A Ryanair rant thread (from 2008)

Savman

Ok I think we need this thread, I'm hoping yous agree. Let me start it off.

I want to take my younger siblings to Blackpool, found Ryanair's flights to be fairly cheap and fairly consistent throughout the Summer, about €55pp return.

Until, that is, I clicked thru and ended up on the Passenger Info page.

The fooking baggage charges add €72:eek:
Oh and that's not taking them up on their luxurious offer to pay another €6 per passenger for "priority boarding". I've highlighted these prices in silly big font because it is the opposite of what Ryanair are doing, hiding it in little font.

I've had to rethink whether or not I'm still arsed to go.

I'm not saying Ryanair are the only ones at this kinda scam, it certainly seems to be the latest cheapo airline trend.

They are going to alienate a certain demographic by introducing these poxy add-ons. Families with children will now be hurt the most whereas a bunch of lads on an overnight football trip (like me last weekend) get welcomed with open arms.

Yes, I know, bags = weight = more fuel consumption = more bills for Moneybags O'Leary but I mean, seriously, WTF? It's getting out of hand at this stage.

:rolleyes:

helios

Just remember that when they promote themselves as being the 'low-cost airline' they mean it's low cost for them to operate, not for you to use

Savman

Dont get me wrong, I've used them loadsa times and mostly grand. Their punctuality policy is one major plus and they dont feck around.

Maybe it's the way they sell you the flight...Here's your flight for €10 then you get to the next page and it skyrockets.
Most of their policies can be argued for and against, but IMHO they've pushed the boat out too far on this one.

dublad23

Why don't you just bring one Bag and have everyone's bits and bobs in it.

Surely they don't need a 20kg bag each!!

mixervilla

I assume those football trips are to Birmingham, Im a Villa fan too and have noticed the taxes & charges on the flights are very inconsistant over the last 6 months.

Regarding Blackpool, save yourself a bit of money and use the free online check in, save 6euro per person and carry on as much as you can get away with to cut down the number of bags

Savman

Yep they are trips to the Villa alright, wheey

They only allow 15kg now (not 20kg which used to be standard). The site doesn't let you use Online Checkin if you are checking in luggage. Now I'm actually a very light traveller, but I'll be going with some of the female specimens who aren't and as we know they need 10 pair's of shoes.:rolleyes:

It's getting ridiculous, if your a single overnight traveller you're grand but like I say a family with some kids in tow will get stung. There's no feckin consistency at all, and as for the "priority boarding" fee they can stick it. I'll take a leaf out of O'Leary's book and say that a seat is a seat

cson

This has been going on for a while now Savman, its not a new phenonomon (I sure that spelling is fairly mangled ).

For a while there you had to uncheck priority boarding if you didn't want it. You still have to uncheck the travel insurance if you don't want it.

Tbh I'd say you could survive with only the 15kg hand luggage. I spent 2 days in Paris bringing only the hand luggage with me - You can bring a fairly biggish travel case.

Not defending Ryanair or anything but they do exactly what they say on the tin. They get you there on time (Albeit in a field 2 hours from your intended destination) and they don't ****e on about providing a luxuary service. Having said that, the advertising standards authorithy should absolutely rape them for some of their claims. The "Oslo" airport isn't even in Norway afaik :eek:

egan007

GReaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt

Now tell us - could you find it cheaper or does this thread actually have a point....

Savman

Ok case study for our "low fares airline".

I'm going to London in September '08, so that's a good 8 months away, I should get some very decent prices on flights right?

Travel Dates: Mon 8 Sept-Wed 10 Sept

Option 1: Aer Lingus
Dublin - London Gatwick
1 checked in bag, no travel insurance or extras
Total Price €64

Option 2: BMI
Dublin - London Heathrow
2 checked in bags, no travel insurance or extras
Total Price €77.99

Option 3: Ryanair
Dublin - London Gatwick
1 checked in bag, no priority boarding, no travel insurance or extras
Total Price €107.02

Sources: www.ryanair.com www.aerlingus.ie and www.flybmi.com at 5.40pm on 15/1/08

Now, can someone please explain to me how exactly Ryanair can claim to be "The Low Fares Airline". All costings include relevant 'card handling fee' with (get this) a Ryanair Visa. On all above itineraries I went right thru the whole process right up to the final Purchase page. On the given dates I selected the cheapest flights offered by the airline in question.

Any Ryanair fans care to discuss?

WexCan

Savman wrote: »

Option 3: Ryanair
Dublin - London Gatwick
1 checked in bag, no priority boarding, no travel insurance or extras
Total Price €107.02

That's quite shocking considering there's now three airlines on the route - Aer Lingus, Ryanair and British Airways. Not sure if all three will survive since loads on all of them are dismal, about 50-60%. Will be interesting to see what the summer brings.

