Fed up with Ryanair!

[PoachedEgg]

Help! I fly frequently on Ryanair, not out of choice, I hasten to add, but because they are the only airline going to the destination I require. I have tried very hard to be optimistic but my patience is being stretched.
Everything anyone says about them is definately true. They are so unhelpful and their only concern seems to be making money. Passengers are merely a lower being!

I have spent 6 hours, yesterday and today - trying to book baggage into the hold and a priority boarding. I give the necessary details and it tells me they cannot find my details so are unable to process my request. Albeit I have the confirmed email in front of me.

Today I decided to telephone the number that is on the website. The cost per call - £1 per minute. Firstly it is constantly unavailable, even 118 118 could not understand the signel given out. 1 hour 2 mins later I finally get a Menu lowdown. Press buttons 1 to 7, so, selecting the one I think is the right one, it tells me I can find all the information I needed on Ryanair.com.!! How very frustrating. I battled on and on and on.......and three hours 45 minutes later I had got no information whatsoever I that was wanting. I dread to think what my phone bill will be, but hey - Mr O'Leary will perhaps get 50p per minute towards his profit margins! :ugh:

[bizzy liz]

Ah Poached Egg,

Why don't you travel RYR with a very generous 10kg hand luggage only, and check in online, and get automatic priority boarding?

I have travelled ex Dub to Seville, Malaga, and Biarritz this way in the past while, and it is absolutely brill! No waiting at carousels at the other end either! Might I say that the flight one way to Seville was €17.98..... and the flight to Biarritz was the same price return!! Now if I get the train to Cork from Dublin it is around €60.
Admittedly the cost of the Malaga gig was a bit more, but not too bad.

I just love the fact that on RYR one can check in online with hand luggage and sail straight through security, and no wait at the arrival. AerLingus has not yet got online checkin for Malaga, which I discovered to my cost recently. Had to queue with the mega suitcase brigade even though I only had a small hand luggage bag. It's on the way though I believe.

Checked in luggage is for long haul in my humble opinion, but no doubt some still do need to do this no matter how short the flight.

[BHX86]

Am I right in thinking from the 1st June that Ryanair web checks no longer get automatic priority boarding

[Capot]

As an aside to the thread, rather than drift, it struck me as hilarious that Michael O'leary, in his disgraceful - and failed - attempt to cause a loss of poublic confidence in his competitors called them "crappy".

He has set up and presides over what by any standards is the crappiest airline in the world. Cheap, yes. Big, yes. Does what it says on the tin? More or less, apart from outrageous advertising claims.

But very, very crappy.

[Flying_Frisbee]

Am I right in thinking from the 1st June that Ryanair web checks no longer get automatic priority boarding
From 3rd June. But it's in the interest of fairness, you see....
These new charges will make the sale of priority boarding fairer for all passengers. Because of the success of our web check-in facility (which allows passengers to avoid airport queues) many flights are now selling out all of our allocation of 80 (40%) of priority boarding seats. By charging the same fee for priority boarding for both web check-in and airport check-in passengers, we hope to ensure that priority boarding seats will always be available for sale at airports for family members and groups who wish to purchase it.
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=08&month=may&story=gen-en-190508

[Sir Lee B´stard]

Thank you for that Frisbee, for one moment I thought Ryanair were abandoning their altruistic roots and just screwing more money out of their devoted public! But no, it is all in the cause of fairness and customer service.

[bizzy liz]

Looking at the website today 10th June, this is the answer given re hand luggage only and priority boarding.

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=bga&quest=0bagsOnline

I don't see anything about a charge for priority boarding, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right place!

Anyone any update?

I personally don't care that some of you have a problem with RYR. To my mind they are the business. I have never had any problems with them. You get what you pay for! And the route selection they have is second to none IMO.

And no, I don't work for them either, just enjoy seeing Europe very cheaply and efficiently on a bus in the sky.

[bizzy liz]

OK I found it in the news section:ugh:! However, strange that it's still free on the link above - my previous post ?

