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RYANAIR CUSTOMERS HAVE been complaining about being charged extra to sit beside the people they are flying with.
A number of people have been venting their frustration about the practice online.
Angela Slevin, who recently flew to Lanzarote with Ryanair, told TheJournal.ie: “When you don’t pay for a seat and opt to be allocated seats, they will split the whole family up and allocate seats all over the plane.
“In our case, three middle seats on three different rows. When I tried to change the seats, I had to pay €20 going out and €18 coming back, and they still changed my mum’s seat after I had paid.
Families were being split up. The chaos caused on the plane is crazy, as passengers tried to swap seats with each other so as to be seated near family.
Ryanair gives its passengers the option of having a seat randomly allocated to them or of paying extra to choose their seat.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie responding to passengers’ complaints, the airline said it has not changed its random seat allocation policy.
“The reason for more middle seats being allocated is that more and more passengers are taking our reserved seats (from just €2) and these passengers overwhelmingly prefer aisle and window seats which is why people who choose random (free of charge) seats are more likely to be allocated middle seats.
Some random seat passengers are confused by the appearance of empty seats beside them when they check-in up to four days prior to departure. The reason they can’t have these window or aisle seats is that these are more likely to be selected by reserved seat passengers many of whom only check-in 24 hours prior to departure. Since our current load factor is 95%, we have to keep these window and aisle seats free to facilitate those customers who are willing to pay (from €2) for them.
“This is entirely a matter of customer choice. We are not trying to force people to pay for reserved seats. We are very happy to facilitate any customer who wants a free of charge random seat but we are also going to do our best to facilitate customers who are willing to pay for a reserved seat (usually window or aisle) which start from €2.”
The spokesperson also denied that families with children are split up, stating: “We don’t separate families. We require families (with kids under 12) to sit together and we give all of the kids free of charge reserved seats to ensure that families are not and cannot be separated.”
‘Stressful for passengers and crew’
Louise Kelly recently flew with Ryanair from Dublin to Sofia in Bulgaria. She told us she checked in online shortly after check-in opened, a few days before the flight.
“To my surprise I was given seat 14E and my partner was given 24B.”
Kelly said she and her partner could see the flight wasn’t full at the time, based on the seats available when checking in.
“We decided to pay for one allocated seat and my partner booked 14F beside me. As soon as the booking went through for the paid one, my seat 14E was removed and it sent me a new boarding pass saying my seat was 00 and to be assigned at airport.
“I was horrified to witness the system purposely move me as soon as my partner chose to pay to sit beside me.”
Kelly said she received a number of messages via the Ryanair app in the subsequent days informing her that she could sit beside her partner if she paid a fee of €6.
She recognised that this isn’t a lot of money, but disagrees with the principle of moving a person’s seat after another passenger has already paid to sit beside them.
On the return flight, Kelly paid €7 to sit beside her partner. She said in this instance her partner’s seat was not moved.
Kelly said she has been flying with Ryanair regularly for 14 years and has never previously been separated from family or friends.
Kelly believes the practice is unfair and causing unnecessary stress for both passengers and crew members.
I feel it is stealing people’s peace of mind and adding further unnecessary stress to passengers. It’s not only upsetting for passengers – I have witnessed an already pressured crew trying to listen to passengers’ concerns of wanting to be seated together and not being able to facilitate this.
“It creates a lot of frustration all round.”
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The Journal hits a new low
@John B: on the contrary…this is high brow stuff for the Journal.
@John B: Are the taking the piss..??
@Kevin Conway: To where?
@Ally Collyer: To the tannery of course.
@Kevin Conway: I still piss in the bath!
@Damien Leen: they could be anti mask and pro quad, in fairness, couldn’t they?
@John B: Not even close
@John B: you mustn’t listen to radio so as has been a topic recently
Millions of tons of raw sewage are pumped into the sea every year and we are worried about someone taking a pee while they are swimming. Christ on a bike.
Yeah! The fish do, so why can’t I.
@Declan Carr: One of the simple pleasures of life.
Direct delivery, cutting out the middleman…
Are we sanctioning fish now?
@Effrafax of Wug: fish and seagulls pee in the see and by the way Bears shit in the woods
@Derek Long: But they don’t use shampoo!
The struggle of trying to remove a wetsuit when bursting is not worth the hassle
When we are suitably hydrated Urine is about 95% water
Now defecating in the sea while wearing a wetsuit is were I’d draw the line
@Liam Ó hAodha: Pissing in a wetsuit is pretty grim too. I’d have no problem wearing something else but wetsuits you’re keeping a body temperature layer of water next to your skin to keep you warm and then mixing a kidneyload into that to stew until it eventually filters out into the water
@Liam Ó hAodha: I’ve crossed that line.
