Changes to Ryanair! Good news!

Mince Pie

I have to say I'm thrilled with the changes! Finally able to bring a handbag on and no more being harrassed to buy scratchcards!

http://www.thejournal.ie/ryanair-baggage-fees-quiet-flights-1146808-Oct2013/

Love 'em or hate 'em its good news. Maybe O'Leary ain't so bad after all?

anncoates

The picture of Michael in that article certainly cuts a most sombre and business-like dash and adds a pleasing touch of sincerity and gravitas to the proposed improvements.

tmc86

It only took them this long to attempt to rebuild their image. better late than never I suppose!

SEPT 23 1989

Not a fan of the new Michael O' Leary at all

razorblunt

They're on the charm offensive now, his Twitter Q&A had some gems.
It's one thing to offer low cost but when you get feedback that your company is the most hated one then it's time to change.

Edinburgh airport ran a campaign recently to ensure 1 bag of goods bought in the airside shops was nto included in the hand luggage count, every airline agreed except for Ryanair. EDI Airport's poster campaign the listed all the company logos. 2 months later they humbly followed suit.

They might finally be seeing sense.

tmc86

"The airline is also getting rid of the much-hated Recaptcha security feature on its website in which customers were required to type two words which were often difficult to distinguish into a text box ."

Are they really that much of an annoyance? I mean, they serve a purpose.

tmc86 wrote: »

It only took them this long to attempt to rebuild their image. better late than never I suppose!

As if their old image was doing them any harm ...!

Ryanair carried almost 80 million international passengers last year, nearly 30 million more than any other airline.

Source: The Telegraph.

Mince Pie

Deleted User wrote: »

"The airline is also getting rid of the much-hated Recaptcha security feature on its website in which customers were required to type two words which were often difficult to distinguish into a text box ."

Are they really that much of an annoyance? I mean, they serve a purpose.

Its certainly not as annoying as Ticketmasters. Its like trying to crack the enigma code on that site.

TheIrishGrover

Deleted User wrote: »

"The airline is also getting rid of the much-hated Recaptcha security feature on its website in which customers were required to type two words which were often difficult to distinguish into a text box ."

Are they really that much of an annoyance? I mean, they serve a purpose.

Read something about this a few weeks ago.They're going to have to include SOME security measures

Actually, I suppose captcha is normally used to stop bots. I presume they'll have standard security measures when using CCs etc

si makhlouf

When will they start implementing these changes?

I wonder should Michael see a doctor?

ReCaptchas and Captchas are important to pretty much everything online, especially any sort of ticket seller. They insure that you're a human and not a bot, which would be programmed to buy up all the tickets. But, with regards to ReCaptchas, they serve an even bigger purpose; you're helping to digitize books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_yaIYkNxQ

flanzer

All good I suppose, but the Quiet Flight thing is a laugh. Has anyone ever slept on their non-reclining church pew like seats? And if you have, have you ever woken up refreshed without pain in your back/neck

I don't know whether to sleep with my head on the 'bench' in front, or my head up straight

RikkFlair

anncoates wrote: »

The picture of Michael in that article certainly cuts a most sombre and business-like dash and adds a pleasing touch of sincerity and gravitas to the proposed improvements.

"Look at me! I'm mad so I am!"

Blured

Deleted User wrote: »

ReCaptchas and Captchas are important to pretty much everything online, especially any sort of ticket seller. They insure that you're a human and not a bot, which would be programmed to buy up all the tickets. But, with regards to ReCaptchas, they serve an even bigger purpose; you're helping to digitize books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_yaIYkNxQ

Just on this, for the last few months Ryanair have been using adds and not ReCaptchas and Captchas. They would make you watch a Mr Sheen ad and then reveal the phrase you need to write at the end e.g. Mr Sheen cleans the best blah blah.

It was really annoying, especially when pricing flights out of several airports over a few months

vitani

I was reading that going 'great, that's amazing, that's good news' when I realised I was getting excited because they were doing things that practically every other airline does already. Great PR for them though.

Mince Pie

I have always found that I only needed to log the captcha once and just hit new search when looking for different flights and dates.
I travel to the UK a lot and there are two airports that I use so always look to find the best price and times to suit.

Seaneh

Only thing that makes a difference for me is the quiet flights.

Because I read the damned rules and do what I'm meant to before arriving at the airport so never have to pay extra.

I guess the €30 extra baggage feel at the desk is handy too, only a little more than booking a bag on the site so gives me the ability to change my mind last minute and bring an checked bag without being charged too much extra.

