Stuck in Liverpool tonight. Best option to get home?

Allyall

Two of my Friends are stuck in Liverpool airport tonight as they missed their flight.

Ryanair want £110stg each, to change their flights to tomorrow morning.
No other flights.

Manchester isn't an option.

P&O Ferries are leaving at 03:00AM but don't seem to include foot passengers.
Is there any way to get onboard the P&O Ferry without a vehicle?
If they booked 2 + Motorbike at €99 all inclusive, Could they get onboard?

Also, they have heard of FlyBe supposedly leaving tonight, but can't find them, either can i online, from Liverpool for tonight.

So is that it, or can anyone think of any other way, not including swimming.

mfceiling

Friendly lorry driver?

ballooba

Sail rail from Holyhead via Chester.

Allyall

mfceiling wrote: »

Friendly lorry driver?

ballooba wrote: »

Sail rail from Holyhead via Chester.

Thanks.
They're trying to ring P&O now, only number is either Dutch or Scandinavian.

Then giving up if that doesn't lead anywhere. Going to have to wait until the morning.

ballooba

Stena Line or Irish Ferries out of Holyhead both do Sail Rail. P&O don't.

jjbrien

Did you get home yet OP? Here is the link to the stena line rail and sail http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/rail-and-sail/ you can buy the ticket at any train station and go via chester to Holyhead as other posters said. Used to live in Liverpool myself and this was a life line to me when i needed to get home at short notice.

You also have the option of taking a ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast and bus it down to Dublin or fly with Aer Lingus or Ryanair from Manchester. Stena Line does the Birkenhead ferry to Belfast and takes foot passengers.

keithclancy

Allyall wrote: »

P&O Ferries are leaving at 03:00AM but don't seem to include foot passengers.
Is there any way to get onboard the P&O Ferry without a vehicle?
If they booked 2 + Motorbike at €99 all inclusive, Could they get onboard?

Have taken that ferry and it is drive on only, no docking point for walk on passengers.

Mainly freight and hairy truckers.

Cabins are decent though.

Allyall

jjbrien wrote: »

Did you get home yet OP?

Yeah, all home safe and sound. They waited for flight this morning, couldn't get anything else sorted.

Ryanair, over €250 :eek::mad:

munchkin_utd

Allyall wrote: »

Yeah, all home safe and sound. They waited for flight this morning, couldn't get anything else sorted.

Ryanair, over €250 :eek::mad:

a full service airline like Lufthansa would be no cheaper BTW if you end up looking for favours/ miss a flight.
Actually, they are worse as you cannot use a return leg if you miss the outbound one whereas thats grand with Ryanair!

ProudDUB

Am I the only one who thinks that 125 quid for a last minute plane ticket to another country is not that all that bad?

schemingbohemia

I'm also presuming that they won't miss the next flight they've booked.

Allyall

ProudDUB wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks that 125 quid for a last minute plane ticket to another country is not that all that bad?

It wasn't a last minute plane ticket, it was a flight change, i thought they were supposed to decent prices, obviously not.
Also, i thought last minute flights were cheap as to fill seats. (Did they used to be?)

schemingbohemia wrote: »

I'm also presuming that they won't miss the next flight they've booked.

Yeah. One in particular is blaming Liverpool Airport/Ryanair. As there was no call out for last passengers, or whatever they do in other Airports.

They were in the Airport, just some mixup with something or other.

ProudDUB

Allyall wrote: »

It wasn't a last minute plane ticket, it was a flight change, i thought they were supposed to decent prices, obviously not.
Also, i thought last minute flights were cheap as to fill seats. (Did they used to be?)

But they missed the flight that they were supposed to take. That is not Ryanair's fault, or am I missing something there? Your friends booked and paid for a flight that they did not show up for. Those two empty seats remained allocated to your friends. Ryanair were not able to resell them on to someone else that was going to use them. So why should Ryanair then give them free or reduced flights the next day? Aren't they just another customer walking up to buy a ticket at that stage?

From a purely customer service point of view, I can see why it would be a nice thing to do. But from a business stand point, I don't see get why a business should hand them something for free that everyone else has to pay for.

A flight change is when you change your flight to a different one, before the original flight has taken off. The airline gets to resell your seats, so the penalty for doing that is not usually as high as when you miss your original flight. Your missing your flight through your own fault, and having to buy another ticket isn't the same thing. I don't think that not hearing the announcements is a valid reason for missing it. If everyone else was able to make their way to the gate in time for the flight, why couldn't they?

schemingbohemia

Allyall wrote: »

It wasn't a last minute plane ticket, it was a flight change, i thought they were supposed to decent prices, obviously not.
Also, i thought last minute flights were cheap as to fill seats. (Did they used to be?)


Yeah. One in particular is blaming Liverpool Airport/Ryanair. As there was no call out for last passengers, or whatever they do in other Airports.

They were in the Airport, just some mixup with something or other.

But Liverpool's airport is tiny, don't know how you could not find the boarding gate.
Blaming people for no announcements means they're probably the annoying people who delay everyone else by sauntering up to the gate only after their names have been called out a load of times.
Were they in the pub?

coylemj

Allyall wrote: »

Also, i thought last minute flights were cheap as to fill seats. (Did they used to be?)

You might get a last minute bargain for a holiday destination if you hang around the airport with your bag packed and are prepared to go almost anywhere but city to city is different, especially between Ireland and the UK.

Business people who have to attend a meeting at short notice and folk who have to attend a funeral are the typical customers who book at the last minute and everyone knows that they get screwed. Michael O'Leary is on record as saying that people attending funerals are among his most profitable customers.

The airlines could in many cases sell all of the seats on certain flights weeks in advance but they typically hold off on a handful of seats for last minute customers who pay dearly for the availability.

Allyall

schemingbohemia wrote: »

They're probably the annoying people who delay everyone else by sauntering up to the gate only after their names have been called out a load of times.
Were they in the pub?

No, they had been in the Airport (possibly were in the pub earlier).

I think they arrived in for the 21:20 flight, and were in the wrong queue (Another Ryanair flight to Dublin at 22:20 i think).
They got to the front, and nothing was said. Then when they realised, it was too late.

They weren't drunk or anything, I think they were in such a panic, they weren't paying attention.
I can see their point to an extent. It wouldn't be that hard, nor would it cost any extra to name them over the tannoy.
If it was their fault entirely (Which it kind of was), then i can see the other side too.

ScouseMouse

I think they did ok. I got stuck in manchester last year and "the next aerlingus home" cost me €250.

€125 each is a decent price for 2 seats Ryanair could not then sell on. Think they did ok in this case for a problem that was not Ryanairs causing in the first place.