Free Seating Policies – Does it really save time?

Erm…. yes…. that’s exactly what I meant! :).

DUB does seem to be the place where it all descends into a joke, have never had a problem at LBA or MAN boarding FR flights.

Of course at LBA, myself and Paul know which gate will be used, so are always first in line ;).

You mean you knew the correct gate after I took you up there Tom 😀

Paul

DUB does seem to be the place where it all descends into a joke, have never had a problem at LBA or MAN boarding FR flights.

Of course at LBA, myself and Paul know which gate will be used, so are always first in line ;).

Assigned seating is one of the things that makes JET2 my favourite low cost carrier. Personally I can’t stand the crazed rush you get when boarding a free seated flight, and as my experience yesterday proved yet again, boarding a flight with Ryanair can very easily turn into a joke (well… At DUB at least).

Paul

I remember the Ryanair boarding cards (if you can call them that) on my only flight with back in February 2003. It is a shabby piece of paper printed on a dot-matrix printer. no magnetic strip across the back.. nothing.

But in my opinion, free-seating policies have their pros and cons, although I’m not a fan of them. Having to rush to the gate to secure a good seat isn’t my idea of fun. As mentioned previously, its great for the airline because they know that all of the passengers will want food seats or seats with their families and friends. And in order to do that, they need to be at the gate right on time.

But you do tend to find that those travelling in really small groups will take various seats all over the aircraft and won’t bother to fill the gaps, so when two thirds of the passengers are on board and there are still 50 more to go, there will only be the odd seat here and there. The chances of finding a couple of seats next to each won’t be too likely.

So, in a way, the airline is penalising you for checking in less than 2 hours before departure. The later you check in, the higher the number on your boarding card and the worse your seat!

Ryanair dont issue the same type of boarding cards as other airlines do in Dublin at least. Ryanair boarding cards in Dublin are made from low quality paper and there is a noteable difference from other airlines. Also Ive seen boarding cards given out in LPL for EI flights which are a much lower quality then what they give out in DUB. When I say lower quality I meen they are litteraly paper where as the higher quality ones are more like card.

Believe me, I have had this type of boarding card when flying with Jet2, FlyBe and Thomsonfly over recent months, all pretty poor quality paper, as opposed to the likes of bmi who issue card boarding passes.

thats really interesting. i didn’t know that. odd for Ryanair to have boarding passes when they are supposed to watch their costs like eagles and cut as many expensive things out of their operation as is possible.

That’s what I’d have thought too but seemingly not!
RE quality the one’s I’m looking at now (ex LTN, STN) are on glossy paper – I seem to recall the actual card itself had a big warning about being offloaded on the back!

Ryanair dont issue the same type of boarding cards as other airlines do in Dublin at least. Ryanair boarding cards in Dublin are made from low quality paper and there is a noteable difference from other airlines. Also Ive seen boarding cards given out in LPL for EI flights which are a much lower quality then what they give out in DUB. When I say lower quality I meen they are litteraly paper where as the higher quality ones are more like card.

That’s all well and good but Ryanair do issue full paper boarding passes.

thats really interesting. i didn’t know that. odd for Ryanair to have boarding passes when they are supposed to watch their costs like eagles and cut as many expensive things out of their operation as is possible.

Well said Adam! I can see your point.

However, as with Phil’s comment, I too received a normal paper printed boarding pass when checking in at Malaga with easyJet. I’m not sure how they work ex-UK. I would imagine there main bases might adopt the plastic card approach but I think EMA for one is still paper boarding cards as its handled and checked-in by Servisair Globeground.

That’s all well and good but Ryanair do issue full paper boarding passes.

I would have thought that the real reason for free seating, which in other words is basically ‘no paper boarding passes’ (which is the key) is saving costs.

Remember that this is what the low cost airlines love to do – save costs. So, they get rid of paper boarding passes, and this saves costs in producing them, and distributing them. ok, you may say to that ‘how expensive can printing a small sheet of paper be?’ On its own, not very expensive at all, but when you are printing and distributing 30,000,000 of them a year, you’ll see that it can get quite expensive.

The airline will turn around the idea of reducing costs through no paper boarding passes by saying to their passengers that we have no paper boarding passes ‘to save time during the boarding process – you choose your seats’ – the passengers will be able relate to time-saving and less hassle – not ‘airline cost savings’.

customers will also usually be happier with free seating, because they believe that they’ll be able to choose their seats – not have the check in staff telling you where you’ll sit – more freedom and less restriction sort of thing.

so really, the airline knows that the free seating idea wouldn’t speed up the process at all – but they do know that they could save costs by not producing paper boarding passes, and via that, not allocating seats.

thats what i believe anyway.

Isn’t free seating meant to save time at check-in rather than during boarding?

1L.

Unless check-in systems have changed dramatically, I can’t see this would apply either. When I was on check-in, seats could either be allocated automatically by the computer or you could input a seat number of your choice. The process took seconds, not enough to make a difference to the speed of checking in.

I think there is a valid point about making sure people are at the gate on time though, ready for the scrum!

However, in my opinion, the whole boarding process seemed nothing more than a rugby style scrum with people pushing, shoving and screaming at each other in order to secure a seat with the people they were travelling with!!!

Ah, the great rush of the Chavs for the door! 😮

Another way in which some low-fare carriers make flying less civilised, and one reason why I stick to airlines with assigned seating.

Andy

Aren’t easyJet soon trialling the sale of legroom seats on the LTN-EDI route – another revenue spinner?

it’s the only part of low cost travel i hate. I suppose it encourages people to get to the gate ontime, so they flight isn’t delayed

Isn’t free seating meant to save time at check-in rather than during boarding?

1L.

Well in my opinion from also working check in is that it can SOMETIMES save time and it also seems to get the passengers to the gate on time. It also eliminate the chances of a seat dupe which can cause mayhem.