Ryanair - Do they care about their passengers?
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Ryanair - Do they care about their passengers?
I have heard tonight the EMA to Murcia flight had to divert to Alicante due to a runway closure at Murcia following a fire which put out the runways lights.
It appears that once the pax were at Alicante there was no arrangement to move them to Murcia. Some pax were able to hop on a bus that had been chartered by another airline to move their own pax to Murcia. What happened to the remaining Ryanair pax remains unclear.
May be somebody can clarify the position but surely if you buy a ticket from an airline to Murcia is it not incumbent upon them to get you to the destination for which you have paid or with the advent of these LCCs has this responsibility been ignored.
MOL never misses an opporunity to have a go at BA but at least they know their responsibilities and look after their passengers.
Don't come the price bit either as I have paid nearly £400 for two to travel to Murcia from EMA for new year in Spain!!
It appears that once the pax were at Alicante there was no arrangement to move them to Murcia. Some pax were able to hop on a bus that had been chartered by another airline to move their own pax to Murcia. What happened to the remaining Ryanair pax remains unclear.
May be somebody can clarify the position but surely if you buy a ticket from an airline to Murcia is it not incumbent upon them to get you to the destination for which you have paid or with the advent of these LCCs has this responsibility been ignored.
MOL never misses an opporunity to have a go at BA but at least they know their responsibilities and look after their passengers.
Don't come the price bit either as I have paid nearly £400 for two to travel to Murcia from EMA for new year in Spain!!
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In every diversion I have been involved with/heard of, RYR have got the pax to final destination albeit with the inevitable delay associated with arranging ground transport at an infrequently visited airport.What we don't do (& I'm guessing someone in high office looked rather closely at the legality of this one?)is provide coach transport for the returning pax to come to wherever we deposited the aircraft;they are told simply"your aircraft has been unable to land due to adverse wx,your flight has been canx" So any of you thinking of going off for a dirty weekend in winter would be well advised to A -come back Sun morning B- Be on very good terms with,or have a sympathetic boss,or C- use another carrier. It is I agree, a bit harsh;and the answer to your original question is " just as much as they care for their employees"!?!
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I am aware of a number of instances where FR have got the pax to the right country and then told them they're on their own.
Like I keep saying, you pay your money and take your choice. But, Mr O'Leary, don't pretend that you're offering a high level of service... it's value for money.
Like I keep saying, you pay your money and take your choice. But, Mr O'Leary, don't pretend that you're offering a high level of service... it's value for money.
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Overall, my experiences with FR have always been 100% fine.
It is easy to spot though that Ryanair are determind (and somewhat successful) to alter the public's concept of flying. They want in every way for flying to be as simple a catching a bus. Along with that concept though passengers can only expect to be treated like bus passengers.
Sometimes, actually many times, I travel on the 43 bus to its last stop. I stand at the bus stop and see the destination of the bus is the published last stop. On board I'm happily snuggled down reading my paper when the lights are turned off/on and the driver announces "All Change please".
For whatever "operational reason" the bus company chooses we, the passengers, are all turfed off at some early stop. NO apology, but very little fuss from the pax, we all just get off and work out the next bit of our journey.
Now.....when we go to an airport we check-in for a flight, why is it we all seem to surrender ourselves to this higher force and like primary school children expect to be shepherded and cared for.
Why? Because that has always been the way with an airline. From the moment they hug us with warm welcoming arms at the checkin desk to the moment they proudly pat us on the back at the arrivals door we trust and listen and follow their every instruction knowing that big Aunty BA will feed, water and love us every step of the way. Hell.....if the flight is delayed over night Aunty Airline will take us to a lovely big hotel, all warm and cosy and tuck us up in a big warm fluffy bed and serve us Tea and Toast for breakfast.
hmmmm....times are a changing.
Ryanair want us to view them as a bus service, frequent, punctual, and normally cheap. No food, no fuss, pick a seat and sit down. And if things change at the past minute, they flash the lights and shout "All change please"....A group of 185 airline passengers though tends to resemble a group of refugees, the same folks stepping of a rerouted bus would simply disperse and carry on as normal.
That's my take on life anyway.........
It is easy to spot though that Ryanair are determind (and somewhat successful) to alter the public's concept of flying. They want in every way for flying to be as simple a catching a bus. Along with that concept though passengers can only expect to be treated like bus passengers.
