Sounds unlike Ryanair 🤔… pretty sure same thing happened at Trapani & recently at Camiso ?? When the special rates run out …..

Seat 14!
 

Paid for a seat on STN - PMI due to be operated by a 738 recently, a/c change to a Max, and that's where I discovered seat 14 on a Max doesn't have a window! Grrrrr. Ryanair not interested in refunding my seat fee.

If you have tried for a Refund and RYR/FR have refused, then just call your bank card company for a 'chargeback' claim - you should get a full refund of your seat fees to your payment card as the airline have failed to provide a service you paid for ie; a specific window seat, due to their own change of aircraft.

- were you not able to move to another row, or was the plane full >?

Just a question, but in these situations are you paying for a window seat or are you paying to chose to sit in seat 14A (or whatever). So are you paying to chose a seat or paying for a seat with a view?

I do think it's pretty OBS from the OP that this chap wanted a ''room with a view'' (a window seat) hence his disdain, n'est-ce pas?

We know what he wanted, but in his contract with the airline, what is it the airline is selling?

They sell 'window' seats to you - and I do take your point about ''contracts''

Dummy reservation - Bournemouth to Krakow
RA
roger axxx
04F Window
£7

Get off quick Seats
ROWS 2-5
Per person £7
Sit close to the exit and get served quickly on board
A speedy exit
Get served quick
Near the bathroom

OP did not get his window.....call his card company and ask for a chargeback

A similar situation happened to me when I had booked a window seat on a 2x2 LOT Embraer 195, only to find a 3x3 B738 waiting at the departure gate. The LOT representatives were very much shrugging their shoulders, saying that my party got the seat numbers we had paid for. But aisle seats aligned with the wings offering no external views whatsoever wasn't quite the idea! We didn't pay a substantial premium to be lumbered with that. Online customer services were far more understanding of the issue and did refund the seat reservation fees afew weeks later.

In the above case, the switch from E195 to B738 was for the whole season. I reminded them that they really needed to inform all customers who had paid to reserve seats of this significant change. It is not unusual for airline executives to work on the presumption that people pay a premium purely to sit alongside their family / friends. There are other reasons.

When a carrier changes aircraft type without informing customers in advance, seat selection fees should be refunded automatically.

Window seat and aisle seats are just descriptive, they show where the seat is located on the aircraft, no guarantee of an actual window.

Good point. I have long argued that airline seat-plans used for paid reservations should clearly identify those seats in the "windows" row which offer no view outside.

You can try reclaiming your money from Ryanair... but you may end up spending a LOT of time on the matter. Companies get reputations for a reason. Think carefully how much you consider your time to be worth as an hourly rate and sometimes it's best to treat a modest loss of money as a lesson not to do something (eg paying to reserve a seat with Ryanair) again

Disclaimer - I use Ryanair regularly but normally never pay for any of the extras like seat reservations for a reason

I was a little Bored 😐
I don’t think anyone would win any claim against Ryanair regarding None window, window seat, it’s all on their website / conditions that you have to agree with before Booking.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4c8808cb1.jpeg

Nice one. I hadn't noticed that before, but I'm a frequent flyer on Ryanair so just book 27A or 27F every time anyway! I'll have a rethink when my first -8200 seatmap appears.

Thanks for that link - I tried to find same but I could not discover that 'caveat' about no windows at 11F and 12F... Does not mention the 737M-8200 though....row 14.

Knowing Ryanair's IT, the content has probably ended up differently, being done by different teams, between PC, tablet and phone (and maybe different between Android and Apple).

The window seat thing is a frequent trolling thread on the company instagram account, they take pains to point out it's pointed out clearly when you book that there is now actual window.
That only works when you have a uniform fleet, the MAX changes that with new frequenct aircraft type amends post booking, so perhaps a legal challenge is due.

To paraphrase a well-known transport journalist ... "When companies say that something is 'clearly stated', it generally follows an incident which shows that it isn't."

Bucharest base question
 

A question to the floor, is there any likelihood of FR moving its Bucharest base from OTP to the recently reopened Baneasa airport? BBU was historically the lower-cost hub of Bucharest's two airports, and up until 2012 served as a base for other LCCs, namely Wizz Air and Blue Air prior to being closed. Now that the airport has reopened to commercial flying, it'll be interesting if anyone knows if FR are showing interest in flying out of BBU, as FR had reportedly been in discussions with the airport previously - see:

https://www.romania-insider.com/bane...-date-jul-2022

Personally, I really hope they won't leave OTP for BBU. I remember flying W6 and Blue Air to BBU from LTN a few times and the reality is that the terminal cannot cope with frequent departures and is just too small to handle full 738s and A320s. The departure lounge was also awful, again being too small and people being sandwiched against each other. Given FR have a sizeable base at OTP already, I am struggling to imagine this being accommodated at BBU.

