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How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

nathancunn.com

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Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#141

Post by maccard »

majewsky wrote: post #111
isostatic wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken about 500 flights in the last decade or so, I can count on one hand the number of delays of over 2 hours * Moscow 2013 to Heathrow -- 4 more hours in the lounge, got €600 compensation. * Heathrow 2014 to Bangkok, 5 more hours in the lounge -- got €600 compensation. * Toronto 2017 -- delayed Delta flight to New York to catch a Virgin flight to Manchester so was downgraded and rerouted on KLM. No compensatio…

So it's just bad luck for me then. Of the 6 flights I have taken, 2 were delayed overnight and one was delayed by ~3 hours.

Yeah, that's fairly bad luck. I've flown about 100 timesover the 4 years, some short haul and some long haul, and in that time frame I've had about 10 flights delayed by > 2 hours. One of those was the volcano incident, and another was the beast from the east a few weeks ago.

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#142

Post by gadders »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #140
gadders wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about blithely jamming it back, but a reclining seat is something you pay for, right? It's not because you feel entitled, it's because that is what you have purchased. You might as well just take someone's inflight meal from them or cover up the screen of the inflight entertainment.

Sometimes you pay for something, but circumstance prevents you from making use of it. Tough luck.

>>Sometimes you pay for something, but sometimes somebody prevents you from making use of it because they're too tight to pay for an exit row seat.

Fix it for you.

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#143

Post by rusk »

gadders wrote: post #142
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes you pay for something, but circumstance prevents you from making use of it. Tough luck.

>>Sometimes you pay for something, but sometimes somebody prevents you from making use of it because they're too tight to pay for an exit row seat. Fix it for you.

and then you have a little cry, because that's really all you can do about it.

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#144

Post by grkvlt »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #117
gadders wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got upgraded on a BA flight once because the person behind me said he was too tall for me to recline my seat. I'm not sure where this idea came from that tall people can stop people from reclining their seat. If I've paid for a reclining seat, I'm going to recline it if I choose to.

Just be a bit polite and mindful of the person behind you. They may have something on their table. It doesn't hurt to just ask if you're going to hit anything. And believe it or not, some people actually have long legs, and physically cannot fit if you recline your seat. Should they optimally have gotten a seat with more leg room? Sure! But that isn't always possible.

But the tables are designed to stay flat, even when the seat is reclined - often by being physically disconnected from the reclining part, or via a system of linkages. I'm six feet tall and haven't ever had a problem when I've had to fly economy, but maybe I'm not tall enough to notice though?

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#145

Post by grkvlt »

nathcun wrote: post #10
Aardwolf wrote: post #3

Isn't aisle seat at least as annoying as middle seat? People walking through the aisle bump into your shoulder all the time, and the stream of people walking through it almost never stops. It's not like you can use it as leg space. Middle is worst of both worlds, except at least you don't get a constant stream of moving people right next to you

I'd say Window > Aisle > Middle. Middle definitely to be avoided.

And in business or first class, always go for the rear facing seats...

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#146

Post by magduf »

YouKnowBetter wrote: post #134
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather go by train, then.

I am a train fan, used to do it all the time with the family though Europe. Now I can not afford it anymore and flying is always cheaper. Not much faster with the obstacles, nor more confinient, but simply more economic. How on earth that is possible remains one of the best kept secrets (to me). But I am sure there is a boat load of tax money involved.

AFAICT, it mostly comes down to poor government regulation and wastefulness and monopolism. Trains get guaranteed right-of-way and don't have to compete with each other for the same routes, but airplanes do. Airplanes surely use orders of magnitude more energy/fuel per passenger to move people between two points, but incredibly they still cost less.

America is probably the poster child for how bad this can be, by looking at Amtrak. For all but the shortest routes along the northeast corridor, taking the train is slower, many times MUCH slower (like going cross-country), yet it can cost far, far more. Taking an Amtrak from DC to Seattle is horribly expensive and takes days, compared to an airplane which is a fraction of the cost and takes 6 hours or so. Why would anyone take an Amtrak for a long route like this? Mainly, it's just people who want the quaint experience of "seeing the country"; for actual travel between these points it makes no economic sense whatsoever. Even on the northeast corridor it doesn't make much sense for many cases/routes. Even worse, it's frequently much cheaper to take a bus (such as MegaBus) for inter-city trips in the NE corridor than Amtrak, if you don't mind it being slow (but not that much slower than Amtrak).

