Choosing seat to fly has become a luxury. Now Ryanair has his own subscription to assure you

Offer the basics to travel. A seat and (for the moment) a hand suitcase. This is how operators have done business Low Cost When it comes to flying. Eliminate everything that the client can consider accessory to lower the basic prices of tickets. For the rest, you have to go through the box.

But if you are fed up with all this, Ryanair proposes another option: Subscribe to his flights.

A subscription to Ryanair. Ryanair Prime. This is the name of the new service that The company is offering on its website. For 79 euros a year, the Low Cost airline offers you a series of exclusive advantages within its membership:

• Priority sale on selected flights
• Exclusive discounts for some flights
• Free selection for the member and a companion

According to the company, if we want to choose a seat every time we travel this subscription, it is profitable from three flights since we would stop paying 105 euros. That is, in case of flying three times the traveler would be saving 26 euros in total. If we fly twelve times, savings can reach 420 euros.

The 12 flights. The mention of savings of those 12 flights is not accidental. As read in the Subscription terms and conditionsthe client can choose a seat up to twelve occasions for him and the companion. That is, it is understood that this benefit in the subscription only reaches the first 12 trips of the year.

(Lot) small print. When promoting this service, the company has emphasized advantages such as travel insurance to cancel a flight as a result of an injury or disease (excluding COVID-19), the theft of the luggage or the delay of other flights. Of course, it is specified that those over 70 are excluded from disease coverage.

It is not the only aspect that attention must be paid since the reserve of seats has its own peculiarities. Yes, it is true that the member can choose free seat for him and the companion but always and when they opt for seats that do not imply an extra cost in their selection.

Ryanair points out that, therefore, it is not guaranteed that the member of the subscription and the traveler can travel accompanied by each other since it will depend on the available seats that allow a free change or the random assignment by the company.

The seat business. When it comes to eliminating all the accessory of a flight, one of the first spotlights in which Ryanair attention was in the selection of seats. The company, like so many other low cost, knows that the client is willing to pay for them to travel accompanied, to have more leg space or to leave before the plane (choosing the front seats) once he has landed.

In 2023, The Telegraph It echoed a study in which the airlines of the seat choice service were specified. According to him, Ryanair was the fifth company that took the most benefit, with 3,280 million pounds a year. But it was the Low Costa company that made the most money in this regard.

Keep in mind that Delta (6,550 million pounds), United Airlines ((6,460 million pounds), American Airlines (6,320 million pounds) and Southwest Airlines (4,870 million pounds) offer much longer flights and the cost of choosing a seat is also superior.

A seat and nothing more. As you can see in the superior image, Ryanair takes into account various services that are gradually more than the price of the ticket. With the basic rate it is possible to travel for 15 euros in a Madrid-Cagliari, for example, but you will not have the right to choose a seat and will have to adapt to the suitcase for the smallest possible hand luggage.

In addition, rates play to offer and remove services to propose the most expensive alternative as the most interesting. Thus, the option Regular It allows to carry a larger cabin in the cabin (up to 10 kg) but this is not available if we want to bill a 20 kg suitc Plus. Nor is the priority shipment available in the latter used by the Regular.

The controversy of the suitcase. As we see, the subscription service completely omits the possibility of carrying a hand suitcase on board which, without a doubt, is the company’s last great controversy. In Spain, Low cost have been fined For not allowing the passage with hand suitcases, Ryanair being with a fine of more than 107 million euros the most punished.

The company defends itself by ensuring that it does allow access to the aircraft with hand luggage but that this It must be a maximum 40 centimeters high, 20 centimeters wide and 25 centimeters deep. These measures are equivalent to a bag or backpack but the typical troley used on trips is usually larger. In that case, if this last suitcase has not been added when making the reservation and does not enter the measures, The company charges a 46 euros supplement.

However, the Ministry of Consumer does not consider that the basic rate contemplates the obligation to allow access to the plane with a hand suitc Insults answered Pablo BustinduyMinister of Consumption, by Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair. But, above all, applying pressure with The exit of airports with lower traffic of the country.

Photo | Markus Winkler

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