I travel a number of times a month LGW-DUB-LGW, always go Aer Lingus now.

Savman

Yep, no real method to the high fare either. I just wanted to point out that if you believe the hype and book with Ryanair out of habit, you can end up paying more. Considerably more.

Low fares...pfft.

ScouseMouse

just been trying to help my friend. On sunday she booked two single tickets dub to tenerife. She is going to see her niece who lives there. She accidently put the niece down as flying rather than her daughter. I rang them up just on the off chance they may be fair. SOME HOPE. It is irrelevant its a one way flight. To change the name is 100 euro. I ended up booking another flight at 72 euro inclusive of the crap attached.

It was only the first name to be changed - the surname was the same !!!

Savman

In fairness, €100 is a fair price to charge for the huge resource hog that is the name change procedure, it's easily a day's work for someone :rolleyes:

egan007

Savman wrote: »

can someone please explain to me how exactly Ryanair can claim to be "The Low Fares Airline".

I'm not an expert in economics but they probably base it on more than one fair.


...wild guess

Savman

egan007 wrote: »

I'm not an expert in economics but they probably base it on more than one fair.


...wild guess

Really, wow. So it doesn't bother you, then, if it's simply not true? Hmmm.

All hail the Movementarians.

ErnieBert

I'd like to thank Ryanair for what they have done to bring down the cost of air travel but I still use other airlines.

Thanks anyway Mike.

Nightwish

I'm not a fan of Ryanair or any other airline, but I travel quite a bit and they always tend to be the cheapest for me. I always shop around and I inevitably use the cheapest one. I used Aer Lingus only once over Ryanair, as it was €5 cheaper.

Savman

Nightwish wrote: »

I'm not a fan of Ryanair or any other airline, but I travel quite a bit and they always tend to be the cheapest for me. I always shop around and I inevitably use the cheapest one. I used Aer Lingus only once over Ryanair, as it was €5 cheaper.

They were always cheapest for me too, but in the last year or so I'm finding them less and less friendly on the pocket.

Think about the typical Ryanair customer, out for cheap flights, zero loyalty whatsoever and will ditch them at the first sign of a similarly priced competitor. They used to be my first port of call for checking flights, but nowadays I find myself opening a few airline sites in different windows because what you see at first with Ryanair is no longer the fare you pay so that 99c flight quickly becomes €50 with all these stoopid add ons.

They have bad mouthed the airports and governments for years for silly charges, fees and levies and now they introduce their own.:rolleyes:

muletide

Just flew to Sweden and back with Ryanair. They were fantastic - cost me €67 retyrn. Landed 15 minutes early both times. Very comfortable flight.

Probably the best airline in the world

Sean02

At the end of the day its great value. Just back from week in Valencia.
Two return tickets €52 including Government taxes, Priority and credit card charge. Two return rail fares to Cork from Dublin this week € 122.

Sean02

At the end of the day its great value. Just back from week in Valencia.
Two return tickets €52 including Government taxes, Priority and credit card charge. Two return rail fares to Cork from Dublin this week € 122.

skibum

Savman wrote: »

They have bad mouthed the airports and governments for years for silly charges, fees and levies and now they introduce their own.:rolleyes:

Oh the irony, would love to hear o'learys spin on this

shiibata

hate ryanair myself but always end up using them..only for them and easyjet we could still be paying big money for flights..
use to work in england late eighties, early nineties and if you got a flight from london to belfast for about £110-140(€145-€185) ye thought ye were doing well to get it.. Ye would be called mad in the head now if ye paid that kind of money..

kaimera

Punctual my arse.

Flew with them from DUB - Nice at the end of december, we were an hour late arriving in Nice.

Flight back arrived in Nice at the time we were supposed to take off and then we spent 2 hours sitting on the plane at the terminal because the idiots made a schoolboy error with the headcount

> one extra person from the headcount [177 v 176 names on the manifest].
> everyone had a boarding card. :-/

Seems that remembering that a child is on a mothers passport is beyond everyone at ryanair. :mad: ffs tossers.

I hate flying with them; boarding is a bloody cattle mart situation but god dammit aerlingus dont always fly where I want to go

Package

yeah there is nothing worse that THINKING you are getting a flight for 10e and low and behold, charges at the end, it has to be some degree of false advertising? maybe not.

if its a case of being on the flight for less than an hour (to birmingham,london,manchester ect) and bmi (which i found to very decent) is over 25e cheaper, then i know who ill be flying with. if more people fly wth cheaper airlines then the competition goes up as the prices go down :rolleyes:

Savman

muletide wrote: »

Probably the best airline in the world

Your medication needs doubling. I worked in the Airport for 5yrs, a lot of which working indirectly for Ryanair, and they are nowhere near best airline operating out of Dublin, let alone the world.

