Has anyone been refused boarding on a flight they had been checked in for due to overbooking?

I was on a Ryanair flight on which a “lower capacity” plane was used. The passengers who had booked the final row of seats, think it was row 30, found the final row was already occupied. The passengers in situ had the correct seat numbers (29). Luckily the flight wasn’t full and they were seated elsewhere.
I wonder if the journalist had back row seats booked?

IsleOfMan said:

I am not sure where the man ended up sitting but I do know that row 1 is the most expensive row to book a seat.

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I was randomly assigned row 1 on a ryanair flight during the summer.

I certainly wouldn’t pay for it in future. A couple of hours of sharing space with people waiting to use the toilet and occasional sensory notifications that they did so successfully.

A lot of these problems seem to arise for people who don’t pay for seats and who check-in at the last minute.

Clearly, customers who pay for a seat and who check-in early are given priority.

Brendan Burgess said:

I am not interested in cases where people showed up late or without their passport, just due to overbooking.

But how common is it?

Can you avoid it by booking a particular seat at check-in?

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Yes I saw this happen. About 4 months ago. From Dublin airport on a main European route that I travel frequently. Being a curious person I asked the people queuing at the desk what had happened and they said they were being denied boarding because the plane was overbooked. And they had been told the plane had been switched to a smaller plane.

Coincidentally on my flight was a Ryanair office staff member, and I chatted to her and said it's awful about the plane being smaller because of the people not able to board. She told me the plane wasn't smaller, that this is just what they say. Can't remember what now, but she said you can tell the plane is not smaller (I think it was a serial number on the outside).

They overbook to fill the plane and allocated to those who had booked seats (which I always do) and that's why I got onto the plane ahead of those put to the side.

This ties into the other poster who said they had no seat number when they checked in online.

Gordon Gekko said:

A lot of these problems seem to arise for people who don’t pay for seats and who check-in at the last minute.

Clearly, customers who pay for a seat and who check-in early are given priority.

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If you've booked a flight you shouldn't be denied boarding because the carrier has overbooked. Your seat allocation is there in black and white from months before, from when you've booked, so checking in early is irrelevant.

It is outrageous that airport staff called the police. So they didn't have to handle irate customers.

Dr Strangelove said:

I fully believe Ryanair in this instance when they say they had to use a smaller aircraft at short notice and overbooking is not a policy.

The whole article is hyperbolic and doesn’t prove very much.

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I don't believe anything with Ryanair but I'm happy to continue to use them as I expect them to be abusive and unkind, somewhat tempered in the last 5 years when they changed policy. I've seen them be very unkind to mothers with children in particular.

My sister flew with them in July from Shannon to Edinburgh and the plane was more than 3 hours late. I tried to get the refund but the system is designed to kick you out, so that if you put in the details it doesn't acknowledge the flight was late (I have screen shots of departure and landing). They offered nothing to anyone in Shannon (it was full of families with children). Shannon airport staff were lovely I was told. When I then went to the complaint section of Ryanair that sends you on a merry dance and sends you right back to the start. Which reminds me I'll give it another go today.

Bronte said:

Which reminds me I'll give it another go today.

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That section of the Ryanair website for EU261 refunds is designed to time out.

You have to write Ryanair a letter and threaten to take them to the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

Dr Strangelove said:

That section of the Ryanair website for EU261 refunds is designed to time out.

You have to write Ryanair a letter and threaten to take them to the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

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I have recently used this for a flight delay. Also, I am no fan of Ryanair's approach to customer service.
However, the form and process was straightforward. Got my money in less than a week.

Gordon Gekko said:

A lot of these problems seem to arise for people who don’t pay for seats and who check-in at the last minute.

Clearly, customers who pay for a seat and who check-in early are given priority.

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I think this is spot on. I'm a last minute man to see if they give me a last premium seat and twice in the last year I have had my seat number changed mysteriously as I boarded. Both times I asked what was the issue and they said the plane is a different model. Seemed a plausible reason but now I am not so sure.

they said the plane is a different model.

Ryanair have 2 versions of the Boeing 737 800 series in their fleet.
The standard 800 series and the Max "200" .
The Max has supposedly more capacity.
One of the Ryanair subsidiaries flies Airbus 320 series.

So it's not beyond the bounds of possibilities that They were telling the truth.

They have (had) one 700 series which was used for training and available for charter.

BlackandBlue said:

they said the plane is a different model.

Ryanair have 2 versions of the Boeing 737 800 series in their fleet.
The standard 800 series and the Max "200" .
The Max has supposedly more capacity.
One of the Ryanair subsidiaries flies Airbus 320 series.

So it's not beyond the bounds of possibilities that They were telling the truth.

They have (had) one 700 series which was used for training and available for charter.

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How come they knew about the lack of seats in relation to the poster who got allocated a non existent seat 00. So when he checked in they knew there were not enough seats.

When did they know.

Are there planes available at the drop of a hat, or would it be the day before. So that they could have informed the passengers not to go to the airport in the first place.

The late plane I'm applying for compensation for, it was late because the flight from Malaga to Edinburgh was very late. As we are very frequent fliers we always check the incoming flight, so we knew that was late, but sometimes it's harder to track if the plane has been somewhere else first. Asking Ryanair is often pointless.

