Ryanair and "Priority Boarding"
 

Has anyone noticed what Ryanair sneaked in to a news item on their website underneath their Stockholm and Warsaw route launches?:

"Passengers travelling with checked in luggage will (from 1st November) be able to enjoy priority boarding at departure gates for £2/€3 per flight. These passengers will then be entitled to board the aircraft first and choose their seats. This will be particularly advantageous for families and groups who wish to travel together."

"From 1st November, families with children will no longer be pre-boarded however they will have the option of online check-in and priority boarding if travelling without checked in luggage or priority boarding purchased at the airport if travelling with checked in bags."

Obviously we all know FR are mean, etc etc etc and we could go on about them all day but they are becoming very family-unfriendly. So if they don't want families, people with luggage, disabled people, business people who want changeable tickets, people who have UK drivers licences but were born outside the EU, who do they want?! Sounding a little like an airline version of National Socialism starting in Dublin.........

XSB

rE
 

YES i did read that ,Just another money spinning exercise can,t blame them really .End of the day all seats are the same except emeg xit .You all arrive at the same place at the same time and if you have a baby then most people will offer assitance that is part of life :) :) well done Ryanair MAYBE even cheaper fares

This is an interesting further development. For years I have been pointing out that the so-called "Legacy" airlines should work harder to differentiate themselves from the locos. Now, lo and behold, locos are moving, slowly but surely, towards offering legacy service - at a cost of course. The logical conclusion is that the aircraft will be reconfigured to have larger seats, that recline and where free food and drinks are offered, which will be located, probably, at the front of the aircraft, while the no-pay cattle class remain at the back end. And maybe even there will be a "frequent slumming" (sorry, "flyer") programme to reward serial masochists?

Seriously though, I wonder how far FR will go down this road? It is more than time that flag/legacy carriers woke up to this and did something about it in a more meaningful fashion.

Maybe this is heading towards reserved seats and multiple classes, but I doubt it. All they're doing is charging for priority boarding, in other words making queue jumping available to anyone who pays for it, rathert than giving it away for free for certain people as they do at the moment.
One question though- A parent with a 4 and a 6 year old get onto the plane to discover 3 seats left spread all over the plane. After it's pointed out that they should have stumped up for priority boarding, what happens next?

That's exactly what happened to my wife + 2 kids on Iberia. Answer: shrug of shoulders from crew until a teenager agreed to swap seats while the adult pax pretended to be deaf.:ugh:

She's flying the same route with the kids on Saturday - I advised her to take two paper bags so that if it happens again she can hand them to the people sitting next to my kids and tell them that they sometimes get sick on take-off and landing! That should expedite the seat swaps.:E

slightly OT, but an important one,

How do you know the adult pax was 'pretending' to be deaf.

I ask this because I regularly travel with someone who has a hearing deficit, and who usually cannot hear someone speaking to him in an aircraft, due to background noise. Often he gets people who get irritated that assume he is just ignoring them.

It is a sad fact, that most people have zero understanding of hearing loss, which in early stages, typically manifests itself as an inability to discriminate sounds (speech) against background noise.

My friend can hold a completely unaided conversation provided there is no background noise, but really struggles in any noisy situation. He has even had rude cc before, due to this (although good airlines train their staff to recognise this well). Few people with a hearing deficit have the stereotype two BIG beige hearing aids that whistle, as not all hearing deficits benefit from such devices. It is, I have reliably been told, a much more complex issue than just 'turning up the volume'.

I don't doubt you had good reason to know the adult pax was pretending to be deaf, but maybe,just maybe, he wasn't.

Flying_frisbee that was kind of what my first thoughts were - the cabin crew, if they are willing to help, will then have to look for people willing to swap seats, maybe the kids will be screaming being away from parents, leading to more fuss on boarding and perhaps short delays.

I remember about 4 years ago a friend of mine was a base supervisor for FR and one of her flights was delayed about 5 mins due to pax not sitting down quick enough, this was mentioned on the departure message as the reason for the delay, and 2 days later she received a written warning through her letter box telling her to improve on her performance - and it was a similar situation re families being separated.

Also, out of interest, FR do not carry "unaccompanied" children, so what if you have a 5 year old sitting 10 rows away from their parent and nobody is willing to swap? Are they "unaccompanied"?

I do like the FR business model generally, but to believe that any of their "improvements" lead to lower fares is quite simply naive.

XSB

I think that it is actually unsafe for small children to sit away from their parents.

Just think about it: who is going to check that they are safely strapped in?

