Ryanair. Booking of seats.

IsleOfMan said:
Absolutely not. If you board last, quite often you will find that you cannot get a space for your hand held luggage overhead. I have seen people having to put their cases overhead, quite a distance from where they are sitting. Doesn't bother some.
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Totally agree. I have alone traveled with young children for years and for me queuing is the price to pay for having my luggage not too far from my seat. I don't queue if I don't have luggage to put overhead.
Gordon Gekko said:
I don’t see your point. If someone can’t afford to pay for a seat, fine, but don’t come asking people who have paid if they’d like to move.

It’s €8 by the way or similar. Not exactly Chapter One.
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And the last time I flew, we apparently lost our slot for departure as a family was looking for their separate seats in the plane, seemingly not understanding why they could not seat together. I am not entirely sure it was the sole reason but it clearly created a commotion in the aisle. And after an initial delay, we ended up being delayed another 20 minutes. We travel regularly as a family. A lot of time on different options: part of the family on priority, the others not. With or without seats allocated according to the age profile of each. This is to avoid additional costs. However, if I don't buy a seat, I certainly don't expect anyone to move for me. On a recent flight, my son was actually allocated by chance a seat in the row in front of 2 of us. At the arrival, the passenger near me mentioned that he would have moved if he had known. I am sure he would not have minded but I did not ask him for the favour. I chose not to pay.
 
I love Ryanair, I think they're (usually!) excellent value and what you'd expect from a no frills airline. I have been lucky to get the exit row seats on the last few flights randomly, by leaving it relatively late to check in online! :p
 
Rasputin said:
It really is always worth looking at any other airline that flies to the same place. Doesn't happen often, but on a few occasions, I have found cheaper elsewhere, and its always a bonus, and worth a small premium, to fly with anyone other than ryanair (for me anyway)
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I was recently surprised to find Aer Lingus Cork to Faro flights being cheaper than Ryanair both ways. Unfortunately, the Aer Lingus timings were so inconvenient that Ryanair still got my business!
 
Gordon Gekko said:
I don’t see your point. If someone can’t afford to pay for a seat, fine, but don’t come asking people who have paid if they’d like to move.

It’s €8 by the way or similar. Not exactly Chapter One.
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indeed...but depends on your circumstance and how many passengers.....I wouldnt dream of asking a person to move, thats regardless of my ability to pay or not, as mentioned children over 12 are NOT gauranteed to sit with their parents on any airline regardless of airline provider and its definitely not 8E for all airlines. ...ie there are more airlines than the bog standard aerlingus / ryanair available.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Agree with this. It was much better when no one could afford to fly and the flight from Dublin to London was the most expensive flight per mile in the world.

It was so much more fun getting the bus to Dun Laoghaire and boat to Holyhead and then the train overnight to London.

Ah the good old days before Ryanair brought in cheap flights and ruined all the fun.

Brendan
Full disclosure: Ryanair shareholder who hates long ferry and train journeys
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Appreciate the point, not really what I was saying though. Everyone appreciates cheaper flights, but it is possible to provide cheaper flights and not make the whole experience miserable from start to finish. There comes a point where their cuts and changes aren't anything to do with providing cheaper flights for the customer, but purely to try and eek out a few more basis points of profit. I understand they are a commercial business, but I'm talking as a consumer not at shareholder. That point was passed a long time ago. Most of the other airlines have followed now, which makes flying in general a stressful and annoying experience from start to finish for the most part. We had cheap flights 10, 20 years ago, but it was far more pleasant to fly than it is now.
 
For me the stressful bit is when I am eventually seated on the plane, everyone else has boarded but we still sit there for up to 20 minutes waiting for a slot.
 
With Ryanair, most of my flights are weekend 1 to 3 day trips, for all of these. i just pay the basic fare, no bags, no seats, no priority, no extras, at all, i have also noticed they have (for my flights at least), stopped checking bag sizes and weights, so i have often bought a 10kg carryon bag onboard, without paying for it.

I get the feeling, it is operationally impossible, to check all passenger bags, as turnaround time, is so tight.

Ryanair are banking on full passenger compliance, for their setup to work, and for the most part, they get that, but not from me for the short trips !
 
Rasputin said:
flying in general a stressful and annoying experience from start to finish for the most part. We had cheap flights 10, 20 years ago, but it was far more pleasant to fly than it is now.
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I disagree that flying is now a stressful and annoying experience and that it wasnt 20 years ago. It always was.
It used to be easier but a lot more expensive to book tickets ( both due to lack of choice). Once the ticket is booked, the experience of flying is the same.
One difference is that Dublin airport is a lot busier but complaining about that is the same as complaining about being in traffic, you're not in traffic, you are traffic,.
 
huskerdu said:
It used to be easier but a lot more expensive to book tickets ( both due to lack of choice).
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I'm old enough to remember having to drive to Dublin specially to buy airline tickets as local travel agents deals weren't nearly as good as the likes of USIT.
 
