I went to bag drop at LGW to get a paper boarding pass ... in the hopes of being allocated a seat ...

but no joy, and was told that I'd be given one at the gate ...

At the gate they waited until everybody had been scanned through ... and then managed to find one seat ...

so I was allowed to board ... but another guy (who only bought his ticket this morning) was left behind.

the IDB was staff from another airline, and asked to be allowed in a jump seat ... but apparently Ryanair only allow their own staff to occupy jump seats.

so whilst Ryanair don't deliberately overbook ... a swap from a B737MAX [197 seats] to a B737-800 [189 seats] can result in passengers being denied boarding.