The Ryanair Shuffle

[Joey Shabadoo]

I noticed the priority queue for boarding the Ryanair flight I was on was longer than the regular queue

 

[MarkF]

I noticed the priority queue for boarding the Ryanair flight I was on was longer than the regular queue

What is it, a tenner? I don't get it, it was longer last week too but I was first in the oik line. So they swan off like they are international jet setters, with me right behind them, to queue and wait further on, it beats me.

 

[mjr]

Wow, the shithead who programmed their seating algorithm to incur maximum disruption is a menace to society.

Hey, it sounds like a fun problem to work on, optimising for something other than being helpful - but knowing Ryanair's reputation, I suspect it was probably an algorithm recycled from something like distributing unpredictably-arriving heavy freight evenly over positions on a boat deck.

What is it, a tenner? I don't get it, it was longer last week too but I was first in the oik line. So they swan off like they are international jet setters, with me right behind them, to queue and wait further on, it beats me.

Yeah, I wouldn't pay to get into a claustrophobic space any sooner either, but I think it's often bundled with other more useful things like your bag not being taken off you at the gate, which I think someone mentioned above.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPGle2o2orY

 

[Beebo]

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.

That is exactly the issue.
Every airline knows that the middle seat is the worst seat.
A single traveller will almost never chose that seat, but Ryan Air have made a deliberate decision to allocate that seat despite better options being available in the expectation that you will pay to swap.
There should be an expectation that they will allocate the best available seat.
Cinemas can do it, so why not ryan air.

 

[Crackle]

I don't mind the middle seat. I once took it between two fellas who were friends but had decided to leave the middle seat free as neither liked it and in the hope an attractive female would take it, as if. Anyway, they got me. I promptly fell asleep and leaned on them snoring. When one pushed me off, I leaned the other way. They gave me dirty looks in arrivals. I bet they don't do that again.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I've no problem with RyanAir. Go by their rules then it's fine.
One of the neighbours is in the trade and from what I've heard their pilots are right not to be happy.
For any airline I look at the automatic seat allocation then decide if we want to reserve. We've only ever been sat apart on two flights.
If the new gimmick is deliberate separation I'll keep my eyes open. All part of the game!

 

[Profpointy]

I've no problem with RyanAir. Go by their rules then it's fine.
One of the neighbours is in the trade and from what I've heard their pilots are right not to be happy.
For any airline I look at the automatic seat allocation then decide if we want to reserve. We've only ever been sat apart on two flights.
If the new gimmick is deliberate separation I'll keep my eyes open. All part of the game!

I would prefer to avoid a supplier where a simple transaction becomes a "game" of trying to rip each other off. I'd rather pay a fair price for a fair service without the hassle. Fair enough pricing according to demand, or more for first class or whatever, but to underprice then try and scam it back in extra charges and buggeration - jog on, I'll buy from someone easier to deal with. Easyjet are cheap enough and don't seem to need to do all this nonsense

 

[srw]

I've no problem with RyanAir

from what I've heard their pilots are right not to be happy.

Even if they weren't a bunch of scamming shysters and their boss didn't rival a few others for the title of Europe's most obnoxious businessman this would be enough to persuade me that I wanted to avoid using the green flying bus.

Unhappy pilots are not safe pilots.

 

[steveindenmark]

When Ryanair first started priority boarding I chose it for a flight from Denmark to Stansted. I was the only priority passenger on the flight. I was shown onto the plane and had the entire cabin to myself for 10 minutes. It was quite worrying. You begin to wonder if you are on the right plane.

For our flight home on Saturday at least we are both getting on via the front door.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Ryanair can fark off.

 

[DaveReading]

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.

It's hardly new - they've been doing it for well over a year.

Ryanair investigated by BBC over claims it is deliberately separating families who refuse seating charge

 

[screenman]

My mate hates curries, he has never tried one though.

 

[steverob]

I'll admit I've never flown Ryanair, but that's not due to some sort of holier-than-thou boycott or anything, it's just that they've never flown where I wanted, when I needed to, so I've never had the chance. However comparing their seat reservations scheme to that of a long-haul carrier is a little off the mark.

Even if you don't pay the reservation fee on BA, Virgin, etc., they will still "try" to keep families (and not just those with kids) in one group, and at worst split just by a couple of seats. Whereas it is well known that Ryanair seems to have a random number generator (that has a healthy bias towards middle seats) in charge when allocating seats to those who choose not to pay the extra!

 

[slowmotion]

I noticed the priority queue for boarding the Ryanair flight I was on was longer than the regular queue

A few months ago, the priority customers were ushered through the gate and down the stairs to board the plane from the tarmac. The non-priority customers followed a little while later. All the passengers stood on the tarmac by the plane for 25 minutes until the cabin crew emerged from the terminal to let us board.
Mr O'Leary takes customer service to a new level.

 

[PaulSB]

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.

While I'm not at all sure all cyclists like to wear their "good for the environment" badges" I agree there is a huge debate surrounding the impact of all forms of transport on the environment but this wasn't the point.

In straightforward value for money terms low cost airlines are excellent. The overall impact on the environment less so. However if one is going to introduce this type of argument to the discussion it has to be extended far wider than low cost travel - for example low cost food which massively impacts our environment and involves a huge number of air miles.