Ryanair

opa01_2000

Good Article in yesterdays Independent :

Ryanair uses the rule book to upset its passengers

AS A rule I don't complain about Ryanair's service. My low expectations of the airline are so thoroughly conditioned that when, this day two weeks ago I was told that my flight FR 9431 was going to be delayed by seven hours, I shrugged my shoulders, checked the battery level on my iPod and looked out for a likely place to camp for the better part of the day...

[Mod note: Please link to the article in question, don't copy and paste the entire one for copyright reasons]

EKRIUQ

Best of luck please keep us updated with your progress, but is it a labour of love or are you just curious to see if its possible to get compensation from Ryanair

Bluetonic

BingoBongo wrote:

Best of luck please keep us updated with your progress, but is it a labour of love or are you just curious to see if its possible to get compensation from Ryanair

It's an article from the Irish Independent, not original material. Do people bother to read things correctly any more?

BuffyBot

Two points - first full articles shouldn't be posted unless you have permission from the copyright owner.

Second, Ryanair are merely taking advantage of a woefully drafted piece of legislation which allows them to do it. Maybe they shouldn't, morally, but as a business if someone puts a piece of legislation together with more holes than Swiss chese, they're going to take advantage of it.

opa01_2000

Link as requested :

http://www.unison.ie/columnists/tom-mcenaney/stories.php3?ca=447&si=1817953

BuffyBot

Thanks opa

cathald

Interesting....thanks for sharing opa01

mikedragon32

Ryanair were mentioned on BBC's Watchdog programme last night as part of a piece about how airlines flout the EU regulations on delayed/cancelled flights. They mentioned ThompsonFly, BMI Baby and Ryanair, but seemed to put an emphasis on Ryanair's transgressions, which follows a trend I've noticed on that show. They really seem to have it in for Ryanair, not entirely unwarranted, I know, but they're no worse than the others surely?

shrapnel222

mikedragon32 wrote:

Ryanair were mentioned on BBC's Watchdog programme last night as part of a piece about how airlines flout the EU regulations on delayed/cancelled flights. They mentioned ThompsonFly, BMI Baby and Ryanair, but seemed to put an emphasis on Ryanair's transgressions, which follows a trend I've noticed on that show. They really seem to have it in for Ryanair, not entirely unwarranted, I know, but they're no worse than the others surely?

i don't know the stats, but from personal experience, they are the pits. i will now do anything to avoid flying with them and will gladly pay up to 50% more just to avoid ryanair. I used to rate them above easyjet a few years ago, but they have long since sunk into the abyss, miles below any other airline

RuggieBear

Just paid 75 Euro more for an Aer Lingus flight to Manchester than the equivalent Ryanair fare. Sick and tired of being treated like ****e by ryanair.

opa01_2000

Personal experience (I've used all three fairly often over the past 2 years) would put Ryanair way, way down at the bottom of the pile. BMi baby have, in my experience, the least delays and I have not encountered any cancellations.

mikedragon32

I've only flown twice with BMI Baby, years ago on a return trip to East Midlands and had no complaints. Particularly as the flight was almost empty coming back and they let me use a row of seats as a bed!

Thompson Fly I've never used, but thought it was a charter airline.

In all my years, I've never had a bad experience with Ryanair. I've used them for business and personal travel since they first started operations. Worst delay experienced was 35 minutes. I can deal with the flying shops approach to on-board service and the fact that the seats don't go back (if anything the immovable seats are a bonus). The only thing that drives me nuts is the incessant announcements they make on board. Everytime I'm about to drift off there's another one telling me I can win prizes or that I can buy bus tickets or phonecards or snacks!

penexpers

It's poor journalism on the part of the journalist - what's really at fault here isn't Ryanair's poor customer service, but the law that has holes in it like this. The journalist doesn't mention why the flight was delayed, it would be interesting to know why exactly it was delayed.

You can be guaranteed too that Aer Lingus and any other airline would do anything possible to avoid giving money back to passangers for delayed flights.

penexpers

BuffyBot wrote:

Two points - first full articles shouldn't be posted unless you have permission from the copyright owner.

Full articles are allowed on other boards.

BuffyBot

They really seem to have it in for Ryanair, not entirely unwarranted, I know, but they're no worse than the others surely?

In terms of flight volume, BMIbaby and Thomsonfly don't come near Ryanair, so I guess it's unsurprising they generate a lot more complaints I guess. I've heard of many BMIbaby horror stories though.

penexpers wrote:

Full articles are allowed on other boards.

Shame on them, then.

bucks73

Im the same...dont give a toss about what happens on board, I just want to get to where Im going for a decent price. I just ignore them when they are trying to sell stuff.

Im in Limerick and there are some great destinations with them out of Shannon. Ten years ago all we had really was aer lingus and their over priced flights via dublin to anywhere apart from london.

Longest delay I had was most recent flight to edinburgh for the rugby weekend. Two hours so not too bad.

opa01_2000

I travel to the UK weekly for work and up until recently mainly used BMI Baby with an occasional Easyjet flight - I use the most convenient flights for the destinations. For the past six weeks I have used Ryanair. In this six weeks I have had 4*1 hour delays, one six-hour delay and one cancellation.

As above, I don't really care about the in-flight flogging of the kitchen sink or the regular ads but the regular delays and the lack of information when a delay happens really bugs me.

As I said, I use the most convenient flights for the destinations but when I start to wonder about whether I can get there on time, Ryanair seems no longer to be a wise choice.

RuggieBear

With Ryanair, I've had five delays longer than 4 hours including two 7 hour delays. Tbh, i've lost count of the numerous 30-60min delays. (this is just to Liverpool in the main). In the end i started taking the boat despite my motion/seasickness.

Moby

( The journalist doesn't mention why the flight was delayed, it would be interesting to know why exactly it was delayed.)

I was on this flight from Rome the reason we were given was "The late arrival of the incoming flight" When we boarded the flight there was another delay of over 1 hour, after complaints by some passengers we were told it was because 4 passengers were missing and their luggage had to be removed .
We were also told by the captain the reason for the 7 hour delay was the plane we should have got was based in Rome and was out of service and they had to find a crew to fly from Dublin to pick us up.

When the food service started on the plane it was not long before they ran out of all food ,Nothing to eat, not even a packet of pringles, Then they ran out of coffee. but of course you could buy a scratch card, no thanks.
Ryanair will be the last airline I would pick, only if I really had to