This is an airline that, until recently, forced disabled passengers to pay for wheelchair assistance. Oh yeah, best airline in the world by a mile. :rolleyes:

Except maybe that they were the only airline in Dublin Airport who were doing so and EVERY other airline would pay for, or organise, assistance for thier less able passengers.

senordingdong

Savman wrote: »

Ok I think we need this thread, I'm hoping yous agree. Let me start it off.

I want to take my younger siblings to Blackpool, found Ryanair's flights to be fairly cheap and fairly consistent throughout the Summer, about €55pp return.

Until, that is, I clicked thru and ended up on the Passenger Info page.

The fooking baggage charges add €72:eek:
Oh and that's not taking them up on their luxurious offer to pay another €6 per passenger for "priority boarding". I've highlighted these prices in silly big font because it is the opposite of what Ryanair are doing, hiding it in little font.

I've had to rethink whether or not I'm still arsed to go.

I'm not saying Ryanair are the only ones at this kinda scam, it certainly seems to be the latest cheapo airline trend.

They are going to alienate a certain demographic by introducing these poxy add-ons. Families with children will now be hurt the most whereas a bunch of lads on an overnight football trip (like me last weekend) get welcomed with open arms.

Yes, I know, bags = weight = more fuel consumption = more bills for Moneybags O'Leary but I mean, seriously, WTF? It's getting out of hand at this stage.

:rolleyes:

I've questioned this policy with them too and infairness, the whole point of charging extra for baggage has another side to it.
What if someone is going away for a short time and only have carry on luggage? Why should they fork out and additional twenty quid each if they're only carrying hand luggage?
Which is why they have introduced the scheme and increased (I think) their carry in capacity.

I'm just back from a long weekend in Stockholm. The carry on was 10kg, which was more than enough for the time I was there. As result, I was able to check in online, skip the queues and all those silly extra charges.

dudara

With Ryanair, the best deals are found during promotion time, If you're booking well in advance, the prices aren't that good sometimes.

I normally would support Ryanair, although I do agree that they're not clear at times on the extra charges and fees. But lately I booked a flight to an airport that doesn't support online check-in. So I had to opt for airport check-in adding an extra €12 (2 x €6) to the flight costs. Now that annoyed me, an additional charge is fine if it's optional, but when it's mandatory...

WexCan

kaimera wrote: »

Seems that remembering that a child is on a mothers passport is beyond everyone at ryanair. :mad: ffs tossers.

The child would still get a boarding card, passport never really has anything to do with headcount errors? Could be that they counted an infant (under 2) as a child which would mean that instead of 176+1 they got 177+0 but most crew know that's a common mistake.

SoulBabe

"Probably the best airline in the world"
hahahahahahaha!!

kaimera

WexCan wrote: »

The child would still get a boarding card, passport never really has anything to do with headcount errors? Could be that they counted an infant (under 2) as a child which would mean that instead of 176+1 they got 177+0 but most crew know that's a common mistake.

Everyone produced a boarding card cos the child had been issued one. Didn't look like she was 2yo anyway but to me it seems like a very basic error to make.

Benedict XVI

superscouse wrote: »

just been trying to help my friend. On sunday she booked two single tickets dub to tenerife. She is going to see her niece who lives there. She accidently put the niece down as flying rather than her daughter. I rang them up just on the off chance they may be fair. SOME HOPE. It is irrelevant its a one way flight. To change the name is 100 euro. I ended up booking another flight at 72 euro inclusive of the crap attached.

It was only the first name to be changed - the surname was the same !!!

So if they are 'fair' and allow your friend to make a name change without any fee then they should be fair to me and allow me to make a name change without any fee
Even though I bought my ticket off a guy for 50% of the current price of the fare and he sold it for 50% of the current price cos he origionally bought it for 10c (ex Tax) 6 months ago.

Your friend should be more careful whne booking her flights.

stolenwine

While you all quibble over money I'm more worried about safety, I have heard stories of some hairy moments with ryanair (I have it on good authority) and thats why I always fly with Aerlingus now. I wonder if anyone who works in Dublin airport has any stories?

senordingdong

We've all heard stories and funnily enough we've all heard stories from people who can't trace their sources.
Their an airline operating in the EU, not the U.S.S.R., they have alot of health and safety regulations to adhere to so untill someone shows me some proof, I'm not particularly interested.

jameshayes

I'm a ryanair fan. Stop complaining you moaners! I just flew from Dublin - Prague return for 17.50 all inc. I brough a cabin bag which was 10KG and the outbound flight was on time and the return flight was 30 mins early. Over the last year i've flowen to La Rochell, Paris, Nantes, Prague, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Madrid. Not one flight was late.

