A Brit was bumped off a Ryanair flight after not paying extra to reserve a seat. Scott McCormick and his girlfriend were set to fly to Majorca from Birmingham last month.
When the couple booked their plane tickets, they chose not to pay extra to reserve a seat as they were fine with being randomly assigned seats after checking in. But Scott says they were treated differently from other passengers once they got to the gate. “Went to check into our gate, and then we were told to wait off to one side,” Mr McCormick said in a TikTok video. “Everyone checked into their seats… we didn’t reserve seats, never used to and never used to be an issue.”
Once other passengers passed through the gate, staff called the couple over: “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’.”
They were told that only one of the couple could fly on that plane, and the other would be given a free ticket on the next available flight. Scott claims the company wanted them to fly together and buy the other ticket.
“There’s no compassion, there’s no empathy,” the gym coach said in his video. “There’s no real care from anyone about any of this.” The couple paid another £100 for a new ticket so they could fly together and sat in the airport for four hours, awaiting the next flight.
Ryanair has said that the aircraft was swapped out last minute for one with fewer seats, and it doesn’t overbook flights. The company said that if a flight is accidentally overbooked, it will look for a passenger without a seat reservation to bump in exchange for compensation.
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 (May 1) that he was entitled to claim back reasonable receipted expenses; however, Mr McCormick has yet to submit any expense receipts to Ryanair.”