RYANAIR woes continue.

[Phil Perry]

The sad story of major Irish carrier Ryanair's rapid decline continues apace.

 

This bit of humour is in response to 'Moneygrabber' MD Michael O'Leary suggesting that Charging passengers to use the toilets in flight was being considered. . . ( Previous ideas included having limited blocks of 'Standing' passengers, A La bus / tram, to increase revenue per flight )

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

Scum. They cancelled our Hamburg-Manchester flight, forcing me to book with EasyJet for 200 euro more. Their email only offered a refund or alternative flight on a different day - we couldn't take the alternative because of existing accommodation and ongoing flight bookings.

 

To add insult to injury, they repaid the fare in Euro and the Aussie dollar must have dropped a bit since we booked the flight, so we didn't even get back the full amount that we paid.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Amateurs.

 

Come to China and see what they get up to.

 

Today was a perfect example, paid 220 RMB to get into the airshow today, that's about double normal for a show here. The main displays were placed either end of the 2kms runway, and they were charging for the bus (electric 9 seaters, eg; oversized golf carts) ride up to there, and then again back or you hoofed it.

 

 

[Pominaus]

Scum. They cancelled our Hamburg-Manchester flight, forcing me to book with EasyJet for 200 euro more. Their email only offered a refund or alternative flight on a different day - we couldn't take the alternative because of existing accommodation and ongoing flight bookings.To add insult to injury, they repaid the fare in Euro and the Aussie dollar must have dropped a bit since we booked the flight, so we didn't even get back the full

 

amount that we paid.

Fortunately the CAA over there are paying attention. Though the British are being all Brexit, the EU laws still currently apply to them, so whilst O' sleazy has said he won't pay for passengers to fly on other airlines, Ryan Air doesn't actually have a choice in situations like yours. They must offer a refund, alternative flight or put you on a competator's plane (at their expense) if they can't provide a suitable flight. Now right now with 400,000 tickets cancelled they are refusing to do this until someone makes them, but at least in the UK, the CAA are now threatening legal action against them.

 

It's tough to know what to do. On the one hand you can hold out until regulators force them to do the right thing, on the other, this is huge, it's not unforeseeable that it could collapse the company; getting your money out and paying the diff yourself could also make sense.

 

Personally I think they've realised that it will be cheaper to ignore the law and take the fine when it comes than rebook 400,000 passengers at short notice, sadly. I hope the regulators make an example of them if they do that.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Scum. They cancelled our Hamburg-Manchester flight, forcing me to book with EasyJet for 200 euro more. Their email only offered a refund or alternative flight on a different day - we couldn't take the alternative because of existing accommodation and ongoing flight bookings.To add insult to injury, they repaid the fare in Euro and the Aussie dollar must have dropped a bit since we booked the flight, so we didn't even get back the full amount that we paid.

Michael O'Leary is a complete a$$hole Marty. One of the reasons for this current chaos is the departure of a large number of Ryanair pilots over to Norwegian Air. No one wants to fly for them any longer.

 

Aircrews have always been treated with contempt by him. The original CEO was far more reasonable.

 

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Michael O'Leary allegedly advertises a million airline seats for sale. . . WHO in their right mind would trust this scumbag Company now ? ( I'll bet that Marty wouldn't )

 

Sounds like its going bust and good riddance to the worlds most hated airline AND YES. . .I DO feel EXTREMELY sorry for the cabin crews and hundreds of support staff. . . .it isn't THEIR fault.

 

 

You KNOW where you can stuff that model don't you Michael ? ? ?

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Seven years ago,. . .I foolishly booked a flight to Paris with Ryanair.

 

I should have checked the French code for the airfield that we went to, which was prefixed with PARIS - . can't remember the place now,. . .but it was meant to sound like a local suburban airport . . .it was 67 miles away by road from Orly. I missed my connecting flight by 2 hours. Massive additional cost and a 17 hour wait for a replacement flight.