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#147

Post by gadders »

rusk wrote: post #143
gadders wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Sometimes you pay for something, but sometimes somebody prevents you from making use of it because they're too tight to pay for an exit row seat. Fix it for you.

and then you have a little cry, because that's really all you can do about it.

You think?

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#148

Post by vertex-four »

isostatic wrote: post #135
vertex-four wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, however, doing your research is hard - it can take me up to an hour to decide on the best way to travel for a certain event, across multiple booking sites, some of them unknown to the general public (such as TrainSplit). Sometimes it turns out that the best way to travel involves booking three separate journeys, and then I get to worry about delays - nobody will take responsibility for onward travel if y…

Yes, putting effort into finding a cheaper method is another option. It's the same with shopping for anything - you could go to 4 different shops and compare them, or you could just take the easy option. You can buy from John Lewis and get a 5 year no quibble guarentee, or you could save 10% and buy online, but have a hassle if it breaks. Choice is a right pain, but it allows you to choose what's important Edinburgh…

> What is a fair price?

Given the large amount of people you can place in a large vehicle, one would hope that a private car is significantly more expensive than public transport without having to convince anyone to pay for bizarre things like being able to pick a seat. The fact that it isn't is, in fact, utterly bizarre.

In the case of the dates we have to travel for a conference, the bus is £150 pp, and flights are £300+ pp - with no flexibility whatsoever in either case. Trains come out to £400 pp or more, which is bizarre given the passenger density of long-distance rail.

Anyway, the point was, the cheap option only exists if you know how to look for it - it's really, really not obvious, and the only reason I know how to do it is that public transport is my full-time hobby. And then once you pick the cheap option and suffer a delay - which is almost guaranteed to happen on a regular enough basis to make the cheap option actually more expensive in many cases, given the state of the country's transport infrastructure - you're stuck on your own, because we have no concept of a joined-up multimodal journey in this country, unlike the rest of Europe. Hell, if you go for the cheap option, staff may even treat you with suspicion and assume you're lying about what your ticket allows you to do, and what you're entitled to.

If you go to the National Rail Enquiries site today and ask for a ticket from London to Manchester tomorrow, you'll be sold a completely non-flexible ticket totalling about £100 if it matches up with your schedule, or up to £169 otherwise. Compare this to e.g. Switzerland, well-known for having an exceptionally high cost of living - where I can book a train from Zurich to Geneva for £54 tomorrow with nothing but a quick google search for "trains zurich to geneva", or £24 if I want to travel in a couple of days. (And on much more comfortable trains, I might add.) There's no need to worry about booking weeks in advance or poring over whether the bus or the plane will be cheaper or whether there's a split ticket that works - the infrastructure exists to allow fast, cheap, somewhat flexible travel on comfortable services.

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#149

Post by amorphid »

grkvlt wrote: post #144
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just be a bit polite and mindful of the person behind you. They may have something on their table. It doesn't hurt to just ask if you're going to hit anything. And believe it or not, some people actually have long legs, and physically cannot fit if you recline your seat. Should they optimally have gotten a seat with more leg room? Sure! But that isn't always possible.

But the tables are designed to stay flat, even when the seat is reclined - often by being physically disconnected from the reclining part, or via a system of linkages. I'm six feet tall and haven't ever had a problem when I've had to fly economy, but maybe I'm not tall enough to notice though?

I can barely lower the tray table over my legs when the person in front in me is not reclined. When the seat is reclined, I have to start doing a contortion act to use the table.

Re: How to avoid getting stuck with the middle seat on a Ryanair flight

#150

Post by crtasm »

icebraining wrote: post #92
validationerror wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could just... not make use of any of the extra options and enjoy the cheapest price possible. I spent a total of 8 EUR to travel from Germany to Bulgaria and back again two years ago with Ryanair. I fly with them whenever possible because they're by far the cheapest option available and I simply manage to not eat or drink something or go online for 2-3 hours, which really should be manageable for pretty much a…

Plus you can take food with you if you need, and drinks from the airport past security, though those aren't necessarily cheaper.

Take an empty bottle and get free water at some UK airports. I've not confirmed this personally yet

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/travel-tips#water

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