Budget Travel - You may chose your own seat providing...

....it's not in rows 1-6 or 22-28. They (Ryanair) say that it's for plane load distribution. Annoys me :mad:as I'm sure that that is not the real reason.

..and what do you think the reason is?

(and generally yes it is the reason on lightly loaded flights).

..that they don't have ot worry about cleaning, say, rows 1-6 on turnaround. On one flight, a herd came up from the back entrance and poured into these seats. The FA missed this until they were all sat down. He shrugged his shoulders and did not turf them out thinking to himself, I guess, either "Sod the balance of the plane. It will take ages to get this people moved," or "Sod it; it's quicker to clean on the next turnaround rather than take the time to get these people moved."

Considering other airlines manage quite happily with passengers spread out on lightl-loaded flights I suspect that CityRules is probably spot on.

Also, if the punters are all concentrated in the central section it means the trolley (bingo cards, etc etc) won't have to travel up and down quite as much.

All perfectly valid reasons, I guess...

Blocking off seats is a pain in the neck and one of the few features of flying Ryanair I dislike.

I am not an expert but I think the real reason may not have been mentioned: that to speed turnarounds, only one hold compartment is sometimes used for baggage and when this happens the distribution of passengers in the cabin becomes an important consideration.

In my experience, the cabin crew have only insisted that passengers cannot use "blocked off" seats during take off and landing; they have been free to occupy them during the cruise.

I don't doubt it makes it somewhat easier on turn around (but think why the first and last rows..it could be any row, if that was the actual reason).

The simple answer is weight and balance, and specifically with the 737-800 during take off and landing. You'll find many explanations of this over on pprune. Two big factors are at play here: Ryanair have no cargo in the hold and they also have a lot less baggage in the hold due to the charges/weight limits they impose). On a normal airline the cargo/baggage play a big part in the calculations.

During the cruise moving into those seats aren't an issue, but they do have to move you back for landing.

There certainly are logical reasons for weight distribution. If it is weight distribution, and thus safety I guess, then I just can't fathom why the flight attendant would not have moved the herd who sat in those seats. This was before take-off.

... the plane has seats (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gnZkLm5lCiFx2VTx6RtJVitLUejQ)