Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (Merged) II

[Torque Tonight]

bjh123,

but the plane had no medical equipment onboard

I can say with 100% absolute certainty that this is utter horsesh1t. Don't believe everything you read on ihateryanair.com or whatever that stupid website is called.

[Sober Lark]

Moderators,

In these dark economic times permit me to post an amusing link which even Leo would laugh at.

YouTube - Hitler Ryanair Rant

Sober Lark

[ExXB]

Originally Posted by ExXB

You will also see (thread drift alert) that the "little big mouth" from IATA scored an overwhelming 3%. Good thing he's been given the boot and will be leaving in June.

Apparently Tony Tyler (CX) has been chosen to replace him, a breath of fresh air, peut être.

[Rush2112]

Originally Posted by Sober Lark

Moderators,

In these dark economic times permit me to post an amusing link which even Leo would laugh at.

YouTube - Hitler Ryanair Rant

Sober Lark

I must say I have seen a few of these Downfall parodies, this has to be one of the funniest.

That said, I have no beef with Ryanair, the occasional times I fly it in or out of Tours or Limoges, it does what it says on the tin. I can live without being fed or watered for the hour or so the flight takes, or buy a cup of tea if I feel like it.

STN on the other hand...

[lurkinginSTO]

I have no beef with Ryanair either, flew with them once but despite this won't fly with them again, too inconvenient/umcomfortable. But here's a fresh brickbat for y'all:
Ryanair flyers trapped on Gothenburg plane


Ryanair flyers trapped on Gothenburg plane - The Local

Favourite quote: "There are babies here."

[martinj59]

All over the local radio today. 5 hours in a Ryan plane, cc hiding below blankets according to actual passenger statement on the radio, "It was quite an achievement to hide themselves on a plane". Since GSE is a very small airport I can understand the captain for wanting to go home, but in my mind wishing to take of on the final leg of the day 5 hours delayed would seem stretching it a bit.

The company did issue sort of an excuse, still blabbing on about the "can not sell on the landside" and "wanted to be prepared for a speedy takeoff". 5 hours for god sakes, how much could it cost them to give away some stinking pizza slices and "delightful sandwhiches". Or even just a cup of coffee. I can see cc not doing this at their own risk, but it would seem such a simple business policy to spend some small change to keep the people reasonably happy. Not rocket science really.

Said by a really big Ryan supporter :-) (actually). We fly with them at least 6-10 legs a year, and have personally never had a problem that other ailines have done worse. But I guess when the **** hits the fan, it sticks when you travel Ryan Air.

[copeland1957]

Flight Cancellation

My flight from FUE-EDI was cancelled on 30 Nov. I applied online on 1 Dec for refund. This has still not been credited to credit card. Should I expect this to have been through by now? I realise there were a great number of cancellations around that time due to weather so presume customer services were inundated with requests for refunds but Ryanair have not put anything on their website to advise of delays in refunds. Their site still advises of normal refunds payable within 7 working days? Anybody else still waiting for refunds from around these dates?

[PAXboy]

copeland1957 They will make you wait as long as possible - if possible until you give up. It's just their way. So keep track of all your communications and keep pushing. Make sure you have details of the obligations they are subject to and YOU follow the rules! If you are in the right you will, eventually, get your money back.

[Dagenhamdave]

I was on a ryanair flight from Knock to stansted on the 18th Dec,
take off delayed for over 2 hours , orbited in the hold for an hour waiting for stansted to clear runway........they could'nt, next try Luton...closed, captain announces we are off to East Midlands, 5 mins later captain announces in broken english we are off to liverpool! we had to ask the cabin crew had he made a mistake ???? we made a fast transit to Liverpool and as we started decent over the Mersea I started to think about how much fuel we might have left after 2 hours, hoping we had enough for a couple of go arounds etc
We landed at Liverpool and were bussed off to the terminal.

Now none of the above was anything to do with Ryanair , The crew up front had to make a lot of decisions at very short notice fair play to them,
but the back up plan was a disaster we were told a coach would take us to Stansted and we would have to wait 3 hours for the coach to arrive
fair enough .... coaches are not lurking for diverts at every airport but when this coach arrived 5 hours after we landed all the pax were shocked at the sight of the 1970's style coach , we got onboard it was damp ... some of the seats were wet , and it was about -5 , the driver said the heater would warm up eventually .......it did'nt but we just wanted to get home .....meanwhile one of the pax who enjoyed the 5 hour wait in the bar started to kick off annoying fellow passengers, shouting abuse at every one etc , he was arrested at the motoway services , that cheered every one up and we drove out of the services (after scraping across a raised kerb which sounded like it ripped the front off the coach ) feeling happy that we could try and get to sleep but sad that he was in a warm police car on its way to a warm police station while we were in our hats and gloves , shivering away.
We got to stansted after between 5 and 6 hours on the road in artic conditions,
The Captain and co-pilot did their best to remain under cover while sitting in the coach and they did not get much stick from the pax who had rumbled them , again fair play to them for actually getting on the coach The cabin crew had vanished at Liverpool.
ETD 13:30 ATD 16:15 ETA to Stan 17:30 ATA Stan 06:30
A bitter sweet experience of ryanair, the pilots and crew worked hard to look after us , and they couldnt land anywhere but the coach was in such a bad state that even asylum seekers wouldnt have got onboard at Calais.
Mr O'leary would probably say you pay for what you get ,which in my case was symtoms of mild hypothermia .