Sometimes, actually many times, I travel on the 43 bus to its last stop. I stand at the bus stop and see the destination of the bus is the published last stop. On board I'm happily snuggled down reading my paper when the lights are turned off/on and the driver announces "All Change please".
For whatever "operational reason" the bus company chooses we, the passengers, are all turfed off at some early stop. NO apology, but very little fuss from the pax, we all just get off and work out the next bit of our journey.
Now.....when we go to an airport we check-in for a flight, why is it we all seem to surrender ourselves to this higher force and like primary school children expect to be shepherded and cared for.
Why? Because that has always been the way with an airline. From the moment they hug us with warm welcoming arms at the checkin desk to the moment they proudly pat us on the back at the arrivals door we trust and listen and follow their every instruction knowing that big Aunty BA will feed, water and love us every step of the way. Hell.....if the flight is delayed over night Aunty Airline will take us to a lovely big hotel, all warm and cosy and tuck us up in a big warm fluffy bed and serve us Tea and Toast for breakfast.
hmmmm....times are a changing.
Ryanair want us to view them as a bus service, frequent, punctual, and normally cheap. No food, no fuss, pick a seat and sit down. And if things change at the past minute, they flash the lights and shout "All change please"....A group of 185 airline passengers though tends to resemble a group of refugees, the same folks stepping of a rerouted bus would simply disperse and carry on as normal.
That's my take on life anyway.........
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I can add first hand knowledge of this incident because I was at Murcia waiting to return to NEMA.
I checked in at 5 pm for a 7 ish pm departure, no problems at this stage and proceeded to the departure gate. There were about 4 flights due, EZY fron Bristol, FR from LPL and EMA, IB from BCL.
After it went dark I saw a bit of blue light activity on the runway and then the lights went out !!
The tannoy anounced that the EZY, IB and FR from LPL had diverted to ALC (60 miles north) and that coaches would convey passengers to there.
Then a tannoy message said the FR EMA was still inbound but had a 30 min delay then 10 mins later a 40 min delay. I fully expected to hear that this flight had also been diverted but instead the handling agents suddenly announced the flight was cancelled ! with no other information. Were we going to ALC aswell ?? "No its just cancelled" said a very puzzled agent to 150 suddenly stranded passengers. The place decended into chaos as we all had to walk out onto the apron and back through immigration to collect our bags.
I heard one agent tell a passenger that the flight hadnt left EMA as FR had been monitoring the Runway light issue, this was obviously a blatant lie as it now transpired that the flight had indeed arrived at ALC Dumped its PAX and presumably departed empty back to the UK to continue its schedule.
No offer was made to get us up to ALC, most realized they would get no sense out of the Murcia FR staff (to be fair I think they were as much in the dark as us) so accepted refunds.
After about 2 hours most passengers drifted away, probably most, myself included, had friends and family to take them back to their second homes. However there were many families with children who had been on holiday without spanish ties, they were very distraught and in effect abandoned, Murcia airport is miles from any decent sized town so I dont know what became of them.
I finally got back 2 days later via Iberia and BA (ALC -BCL-LHR) for a very reasonable £69, incidently FR had seats available on line the following day (thur) for euro 330, which is very interesting because we were told the flight next day was full !!
I will still book FR in the future because when it works it works well and MOL knows he can get away with it time and time again.
I checked in at 5 pm for a 7 ish pm departure, no problems at this stage and proceeded to the departure gate. There were about 4 flights due, EZY fron Bristol, FR from LPL and EMA, IB from BCL.
After it went dark I saw a bit of blue light activity on the runway and then the lights went out !!
The tannoy anounced that the EZY, IB and FR from LPL had diverted to ALC (60 miles north) and that coaches would convey passengers to there.
Then a tannoy message said the FR EMA was still inbound but had a 30 min delay then 10 mins later a 40 min delay. I fully expected to hear that this flight had also been diverted but instead the handling agents suddenly announced the flight was cancelled ! with no other information. Were we going to ALC aswell ?? "No its just cancelled" said a very puzzled agent to 150 suddenly stranded passengers. The place decended into chaos as we all had to walk out onto the apron and back through immigration to collect our bags.