I hope the flight I booked on 29th May which didn't charge for priority is still Ok, flight is not until September. All will be revealed I suppose!

[VAFFPAX]

Why don't you travel RYR with a very generous 10kg hand luggage only, and check in online, and get automatic priority boarding?
Liz, some of us do not have the luxury of just being able to travel with hand luggage. But, since RYR IS such a royal pain in the ass about checked luggage, I avoid flying with them in the first place.

On average, the price of flying scheduled non-RYR equals that of RYR + checked luggage cost + check-in cost + excess luggage cost (my luggage is routinely around 23kg because of my equipment) minus the aggravation and stress, or is less.

Just remember that not everyone can fly hand-luggage only.

S.

[bizzy liz]

VAFFPAX,

Yes, I agree, it suits some but not others.

In fact I DID mention this in my original post,

"Checked in luggage is for long haul in my humble opinion, but no doubt some still do need to do this no matter how short the flight."

all the best.

[Seat62K]

I have been flying Ryanair regularly for just over two years. Before that I, too, was apprehensive given all the negative publicity. Since then I have flown over 60 sectors with Ryanair and must say that nothing of significance has gone wrong. Quite the reverse, in fact. For example, when flying easyJet I am always concerned about the length of delay I am likely to experience. This thought never occurs to me when flying Ryanair. Perhaps I have just been lucky. I must say that I have yet to experience what happens if a Ryanair flight is seriously delayed or cancelled due to reasons beyond the airline's control (and therefore outside the scope of EU regulations). Perhaps I might then change my opinion. Are there readers out there who have experienced long delays/cancellations with Ryanair? I'd be interested to know how you were treated.

[ryansf]

To me it's simple - if you don't like Ryanair, don't fly them!!! Fly first class on a legacy carrier to another airport and get a chauffeured limousine to your destination.

If you wanted to check-in bags and get priority boarding, couldn't you have just gone to the check-in desk and paid for it there instead of paying £200 on a phone call?! You can also add them on the website as well, which it clearly states when completing your booking.

[Coquelet]

I'll say just the same as Seat62K - but with some 180 FR sectors in five years.
Never experienced any long delay or cancellation, absolutely nothing to complain about.
I have just booked a few flights at 8,02 euros return all included (without priority). Not bad !

[PoachedEgg]

Some replys here have clearly not read my thread. I stated I had on several occasions tried to book baggage 'on line' with little success. It kept informing me that they had no details of my booking. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to avoid delays at checkin!
What annoys me is why do they give you a telephone number to ring, if there is no human contact on any of the 'press number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,' when you do get through?

:ugh:

[OFSO]

My wife and I live in Catalunia, an hour's drive from GRO, happily surviving on a small pension. My wife's parents are in London, elderly and disabled, and she flies back every few weeks to look after them, so maybe we make 20 or 30 flights a year, including other short holidays. There is no way we could afford the astronomical charges Iberia or BA level for the trip to London; it's only thanks to Ryanair that my wife gives her parents the care they deserve. Sure it's cramped and demeaning and passengers are treated like brown smelly stuff, but what the heck, it's only two hours and it's very very cheap. Plan ahead, do something else with your luggage, book tickets and check in on-line and it's simplicity itself. As for holidays, the price we paid for a trip GRO to Madrid last April was one fifth the cost of taking the AVE and one ninth the Iberia shuttle price. So thanks Mr. O'Leary - much appreciated, no complaints, keep it up. :ok::ok::ok:

[SXB]

The original post illustrates the difficulties in contacting FR when you genuinely have a problem and need to speak to a human. Basically they make it impossible. To rub salt into the wound they actually profit from your futile attempts to contact them (premium rate number) Not sure what the position is in the UK but here in France when a service provider uses a premium rate number for customer enquiries you only pay for the call once it's actually been answered by human, I discovered that the other evening when I callled Orange after discovering I had a net problem.

[RingwaySam]

Completely agree with Ryansf. I've only had one problem with Ryanair.