Takado said:
People book cheap ticket on no frills airline, then complain about there being no frills.
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I agree. There is no problem with the Airlines , either Aer Lingus or Ryanair. It's the people once again who want cheap flights with Five star experience. I have traveled with Ryanair a lot in many years have had no major problems , a few issues which were dealt with. I fly with Aer Lingus when the price is right. I don't find any difference between the staff on either , all are ok and do their job.
 
joer said:
I agree. There is no problem with the Airlines , either Aer Lingus or Ryanair. It's the people once again who want cheap flights with Five star experience. I have traveled with Ryanair a lot in many years have had no major problems , a few issues which were dealt with. I fly with Aer Lingus when the price is right. I don't find any difference between the staff on either , all are ok and do their job.
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100%. People are unbelievably entitled these days.

I’m delighted they fine people who don’t bother bringing the correct baggage or checking in online - they slow down the process for all the people who came to the airport on time and well prepared. Ryanair are actually training people how to travel in the most efficient manner, but you never hear them get praised for that.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Agree with this. It was much better when no one could afford to fly and the flight from Dublin to London was the most expensive flight per mile in the world.

It was so much more fun getting the bus to Dun Laoghaire and boat to Holyhead and then the train overnight to London.

Ah the good old days before Ryanair brought in cheap flights and ruined all the fun.

Brendan
Full disclosure: Ryanair shareholder who hates long ferry and train journeys
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Been there done that, I remember people vomiting on the ferry, before which we had a very very long bus to the Irish ferry. When we got to Wales at dawn we were on the morning train to London, and they did not take kindly to us exhausted Irish trying to sleep on two seats.

Ryanair revolutionesed flying. People forget how complicated flying was (travel agents), how expensive it was, how late Aer Lingus actually was. Ryanair is exceedingly ponctional. And cheap.

(I own no Ryanair shares)
 
fayf said:
With Ryanair, most of my flights are weekend 1 to 3 day trips, for all of these. i just pay the basic fare, no bags, no seats, no priority, no extras, at all, i have also noticed they have (for my flights at least), stopped checking bag sizes and weights, so i have often bought a 10kg carryon bag onboard, without paying for it.

I get the feeling, it is operationally impossible, to check all passenger bags, as turnaround time, is so tight.

Ryanair are banking on full passenger compliance, for their setup to work, and for the most part, they get that, but not from me for the short trips !
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You're on the roulette wheel there. I've seen many people have to pay. Chancing it like you. They get a special yellow tag and get put in the hold at the plane door. Maybe you didn't notice.
 
Ryanair and travel generally works just fine if you’re a normal sensible person who can follow simple rules like 100ml liquids and the weight of a case. I see people moaning about both and falling foul of the rules everytime I travel. Same with seating. It’s not hard. There are just lots of stupid people out there.

I mean, it’s a basic thing, but I weigh my case before I leave the house.
 
Bronte said:
You're on the roulette wheel there. I've seen many people have to pay. Chancing it like you. They get a special yellow tag and get put in the hold at the plane door. Maybe you didn't notice.
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I certainly did notice, its just never happened to me, on the last 20 or so off return flights i’ve taken with Ryanair. and even if it did, due to the non checking of passengers who have actually paid for cabin baggage ,the yellow tag, just means, tour bag, goes in the hold, you leave it at the plane steps, but you don’t actually pay. They tend to have a quota on this, for very busy flights, if challenged to check in your bag, just tell them, you have urgent & essential medicine in your carryon bag, and that sorts that out- immediately.

Its typically somewhere between, €40 to €60 extra, on Ryanair, for allocated seats & priority boarding +a cabin 10kg bag, for a return flight.

In any event, sometimes, depending on the trip, i bring a small backpack, which is fine for 2 to 3 nights, and they have not been checking the sizes or weights, on these either, so these extra fees, are very easily avoidable. Ryanair are banking on full compliance, and cannot possibly operate all their flights, with a zero tolerance, on non compliance, as the plane turnarounds are way too tight, and they have minimum staffing.

20 flights is about, €500 +, in extra charges, in the very unlikely event, i did get called out/caught- as it were, it would be a maximum charge of €35 for post booking- at airport checkin, for a 10kg bag. These are odds, i can certainly live with,for, what i can see, is an unlikely event.
 
T McGibney said:
I'm old enough to remember having to drive to Dublin specially to buy airline tickets as local travel agents deals weren't nearly as good as the likes of USIT.
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Ah yes, the good old days.

And who remembers the concept of Apex tickets and a requirement to stay a Saturday night. Then there was the standby option where you packed up and went to the airport without a ticket and hoped you’d get a last minute deal.

And people think it’s complicated now?

The flip side of cheap flights is that they’re cheap for everyone. Much as I wish the airport terminal at 6am didn’t resemble grafton street on Christmas Eve, it’s just necessary to pucker up and accept it.

And if you fly Ryanair 10 times and 9 of these are without incident, you should probably still consider yourself well served.
 
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