[Abusing_the_sky]

cc hiding below blankets according to actual passenger statement on the radio, "It was quite an achievement to hide themselves on a plane"

Blankets??? On FR aircraft? Are you taking the Michael?

Folks, air travel is not such a "taboo subject" these days. Yes, delays, for whatever reason are a (massive to some) inconvenience, but they DO happen. The crew will always try to help and advise, but there's only so much they can do (taking into account the information they get, weather, the rules on opening bars on the ground and so on).
I can't believe for one moment that crew will just disappear and leave pax on their own, with no information. For example, this summer, thanks to the "great" French and their strike(s), we were setting off from the UK, on an afternoon departure time, to MJV - Spain. The info we had was that the French were going to go on strike, but at midnight, after our ETA back in the UK. Little did we know...

Got to MJV ahead of schedule, pax off, get the a/c ready for the next 180+, boarded, all fine and dandy then BANG! ATC slot for 2 hours due to French ATC strike (this was at 21:00L and we were told they will start the strike at 00:00L?)
Bare in mind MJV is a military airport and they only allow commercial flying up to 22:00L. Never mind, explain to pax what's going on, Captain goes into detail, keeps pax informed, the works. But we are now worrying, we know what time the airport is closing, some expats know it too, they come to us, asking questions, what's going to happen next?
We haven't a clue, but hold on one sec, i'll try and find out for you. Goes in the F/D, has a chat with the CPT. OPS have negotiated with the military people to keep the apt open. But only for one more hour. Now it's close to the closing time and the French don't seem to change their minds.

Meanwhile, in the cabin, trying to be there for everyone and do our best to answer people's questions, this is what happened:
1. A very young family (mother - pregnant, father, child just over 2yo ) were on the "top of my list". Mother because she was pregnant, child because she was hungry/bored/didn't understand what's happening and dad; dad was verbally aggressive, threatening, and swearing at the crew. I could have asked for him to be removed from the aircraft because of his threatening behavior but i chose not to. I took it in the chin, thinking that if I don't manage to calm him down in the next few minutes, he's getting off. But thankfully, the wife (a real nice person, so sweet and understanding, i'd have her in my flight any day) managed to calm him down.
2. A lady traveling on her own to her father's funeral. One of the most heartbreaking things i've ever experienced in my life. The look on her face, the silent tears, and i couldn't do anything about it. Nothing!
3. Another expat, nice enough lady but with the "this is not good enough, do something about it" attitude. I kindly explained that unfortunately, we don't have any control over airspace, the French, weather, the French, ATC, the French...

The only reason why the CPT and OPS decided to try and keep pax on board (off course, anyone who wanted to get off could have done so, they would not have been stopped) was because of the uncertainty of the situation; get them off and as soon we had clearance board them again in a hurry to not miss the slot or keep them on board, if the slot would have been brought forward we could just close up and go. These are hard decisions that any Captain faces, and he/she is doomed if he/she does something about it and doomed if he/she doesn't do anything about it.

Meanwhile, myself and the rest of the crew, tried to do everything in our power to reassure/help pax the best we could. We also gave them our own water (we were not provided with crew meals or water so we fill in bottles of water in the crew room). This does not make us heroes, but human beings caring for other human beings in need.

It's now close to midnight and low and behold, the flight is canceled. Pax informed, us apologising, knowing that some of these people cannot afford a hotel and they'll spend the night in the terminal.
By the time we got to our hotel (before anyone jumps and starts shouting "at least you had a hotel", i believe the company is required by law to do so due to "rest period" issues and being fit to fly), it was 02:00L. Well the company was "kind enough" to put us down on what they call "split duty" (where you only need 6 hours rest when you've been flying X hours, in order to be fit to fly the next leg); back to the airport at 09:00, be prepared to board and fly back. Well, the nice Frenchmen didn't go off strike until noon, so there we were, hanging about MJV airport. Noon comes, we board, get a slot (there were many other a/c stranded there) and finally, we set off.
24hrs later after my report time the previous day, i am finally home. Not forgetting those tired pax, the lady who missed her father's funeral, the gobby expat lady or the aggressive trying to be sarcastic husband of that really nice, down to earth and pleasant lady. Still, i had to carry on selling stuff on board, do the smokeless, the scratchcards, basically my job. Because that's what was in my job description; it is, after all, a job, and i had to follow the procedures they (the employer) had set.

