Originally Posted by
VanBosh
Ryanair clearly state that they are a point to point airline. These guys were late for the flight - whats the problem?
I've actually found Ryanair to be straightforward when I've missed a flight, eg accident on the M11 to Stansted delayed many passengers. The charge for rebooking is little different to other carriers. And that seems to be what they were going to do here.
What was different was there was a party of 47 children who refused to be split up between different flights. This must be a problem which afflicts any carrier where a large group gets misconnected, it would happen on BA at Heathrow as well. So how do others handle it ?
For those who say "Ah, but this was in the middle of a continuous journey" possibly don't realise that many passengers "connecting" at Heathrow on mainstream carriers nowadays are doing the same thing. One of the by-products of web ticket sales means that buying two tickets can be very much cheaper than any through ticket option (with justification, as they don't have all the costs of baggage repatriation for bags lost in the connection). Many passengers choose to do this nowadays at Heathrow and in a number of cases (eg where you change between carriers/alliances) it is no longer possible to get through tickets at all. The days of universal interlining on legacy carriers have gone. And with it the responsibilities of "looking after you throughout".