I heard one agent tell a passenger that the flight hadnt left EMA as FR had been monitoring the Runway light issue, this was obviously a blatant lie as it now transpired that the flight had indeed arrived at ALC Dumped its PAX and presumably departed empty back to the UK to continue its schedule.
No offer was made to get us up to ALC, most realized they would get no sense out of the Murcia FR staff (to be fair I think they were as much in the dark as us) so accepted refunds.
After about 2 hours most passengers drifted away, probably most, myself included, had friends and family to take them back to their second homes. However there were many families with children who had been on holiday without spanish ties, they were very distraught and in effect abandoned, Murcia airport is miles from any decent sized town so I dont know what became of them.
I finally got back 2 days later via Iberia and BA (ALC -BCL-LHR) for a very reasonable £69, incidently FR had seats available on line the following day (thur) for euro 330, which is very interesting because we were told the flight next day was full !!
I will still book FR in the future because when it works it works well and MOL knows he can get away with it time and time again.
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Man777 I was flying the EZY BRS flight and you are right FR like us did divert into Alicante so you were told porky pies they had departed EMA. We bussed our pax down to Murcia and bussed the pax from Murcia to Alicante, the FR on the other hand dumped it's pax off at Alicante and within 15-20 min departed back to the UK empty!
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The policy of FR is well known and very transparent.
I would however, like to know exactly the attitude of FR flight crews towards abandoning so many passengers under these circumstances. Can returning to the UK with an empty aircraft really be justified, particularly when other airlines are obviously doing their utmost to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
True, the cause of the problem was beyond the control of FR ..... but there again, it wasn't exactly the passengers fault either.
Well done EZY.
I would however, like to know exactly the attitude of FR flight crews towards abandoning so many passengers under these circumstances. Can returning to the UK with an empty aircraft really be justified, particularly when other airlines are obviously doing their utmost to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
True, the cause of the problem was beyond the control of FR ..... but there again, it wasn't exactly the passengers fault either.
Well done EZY.
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TSR2 , me-thinks a little niave " I would like to know the attitude of FR flight crews abandoning passengers". Do you for one instant, think that we have any say in the matter?It is company policy,and if you wish to remain employed you follow company policy / instructions, is that complicated for you to understand in any way?
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Of course Ryanair don't care about passengers.
O'Leary clearly stated that on national television over a year ago when he was being interviewed on BBC's 'Watchdog'.
He quite calmly said, that if passengers were getting air travel 'that cheap', then they had no right to expect any kind of customer service etc. and he didn't give a damn if they liked it or not!
The problem nowadays is that passengers don't seem to be aware of the difference between other Airlines and Ryanair. They wrongly assume that the attitude towards them will be the same, when, of course, there is no such similarity, and, I must say, none is claimed.
I, myself have been caught out by the temptation of cheap flights with Ryanair and ended up being abandoned in a foreign Country with no explanation or assistance other that an offer of 'next available flight' (which certainly would not be the next day), or a refund.
I accept that I had no 'comeback' and it would have been naive of me to expect otherwise, having read the conditions of carriage. I must confess that that did still not stop me from being extremely angry at the time, and I resolved never to use the Airline again.
As long as people are aware of these risks then Ryanair is fine. The trouble is that few people ARE aware!
O'Leary clearly stated that on national television over a year ago when he was being interviewed on BBC's 'Watchdog'.
He quite calmly said, that if passengers were getting air travel 'that cheap', then they had no right to expect any kind of customer service etc. and he didn't give a damn if they liked it or not!
The problem nowadays is that passengers don't seem to be aware of the difference between other Airlines and Ryanair. They wrongly assume that the attitude towards them will be the same, when, of course, there is no such similarity, and, I must say, none is claimed.
I, myself have been caught out by the temptation of cheap flights with Ryanair and ended up being abandoned in a foreign Country with no explanation or assistance other that an offer of 'next available flight' (which certainly would not be the next day), or a refund.
I accept that I had no 'comeback' and it would have been naive of me to expect otherwise, having read the conditions of carriage. I must confess that that did still not stop me from being extremely angry at the time, and I resolved never to use the Airline again.
As long as people are aware of these risks then Ryanair is fine. The trouble is that few people ARE aware!
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Captplaystation
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"is that complicated for you to understand"
Such a comment completely unnecessary.
Naive ??? ... As I clearly state "The policy of FR is well known and transparant". It should be quite obvious that I fully understand the flight crew were acting completely in accordance with company policy and I would not expect them to do otherwise, after all we all have bills to pay.
