That is a potential of a 30 minute wait which could be cut out with a bit of extra planning. Quite possibly, the first person off the plane could be in the town centre whilst you are still queuing.
Unfortunately, other passengers know that some seats are better than others. And, ever quick to realise this, the airlines know this as well and charge accordingly if you would like to select a seat. If you don’t want to pay, then you can have second prize, but you’ll have to queue for a long time – perhaps an hour before boarding begins to get to the front of the queue.
Should you purchase priority boarding?
In general, the answer is no. With this service costing £6.00 a sector, it’s usually a fair percentage of the ticket price. This can be evidenced by viewing the queues at the gate – I have never seen more than 10 people in the priority boarding queue and this number is an average of 5. If you have urgent business and need to arrive at the airport last-minute, then I could recommend it, but you’d have to ask yourself if Ryanair is the best choice in this case.
Again, for people wanting to sit together – this isn’t usually a problem. Assuming you’re in the queue in an average place (towards the middle), head towards the centre as seats in the emergency rows, back and front are taken first.
Of course, if you are a massive group, then chances are that you won’t all sit together. You may get away with it by purchasing priority boarding for half the group, and putting a bag on the seat next to you to reserve it – in the most British of ways, people will just walk past, but you’re on dodgy ground if someone insists they would like to sit there.
People with kids – the thought of being seperated from a child often compels parents to purchase priority boarding for all in the group. Often the fear is unwarranted. Again, assuming joining the queue at an average place will see seats towards the middle, and there are enough single travellers who don’t really care where they sit to swap seats with should there not be spaces.
What are the best seats?
- Front row (left): Only seats two in this row instead of three so offers more privacy. No seats in front so immense leg room. Guaranteed to be one of the first off the aircraft.
Downsides to this seat is that it’s close to the toilet, and also sometimes the front rows are either blocked off or commandeered by staff.
- Emergency exits (middle) – 2 rows on each side, making 12 available. (6 on some aircraft). These rows offer perhaps double the available legroom, leaving some to dub them ‘business class’. Often many people when purchasing priority boarding head for these seats. Undoubtedly will give you much more comfort especially on longer flights. The downsides is that not everyone can sit here (like kids), no stowing baggage under your seat. Additionally, being located close to the centre, you will be one of the last to leave the aircraft.
- Back seats (both rows) – Underrated and you will probably find these free if you board the plane early enough. In most European airports, boarding is from the front and the back, meaning that if you’re sitting at the back, you can be out really quickly. There is no extra legroom here, and again, it’s close to the toilets and may be blocked off if not enough people are on board. Bear in mind that flying into busier airports like Stansted, disembarking may be via the front only (if no mobile stairs are available for the back). For me, going out there is no problem with the back, but coming in, it’s always a gamble.
Top tips: Here are some tips that you could use to get your preferred seats:
- 1) The ‘middle seat’ trick: If travelling with two, simply make one person take the window seat and one person take the aisle, placing a bag in between you, therefore looking like you don’t know each other. With luck, no-one will sit in the middle, allowing you extra room in the flight. Note, that this is frowned upon by some people and it’s going to look silly if someone comes in and sits in the middle. You can avoid the likelyhood of this happening by occupying a row nearer the middle.
2) Purchasing an extra seat: Not many people know this, but it’s possible to purchase an extra seat for yourself – which if done during promotional times can often work out cheaper than priority boarding. You book it as normal, but when checking it in, their name should be ‘EXTRA COMFORT SEAT’. No baggage allowance for this seat of course, but there is a bonus in that the extra seat should be next to you.
3) Turning the ‘middle seat’ trick on it’s head: If you’re entering the plane last, and travelling on your own, you may wish to take the first available middle seat – this will be probably quite early on in the plane. Depending on your balls, you could push this quite far – for example, if someone’s got a bag on the seat, ask them to move it. Remember that the staff will be on your side – no-one can reserve seats. If you do uncover people travelling together like this, it’s likely that they will move up to sit next to each other, giving you the aisle. Bonus!
4) Editing your boarding pass: Whilst the pass is scanned to match up passenger names, often there are no scanners at the gate, or staff will tear off their half of the pass in advance to process them later. Priority boarding pass is not much different from the standard one apart from a few letters. Whilst you probably wouldn’t get past the first hurdle if you changed the passenger name on your pass (the scan matches the name your booked with to the one on the passport), adding priority boarding with a PDF editor is unlikely to be noticed. Disclaimer: This is probably illegal, so I don’t recommend this – for info only!