Aerlingus are worse, they are starting to change their time slots in airports to cut costs, and their planes are falling apart. The new Ryanair planes are great, colours are a bit naff but they are in perfect condition with good leg room (i'm 6')

jameshayes

And the reason why the tax to UK airports is so high - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6258327.stm

How much is the new Air Passenger Duty?

The duty has risen to:


Economy class flights in Europe, internal UK flights - £10
Business and first class flights in Europe - £20
Economy class long-haul flights - £40
Business and first class long-haul flights - £80

Savman

James you would appear to be getting the good side of the airline, so more power to ya. But I really think the issue with Ryanair is that when they are good they are very very good but when they are bad they are horrid.

I've already shown how they are more expensive than their competitors, how they treated their disabled passengers until EU intervention and how they penalise you for being anything other than an overnight football or business traveller with no bags.

Maybe that's their core customer base, so they are looking after their own but when people start proclaiming them as, literally, "probably the best airline in the world"...well, I dunno what to say to that.

If you can bleed Ryanair for their freebie, cheapo or promo fares then great, you're working the system.

jameshayes

Savman wrote: »

I've already shown how they are more expensive than their competitors

They are not more expensive than competitors 90% of the time, if you are booking far in advance you will get a better deal elsewhere but if you are flying in September, the best time for you to book is May, June or July.

There is something wrong with every airline, like every company. EG. I can complain that Air France are biased against people who only want to travel one way. Where is the fairness in that? It's sometimes cheaper to buy a return flight with them instead of a one way!

Aerlingus planes are falling apart and the last time I was on one I thought I was going to fall straight into the Atlantic.

Ryanair is not the best airline, Vodafone is not the best mobile phone operator and Tesco is not the best supermarket. There is no such thing in the consumer world - it's all up to the individual. If you want luxury, go to M&S or fly with Qatar. If you want to go somewhere cheap and know who to work the system, go Ryanair, if all else fails, go Aerlingus.

therecklessone

Savman wrote: »

I've already shown how they are more expensive than their competitors

No you've not, you've shown how they were more expensive on one set of dates.

For comparison...

8th Sept-10th Sept Dublin to Prague (exact same airport)

Ryanair

€104.14 with 1 checked in bag + no insurance

Aer Lingus

€151.93 with 1 checked bag + no insurance

CSA

€220.13 with 23kg baggage allowance + no insurance

CSA offer two flights a day, Ryanair offer the earliest departure and Aer Lingus don't get there until nearly 8pm.

therecklessone

On another note, I packed a bag for a week in Paris with work, flew home last weekend.

Extra pair of shoes, plenty of changes of clothes, documents on way back were in checked baggage.

Total weight was 7.8kg,, could easily have got in as cabin baggage with Ryanair.

Only problem would be toiletries.

Savman

therecklessone wrote: »

No you've not, you've shown how they were more expensive on one set of dates.

Yes, still somewhat strange for a low fares airline.

watna

stolenwine wrote: »

While you all quibble over money I'm more worried about safety, I have heard stories of some hairy moments with ryanair (I have it on good authority) and thats why I always fly with Aerlingus now. I wonder if anyone who works in Dublin airport has any stories?

This is the main reason I don't fly Ryanair anymore. I'm a nervous flyer at the best of times and the scabbyness of Ryanair just make me worry what else they cut costs on

In fairness, if you have a bad time with Ryanair or you think they're charging you unfairly stop flying with them. I had a terrible experience in Stansted a year ago and haven't flown them since. I only will if I have no other choice. I've paid more to fly with other airlines over the past year as I simply don't want to fly Ryanair.

therecklessone

Savman wrote: »

Yes, still somewhat strange for a low fares airline.

You think they'll always beat their competitors? Strange attitude tbh.

jameshayes

watna wrote: »

This is the main reason I don't fly Ryanair anymore. I'm a nervous flyer at the best of times and the scabbyness of Ryanair just make me worry what else they cut costs on

They have newer planes than most european companys

stolenwine

senordingdong wrote: »

We've all heard stories and funnily enough we've all heard stories from people who can't trace their sources.
Their an airline operating in the EU, not the U.S.S.R., they have alot of health and safety regulations to adhere to so untill someone shows me some proof, I'm not particularly interested.

