Money-saving expert Jordon Cox, known online as The Coupon King, has shared a two-minute hack that helps Ryanair passengers avoid being assigned a middle seat without paying the airline's seat selection fees. The trick, demonstrated in a TikTok video, involves freezing undesirable seats by creating a dummy booking.
How the hack works
According to Cox, the first step is to check the seating chart on the Ryanair website about five to six hours before departure. Passengers should identify which seats remain unoccupied and note those they wish to avoid, such as middle seats or those near toilets.
Next, Cox advises opening a second tab on a laptop or phone and creating a new booking for the same flight. Enter fictitious passenger names matching the number of seats you want to block, and assign those imaginary travellers to the undesirable seats. "These seats are then frozen for a few minutes while they're in someone else's basket," Cox explained in the video.
Once the unwanted seats are temporarily held, return to your original booking and select the random seat allocation option. "And boom, you've avoided the middle seat for free!" Cox declared.
Passenger reactions
The hack quickly drew comments on social media. One user noted, "Only works if the flight isn't full." Another remarked, "They'll cop on to this and we won't be able to do it." Despite skepticism, the method has gained attention as a way to bypass Ryanair's seat selection fees, which range from €4.50 to €36.50 depending on the seat and whether extra legroom is desired.
Ryanair's seating policy was recently updated after an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). However, passengers still must pay to sit next to anyone over age 11 or to avoid a middle seat. Cox's trick offers a potential workaround, though its effectiveness depends on flight occupancy.
This is not the only hack Ryanair passengers have shared online. Others have revealed methods to dodge baggage fees or secure entire rows for extra legroom, often going viral on social media platforms.