Last month I was nearly denied boarding by ryanair. I didn't pay extra for an assigned seat.

The explanation was a last minute swap to a smaller plane due to an issue with original plane meant not all passengers with a ticket could fly.

As it turned out enough passengers did not turn up so everyone who turned up was granted boarding and the were a good few free seats on the plane. I only got my boarding pass after they 'closed checkin'.

The advent of the Boeing Max and it being flown alongside the older 737s is clearly making this more of a regular occurrence. People who don’t pay for a seat are clearly first in the firing line.

Are there planes available at the drop of a hat,

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Rarely.
When an airline has an aircraft out of action for some reason and its likely to be more than 24hours they will often lease in an aircraft for the duration.

I watched Ryanair in action one day.
First inbound went tech.
They took the next arrival and used that as the outbound leg.
They kept doing it until the executive jet arrived with a technician to fix the first aircraft.
Consequently the 3 outbound flights were all at least 1 hour late.
But no EU261 compo due.
Clever.
Bear in mind that there were no based aircraft and all were 800 series,

How come they knew about the lack of seats in relation to the poster who got allocated a non existent seat 00.

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Ryanair system tracks what plane is scheduled to cover what leg.
Typically all based aircraft will be the same for small bases (Shannon/Cork).
This simplifies logistics.

Larger bases (Dublin) may have a mix of types.
So when there is a problem the next "available " replacement may be a different model.
Paying compo to 6/9 passengers is better from a corporate perspective than all passengers.

Is this much more common in the states?

I was flying back from the US recently and was surprised to see around 20 people listed as on standby (no seat) for the flight. As we drew closer to boarding they started to call the passengers up and give them seats. I'm not sure if people rolled the dice and didn't select a seat as many were given 1st class or premium economy seats.

It happened to me once previously when I was flying within the states on a flight route that departed every hour or so, I went to the desk and asked to move to the sooner flight, they put me on standby and I got a seat in the end.

I was flying back from the US recently and was surprised to see around 20 people listed as on standby

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I suspect in this scenario some of those were staff.

DublinHead54 said:

Is this much more common in the states?

I was flying back from the US recently and was surprised to see around 20 people listed as on standby (no seat) for the flight. As we drew closer to boarding they started to call the passengers up and give them seats. I'm not sure if people rolled the dice and didn't select a seat as many were given 1st class or premium economy seats.

It happened to me once previously when I was flying within the states on a flight route that departed every hour or so, I went to the desk and asked to move to the sooner flight, they put me on standby and I got a seat in the end.

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More common in the states. They routinely overbook by around 10%, as there's much more likely to be connecting flights which can cause passengers to miss connections.

The standby list is likely made up of people who have been bumped (either on their booked flight or a different one), people who are changing their flight to an earlier/later one, and staff. Passengers are generally selected based on their frequent flyer status, and staff only go after passengers are accommodated (staff on order of seniority with their own staff given preference).

I have 2 incidences to report. Bear in mind I'm not a frequent flyer.....4 return flights to UK/European destinations in last 2 years. Of those flights, two had issues with assigned seats.

1. Most recent was an Aer Lingus flight from Bordeaux to Dublin. 4 of us checked in online 24 hours before flight; 4 boarding passes issued. All fine until we were checking in bags in airport. I was told only 3 of 4 were booked. My seat wasn't assigned to me. I showed them my boarding pass with my seat number. They couldn't understand how I had a boarding pass as the seat had been reassigned to another passenger. Luckily there was a spare seat elsewhere on plane and I was able to get home. What baffled me was how I could have two different boarding passes for different seats for the same flight?? And yes, another passenger was in my original seat when we boarded. And no...I didn't ask him to move!

2. My other experience was a Ryan air flight to Verona in July 2022. Full flight, all on board ready for take off. There were 2 teenagers standing in the aisle. Turned out there were too many passengers on the plane. Similar to the Bordeaux flight, seats had been issued twice. Ryan air rep came on board and said that plane can't depart until 2 people get off plane and were there any volunteers. Bear in mind it's mostly families going to lake Garda and also most people's first holiday post COVID. No volunteers....offered later flights to Milan, transport to accommodation and 250 euro cash. No takers.....upped it to, 400 and a couple agreed to take it. This took over an hour to get sorted. I'm not sure what would have happened if there were no volunteers.

How do airline computer systems allow this to happen? I'm certainly baffled!.

Anyway, they are my two stories. For me, in future, I'll be boarding early just in case someone else has my seat too!!

Recently had to book and fly Ryanair with just a few hours notice. When I tried to select a seat it showed none available, but I was able to book the flight itself, plus priority, bags, etc. I checked in immediately on the app and it gave me the boarding pass but said Seat Assigned At Gate.

Checked my bag, went to gate as normal. Spoke to staff at the gate who said Ryanair routinely overbook flights. They were very helpful and explained that the plane had capacity of 189 but 199 tickets had been sold. If 189 or fewer turned up for the flight then I would get a seat. Otherwise, I was going nowhere!

They release seats 40 minutes before the flight. Boarding started 50 minutes beforehand, so I was watching people board for about 10 minutes before my app refreshed and showed a seat. It wasn't too bad for me as a solo traveller, but I imagine it would be very stressful for a family/group.

The advice from the staff was to buy a seat and check in as early as you can.