 

 

[Pominaus]

To be honest it did used to make sense to fly with Ryan Air - they were much better at customer service and such than Easy Jet and very, very cheap. To be honest though, nowadays, and this might just be me being a bit older and not as hard up (although I think a bit smarter with money too) it's harder to justify it.

 

I first flew with them in the late 90's and early 2000's, and to be honest, I loved it. They didn't actually feel that budget. Sure if you wanted a drink on board you paid for it, but it was a 2 hour flight... it was just like getting a train really. They did used to give you normal baggage allowance for free, 15KG I think, and there were no other charges other than £1.50 booking fee. It didn't feel as cheap and cattle class as their orange competitor, but it was cheap, really cheap. The first few seats on planes came up so cheap that if you could shop around for dates, my word. I flew London-ish to Stockholm-ish for £1.50 there and £5 back, Austria return for under £10, to dublin for £4, etc. I flew a lot over the space of about 3 years with them, and the most I ever spent on return flight tickets was £20. But of course their costs have gone up and their competitor prices have gone down, along with their standard of service.

 

Last time I flew with them was 2008 and it was just such a bad experience, whilst the price difference between a human-rights obeying airline was down to ~£50. it honestly just wasn't worth it anymore to deal with them. Sure when you're shopping flights every dollar counts, you obsess over every saving you can make, but the more I've flown, the more I've accepted there's just so many other costs; getting to the airport, your holiday, attractions, food, etc. that that small saving you get there becomes often irrelevant, whilst a bad flying experience can ruin your mood for days. Basically their service is so bad, there has to be quite a large price difference to go through the stress of travelling with them rather than just paying a bit extra not to have the start and end of your trip be totally miserable.

 

Just as a point proving exercise to myself, I just went and looked for 3 random routes in three months time on RyanAir's site and added baggage. Most seemed to end up at just under £100 return. Then I went over to Expedia and found with a little day wiggling I could fly with BA or Air Lingus for within $20 each time even without any date wiggling the biggest gap I saw was £60. I mean, sure it's just three random examples ... but surely it's a no brainer. Ryan Air or BA?

 

Actually when I just checked London to Austria, BA was £2 cheaper! I wonder how many people fly with Ryan Air just because of the perception they will save money regardless? only checking the budget airlines websites and that pass them through the cost-adding steps so they won't really know how much the flight costs until you're entering your card details, without realising other airlines aren't that far off.

 

 

[yampy]

Seven years ago,. . .I foolishly booked a flight to Paris with Ryanair.I should have checked the French code for the airfield that we went to, which was prefixed with PARIS - . can't remember the place now,. . .but it was meant to sound like a local suburban airport . . .it was 67 miles away by road from Orly. I missed my connecting flight by 2 hours. Massive additional cost and a 17 hour wait for a replacement flight.

Phil ... probably Beauvais I would imagine .

 

I remember flying from Brum to Shannon a few years back , the airfare was £5 , but the boarding pass printed at the airport was to be £40 ! .. needless to say I did an online check in and printed my own , and they charged me for that too !,

 

Dave C

 

 

[Yenn]

It is pretty obvious why they are in trouble. With the prices quoted here they couldn't have made any profit.

 

I flew to France with them and the only bad thing about the flight was getting back into the UK on our return. Had a black bloke on immigration/ customs and he was processing one person per 20 mins.

 

 

[Pominaus]

It is pretty obvious why they are in trouble. With the prices quoted here they couldn't have made any profit.

Actually profits have never been much of a problem for them - it's how they became the biggest operator in Europe. It's all about the population density and freedom of movement in the EU. The longest distances fly are shorter than flying from Melbourne to Perth, and the EU basically makes it so for airlines it's really no different than being a domestic carrier. Most flights are about 2 hours, and once you look at it against Australia - similar sized area to cover but with 510 million people living there whilst we have 22million here in Aus the economics start to become clear.

