Flew Ryanair with my wife today. We paid for carry-ons but not for seats. I had heard rumors that Ryanair will intentionally split up parties if you don't pay for seats, and they were certainly doing that today. The plane was about half full and I was assigned a window seat in Row 14 and my wife received a middle seat 10 rows back. Both of us had empty seats next to us. We ecountered several other parties on the plane with similar silly seat assignments.

We thought about moving, but they made an announcement that for "weight and balance" you weren't allowed to do that.

This is just mean. It won't make me pay for seat assignments next time, but it will make me more likely to fly a competitor, if the pricing differential is reasonable.