A Ryanair passenger who did not pay to reserve a seat found himself bumped from a flight to Mallorca after the airline switched planes last minute for an aircraft with fewer seats.
Gym coach Scott McCormick and his girlfriend were due to fly with Ryanair on flight FR1954 from Birmingham Airport to Palma de Mallorca on 1 May.
The couple said that when they booked their flight, they opted out of paying for a reserved seat, which can range from €4.50 (£3.85) to €33 (£28.20) per flight.
Since the couple did not pay to reserve their seats, they would have been assigned a random seat free of charge after checking in.
Mr McCormick said they checked in online before departure. However, once they reached the gate at the airport, they realised they were being treated differently from other passengers.
“Went to check into our gate, and then we were told to wait off to one side,” Mr McCormick said in a TikTok video he filmed at the airport.
“Everyone checked into their seats... we didn't reserve seats, never used to and never used to be an issue,” he said.
The couple were eventually called over once other passengers passed through the gate.
“They put us through at the end, and they said, ‘as you are last to check in and you haven’t reserved a seat, we have one seat remaining’.”
However, they found out that only one of them would be receiving a compensated ticket due to being bumped from their original flight, while the other would have to pay.
“Now they're saying one of us could have gone [on the original flight], apparently, while one of us would have had to get onto the next one.”
He was told there are not “two compensated flight [tickets], they're saying there's only one, and they want us to buy one ticket”.
“There’s no compassion, there's no empathy,” Mr McCormick said in his video . “There's no real care from anyone about any of this.”
The couple eventually paid another £100 for a new ticket, and waited around four hours to board the next flight to Palma.
While the passenger claimed in his video that the issue lay with Ryanair overbooking its flight, the airline said that the aircraft was swapped out last minute for a plane with fewer seats.
As a policy, Ryanair says that it does not overbook its flights, but adds that if a seat is not available for a passenger with a confirmed reservation, it will seek volunteers to surrender their seats in exchange for benefits.
If no one volunteers, the airline will choose the passengers themselves to bump from the flight, and offer them compensation, reimbursement and care.
It is unclear whether the volunteering call-out occurred before Mr McCormick was told by gate staff that there was only one seat left on the plane.
A Ryanair spokesperson told The Independent: “This flight from Birmingham to Palma de Mallorca (1 May) was not ‘overbooked’ – it was scheduled to operate on a 737-8200 (197 seats) but for operational reasons had to be swapped to a 737-800 aircraft (189 seats).
“As a result, one passenger was unable to travel on this flight, and was reaccommodated onto the next available flight to Palma de Mallorca.
“Mr McCormick’s travel companion was not refused boarding but chose not to board and travel on this flight from Birmingham to Palma de Mallorca and was required to pay a Missed Departure fee (£100) to be booked onto the next available flight.
“Mr McCormick was notified by email on the day of travel (1 May) that he was entitled to claim back reasonable receipted expenses, however Mr McCormick has yet to submit any expense receipts to Ryanair.”
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