. Does anybody know when I can check in - it's prompting me to buy a seat. How do I get a free seat - is it 24 hours before the flight?

In the 1980s!

I saw a few people get bumped on a Ryanair flight last year - they were in the back couple of rows after a last minute equipment change to avoid a whole flight being over 3 hours late ("stole" the plane for a slightly later flight to somewhere else and put "our" plane on that flight. It was literally the back 2 rows that got bumped as those seats didn't exist...

Why do so many hate the middle seat? It's my favourite on Ryanair as the underseat storage is bigger than window or aisle. I feel squashed in the window seat and too exposed in the aisle. Just one person to disturb for loo breaks. Why am I the odd one out?

Just wondered.

We had this in the US recently with Jet Blue. When we checked in the only seats available to still purchase were $90 a pop front row. Wasn't paying that, so we took our chances. Guess which seats we were allocated? Family of five so $450 saved!

I'm definitely going to try checking in late for my next solo flight. A previous flight I booked last minute, paid next to nothing and got a bulkhead aisle seat. And DD and I have been allocated the exit row before.

Ryanair was a free for all in the early 2000's. DH would dash ahead with our eldest DC and an armful of coats to bag seats! I'd take my time with the littlest ones, buggy, bags etc.

Yes I agree, more leg room in the middle seat. I don't really care, but I wouldn't pay extra just to avoid the middle seat.

OMG, the early days of EasyJet and the unallocated seating were hilarious. I flew quite a bit on my own and whilst I have a preference for a window, really couldn't care enough on any one or two hour European flight to disgrace myself with a load of argy bargy.

As a seasoned traveller, it was always easy to have a quick look and tell if if was a bus or air bridge. If a bus then it used to amuse me greatly to join the boarding queue about half way down and watch the alpha males limbering up and the front of the queue... only to then be forced to move down inside the bus and end up last onto the plane, whilst people like me ended up squished by the bus door, hopped off and wandered onto the plane first.

I've also checked in late and got the extra keg room seats for free.

My mum was great as nipping through the gaps and getting great seats !

That must be years ago. Everyone gets a seat allocated 24h before departure now

Some airlines still have airport check in. Norse for example.
And some charters.

No they don't, you get your seat allocated when you check in, which you do online,from 24 hours before departure, but you can leave it later if you choose.

I have been using Ryanair since approx 2000 when we moved to Ireland. They would let families board first to claim seats together which was great.

I do remember flying once with some siblings and we all had a lot of kids with us and they no longer allowed kids to board first. And obviously you are not going to stand in line for 40 minutes with a bunch of toddlers. So we waited until last to board and it took forever to find seats (can't remember if they allocated seats then or it was still free for all) The whole plane was waiting for us and I remember thinking what idiots Ryanair were for stopping this policy.

I wasn’t asking that question to the OP.

Well yeah you can, but at 24hrs before it’s allocated.

I came back from Spain on Sunday and there were two Ryanair flights leaving from side-by-side gates 10 minutes apart, so we were all queueing and boarding from the same area at the same time. It was quite chaotic and they did make two announcements about about half way through boarding and at the end of boarding that our flight was going to Dublin and if you were supposed to be going to Edinburgh to tell a member of staff immediately. So it mustn't be all that rare for it to happen.

When was this 1974?🙄

Easyjet were bad in the '90s for having no seat reservations and it would be "survival of the fittest" to get a good seat, we always boarded first because we had 4 children under 10 - although it was stressful two rows of three needed I would have been almost happy to offer any comer who insisted on a coveted window seat the option of sitting next to any of mine lol. In response to the OP, it is different now, when you check in, your seat will be allocated. It has cost you nothing, and OP are right, people who choose their seats tend to choose seats together, and the cheapest ones, often leaving the exit rows alone (nobody under 18 can sit in them), and some at the front. If you are travelling alone, it should not worry you, you are normally always going to be sat next to someone anyway if it is a busy flight. If I was travelling alone, I think I would check in later rather than earlier. You can also just go onto Ryanair's website 24 hours before your flight, make out you want to book on it, and see what seats are already taken to get a feel for what you might get. Hope this helps xx

I didn't book priority and I did get to choose my seats for free: I did "add a 20kg check-in bag". This option makes no mention of priority and maybe you don't get to choose your seats with that option? I paid for a 20kg checked bag as a 10kg cabin bag isn't going to be big enough for my trip.

Why question what someone has actually experienced in this way?

Everyone gets a seat allocated if you don’t pay for a particular one in advance, it’s not connected to booking priority or baggage allowance.

There was a time with Ryanair when no seats were allocated at all. You had a choice of Priority, which meant you got on first, along with up to 60% of passengers, and non-priority, which meant you got on after all the priority people.

We used to book 2 priority seats and ds1 and I would go on and grab 5 seats while dh, dd and ds2 would get on later. It was mayhem.

It's a long time since they've changed the system. I think they were made to by safety/airline bodies.

There was a time when Ryanair tried to scare you into buying a seat because "Otherwise you might end up in the middle seat". But the most common way for people to travel on leisure airlines is as a couple (or a bigger group) who want to sit next to each other, which in a 3+3 configuration means someone is going to be in the middle seat. I very rarely buy a seat on Ryanair and I usually get the aisle when I check in late-ish. I think they have stopped the scare tactics now because people realised that they weren't actually very likely to end up in the middle seat.

Just checked - Ryanair started assigned seats in 2014. Although when they started up initially, seats were assigned and the cabin crew walked around handing out sucky sweets before take off. That was was either mid or late 80's

If I remember correctly (I was making a return flight with them at least once a month around this time), there was a brief period just before they went to all-pre-assigned seating when you could pay for the extra-legroom seats (front row and overwing). So two cabin crew members were assigned to lurk by these rows to stop CFs who hadn't paid from sitting on them. I think they maybe found that this tied up the crew's time too much.