The Ryanair Shuffle

[steveindenmark]

I like travelling with Ryanair. We do it often and when you know the routine, it is cheap and simple.

I like the new baggage system. It allows people to sit down and get off much quicker.

But there is a new thing with Ryanair which amuses us. The Ryanair shuffle.

We have flown with them 3 times in the past 6 weeks. We do not pay to reserve seats and 3 times Jannie has been allocated a seat at the front and I get a seat at ths back. yet when we take off there are plenty of seats, even rows, empty.

As soon as the seatbelt sign goes off we have got up and got seated together with a window seat. 3 times this has happened. Other passengers in our position do the same thing. Its the Ryanair shuffle..

Ryanair are seating families as far away from each other to punish them for not paying to reserve seats. Its petty, but its not working.

We are currently in Como. £40 each return from Denmark. Car booked through Ryanair, £27 for 5 days.

We cannot complain about them. Its a great service.

Anybody else been caught out by Ryanairs new seating regime.

The view from our balcony. Airbnb.. . peanuts.

 

[sheddy]

I can't say I've ever enjoyed travelling Ryanair, but have little choice as they have slowly taken all my favourite routes at Shamsted Airport.

 

[Beebo]

its a total scam.
Years ago it seemed that airlines were able allocate seats next to each other.

 

[screenman]

It is an income source, I see no problem with it.

 

[Drago]

Many men would pay good money to sit at the opposite end of the aircraft to their Missus. Mr Ryan O'Air is missing trick.

 

[fossyant]

If you don't mind, and or the kids aren't little kids, then it's a good way - my daughter wouldn't like it at 15, but my son, nearly 18 would probably prefer it.

 

[PaulSB]

My wife and I and another couple flew to Carcassonne this week, we fly home Monday. Refusing to pay the £4 each to reserve a seat we were scattered around the cabin.

My wife refuses to pay this additional charge and gets quite animated over it. Last week I booked our flights to Cambodia and Vietnam - my wife suggested we should reserve our seats on these flights. Cathay Pacific charge £30 per seat!!!!!

I understand my wife's point that short and long haul are quite different, the principle of charging for seats though is the same.

For the first time we chose Priority Boarding as for £3 this now allows two cabin bags which is great for travelling light. We did board first but to no real benefit.

I've merrily joined in with lots of Ryanair jokes but never had a problem when flying with the airline.

 

[PaulSB]

its a total scam.
Years ago it seemed that airlines were able allocate seats next to each other.

Personally I don't see it as a scam. Years ago one couldn't fly to hundreds of European destinations let alone for the £25 I paid to fly to Carcassonne to this week.

Cheap flights are great consumer value, they're probably too cheap and airlines have to find multiple other income streams. There are many other sectors which offer low headline costs and then load on the extras.

Kicking Ryanair is a sport these days which arises out of one thing. When costs are low if things go wrong a company has little room to manouvre. Often the airlines are dealing with long anticipated holidays so when problems occur people become very upset.

 

[swansonj]

...

Cheap flights are great consumer value,
....

They are great value if the horizon within which we evaluate them is a sufficiently short one. If one thinks that “consumer value” encompasses things like an inhabitable planet, the value may not appear quite so great.

 

[steveindenmark]

You have the same opinion as us Paul. For a long haul flight we would pay to sit together. Short hauls we are not bothered. We only take small backpacks with us and that is small hand luggage. When the plane is boarding we are the last to get on. With the new luggage system all the bags are stowed and most of the passengers are sat down when we get on. Far better than it used to be.

 

[mjr]

You look left, they charge you on the right, it's the Ryan air shuffle.

Quite aside from all the environmental and tax drawbacks of cheap flights, I can't be doing with it. What price all the little annoyances and gouges?

Most of Europe is within 24 hours land travel (hurrah for night jet saver tickets) and for the rest, I don't live close to any airport, so there's usually another airline available.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Can you still open windows and throw noisy kids out?

 

[MarkF]

I am lucky to live within 10 mins of an airport and Ryanair is at the bottom of my list of preferred choices, flying with them is an unpleasant experience, even compared to Jet2. Still, I use them, but always on my terms.

I used them last week to Alicante and as usual never pay for anything other than the seats, so despite their interminable prompts to buy this that and the other as departure day approaches, I ignore them all. I was allocated seat E, row 33, this was the middle seat in the very last row. The only 2 empty seats on the entire plane were the seats either side of me.

 

[PK99]

They are great value if the horizon within which we evaluate them is a sufficiently short one. If one thinks that “consumer value” encompasses things like an inhabitable planet, the value may not appear quite so great.

I was about to make the same point. As cyclists we like to wear our "I'm good for the environment" badges, but so many seem happy to burn air fuel at ridiculously low prices. Low-cost airlines seem to me environmental vandalism of the highest order.

I went to a talk by Jonathon Porritt 25+ years ago in which he said the people he really had it in for were not businessmen, scientists or engineers but Economists whose models treat the environment as a Free Good (technical economic term: can be consumed in as much quantity as needed without reducing its availability to others.)

You make the same point.

 

[Deleted member 35268]

I like travelling with Ryanair. We do it often and when you know the routine, it is cheap and simple.

I like the new baggage system. It allows people to sit down and get off much quicker.

But there is a new thing with Ryanair which amuses us. The Ryanair shuffle.

We have flown with them 3 times in the past 6 weeks. We do not pay to reserve seats and 3 times Jannie has been allocated a seat at the front and I get a seat at ths back. yet when we take off there are plenty of seats, even rows, empty.

As soon as the seatbelt sign goes off we have got up and got seated together with a window seat. 3 times this has happened. Other passengers in our position do the same thing. Its the Ryanair shuffle..

Ryanair are seating families as far away from each other to punish them for not paying to reserve seats. Its petty, but its not working.

We are currently in Como. £40 each return from Denmark. Car booked through Ryanair, £27 for 5 days.

We cannot complain about them. Its a great service.

Anybody else been caught out by Ryanairs new seating regime.

The view from our balcony. Airbnb.. . peanuts.
View attachment 433480

Wow, the shithead who programmed their seating algorithm to incur maximum disruption is a menace to society. I detest Rynanair with a vengeance. The CEO is not my favourite person either.