Ryanair introduces reserved seating
 

Ryanair is backing down on one of the key planks of budget air travel by allowing passengers to reserve seats on some routes.

From next month, customers will be able to choose where they sit on planes flying from Dublin to London Gatwick and Malaga.

The move marks a departure from the established thinking among no-frills airlines, that reserved seating hampers quick turnaround of jets and adds to admin costs.

It also indicates a change of strategy for Ryanair, after exhausting all other avenues of raising revenue through hidden charges including everything from credit card handling fees to baggage costs.

Passengers will have to pay 10 euros (£8.80) each way for the privilege of selecting their seats under the policy, which comes into effect from May 16.

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Ryanair introduces reserved seating - Telegraph

I do wish journos would stop this 'hidden charges' nonsense. You can see all the charges before you book. Easy.

ryanair is ace
 

changed from BA to ryanair solely because of cost but the planes take off and arrive on time, charming and approachable crew, visible throughout the flight, it is a very nice experience flying with them i think. i wouldnt have such fun crew with ba i think

This must have hurt them really hard!!

Scratchcard printing error sees 3 passengers win a car on one Ryanair flight : Stansted Airport News Stories

I doubt it will hurt them at all. I'd be willing to bet that a compensation claim against the printers is already in the post.

Call me a cynic, but when I first read this story I though ... Scam!

If they are having problems selling scratch cards, what better way to increase sales then to 'leak' a story like this to the (feeding frenzy) media. Oh, :\ there just might be more of these faulty cards out there :\ but we promise our loving public to honour each and every one of them ... :mad:

Media goes wild (anything to sock Cryanair), travelling public goes wild (oh, my one in 10 billion chance to win has just been reduced ...).

The joke is on us, again.

Just had four flights with BA over the last two weeks and this could have been a description of my experience with had with them. One of the flights took off late as they had to offload some bags for pax that hadn't turned up...

Excellent ground crew at LHR.

You aren't the only cynic...
 

Reminds me of the story about a Ryanair passenger who 'ate' a €10,000 winning scratchcard because the crew didn't have the cash to give him there and then on the plane....

Question about adults and children
 

I know Ryanair don't take unaccompanied minors (children - under 16) unless with an adult but I cant find an answer to this anywhere.

Is a 16 year old able to take responsibility for the child?

I'd like to know because me and my friend are wanting to travel to Dublin for the day, I am 16 but she is 15.

So can I take "responsibility" for her even though I'm only 16? I ask because some airlines require the person responsible for the child to be over 18. Can just the two of us travel on Ryanair?

Many thanks

Question about adults and children
 

From the Ryanair website.

Note that it states 'OVER 16'

Thank you so much

And sorry I thought I checked all over the Ryanair site, never saw the "must always be accompanied by a passenger over 16 years" bit ha

Has anyone at Cryanair ever considered whether or not a person who has yet to attain his/her seventeenth year is really the right sort of person to escort a fifteen-year old on an international journey?

Chuchin - have you considered the possibility that Ryanair have just written the policy to avoid taking on the cost of monitoring a minor during a flight (i.e. take responsibiliity for their safety ), but also ensure that they don't accidentally find themselves accidentally omitting to follow some rule and being panned in the tabloid press for what might have happened. I don't believe any LCC airline wants to consider what might constitute a suitable person - they just don't want the Daily Mail giving them bad publicity.

If you were trying to run a LCC, and someone possibly told you that to take unaccompanied minors you needed to have all cabin crew CRB checked to a sufficient level to look after children unsupervised, just so that you could carry the odd unaccompanied minor, what would your reaction be ? Mine would be 'sod the extra ticket revenue on a few kids, it's just not worth the additional costs and hassle'.

Hello davidjohnson6,

The only cogitation that Ryanair has undertaken on this matter is how much money they can squeeze out of passengers of any age!

Seems to me they are missing a real revenue opportunity. £100/€150 to supervise an UM (over 12) on top of the 'regular' fare could be a goldmine to them. Particularly if they required said UM to be delivered to/from the Gate. They could even charge the same amount (per hour) if Mum/Dad don't show up on time.

The network airlines used to give away UM care, but now most charge for it. Why not Cryanair?

More threats and bluster
 

Arena Newspaper, Castello d'Empurias, 11th May 2011 -

""Ryanair is threatening to cancel yet more routes* into Spain after being hit with fines totalling €1.200.000 following 65 lawsuits against the company for infringements of Spanish law. Ryanair alleges the fines are "illegal and without substantiation" and is threatening to "punish" the Spanish government for its actions by not flying there any more, at least partially.""

* ....yet more routes... because Ryanair has already withdrawn roughly 30% of its services into Girona in retaliation for the Catalan government reducing the Ryanair subsidy.

Reports that the management of easyJet developed broad smiles on hearing the news cannot be substantiated, but Confucious he say: people don't stop flying and he who is denied a seat on one cheap airline will go to another.

And about-turn ! In today's paper (the same one as yesterday's paper) MoL is quoted as saying of course Ryanair respects the law in Spain and of course FR will be paying all those nasty fines, no matter how unwarrented and unjustified and unreasonable they are.....

Nothing to do with the Almighty showing his annoyance with the harp-bearing airline and sending an earthquake or two to plague southern areas.

Here's an interesting result!!!
 

Ryanair
 

Following breakdown* in negotations with the Catalan government and the City of Girona, Ryanair are pulling out of Reus after October this year (despite having signed a contract committing themselves to flying there until 2013) and are further reducing flights into Girona. The contract with Girona expires towards the end of 2011.

* The breakdown consisted of Catalunia offering more money, Ryanair refusing it on the basis that "Catalunia is offering a higher subsidy to Spanair so why shouldn't we get more too" despite MoL offering to bring fewer passengers to Girona next year.

The attitude among people I've spoken to (both pats and expats) is that Ryanair is getting too big for its boots and holding a gun to the head of the Catalan government and demanding more money isn't much appreciated.

They are doing it to everyone who doesnt do what Ryanair want, the amount of money airports are paying Ryanair to fly to their airports is staggering. Any other carriers seem reluctant to fill the gaps too as they know that as soon as they do. Ryanair are likely to startup again and flood the market with impossibly cheap seats.

If they make a movie Godfather IV, I could recommend someone from Ireland for the starring role.....

Hopefully someone can can answer me, Never flown with Ryanair or flown recently for that matter, I wasn't aware of this at the time of booking.

"No pooling or sharing of baggage allowances is permitted, even within a party travelling on the same reservation. Pooling of an individual checked baggage allowance is not permitted"

Me and a Friend deiced that we'd only take one bag and share at the time of booking to avoid a ridiculous charge of £40 per bag checked into the hold and pack any remaining stuff into our hand luggage.

Can anyone advise me on this further, Would it likely to become and issue?
Thanks!