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I don’t see how your comment addresses the allegations in this article. The airlines allegedly use an algorithm that detects family members on a flight and deli
by baddox 8y ago
I don’t see how your comment addresses the allegations in this article. The airlines allegedly use an algorithm that detects family members on a flight and deliberately seats them separately to try to upsell them to manual seat selection. That has nothing to do with any passenger making a purchasing decision based solely on price.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> airlines allegedly Researcher says it looks more than random. Airlines are saying it’s random. Until someone finds proof of airlines biasing randomisation algorithms against families this is all speculation. “Europe’s biggest 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.”
- baddox 8y agoI have no ability to determine the validity of the allegations. I was only commenting on the relevance of the previous comment to the allegations mentioned in the article.
- viraptor 8y agoIt was a diplomatic wording. I've flown cheap EU airlines many times with another person (20+/year). The first time I didn't seat with other passengers is after the "pay more to guarantee sitting together" was introduced. This is not even matching surname. If you don't pay, you're virtually guaranteed that the other person on your booking sits somewhere else.
- black-tea 8y agoOf course it does. The reason Ryanair can sell seats for not much above zero is that other customers are paying more. People choose Ryanair because they offer those cheap seats, not because they like the service.
- viraptor 8y agoOr because they're the only airline on a given route. Both Ryanair and Easyjet have the only available flights between many places. Even if I did want to pay more for something less terrible, I can't.
- jghn 8y agoWhat's worse is that in practice what this means is that those family members will badger other passengers to swap seats with them in order to sit together which can frequently lead to disgruntlement and argument.
- thrower123 8y agoI have very little sympathy for people that expect me to just swap seats with them. Their failure to plan and prepare adequately does not constitute a crisis on my part. Especially if I did go ahead and pay the $15 extra or whatever for that particular seat.
- viraptor 8y agoThis doesn't really apply to the cheapest airlines. You can't choose your seat there anyway. Unless you book the exit row, you get an assigned place, not a "particular seat".