If a catastrophe happens, what if nobody is willing to help them get out of the aircraft? A parent is usually willing to die to save their own child but may not be as keen to put themselves at risk for someone else's

There are good reasons why a parent needs to sit with their own children when they are under a certain age - say 10/12. I think that is a health and safety issue and that making them pay (in other words putting a tax/premium on travelling with small children) is just wrong. (But then, so is charging people for wheelchairs and they have done that. :( )

When my kids were small I would have just refused to sit down if I had not been able to sit with them (or at least have one with me and one with their dad). When I was cabin crew, I always managed to sort it out for people - it is really important!!!!! :)

As a father with a 2 yr old daughter, I have travelled with Ryanir many times, however after reading that, never again!

Charging families to be pre-boarded is just crazy, they shouldn't be allowed to do it.

:= :=

Selecting Devil's Advocate Mode
Why should they not be allowed and who should not allow them?
Simply because families have extended this privilege to families and elderly people, why should everyone have to continue with it?

Why should families be able to bag nice seats? I am not disputing the benefits of them sitting together, in which case they can ensure that they get to the top of the check-in queue.

Families get many, many privileges that others do not get.

ok, what's next? Coin locks on the lavs? Can't wait what will that honourable gentleman surprise us with next time :rolleyes:

It's just stupid that a family with little kids MUST pay to be pre-boared.

As mentioned above, it wouldn't surprise me if they start charging passengers to have a p#ss. :* :*

That's the FR model J41/42. You want your family to sit together? fine. You pay for it. I'm with PAXboy on this one, why SHOULD families be exempt?

Am I willing to toss a euro or three to get on before hordes? Depends on the flights.

Do start travelling with extra euro coins on future FR flights because, "in the event of a loss of pressurization in the cabin, an oxygen mask will drop from the overhead area. Place the elastic band around your head and cover your nose and mouth with the mask. Please be sure to secure your own mask before assisting others. Once your mask is secure, please insert a one euro coin into the slot in the arm rest for 10 minutes of oxygen. A red light will flash when you have about 30 seconds of air remaining. Do not panic, insert one euro for another 10 minutes of air."

:) :) :) :)

If only I believed you. If we were to assume that everyone that has made this statement has followed through with it, I'd have to say that it's a fairly impressive performance by Ryanair to be targeting a total passenger figure of 42m this year!:ok:

I think it would probably surprise me but at the same time, why not? All Ryanair have ever done is itemised their pricing structure and have continued to develop this over time. In a significant majority of cases, summing the various components still results in a value-for-money fare. Surely that's all you can want and expect from a low cost carrier. I really don't understand how people that see a seat advertised for 1cent can genuinely expect to pay that for the whole service. It's not as if you aren't presented with the final total before you commit to anything!

You want your family to sit together? fine. You pay for it. I'm with PAXboy on this one, why SHOULD families be exempt?

Because "It is probable that family group members would seek each other out should an emergency evacuation be required, an action that could adversely affect the rapid evacuation of the aircraft. Children should be seated where they can be adequately supervised by an accompanying adult in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin."

That's why, its a safety matter as far as the CAA are concerned.

Quote from the CAA, here is the citation http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?ca...90&pageid=1344

Well, at the risk of getting a severe reprimand from the Moderator, I think some of you are right little ar$eholes to suggest that people travelling with children shouldn't get free priority boarding. Shame shame shame on you! Are you the same people that occupy seats on the bus whilst senior citizens or mothers with infants are left standing? The major issue of children being with their parents is, as mentioned above, one of SAFETY. I remember how worried I was (in the event of an emergency) when some years ago my then young children, my wife and I were all split up on a completely full DC-10 oceanic flight. Lighten up people!

I don't think anyone is suggesting that families with children should have 'nicer' seats than anyone else. In fact, I think this should definitely not happen. I agree that people with small children already get enough privilieges - special parking spaces are a prime example of unnecessary pampering IMVHO.

The fact remains though that it is a big safety issue as small children need supervision to ensure their behaviour is safe (fastened seat belts, sitting down during take-off/turbulence, etc) and MOST importantly, they would need help during an emergency and the person who wants (and would fight) to help them, is obviously their parent/s.

As I said before, I would have refused point blank to travel separately from my children when they were young - I am a very quiet and polite passenger normally but when it comes to the safety of my kids I would kick up a big fuss. Sorry to all you people without children but that is how it is and it is totally right! ;)

Priority boarding is fine only when airport gate rooms are designed to help reduce the scrum of pax waiting to board and the ground staff can manage the scrum boarding process effectively. I can think of at least one airport where priority boarding at some gates would never work because of these two factors.

Boarding flights to Murcia, Girona and Almeria etc. when there are around 40/50 kids onboard then you start to see that charging to get on first is a good thing. If you are travelling without children and check in first you have to wait for all these kids and their parents to get on first ( and most of the time the whole family of 7 people think they should get on first becuase they have 1 child). By the time you have finished the pre boards, half the flight is already boarded. A lot of families check in last, then push to the front of the que shouting they have kids. The one thing I don't agree with is charging to use the online check in service. I thought that this was an incentive not to bring bags and to bypass the check in. I know it's only £2 but that's not really the point. I completely agree with them charging for pre boards but not, to use the web check in. I guess there will be a limit of how many pre boards there can be. Would be fun to sell a pre board 'pass' to everyone on the plane. lol.

