One TikToker was proud to share his “genius” seat hack to enjoy extra legroom on the budget airline, but commenters were quick to poke holes in his common sense plan
With most airlines now charging passengers to select their seat, travellers are getting creative to avoid random seat allocation. One TikToker went viral recently for sharing his secret “hack” for selecting a seat on Ryanair flights, without paying any additional fees.
Adcock’s TikTok video shows his ploy, which involves first opting for the random allocation option when booking your flight. However, a few hours before departure, Adcock advises travellers to go back onto the airline app and follow instructions for switching seats. But instead of actually paying the fee to select a seat, Ryanair travellers are advised to use the seat map to simply make note of which seats will be unspoken for on the flight.
“Does everyone do this hack when flying Ryanair or am I an actual genius?” Adcock asks in the video. The TikToker says he looks for seats toward the front on the plane, ideally with extra legroom and brazenly sits down. “I’ve been doing it for ages and the flight attendants have never asked me for my seat number yet,” he added.
The TikToker presented the hack as a common sense practice, writing in the caption: “Surely everyone is on this already?” However many commenters were quick to point out why this is no real hack at all. The first oversight commenters called out was the fact that most budget airline flights are never empty enough to attempt this. With direct budget airline flights often booked to capacity, one commenter pointed out: “Won’t work going on summer holidays – plane will be full”.
Multiple other commenters also flagged the safety concerns with sitting in an unallocated seat, in the event of an emergency. “If there was an accident. Sitting in the correct seat is important to determine where each person is sitting” wrote one commenter. Another jokingly added: “Nahh cos I overthink far too much. I want to be identified if the plane goes down by sticking to the number I paid for”.
Passengers swapping seats is often prohibited by airlines due to weight distribution concerns, particularly affecting smaller aircrafts. One commenter flagged this, writing: “Well it does affect the weight, mass and balance, especially on longer flights on the max. Many, many times you have to move passengers back due to being too front heavy”.
Other commenters simply stated that there are easier ways to choose a free seat like waiting to be the last to board. One commenter even suggested hiding in the loo until everyone is seated. Overall, seat swapping is not the best idea on any flight, whether you have a hack for it or not. If you are travelling with a family and want to sit together, most airlines will already try and group your seats accordingly.