 

The short version is basically that there's so many people wanting to travel over a relatively short distance that it's very easy to keep the planes pretty full and off the ground. They make over a billion euros a year in profit.

 

To be honest this current shambles is because they treat their pilots and staff as a whole worse than macca's would treat a Christmas casual

 

 

[Phil Perry]

It is pretty obvious why they are in trouble. With the prices quoted here they couldn't have made any profit.I flew to France with them and the only bad thing about the flight was getting back into the UK on our return. Had a black bloke on immigration/ customs and he was processing one person per 20 mins.

Dunno if the airport guy being black had anything to do with him being useless Mate. . .! The Nigerian bloke in charge of security at a major UK airport when I was fitting taxiway signs was really on top of his game and it was evident from speaking to other blokes there that he garnered lot of respect from them. . . I've had similar experiences to yours at Luton, Bristol and Cardiff airports, where nearly all of the staff are immigrants. . . some of 'em were OK, but others,. . .well, some of em' wouldn't last a day at McDonalds. . .

 

 

[yampy]

My sentiments exactly Phil , I am glad though you didn't include Brum on your list . That just would do at all would it aer kid ..

 

Dave C

 

 

[Pominaus]

some of 'em were OK, but others,. . .well, some of em' wouldn't last a day at McDonalds. . .

In one sentence, describe the civil service?

 

 

[Yenn]

That was just a description of him. When I left the UK in 1962 there were very few black people. It looked to me as if he was just not interested in working.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Nothing for nothing. You guys would be surprised at how cheap Qantas can be if you get onto their website, be flexible with dates and look for the cheap flights.

 

Chengdu to Hong Kong to Brisbane under $400 for example, have seen under $300 a few times (one way).

 

 

[Phil Perry]

My sentiments exactly Phil , I am glad though you didn't include Brum on your list . That just would do at all would it aer kid ..Dave C

Indeed it would not seem right aer Kid. . . . . .

 

 

[planedriver]

Which is why this video clip has to be considered before booking flights.

 

 

 

[Vincik]

Ryanair's, Micheal O'Leary, arrives in a hotel in Dublin, he goes to the bar and asks for a pint of draught Guinness. The barman nodded and said, "That will be one Euro please, Mr. O'Leary."

 

Somewhat taken aback, O'Leary replied, "That's very cheap," and handed over his money.

 

"Well, we try to stay ahead of the competition," said the barman, "and we are serving free pints every Wednesday evening from 6 until 8 p.m. We have the cheapest beer in Ireland."

 

"That is a remarkable value," comments Michael.

 

"I see you don't seem to have a glass, so you'll probably need one of ours. That will be 3 euros please."

 

O'Leary scowled, but paid up. He took his drink and walked towards a seat.

 

"Ah, you want to sit down?" said the barman. "That'll be an extra 2 euros. You could have pre-booked the seat, and it would have only cost you a Euro."

 

"I think you may to be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please?"

 

Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can't squeeze in he complains, "Nobody would fit in that little frame".

 

"I'm afraid if you can't fit in the frame you'll have to pay an extra surcharge of 4 euros for your seat sir."

 

O'Leary swore to himself, but paid up.

 

"I see that you have brought your laptop with you," added the barman. "Since that wasn't pre-booked either, that will be another 3 euros."

 

O'Leary was so annoyed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter, and yelled, "This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager".

 

"Ah, I see you want to use the counter," says the barman, "that will be 2 euro please."

 

O'Leary's face was red with rage. "Do you know who I am?"

 

"Of course I do Mr. O'Leary."

 

"I've had enough, What sort of bar is this? I come in for a quiet drink and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to a manager!"

 

"Here is his E-mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9 and 9.10 every morning, Monday to Tuesday by dialing this free phone number. Calls are free, until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only 10 cents per second."

 

"I will never use this bar again!"

 

"OK sir, but remember, we are the only hotel in Ireland selling pints for one Euro."