I cannot believe some of the comments regarding children on this thread, I can only imagine that the posters either know nothing about children or simply don't have them.

People with young children must be seated together, as F3G points out for safety reasons than any other. It is simply not practical to seat a 3 year old child 10 rows from their parent. Of course the reason RYR have done this is because they know that most parents will not risk being separated from their children. Let's add this up, what percentage of passengers are either children or those travelling with children ? Say 30% ? 30% of 40 million passengers is 12 million. At 2 pounds per person this adds up to £24 million per year.

Another reason why I'll never fly with RYR again.

I think that all children should be given seat numbered boarding cards in one area of the aircraft eg down the back. Nothing more annoying after a busy day than a kid screaming in your ear for an hour or two.

If all kids seated down the back (accompanied by their parents/guardians of course) they could then scream til their hearts content and not annoy the businessmen down the front.

As it is, kids randomly placed throughout the cabin usually set off a domino effect and the screaming ripples throughout the cabin, much to the annoyance of all!!!

it,s easy to sort out seats on fr
 

Just go up the rear steps coz n one else seems to .Ihave done 5 flights this week with Fr and priorty boarding was not used at all.I SAT on last row emeg exit .Passengers do not know unless told to use rear steps. Fingers up to ryanair good product all flight s on time or early:ok:

I agree with Jack's comments about some flights to (mainly Spanish) holiday destinations being full of kids and totally defeating the purpose of "pre-boarding". It used to really annoy me when pax would shove huge gangly 11 year olds, towering above the parents, to the front of the queue and demand pre-boarding for this kid, the 2 older siblings, the parents, the grandparents, Auntie, Auntie's neighbour, and everyone else in their group. Paying to guarantee seats together has been common practice on charter flights for several years now, but I think that not even giving parents with young children a few minutes head start as a courtesy is a little harsh.

I was never one of these people that honestly expected to pay £0.10 for a flight, but adding up all the charges encountered on FR now is forcing me onto "legacy" carriers more and more, where the £150 hard breakfast roll is now only £60. Yum.

XSB

jack_essexWell, actually, that IS the point!! It is another £2 per ticket for FR. All companies introduced on-line check-in to save them money. In the same way that supermarkets introduced self-serve checkouts to save them money. In both cases (Check-In and Check-Out ;) ) they save money and we get the impression of better service. Now that airline pax are getting used to doing this - Bingo! and FR change the rules. My admiration for MoL and his bunch continues to rise, at the same time as my desire to use his airline falls.

Yes, exactly, that is what they will hope for and good luck to them. My guess is that there will be no limit to the number of pre-boards that can be booked.

After all, if they have accepted a pre-board fee from all 137 (or whatever pax) and then get everyone on board in the sequence in which they checked in ... they will have completed their side of the deal. If one cared to read the small print, I would have no doubt that there is a get out clause about not refunding the £2 if they are unable to board you due to 'operational circumstances on the day'. They have so many excuses to use that you could sit and eat them for a (chargeable) three course meal.

Not to mention of course, that they have one significant advantage over every other commercial organisation in the world: They do not care what their customers think and do not care if the customer never uses them again. MoL has stated this on many occasions.

Damn ! There goes my business idea: Hire small children to Ryanair passengers to ensure they get on first.

Having paid the £2, this is going to be a real hoot when the pax find the aircraft is on a remote stand and they're all going in a transfer bus.

I meant the adult pax in the plural - missed out an s - and was using the expression as a figure of speech.

Anyway - one solution for Iberia at least is to check-in online - available from the day before. If you booked with air miles you might not have your reservation number available: in this case ring Iberia reservation to ask for it, and Bob's your Uncle...

Why don't they just let you pre-book the actual seat you want online. This could be then printed off with a large number eg3C. This would be charged for and more for emergency exits as per charter airlines. At boarding all pax with the bits of paper asked to come first. Get out clause pax must be there for 1st boarding call or their seat lost(non-refundable of course).

While we're at it how about a late check-in service, 45mins desk closure a bit mean, how about £10 30min check-in, payable at the desk. Then upto you if you make it through security on time.

just as a matter of interest, i assume you pay for the priority seating for online check-in online otherwise it defeats the purpose. here's my question, does this mean whip out the credit card each time, €3 per flight + the usual €5 service charge?

Ryanair dont have business class up the front or have i missed something?
FFS people complaining about screaming kids on LOCO flights need to get a grip. :ugh:

Ugh!
 