Fighting Irish

Mince Pie wrote: »

I have to say I'm thrilled with the changes! Finally able to bring a handbag on and no more being harrassed to buy scratchcards!

http://www.thejournal.ie/ryanair-baggage-fees-quiet-flights-1146808-Oct2013/

Love 'em or hate 'em its good news. Maybe O'Leary ain't so bad after all?

lol, watch the prices go up

pickarooney

Deleted User wrote: »

ReCaptchas and Captchas are important to pretty much everything online, especially any sort of ticket seller. They insure that you're a human and not a bot, which would be programmed to buy up all the tickets. But, with regards to ReCaptchas, they serve an even bigger purpose; you're helping to digitize books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_yaIYkNxQ

Someone programs a bot to buy up all the tickets on a flight - Win for Ryanair
Someone then re-sells the tickets and pays €100 for the name change - Win for Ryanair

What's the downside exactly?

Dartz

You know how you know Ryanair take safety seriously?

They don't charge extra to bring a parachute onboard.

Lemlin

I don't think they're doing that much to mend their reputation.

I sent them a complaint by letter (as they had no email back then) on September 8. I have yet to receive a reply.

I also emailed the complaint to them when their new email facility was setup but I just received a response saying they hadn't received my letter and could I post it again.

I had already attached the letter to emails to them 3 times. They seem happy to ignore that now that they've asked me to post it by snail mail again.

Going on two months now and still no response.

Those sound like pretty good changes
I might even consider flying with them again

howtomake

Fighting Irish wrote: »

lol, watch the prices go up

My thoughts exactly, although my first thought was to make sure this it wasn't April's fools day.

So Ryanair will stop paying Solve Media, for their captcha services. Meh, not exactly doing us a favour, more themselves.

murpho999

Delighted with the captcha thing. Bloody nuisance.

Actually turned me off using the site, putting that in that time.

Also, I know a person who has to book lot of flights for her company and it drove her demented.
I think it may have actually cost Ryanair revenue.


Good to see the other steps too, espeically the silent flights, hope they don't turn the engines off though!

Dman001

I don't know why so many people get so wound up over Ryanair's policies. Think of them like a taxi service - a no-frills method from getting you from A-to-B, cheaply at that. Obey a few of their "rules" (which aren't that big of a deal anyway, and usually save yourself a lot of effort too) and you won't hit unnecessary fees. Want anything more? Fly with Aer Lingus or someone else. Flying is a bit of a nuisance as it is, why would I want it to be an expensive nuisance at that?

Fair play to them though for caving and bringing in a few changes. I do believe, however, that offering friendly customer service doesn't cost a company anything. From some of the stories I've heard from people dealing with Ryanair, they should be aiming to train their staff in being more courteous and helpful.

oppenheimer1

pickarooney wrote: »

Someone programs a bot to buy up all the tickets on a flight - Win for Ryanair
Someone then re-sells the tickets and pays €100 for the name change - Win for Ryanair

What's the downside exactly?

Its not the bots buying tickets that they don't want. They don't want screen scraper programs using the site. What they want is that if someone wants a ryanair flight that they go to their own website not a third party. The original idea was that their cheap flights brand was so strong that people would always go their first. Keeping live flight prices off price comparison sites. Its why if you go to skyscanner and see a ryanair flight, the price is rarely live but from the last time one of the skyscanner team checked the price.

The only reason that Ryanair are trying to soften their image now is because the hard nose image they portray is hurting their bottom line. They've worked out that if they get rid of some annoyances they'll increase their passenger load. Total in flight sales might be about €200 per flight. If they increase passenger numbers by 4 per flight, the measure will pay for itself, if the measure reduced sales completely.

I've been on Ryanair flights many times, and have never a bad experience - I play by the rules. However I am still reluctant to fly with them and they are generally the last option for me, for the reason that their charges are punitive when things go wrong - and sometimes they do. The announcements are annoying, particularly on an early or very late flight. They need to fix the queueing system though - but my fellow passengers are more to blame for that tbh.

When things go according to plan, they were fine to fly with, they were essentially a coach service with wings. When they don't do, they are a nightmare to deal with - if they improve that they might go up in my airline list.

John T Carroll

si makhlouf wrote: »

When will they start implementing these changes?

