
Airline algorithms may be keeping you from sitting together - pseudolus
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/spark-421-1.4973383/airline-algorithms-may-be-keeping-you-from-sitting-together-1.4973387
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llampx
I've traveled Ryanair a fair bit. I have never been assigned a seat together
with my traveling partner. It is not random, it is explicitly assigning seats
which are not next to each other but preferably a row or two apart.

I'm done with Ryanair incidentally because of this and other policies. After
adding all the small things, the cost ends up being higher than EasyJet or
other more customer-oriented airlines.

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benhurmarcel
In my experience, Ryanair always puts you far away enough that it's obviously
impractical to ask someone to switch in the plane, and always puts the person
who's booking at the back, so that there's a bigger incentive to pay to join
your partner at the front.

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londons_explore
Secret tip:. The _very last_ booking to check-in to the plane will always be
seated together in Ryanair, as long as the planes full.

Check in closes 2 hours before departure, so if you check in 2 hrs and 10 mins
before departure, you'll not only be seated together, but also usually get
emergency exit row seats that are normally premium.

If you aren't seated together, it's because the plane isn't full, and the
emergency exit rows will usually be unallocated unless someone paid to upgrade
to them.

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elcomet
And if the plane is overbooked, you get the additional benefit to stay on
ground.

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bencoder
Ryanair claims to be the only European airline that doesn't overbook. Probably
they can get away with this as changing your flight costs more than a ticket
in the first place

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gehwartzen
Our familly just flew cross country on United and definetly had this
experience. Upon check-in our seats were scattered all over the plane and when
I tried to re-assign them only a few other seats in the plane showed as
available. Upon boarding we discover the plane was literally half full with
entire rows empty. The flight attendants didn’t care where we sat :/

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dogsgobork
Similar issue happened to my family on American, seats were all purchased
together but on check-in were reassigned. Happened for all four flights round
trip, and at least once our 18 month old was assigned an aisle seat on his
own, rows away from either me or my wife. It was like pulling teeth to get it
fixed every time.

~~~
muro
I thought they can't place kids away from their parents.

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mewpmewp
I would disagree that it is easier to assign seats next to each other compared
to random. You would have to firstly check which of the untaken seats are next
to each other in a continuous row. With random you would just have to pick a
any unseated seat.

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jVinc
unchecked sequential is easier than unchecked random. Checked sequential is
easier than checked random. Remember, they aren't just assigning people random
seats, they are attempting to assign as many paired individual as far from
each other as possible to maximize the inconvenience on the part of the
costumers that do not pay extra.