You obviously mis-read the question. I did not suggest that it was the flight crew who were responsible for abandoning passengers but simply asking what the attitude of flight crews is towards such a policy.
Is it really a matter of implementation without conscience or does anyone (from what should be the most respected group of employees) ever voice their disapproval of this appaling policy to management.
"is that complicated for you to understand"
Such a comment completely unnecessary.
Naive ??? ... As I clearly state "The policy of FR is well known and transparant". It should be quite obvious that I fully understand the flight crew were acting completely in accordance with company policy and I would not expect them to do otherwise, after all we all have bills to pay.
You obviously mis-read the question. I did not suggest that it was the flight crew who were responsible for abandoning passengers but simply asking what the attitude of flight crews is towards such a policy.
Is it really a matter of implementation without conscience or does anyone (from what should be the most respected group of employees) ever voice their disapproval of this appaling policy to management.
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TSR2, sorry I'm becoming as bitter & twisted as those I work for! quote"from what SHOULD be the most respected group of employees" Note the word I have highlighted ,and you will see the problem here;in a nutshell they neither respect us ,or indeed give a monkey's what we think. Any suggestions such as "wx is below minima at AAA, do you want to think along the lines of setting up the coaches to take the return pax to BBB if we divert?" is met with "well by the time check-in is closed, and the bus goes AAA - BBB, you'll have a big delay to come back & & & etc etc" by our ops, because that is what they are told to do,even if it is the last rotation of the day & no probs with knock-on delays for next rotation/crew. So after a while we give up making helpful suggestions & just do what we are told,which is of course what they wanted in the first place.Can't speak for anyone else, but personally I find it all a bit heartless & wonder how many people (especially those that have an "understanding" employer like RYR ) have received the silver-bullet for failing to show up for work after an extra day (or several) away, courtesy of our policy.But what to do eh?
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captplaystation:
Question. In the light of the recent demotion of a captain for 'potentially' delaying 300 pax, I ask this.
What would be the company's response if a captain refused/declined to fly home empty on the last rotation of the day, but decided to wait for the pax to arrive/be ferried to his airport of diversion and so fullfil the contract of carriage?, not to being as professional as the airline claims to be.
Being demoted for gross misconduct would make for a very interesting case in the courts. Bring it on!
Perhaps Leo can enlighten us as to what he would do.
Question. In the light of the recent demotion of a captain for 'potentially' delaying 300 pax, I ask this.
What would be the company's response if a captain refused/declined to fly home empty on the last rotation of the day, but decided to wait for the pax to arrive/be ferried to his airport of diversion and so fullfil the contract of carriage?, not to being as professional as the airline claims to be.
Being demoted for gross misconduct would make for a very interesting case in the courts. Bring it on!
Perhaps Leo can enlighten us as to what he would do.
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Of course Ryanair don't care about passengers.
O'Leary clearly stated that on national television over a year ago when he was being interviewed on BBC's 'Watchdog'.
He quite calmly said, that if passengers were getting air travel 'that cheap', then they had no right to expect any kind of customer service etc. and he didn't give a damn if they liked it or not!
Ummmmm, well on a recent trip to Stockholm FR were twice the price of SAS, plus the 1 hour 20 min coach trip. If my SAS flight had been diverted or delayed signifcantly I'm sure that I would have been looked after. So with FR you do not get what you have paid for. If I'd travelled FR and I'd got diverted then I would have probably been to have my own devices despite having paid twice as much as SAS.
It pays to shop around, and yes I'm including easyJet.
Of course Ryanair don't care about passengers.
O'Leary clearly stated that on national television over a year ago when he was being interviewed on BBC's 'Watchdog'.
He quite calmly said, that if passengers were getting air travel 'that cheap', then they had no right to expect any kind of customer service etc. and he didn't give a damn if they liked it or not!
Ummmmm, well on a recent trip to Stockholm FR were twice the price of SAS, plus the 1 hour 20 min coach trip. If my SAS flight had been diverted or delayed signifcantly I'm sure that I would have been looked after. So with FR you do not get what you have paid for. If I'd travelled FR and I'd got diverted then I would have probably been to have my own devices despite having paid twice as much as SAS.
It pays to shop around, and yes I'm including easyJet.
