Nowadays, flying is not the unattainable luxury it once was. In fact, for a lot of people, it has become a regular – albeit often frustrating – part of life.

But despite how common air travel has become in recent years, there are still some things that can happen on a flight to shock and surprise even the most experienced flyers.

Case in point: the experience of Gerry Harrington and around eight other passengers who boarded a Ryanair flight from London to Dublin on October 21, only to discover that their seats...didn't exist.

That sounds a bit creepy, we must admit. But, Gerry’s experience was anything but supernatural!

Gerry uploaded his experience on Facebook in a video post.

The short 25-second clip first shows what appears to be airport staff communicating with each other just at the entrance of an aisle.

‘I’ll have to film it because we paid for seats.’ a voice, presumably Gerry’s, says.

The camera then swivelled around as he asked ‘So everyone here has paid for their seats?’

Gerry and some co-passengers were stuck behind an aeroplane aisle as airport staff scrambled to solve their problem. Credit: Facebook/Gerry Harrington

To which other confused passengers gave affirmative responses.

Gerry continued, ‘And we’re stuck on the back of the plane, they’ve overbooked the plane.’

Later, he clarified: ‘They sent a smaller plane.’ Yikes!

Gerry and the other stranded passengers were offered around $385 in compensation and lodging until their replacement flights arrived the day after.

Unsurprisingly, other people shared their experiences with Ryanair.

‘Happened to me in July,’ one woman said. ‘Can’t believe this is still happening!’

Another man added: ‘This is typical of Ryanair. Never any communication. They know full well that the replacement plane won’t have enough seats.’

Some jumped to the airline’s defence, arguing that Ryanair’s mistake was unintentional.

‘It's not that they deliberately “sent” a plane too small, it's because like most machines they sometimes break down and need a repair. When that happens, another plane has to be used, and not all their planes have the same seat configuration,’ one man wrote.

Others though offered their own explanations as to what might have gone wrong on the carrier’s end.

Another man pointed out: ‘Ryanair only operates two types of aircraft. The Boeing 737-800As which are slowly being replaced by the Boeing 737-800 Max.’

Gerry (recording the video) and his stranded co-passengers (in the picture) could do nothing but wait. Credit: Facebook/Gerry Harrington

‘I'm guessing that you were scheduled to fly on a Max that has 197 seats, but were sent (to) an old 800, which has just 189 seats.’

‘I think this is a simple case of someone (messing) up…It's a shame it wrecked your trip, and I hope you get compensated sufficiently.’

Sadly for Gerry, he missed a tournament he was supposed to play in over the delay — and now he wants his money back in full for the hassle.

‘There was no point in travelling the next day as we’d have missed the tournament we were playing in… (I) will now wait the statutory 21 days, and then if they are being difficult, I will go down the county court avenue if need be.’

Hopefully, Gerry and the others get their due!

Key Takeaways

• Ryanair customer Gerry Harrington claimed that he and several other passengers boarded a flight, only to find that their seats on the plane didn't exist.
• Gerry later said Ryanair overbooked their flight.
• The passengers were later offered £250 ($385 AUD) each and a place to sleep for the night until the next available flight .
• Social media users who heard of Gerry's experience slammed the airline for what happened.

Back home, we aren’t strangers to airline blunders that have customers on the short end of the stick. Just ask these Jetstar and Qantas passengers!

So, what’s your reaction to Gerry’s bizarre experience? What would you have done if you were in his place?

Tell us your comments and reactions below!

Source: Facebook/Gerry Harrington​

 

[Ricci]

It would seem these Companies just don't care. It's no skin off their nose if you don't fly but hey, you handed over your hard earned in all good faith. You kept up your side of the contract, you paid in a timely manner, you turned up on time and did everything right, OK, I get it that sometimes things go wrong, a plane breaks down and has to be replaced at short notice but that's not the travelers problem. These travel companies should be made to pay compensation at such a rate that would make them think twice about not being able to transport their customers.

 

[Wendy3060]

Airlines need to be more customer focused. If they had to cover all expenses in a 48 hour window, extra accommodation and transportation plus all you have paid for on your arrival maybe they wouldn’t get bonus’.
Bosses,CEOs etc should never get bonuses unless they’ve done the work.

 

[Vinylted]

We have enough of these stories with our own airlines, why trawl these horror stories from across the world. When is anyone in Oz likely to fly Ryanair..? I'm sick of reading this stuff really!