Just printed Boarding Pass for Nov.30th to Tenerife......no change as yet, guess I'll have to leave my handbag at home!....see extract from some paper or other below.
"From 1 Dec, Ryanair will allow passengers to bring a second small carry-on bag (e.g. small handbag or airport shopping bag, no bigger than 35 x 20 x 20 cms) on board. The move is designed to allow a bottle of wine or equivalent to be carried… though there’s no mention of laptops."

hfallada

Ryanair has completely changed the way we fly. It brought affordable airline tickets to everyone and made other airlines make their fares more affordable. Whether you choose to fly with Ryanair or not. They are the reason why an Aer Lingus airline ticket is now affordable

Grayson

I do hope that the allowance for a handbag also covers duty free bags. It used to annoy me so much that I couldn't carry on 200 cigarettes unless they were in my carry on bag.

Boombastic

What's the betting people still won't be able to follow the rules...I don't like the new rules, they'll allow idiots to get on the plane, although it'll still be better that the sour faced pusses that aer lingus crew seem to have perfected

nibtrix

John T Carroll wrote: »

Just printed Boarding Pass for Nov.30th to Tenerife......no change as yet, guess I'll have to leave my handbag at home!....see extract from some paper or other below.
"From 1 Dec, Ryanair will allow passengers to bring a second small carry-on bag (e.g. small handbag or airport shopping bag, no bigger than 35 x 20 x 20 cms) on board. The move is designed to allow a bottle of wine or equivalent to be carried… though there’s no mention of laptops."

Yeah but you can happily buy duty free on the way home and not have to jam it into your carry on bag.

Mint Sauce

Just flew Aer Lingus. Generous baggage allowance of 20kg, picked my seat at check in, large peice of hand luggage plus duty free on to the plane, smiles and how you do's all round, flight ahead of schedule with no annoying music, no annoying ads or being bombards with scratch cards or other offers. Think I'll fly with them again.

wretcheddomain

Grayson wrote: »

I do hope that the allowance for a handbag also covers duty free bags. It used to annoy me so much that I couldn't carry on 200 cigarettes unless they were in my carry on bag.

You shouldn't be smoking in the first place.

But anyway, all those who complain about Ryanair really need to take a good look at themselves.

Buses get you from A to B and the bus driver doesn't give a crap about you, you're just a nuisance who they have to accommodate. Look at a plane as a flying bus, pay the fare, sit down and shut up, get off the plane, that's it.

Boombastic

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Just flew Aer Lingus. Generous baggage allowance of 20kg, picked my seat at check in, large peice of hand luggage plus duty free on to the plane, smiles and how you do's all round, flight ahead of schedule with no annoying music, no annoying ads or being bombards with scratch cards or other offers. Think I'll fly with them again.

did you hear all about the aerhosts sex life? I got the full run down from my seat, while they happily ignored the passengers boarding the plane

kowloon

Deleted User wrote: »

ReCaptchas and Captchas are important to pretty much everything online, especially any sort of ticket seller. They insure that you're a human and not a bot, which would be programmed to buy up all the tickets. But, with regards to ReCaptchas, they serve an even bigger purpose; you're helping to digitize books.

The sites that have recaptcha style bot traps that serve no honourable purpose. They anger me no end.

DrFloppy

The cost of fuel is rising rapidly across the globe. As it continues to rise, Ryanair's ability to compete with other airlines on price as aggressively as they have done to date will diminish. Ryanair know this. They're pre-empting it as, when their fares rise and become closer to their competitors, they don't want to lose market share on the basis that they treat their customers with such obvious contempt. It's a smart move and it'll probably work as most people can't see through their cynicism.

Me though, I'll never fly with Ryanair again. Too many bad experiences and I simply can't bring myself to hand over cash to a company that openly disrespected their customers for so long.

John T Carroll

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Just flew Aer Lingus. Generous baggage allowance of 20kg, picked my seat at check in, large peice of hand luggage plus duty free on to the plane, smiles and how you do's all round, flight ahead of schedule with no annoying music, no annoying ads or being bombards with scratch cards or other offers. Think I'll fly with them again.

All very nice indeed, but for the last three out of five times that I've flown A.Lingus, each flight was delayed for up to forty minutes while half of the booty brought on board was transferred to the hold, hope the same doesn't happen to R.Air or we wont be hearing the Colonel Bogey Bugle too often again.

Muir

I'm most happy about the recaptcha - it's annoying to have to keep doing if you want to check a number of destinations & dates.

charlietheminxx

Muir wrote: »

I'm most happy about the recaptcha - it's annoying to have to keep doing if you want to check a number of destinations & dates.

