Ryanair. If you don't pay for a seat, you may have to queue to get a boarding pass

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
54,774

Ryanair passengers queue for boarding passes after rule change

Change means some travellers who do not pay for reserved seats must queue for boarding pass at airport
www.irishtimes.com

Apparently, if you choose a randomly allocated seat, you have to queue at check-in to get a boarding pass.

I flew to Manchester the weekend before last and had randomly allocated seats, but I was allocated them in the normal way when checking in online.

I would not be impressed if I had to queue in the airport for 30 minutes to get a boarding pass as I usually arrive in the airport an hour before my flight departs.

Brendan
 
‘However, Ryanair pointed out that it did not charge for digital boarding passes.’

Presume this means one on your phone not one you can print out at home?

From my reading of it digital boarding passes are free still (or so they say)
 
You might be right, but I read it differently.

They don't charge for digital boarding passes, but you (may) have to queue up to get one.

Brendan
 
According to a discussion on Reddit, it seems to be random.

If you are unlucky, this is what you get. So even after you are told to queue, you can buy a seat.

Brendan

 
There was a discussion on boards about this. It seems to affect people who check in at the last minute, hoping to be randomly allocated a "premium seat", rather than those who check in 24 hours before the flight.

Ryanair denied a change in policy a couple of days ago

Ryanair denies passengers must pay to download boarding pass

It says reports of passengers having to pay for a seat before they can download a boarding pass are false.
www.bbc.com
 
I was caught by this last week (Friday noon). I thought it could have been a last minute problem as I nearly forgot to check in and only did it 4 hours before departure, but I chatted with a few other passengers while queuing (there sure was time, and there were many of us!) and it also happened to people who had checked in the previous day. That was from Dublin, not on the way back.
 
Hi Robin

What notification did you get from Ryanair after you checked in?

Did you get an option to buy a seat and so avoid queuing?

Brendan
 
Yes, the option to buy a seat (from €8) was still there. I was disinclined to give additional money to Ryanair so I just headed to the airport a bit earlier.

The notification was quite clear from what I recall, saying to go to a Ryanair counter to get the ticket printed and that there wouldn't be any additional charges to do so. I suspect they did this to everyone who selected random allocation on my flight because when we boarded, the non-priority queue had a lot of other people with a printed out ticket like mine.
 
They obviously have no sustainability officer and like wasting paper as well as time…..
 
Interesting thread here.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k13812708-o180-Ryanair_online_verification-Air_Travel.html
 
RobinMx said:
the non-priority queue had a lot of other people with a printed out ticket like mine.
Click to expand...

Ah, I noticed a few people with printed out tickets a couple of weeks ago and I thought it a bit odd. They must have been in that group. I hadn't paid for a seat but checked in as normal.

Brendan
 
I think I read yesterday that their random seat allocation is not really random but allocates all those that check in well on time a middle seat. So obviously people that were waiting 6 hours before flight were getting all the better seats , it became widely known. So they have obviously discouraged this practice by introducing this new policy
 
Oh dear - I am one of those. So this loophole is closing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
HI,
I think there are a number of factors at play here. If you don't pay for a seat on a Ryanair flight where you are allocated will depend (amongst other things) on the other passengers and the destination. If you are for e.g. on a 7am flight on a Tuesday for e.g. to Gatwick there will mainly be business travellers on the flight who probably will have paid for an aisle or window seat (at their employers expense) and most other passengers will be allocated a middle seat.
However if you are travelling to e.g. The Canaries on a Saturday in July there will be many families and a lot of single aisle/window seats unreserved.

Myself and my Other half were in Croatia a few weeks ago, Ryanair flight Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. We had separate bookings and no allocated seats. We checked in approx. an hour after it opened on way there and back; I got an emergency row aisle seat on way out, he got 8D. On way back we both got middle seats - me 10B and him 25B.

I wonder was it an admin or plane config issue. There are many Ryanair airports where they are very thin on staff, doubt they can justify or handle the admin of handing out paper boarding cards.
 
I travel with Ryanair frequently. Last week for the first time upon checking in for flight on day of departure and not buying a seat I noted boarding pass said " seat assigned at gate". A ryanair employee at airport said flight overbooked. I never knew Ryanair did this. I was assigned seat at gate where I ran to check if I was on flight only to be tackled by an irate customer accusing me of jumping Q which I had no intention of doing but wanted to go back and buy cheap alchol the airports shop.
Ryanair also declined to pay me compensation for a flight delay on another flight of 3+ hours which was caused by lack of crew as stated by Ryanairs pilot but Ryanair blamed the airport. Ryanair staff also misinformed customers on flight when the clock started ticking for 3+ hours. when I phoned up Ryanair one staff member said wasn't entitled to compensation as that only applies to 5+ hour delay. I told her she hadn't a clue what she was talking about.
 
Pmc365, you should take that to the consumer section of the IAA https://www.iaa.ie/consumer-protection/air-passenger-rights once you have a final decision from Ryanair.
I claimed from Aer Lingus in Jul-22 when lots of flights were cancelled due to crew illness. They declined the payment. I had to get a final response from Aer Lingus and then made a complaint to the IAA in October last year and finally got paid just last week.
 
Pmc365 said:
A ryanair employee at airport said flight overbooked. I never knew Ryanair did this. I was assigned seat at gate
Click to expand...

So you got a seat? But didn't know if you would?

Did you have an option to buy a seat after you checked in online and you were told "seat not assigned."
 
Yes, I was assigned a seat at gate. I was told by two Ryanair employees this was due to overbooking. I did not know Ryanair adopted a policy of overbooking flights so I would question the accuracy of this. In all my time flying with that company, and I fly very frequently, I never encountered " seat assigned at gate" on their boarding pass. I checked in for flight on day of departure.
I did not try to buy a seat after checking -in for flight as on principle I will not buy a seat unless I'm obliged to. This latest policy of Ryanair is very troublesome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register