Now Ryanair ‘charges families to sit together’
RYanaiR has been accused of deliberately splitting up families who refuse to pay extra for their seats.
The budget airline charges passengers up to £22 each for a return trip on top of their tickets if they want to choose their seats.
it says those who refuse to pay will be randomly allocated seats. But the firm, run by Michael O’Leary, has faced a torrent of criticism from passengers who are convinced that its seat allocation is anything but random.
Furious passengers are complaining of being seated rows apart from their loved ones – even on relatively empty flights.
Some have suggested that this is a cynical ploy to encourage more passengers to pay for seats.
Ryanair denies this and insists its policy towards people who do not pay extra for a seat has not changed. The backlash appears to have been triggered by its decision to change its booking policy in december, forcing passengers to pay if they want to check in more than four days before they fly. Previously you could check in up to seven days before the flight.
it also forced passengers travelling with children under 12 to pay £4 for an allocated seat. Cutting the free check-in window has made it more unlikely for a family to be seated together as the flight gets more booked up.
This has infuriated passengers, with parents travelling with young children or babies complaining they have been forced to sit apart.
Seat selection costs £ 2 per person per flight, rising to £7 for pri- ority seats and £11 for extra legroom seats (£22 for a return flight).
Many have vented their criticism on social networking website Twitter, describing its policy as a ‘disgrace’ and a ‘con’.
nuno Miguel Luis posted: ‘#ryanair “randomly” allocates seats. in a flight with plenty of space, our reservation for 2+1 baby gets seats totally away [from each other]’.
eva devaney said: ‘def deliberate. Checked in 3 ppl today, got seats in rows 9, 10 and 33. Lots empty seats. Offered option to pay to select, refused #ryanair.’
James daley, of consumer website Fairer Finance, said: ‘There is nothing wrong with budget air- lines charging people for a premium service.
‘But they should not try to rig the system so honest customers have no choice but to pay extra.’
a Ryanair spokesman said because its planes are now 95 per cent full on average there are fewer seats to allocate randomly.
He added: ‘Customers who do not wish to purchase a seat are randomly allocated a seat, free of charge. This has been our policy since the introduction of allocated seating in February 2014.’
‘Have no choice but to pay extra’