I was booked on an evening Ryanair flight to Krakow with my family - No airlines, at the time flew to Krakow from Manchester so we went from Liverpool. Upon being called to the gate for our departure we were told we had a two hour delay, in Polish (bearing in mind we were still at Liverpool). A Polish guy told all the English people what they were actually saying. After the two hour delay we were called to the gate again, the minutes/hours kept getting added and it turn out to be a five and a half hour delay.

Finally we were called to board, only to be told there was live animals on the runway at Krakow and we'd be going to Rzeszow :uhoh: Anyway by the time we would have departed and actually arrived in Krakow wouldn't really have worth going. Ahh well! You pay peanuts, I suppose you can't expect first class service, although abit of communication goes a long way!

Ryanair, for me are great in getting me to Dublin/Shannon (the smaller routes) but I don't think i'd use them for a holiday.

[jacob79]

Arrived back today from a week in Alghero from Liverpool with Ryanair.

Cheap as chips (although not as cheap if i had waited a couple of weeks).
Hand Luggage only - walzed on and off with the now discontinued free priority boarding.
Both sectors were early - 20 minutes today.Great stuff!

[bizzy liz]

Poached Egg,
were you perhaps attempting to book bags in after having booked a hand baggage only flight?
Only asking, as I think that may have caused your problem. RYR want everything done at point of booking I think. Now I could be wrong, if so, my apologies. If things are not done at that stage, well it is expensive to change.

Anyway, I still stand by my rule..... Ryanair is FANTASTIC if.... you have hand luggage only. If you must place luggage in the hold, then you pays your money and takes your choice. Hold luggage costs the airline a fortune to unload etc. and I can understand that.

I know that "handluggagers" will have to pay for priority boarding from June onwards, but hey, what's a few euros for the luxury of that?

If we want all the luxuries and ten times the price then we must pay for it! I have had no problems with this company in all the times I have flown with them. Indeed the staff have been fine too. I do not need someone to fawn all over me for a two hour jaunt, just serve me a cup of coffee and do the safety checks correctly and I'm happy!

Now if I had the money and was going to Japan or other long haul, my dream would be business class, but.... I must dream on!!

Enjoy your trips guys,

[Rush2112]

I was staying near Tours last week, and my brother came over for a couple of days using Ryanair. When he checked in at Tours for the return he was charged 5 euros as he had not checked in on-line. Bit of a scam there from someone!

[Seat62K]

Was his booking "Online check in plus 0 bags"? If it was, charging him to check in at the airport was legitimate. (Similarly, if he'd checked in online but had not paid in advance for baggage.) If it wasn't, did he challenge the fee and, if so, what was he told?

[Rush2112]

Good question, to which I know not the answer. He just paid up, somewhat bemused as to why, but at the end of the day the flight cost nowt, just 4.99 tax. I guess the thing was not knowing why, but perhaps the flight was a booking such as you suggested, in which case he should read the paperwork better!

[Skintman]

Sorry folks, but I'm not a hypocrite and I like Ryanair a lot. Not for the luxury travel or their fab customer service, but for the low cost and great value. Me and Ms Skintlady use them for lot for long romantic weekends and no one even comes close to their interesting choice of destinations or cost. :ok:

If you want a full service carrier, it's easy, use one, but let's not compare standards when there is such a cost differnential.

Without them, just think how much we would still be paying the high legacy carrier prices.:{

I really, really wish St. Michael O'R would give longhaul a go and shake the current lot out of their cosy apathy.

Skintman :cool:

[Seat62K]

I believe that longhaul economy fares with "legacy" carriers are, generally speaking, about as low as they can be - effectively, passengers in other cabins are "subsidising" restrictive fares in economy. The only reason why an airline like BA, for example, is able to offer such low promotional fares in economy is the fact that First, Club and, to a lesser extent, World Traveller Plus fares are so high in comparison. Not even MOL could, I think, match these economy fares and make money, though not being an aviation economist I could be wrong....