Are Airlines Rigging Your Seats?

I read a very interesting article today, regarding booking  flight seats together…….

There has been a growing suspicion that airlines are cynically and blatantly splitting up couples and families hoping to sit together.

Passengers noticed airlines  were being charged extra to ‘guarantee’ seating together. Since then, more and more airlines have jumped on this lucrative ‘bandwagon. So how does it work?  The Airline downloads software which then applies an ‘algorithm’  to identify passengers with the same surname. The airline then  ensure passengers are allocated  seats apart unless they pay extra to sit together!

A member of the parliamentary communications committee, Digital Minister Margot James described the software as “a very cynical, exploitative means… to hoodwink the general public”.  “They’ve had the temerity to split the passengers up, and when the family want to travel together they are charged more.”

However, the airline never admitted to changing the way seating was allocated, insisting there was no change and saying that those who don’t pay to choose a seat are “randomly” assigned one.  Well…..they would, wouldn’t they?

Its latest research, released in October 2018, stated that the likelihood of passengers being split up if they didn’t pay to sit together varied wildly between airlines.

Interesting research from a CAA investigation shows that in a survey of 4,296 people who had flown as part of a group, they found that travellers were most likely to be split from their party when flying with Ryanair – 35 per cent of those surveyed were separated having opted not to pay more for allocated seating.   Why am I not surprised??