Bucharest OTP is already very busy at some times of the day. There are plans for OTP to be substantially expanded... but until then, it seems there is a real need for BBU to deal with commercial passenger flights. And yes, I know exactly how unpleasant BBU was about 12 years ago

Agree with you RE. the unpleasant airport experience that is Baneasa. My final flight from there was with Blue Air to LTN in Feb 2012, so just prior to the closure. It really was hideous in every sense back then: no room to move around in the terminal, queues for check in and security snaking outside, and just 4 tiny departure gates expected to handle full 738s and A320s. It really could not cope back then, and I dread to think what will happen now, considering it cannot be expanded, and more people are travelling now versus 2011/12.

andymartin Last year our EDI-FNI flight (738) was cancelled due to French ATC strikes and we transferred onto EDI-MRS the next day (MAX) and our seating was now all over the place due to the row now being an exit row, and they ended up charging us extra for the exit row seats and for splitting us up!! At first the Ryanair online help didn't want to help but I wrote an email, explained exactly what had happened and they replied and refunded the fee for the exit row seats within a few days. I just methodically went through the issue and the consequences and they had no issue.
In your situation though, were your original seats in a different section of the aircraft? Ryanair don't charge less for the non-window seats than in the rows around them. In my situation I had no choice - the aircraft changed forced us into more expensive seats with no other choice. That may be the difference.

Is anyone able to remember how far in advance FR published a *full and complete* schedule for flights throughout the first week of April 2023, ie the start of S23 ? I'm thinking only of good faith intention to fly, not last minute cancellations due to things like weather

I'm trying to figure out when one should expect the winter 2023-24 schedule to be fully (not just partially) published.
3 months in advance ? Longer ? Shorter ?

I know the W23-24 schedule is not yet fully published - there are too many obvious gaps in routes that are very popular during the winter

There seems to be some discussion as to whether FR will or won't fly to Ponta Delgada in the Azores after the end of October
https://newsavia.com/acores-quer-man...nhia-quer-sair

Looks like a Tirana base is on the cards:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....31ccee4695.jpg

Alcohol to be banned on flights between the UK and Spain - not just routes to/from Ibiza. News source in German, but Google Translate works well
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/ryanai...n-den-kampf-an

New route

Liverpool-Laponie (rovaniemi)

2pw
Begins 30/10/2023

Embarrassing! Only on flights involving the UK!
The majority of us behave well on flights and in resorts, shame the minority have to spoil it!

I don’t know what the alcohol rules are in airports within the EU, but there should be a limit on what hours your able to drink at UK airports!

Has anyone ever booked Ryanair flights other than on their website or via the app?
I used our online travel agency in work and when I enter the reservation code and my e mail address from the confirmation e mail, the booking cannot be retrieved.
Should I attempt to contact them via social media?(wish me luck)!
I have 7 weeks before the actual flight, just want to get it sorted in advance!

You probably won't pass Ryanair gdpr.
You need to speak to the travel agent

Happened me at the weekend, few nights away with my other half booked by an online travel agent. Out with Ryanair, return with Aer Lingus. Got an Email from EI, the travel agent & another from the travel agent confirming the FR flight, I did find unusual there was no direct email from Ryanair.

Half an hour later I received another email from Ryanair via the Travel agent saying they blocked the booking as it was done by a ‘third-party travel agent’ with no commercial partnership with Ryanair. Email gave two links to verify the booking on the Ryanair website. So either Ryanair haven’t notified your travel agent or the agent hasn’t informed you.

Thanks for the info.
I will contact our travel agency in work. I only have received an email from them with the itinerary, and of course Ryanair doesn’t recognise the reservation on both their website and app.

It’s only Ryanair this happens with, as far as my company’s experience is concerned with booking flights either for leisure or business via our online agent.

A few months ago, I made the mistake of clicking through from Google Flights to the Ryanair website in order to book a flight with them. A few days later, they sent me an email saying it had been booked via a third party and asking me to confirm my identity (costing, I think, £5) or check in at the airport for something like £30-£40.

Since then, I still use Google Flights or Skyscanner to compare flights & prices, but I always make sure I open the Ryanair website separately and clear cookies and history before I book anything (or use the app).

The article doesn't say alcohol will be banned. It just states that you will not be able to smuggle your own supplies into the cabin. No European airline allows consumption of your own supplies of alcohol anyway as far as I know.

I don’t understand why Ryanair expect you to only book via their website or app direct.
They attract business travelling passengers, most of these won’t book in this way, but via their company’s travel agency as per their company’s procedures.
Why should passengers have to pay extra to check in at the airport when all the relevant fares have already been paid during the booking process!

The company I work for wouldn’t allow the sale of Ryanair flights via their third party travel agency if there were extra charges that had to be incurred and/or if the employee would encounter this type of hassle during the checking in process.

I can and do book RYR flights through my employers on-line travel portal, SAP with no additional external charges.

But yes, if for whatever reason, I ask our associated travel partner to book me on RYR, then no can do.

And we are not allowed to book direct on the airline site for business travel.

My company lets us book our own travel and Ryanair is an option, but only via the external travel website.
It’s crazy, I’ve booked Ryanair for a leisure trip via my company’s external site, because I can.
But I can’t see my booking!

The Business page in the Times todays remarks on the latest financials

Average profit per pax Euro 13.15
Average fare Euro 49.00
Average extra spend Euro 23.30
Profit Q1 Euro 663 million

W/b 02/07/23 3273 flights
+ 25% cp same week in 2019
BA -15%
Easyjet - 8%
Lufthansa -23%

It shows how much they depend on additional purchases by pax.

It's the way of a lot of purchases these days, car hire and insurance springs to mind.

Yes and they make 13 euros from each passenger - it really is amazing that you can build a major business on that . But as the articles point out they have better management than any one else - not firing people, ordering one type, in bulk and owning most of their own aircraft and not being distracted by hotels, car hire, long haul etc etc.

I don't like O'Leary but he's really got it figured out - how many other people would keep the old name and not rename it after themselves for example?