eastern wiseguy
I had a look at RYR and thought that it suited my purpose. I noticed that I could check in online free. My wife however(non EU citizen) did NOT have that option and as such we would have to pay.........EI have no such silly rule.
Not quite so. Last August, I had no choice but to use them from Sweden back to STN. My travelling companion has a non EU passport. The process is that you check at the counter so that they can check your Visa, then you go to the ticket counter to get a refund of the check in fee. It's a slight hassle but it ensures that FR see the Visa and you don't pay.
To the subject in hand (and I do think it warrants a thread of it's own, probably merging later) I think this move will cause ENORMOUS troubles. I expect LOTS of pax to be inconvenienced by it but even more so the staff.
Regulars in this forum may recall that I hate FR and only use when there is no choice BUT that I am huge admirer of their business approach to extract every ounce of money from the word 'Free' and to use every act of jiggery-pokery and
PR that ever was, and then invent new ones!
For FR this is a highly risky move and the benefits of not paying staff shifts the problems elsewhere. The airport staff are going to be VERY annoyed when pax say, "The system won't let me on but I have a valid code and have paid for my case and ..." The kind of problem that an airline rep (direct or agent) can look up on the system and ten seconds later can give them a good reason for being rejected or can accept them for carriage ... all gone.
The airport staff are going to take the brunt of this and I think that any FR airport is going to watch carefully for what happens at the first terminal that has the agents withdrawn.
It is true that, with the recession, plenty of pax will fly with FR and each year's new set of 18 year olds wanting to explore the world will gladly subject themselves to FR. But - this is going to cause huge troubles for a lot of pax, a lot of airport staff and, ultimately, FR. Perhaps I can sketch the adverts about six months after the withdrawl of agents??
We have always tried to save you, dearest customer, money and our innovative move to save you having to speak to a mere human and save us/you more money has come under some criticism.
Accordingly, we are restoring the agents and know that you will appreciate the 25% increase in fares over and above what they were before. But, we are always respectful of what out customers want. If you want agents - you got em and you pay for em.