Ryanair sits hen party in FIFTEEN separate rows as passengers accuse airline of changing its seating policy
The airline denies that it has made a change to its free seat allocation policy
FURIOUS Ryanair passengers have accused the low-cost airline of changing its seating policy so that travellers from the same booking are split up.
In one of the most extreme circumstances a hen party was seated in 15 separate rows, despite checking in four days before their flight.
The budget airline has, so far, denied that there has been any change to its rules.
The group of 15 women flew from Birmingham airport to Ibiza last Thursday and were furious to find that they’d been assigned seats spanning most the length of the aircraft.
Friends Steph Vickers and Faye Cutler, who are celebrating their joint hen-do, told that they had booked the group’s tickets back in October, with each return flight costing £220.
Steph, 32, from Birmingham, said: "They've put every single person in a middle seat in different rows... I never ever pay to sit next to people, I just look as soon as check-in opens... I couldn't believe it.
"I just thought it was really disgusting how much they expect you to pay, on top of what you've already paid, just to sit next to somebody. It's unacceptable really.”
Passengers have been able to pay from £2 to pick a seat on Ryanair flights since February 2014.
Adults travelling with children are required to buy one allocated seat for £4 and then they can pick seats for up to four children on the same booking.
“We’ve flown that route lots of times. It’s very popular and the plane is always full. We’re usually sat together but this time we were split up”.
“It’s quite obvious that they’ve changed the algorithm by which they allocate the seats.
“They are deliberately splitting people up so that they have to cough up more money”.
Despite this, Ryanair claims that there has been “no change” to its policy.
A spokesman from the airline said: “When a customer does not purchase a seat, they are then randomly allocated a seat, which has always been our policy."
“Given we have a 95 per cent load factor and we are carrying more customers – our May traffic alone rose by 11 per cent from 10.6m to 11.8m customers for example – there are now less seats to allocate randomly.”
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