Well, here's how it went. I checked in 5 hours before, and partner was offered 5C and I was offered 30E. In the end, there was nobody in 30F so I just moved over. The flight was surprisingly pleasant and efficient, and boarding was a really civilized process. Other passengers seemed happy and easy going (none of the attitude I've seen on other flights) and the cabin crew were friendly and had a sense of humour. I had a Lavazza coffee with the filter, landed punctually in Berlin and had a great time there, as always.

On the return, from SXF to CGN, check in offered me 14B and partner 24B. I ended up in 12C because I moved to accommodate a couple. Partner had a whole free row, which I should have gone and sat in...but I am not sure how ok it is to seat shift with all the issues about weight distribution on flights! However, this flight picked up what ended up a 65 minute delay. I just had a feeling that something was wrong and started digging around with Flightstats. Inbound aircraft was late, perhaps came from Malta. Again, the crew had quite a laugh at my thinking they were Maltese! It seems the thing about MALTA AIR is that Ryanair has just registered a few aircraft there under the MALTA AIR brand, maybe saving money on tax? But between MALTA AIR, Laudamotion or whatever it's called and Ryanair Sun, soon to be renamed Buzz, Ryanair is creating quite an interesting mini alliance in Europe.