Are FR actually going to charge for priority boarding, or for the web-check-in or both?

It is not actually stated that they will charge for this...
"Those travelling with hand luggage only will also have the option to enjoy the double benefit of bypassing airport check-in queues and priority boarding at the departure gate by checking in on line for just £2/€3 per flight.

From 1st November, families with children will no longer be pre-boarded however they will have the option of online check-in and priority boarding if travelling without checked in luggage or priority boarding purchased at the airport if travelling with checked in bags."

I THINK what is being said here is "it is possible to buy priority boarding at the airport, if you have checked-luggage, or if you dont, you can do this on-line or at the airport" So I think that OLCI on longer gets priority boarding?

To be honest the use of english is dreadful, the only thing that is clear is FR are yet again charging us for a service we never kenw we wated or had! I know FR have major plans to increase the revenue per pasenger, but this is just a sneaky way of dong it, sure the tickets are "free", but now it's 5 euro for the card(per ticket, if you dont mind!), 3 to check in, 4 for the bag.....10for the toilet, etc, etc. To be honest the chraging is getting out of control. Just tell me how much my ticket actually costs will all this crap and stop pretending Im getting a ticket for free, cause Im not.

It really bugs me that when I do my shopping Morrisons(or anybody else) charge me NOTHING for my £10-£15 of shopping yet FR, EI, WW, BD, et al see fit to add on a chrage(and let me tell you, the fare is NEVER £10-£15, once all those "taxes" are added). :ugh: How the hell does it cost them so much? And why do high street retailers absorb the charges?:confused:

There's actually a straightforward answer to all of this - don't use FR. I say that from a position of doing about 20-30 sectors/p.a. with them due to where they fly. Use if you must, avoid if you can.

brian_dromeyBut FR have never made any secret of this. They set out to gain market share by an unusual pricing strategy and they continue to do so.

But the charging is entirely within control. They are doing what they said they would and we can buy or not.


Simple domestic example: Purchaser thinks that a laser printer for their home PC is too expensive, so they buy an InkJet which also does colour Yaaay! Then they find out that it is considerably more expensive to run than a laser printer. So they buy cheap inks for it which gum it all up and the unit breaks. The next time they see a cheap inkjet printer advertised they are less likely to buy as they know that what the manufacturer really wants to do is sell lots of ink cartridges at high prices. Some folks continue to buy cheap inkjets and throw them away and others buy more expensive printers that are cheaper to run in the longer term.

Sorry if that sounds like a child's lesson but I am just trying to show that folks only feel cross at FR because it has not been done in the airline game before.

My ryanair experience in A WEEK
 

1st flight BLK-STN-BLK £23.00 quid rtn
2nd flight LPL-RIX-LPL £37.96 RTN
3rd LBA-DUB-LBA 23.30 rtn
4th BLK-GRO-BLK 37.39 RTN
5th BLK-STN-BLK 24.49

all flights on time and carry a small trolly case which you can get enough in for a busines meeting and a chage of clothes
the above include all charges and taxes cc fees etc SO to be honest you can,t go wrong keep up the good work MOL ... oH BY THE WAY at LpL i bought a meal deal at boots for 75 pence they were reduced due to selll by date THE LORD

I have recently bought tickets with Ryanair for STN - CIA - STN for £29 return including all taxes and charges. No matter how many little charges Ryanair add on they will usually ALWAYS be the cheapest airline. I compared prices with BA becasue sometimes the price difference is not that great and they would have charged me.... get ready.... £307! I know it is frustrating that they add these little charges on, but it's nothing they said they wouldn't do. But at prices like £29 return to Rome that how is anyone really in a positition to argue?

priority boarding
 

Priority boarding (after children and disabled) is already available to those with cabin-baggage only who check-in on-line with Ryanair - no extra cost. The A4 print-out boarding pass carries full details (including passport number) and has a scannable barcode.
It also has a boarding sequence number, which is not strictly adhered to, but you do get on after the kids.
I think it's to persuade more people to travel with only cabin baggage - makes it much easier. Last Sunday our Ryanair plane was delayed for an hour because two pax had not made the plane (due to understaffing at Stansted and chaotic arrangements), but their hold baggage had, necessitating offloading of their baggage. If I were MOL, under the present daft security rules, i would be exceeding pissed-off.

:ugh:

People would love to travel just with handluggage, but until the liquid ban is lifted that won't be possible.

Quite correct they don't have busines class, just think if they pack all the screamin kids down the back with their parents who decided to have kids and travel with them, it would make the front of the plane more relaxing for those pax who do not have kids or decide not to travel with kids. I have three kids myself and I understand people do not want to be pestered by unruly kids and would quite happily put my kids in steerage where they can scream til their hearts content:{