I can only imagine the conversation that took place between the author and the editor on this article.
What about the option “Are you taking the piss”
TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE… sure its the same “water” that been recycled since the beginning…! methinks that his is a marketing ploy to get us over to the sunny Spain! maybe?
Interesting that Spain at least see a reason for building public toilets. Reading the original article, they seem more concerned with people washing in the sea with soap and shampoo.
If its good enough for a whale it’s good enough for me
Ah I’m thinking this app is getting annoying with them cutting comments short and all the self absorbed arrogant people and now pee omg
Next poll “Would you consider dropping a ‘brown trout’ in the sea ok”
Madness! Sure, look at all large mammals in the ocean, such as Whales and in particular Humpback Whales are producing tonnes upon tonnes of waste. Mammal waste offers nutritional benefits to ocean life.
Why do you think the sea tastes salty
@Mary Fitzsimons: I always thought it was down to the sperm whales.
You’ll be a shoe in for that pulitzer now Gaz!
So how could this be prosecuted, evidence and witness statement from an eel
The clams saw nothing!
This is is to stop people defecating. Nobody cares if people are peeing.
It also covers spitting, menstruating, ejaculating and vomiting.
It’s all terminology.
@Sequoia: one of these things is not like the other. Menstruation is not something optional
@Sequoia: The mind boggles. Surely if someone is involuntarily spluttering or vomiting, the priority would to be to rescue them, not fine them.
@Elaynehb: nor is vomiting
@Elaynehb:
Uh uh…. That’s not what I meant and you know it.
It’s verbiage covers the normal functions of living organisms. This includes all bodily fluids.
Menstruating. Is total my natural and healthy, it becoming a biohazard (whereby someone would discard used products in the sand or sea) is not.
This law covers that quite rightly.
Nobody is getting fined for minor infractions (peeing – which will become infinitely diluted), but actual offences where there is matter which becomes biohazard to other people will result in a proper fine.
TLDR. A small minority of people are gross and so disgusting things and we have to legislate to stop them doing it which affects the majority of people who are sensible and cultured.
@Fiona Fitzgerald:
In the majority of cases yes.
But, with a majority there is always a minority.
Was once in Florida during spring break and witnessed drunk people drinking a pint of alcohol and then measuring the induced vomit to see who brought up the least.
Some people lack class, brains and culture and ruin things for the majority who do not.
@Sequoia: I can’t help wondering if there’s an aspect of this that excludes homeless people who might otherwise seek to stay clean if they have to resort to sleeping on beaches. It seems more about waste products contaminating their coast.
I wonder if it is worse than pesticides and wastes going into rivers then sea. Can the Journal factcheck do a comparison report?
I surfed at Lahich for many years. Depending on the tide and currents occasionally I found my self swimming in a shoal of “Brown Trout” from the raw sewage out fall for the town. I only got 2 nasty kidney infections that required anti biotics in 20 years surfing there, still 2 to many. So don’t, piss in the sea if you can avoid it, its nasty to fellow swimmers and attracts sharks, and never piss in your wetsuit, its rots the suit and you will end up with a nasty rash down below.
This must be the Spanish version of April Fools.
I don’t think ‘physiological evacuations’ refers to pee. It could refer to pee but somehow I don’t think that’s the evacuation they’re worried about.
Who said “I don’t know “
surely the real question is ‘does a bear shit in the woods?’ #sillyseason
Isn’t pee organic? What effect does human pee have in seas and oceans? Be different if we pee’d out crude oil! Quick and shleeveen way of gathering taxes I think.
Who said “I don’t know “ ha ha ha
Dont know this spanish resort but if they’re banning peeing in the sea (how they’ll know iv no idea) they must be installing plenty of public toilets which will also need cleaning on a regular basis, because u can be sure restaurants won’t want people trudging in n out to use toilets
What’s wrong with you people
What about the seaweed?
But does anyone think it’s ok to shite in the sea?
@Ronan Horan: it’s a bit of a brown area.
Just not next to me please
To pee or not to pee
Seriously? Is common sense completely gone now? Even aside from actual sewage going into the sea, fish, whales, seals, etc all do their toilet business in the water, in fact they literally eat, sleep, poop and breathe in it. What’s one human’s pee when all of that is going on already?
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