I'm actually very close friends with someone who is an air traffic controller at a major international airport who has made me promise/ no begged me to never fly ryanair again and I hardly think that they are a doomsday placard wearing scaremonger. Other reasons include a student at my old uni who wrote an article about her landing in Dublin airport when flames where shooting out the side of the wing. Thankfully this happened on landing and the flames were quickly extinguished by a waiting fire truck.I also watched that channel 4 documentary where in one scene the cabin crew were given an open book safety exam.

So I have many reasons, pick one.

Just heard about the british airways flight from Beijing, v.lucky that they had a skillfull pilot. As for Ryanair its just a matter of time.

BuffyBot

Stolenwine (and anyone else that comes along) unless you can link to something tangiable and not give us a "my friend said this" then please don't start conjecturing here. PS, the Dispatches "documentary" (and I use the inverted commas on purpose) was roundly proved be a whole lot of nothing dressed up as something.

If this is going to turn into another "Ryanair will makes us all die, oh noes" thread, it's got a very short shelf life. So everyone take heed. Let's get back on the topic here.

youtheman

Folks, I'm not a pilot, but I'm related to one who is very high in the Ryanair organisation. I've also worked in the aviation industry and I can confirm some facts:

1. Ryanair set an very high standard as regards flight safety. They regularly refuse to hire pilots from other airlines bacuse they can't cut the mustard (and by this I mean they put them in a simulator, get them to do some emergency drills, navigation drills etc. and then refuse to hire them because they aren't up to standard). I know the synics out there will say it's because then can smell an unionised pilot a mile off. They're expanding at such a rate, employing staff from all over the world, that maintaining this standard is quite a challange though.

2. they fly brand new aircraft, and they don't skimp on maintenence.

3. I agree they are their own worst enemy when it comes to PR. M. O' Leary believes in the old saying 'there is no such thing as bad publicity', but I think he's been proven wrong. I've met him in person, and heard some very interesting stories that proves he's a genius. But he's also an obnoxious bo**ox. Then again, I don't have to sit beside him on the plane. Bit like your doctor, you don't have to like him, just as long as he can do the job.

4. Anyone who has worked in the industry will cringe when they hear someone quote "flames where shooting out the side of the wing". This is Hollywood language. If this story is true then by definition it's an accident/incident so there should be a report on www.aaiu.ie. Can anyone point me to the accident report (don't think so).

In summary, I'd say there are a bit like Ronseal, "does what it says on the tin". But their safety record is second to none.

DeVore

My personal experiences with Ryanair have been atrocious. Absolutely atrocious and I will never fly with them again unless I absolutely must.

They include a member of their staff, publically admonishing my father for "assaulting" a member of staff in front of all the passengers. Needless to say I bollocked him out of it and when I asked him to repeat the accusation in front of witnesses, he left. It was a complete lie of course.

My father is a frail 72 year old who has just recovered from quadruple bypass and has never lifted his hand to anyone, even me (and god knows I gave him reason to!).

The list of sh*t I have seen from them is astonishing and I suggest that you all pay a little extra and be treated like humans instead of cattle.

DeV.
ps: if you are crew for Ryanair, you are barely more then scratch-card hawkers. Leave your job and regain some self respect.

cson

I don't honestly know how anyone could come on here and say they feel unsafe flying with Ryanair. For all their faults they do have an excellent safety record, the age of their fleet is the youngest in Europe (2.8 years) and they fly only Boeing 737-800s. Makes maintenence easy having the exact same jet across the board.

cson

therecklessone wrote: »

On another note, I packed a bag for a week in Paris with work, flew home last weekend.

Extra pair of shoes, plenty of changes of clothes, documents on way back were in checked baggage.

Total weight was 7.8kg,, could easily have got in as cabin baggage with Ryanair.

Only problem would be toiletries.

For a short city break theres absolutely no need for checked baggage. A change of clothes and buy a cheap toiletries case in the Hotel etc and you're away with.

And +1 to what JamesHayes said, we live in a consumer world, a capitalist world and thank god for that because we can choose what we purchase. Ryanair provide a certain type of product - on time cheap flights. Its clear what O'Leary is aiming for by charging for check in and excessive baggage charges. As for those who criticise him, he turned a loss-making company into one of the biggest short haul airlines in the world with huge profits and revolutionised the aviation market.

WexCan

stolenwine wrote: »

I also watched that channel 4 documentary where in one scene the cabin crew were given an open book safety exam.

I'm no fan of Ryanair, but that documentary was a load of complete and utter bull.

The exam in question is the Aviation Security and Dangerous Goods exam. This is an open book exam in every airline I know of. It is more concerned with making sure the crew can find information when it's needed, not that the crew have memorised it.