I only ever use Sky Scanner for that! Saves so much hassle.

ToxicPaddy

At the end of the day, Ryanair are carrying over 80 million passengers a year and growing. Crib, whinge and moan all you like about them, they have knocked the smile off the competition and even as far away as Australia and New Zealand airlines are cursing them cause they had to make them work to run their business properly as shareholders are asking how Ryanair are doing it if their airlines aren't.

If you don't like em, don't fly with them. Simple as that.

Flying with them isn't an amazing experience, sometimes it can be a pain in the a*s, but if they offer me return flights to locations in Europe that I want to go to for less than a hundred euros, I'm taking it..

If staff attitudes are a little less sh*tty and you can grab a bottle or two in the duty free, all the better but I'll continue to use them either way.

Mint Sauce

John T Carroll wrote: »

All very nice indeed, but for the last three out of five times that I've flown A.Lingus, each flight was delayed for up to forty minutes while half of the booty brought on board was transferred to the hold, hope the same doesn't happen to R.Air or we wont be hearing the Colonel Bogey Bugle too often again.

Where was this. Have never had an Aer Lingus flight delayed on that account, totaling up to 3 return flights a year over the 6-7 years.

markpb

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Where was this. Have never had an Aer Lingus flight delayed on that account, totaling up to 3 return flights a year over the 6-7 years.

I took quite a few AL flights for work over the last few years and almost all were late taking off while the staff tried to accommodate people with several carry-on bags, either shuffling bags between overhead lockers, moving bags to the crew area or checking them underneath. Of course, most of them arrived on time because of padding so I can't complain. All my Ryanair flights took off on time and arrived early.

There's no practical difference but ALs casual approach grated on me, especially since almost all those flights were 6am ex-Dublin to western Europe cities so very much business flights instead of tourist flights. People on those flights should know better but because AL are lax, people take advantage of it.

John T Carroll

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Where was this. Have never had an Aer Lingus flight delayed on that account, totaling up to 3 return flights a year over the 6-7 years.

One from Alicante this year, early in October......one last year, again from Alicante and one, the year before, from Tenerife. The point I am making is that R.Air, at least for the ten or twelve round trips that I've made with them have been right on schedule and while, obviously, welcoming these changes, I hope they dont bring any unwelcome hiccups. Incidentally I've been flying with A.Lingus for just over 50 years, and have in general, found them outstanding.

wretcheddomain

Ryanair flights don't arrive early. They add on about half an hour onto each overall flight time which facilitates slightly late departures and slightly late arrivals, so they'll always arrive on time.

Mint Sauce

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Ryanair flights don't arrive early. They add on about half an hour onto each overall flight time which facilitates slightly late departures and slightly late arrivals, so they'll always arrive on time.

To put another way. They advertise a longer flight that what it actually takes.

MidlandsM

I giggle at all the people you meet or see post the same old Shyte

"ohhh I never fly ryanair" ......


......NEWSFLASH ...........NO ONE CARES.......NO ONE! lol

markpb

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Ryanair flights don't arrive early. They add on about half an hour onto each overall flight time which facilitates slightly late departures and slightly late arrivals, so they'll always arrive on time.

Name a public transport operator who doesn't do that.

Boombastic

markpb wrote: »

Name a public transport operator who doesn't do that.

It's common sense to do this, I get the impression aer lingus don't

languagenerd

Had to read that twice before I believed it. Crazy stuff altogether - Ryanair, offering good customer service and cutting their fees? Is this real life? :P

Have to wonder what the catch is... though it'll be nice to be able to bring a duty-free bag or handbag on board. And to be able to book a 2nd bag for €30 if you change your mind/buy sth at the lats minute!

Skylinehead

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Ryanair flights don't arrive early. They add on about half an hour onto each overall flight time which facilitates slightly late departures and slightly late arrivals, so they'll always arrive on time.

Just checked there, both Aer Lingus and Ryanair from Dublin to Gatwick is an hour and a half. It's not a Ryanair thing.

April O Neill II

Mince Pie wrote: »

I have to say I'm thrilled with the changes! Finally able to bring a handbag on and no more being harrassed to buy scratchcards!

http://www.thejournal.ie/ryanair-baggage-fees-quiet-flights-1146808-Oct2013/

Love 'em or hate 'em its good news. Maybe O'Leary ain't so bad after all?

The handbag thing really is great. Such a simple change but makes such a difference. I think the extra faffing just made it so much easier to lose things.