The moral of this story is (if there is any) that crew have it as bad as you pax/SLF. We do try, we REALLY do, to make it more bearable for you.
I hate it when the media blows the situation(s) out of proportions. I'm not defending the management, but sometimes there is nothing even THEY can do to fix a weather/ strike/ restrictions problem.

And i know the inconvenience of being delayed might cost you a lot of money, but please note that, when you're traveling with a LoCo carrier (don't know about long haul), the crew are NOT being paid overtime for the delay; they are as unhappy as you are about the delay, but they get on with it. So please, don't blame them; they work bloody hard!

There are a lot of delays about these days, lots of cancellations, mainly because of weather. Airlines don't make the weather, they deal with it. Trust me, an airline would NEVER cancel a flight unless it was the last resort. Some of you seem to think that they might be making some profit if they just cancel the flight. Completely untrue. Put it this way, if the ticket was let's say, 50 Euros return and the flight was canceled, the EU laws state that the airline has to refund each pax with,say, 300 Euros, then the company is at a loss. They do not cancel flights lightly. It costs more money to have the aircraft on the ground (parking fees, deicing and then deicing again these days, ground staff and so on)

If any journo is reading this, please note that all of the above experience happened AFTER the pilots nearly hit the school and the nunnery.

[Abusing_the_sky]

And i do apologise, i got a wee bit carried away

I forgot to mention that when it comes to coaches to transport pax from an airport to their original (airport) destination, the company (not just FR, most airlines) will go with the quickest that can get there. They have no clue if the seats are damp, or if there are pax who upset other pax with their behavior; all the airline cares about is getting those pax who unfortunately had to land at another airport than their choice of airport, to their original destination as quick as possible. They have a list of coach hire companies, phone up, whoever is available and can get there quick, they get the contract and are delegated to ensure the pax get to their destination. Not a pro in OPS side of an airline but from experience, this is how it works.

[Anansis]

Ryanair Pilot Reports UFO...

News : Ryanair reports UFO to Aviation Authorities

Given past form, I'm surprised that this story hasn't been quoted word for word and reported as fact by the British Press...

Merry Christmas all!

[airbourne]

Ryanair Issues

This is from the front page of todays Evening Herald 28/12/2010

A Nine month old baby was hospitalised after being stuck on a Ryanair plane for over 5 hours.

The child and its 3 year old sibling ended up in Temple Street Childrens hospital suffering from dehydration

Their ordeal began after a Christmas flight from Dublin to Eindhoven in HOlland was cancelled because of heavy snow, but passengers were kept waiting on baord.

After 3 hours their father asked if he could buy a sandwich for his 3 year old was was 'shaking from hunger' he told the Herald.

However, he was informed it is 'not comppany policy to sell food while the plance was grounded'

The children were so tired, hungry and deyhdrated following the mammoth delay that they had to be taken by ambulance from Dublin airport.

______________________________________________________

Now, my question is:

Are Ryanair cabin crew that scared for their jobs that they wont aid a baby?
Are Ryanair managment that strict that they would rather a baby be removed to hospital that give them water?
Is the Captain not informed of anything anymore.

I know that even bad press is good press, but how long can these types of stories continue before they actually affect the bottom line?

[wheelbarrow]

Parental Duties

Yes a shame altogether. Nothing to do with Ryanair.

But really the parents are responsible and in any common sense judgement shud have purchased water, sma gold to go packs and sandwiches in the terminal prior to travel, as everyone knows the crew cant open the bars prior to departure. Sure Aer Fungus is the same even with the work to rule! as I experienced to my hunger.

A quick look out the window at the conditions DOH!! Teach them a lesson really.

[airbourne]

And the award for parent of the year goes to....................

Hindsight is a great thing, should have this or that and bought water etc etc. The bottom line is they didnt. Maybe they only had hand luggage and with transporting a baby with nappies and all that associated stuff, maybe the father with a small child and a baby actually forgot something! Shame on him, maybe ryanair should call child services and have the kid taken away from the parents for neglect???

[sam1993]

But really the parents are responsible and in any common sense judgement shud have purchased water, sma gold to go packs and sandwiches in the terminal prior to travel, as everyone knows the crew cant open the bars prior to departure.

They probably didnt expect to be sat on the ground for 5 hours and not be offered anything at all!

[Facelookbovvered]

Wheelbarrow

Given that it is the Season of Goodwill to all men (and children) i will take it that your comments were tongue in cheek?

The fact remains that irrespective of Ryanairs management directives and how little they trust the judgement of their staff, the Captain is responsible for the safety and welfare of all on board including the cabin crew but especially the passengers.

It is well know that Ryanair discourage people in wheel chairs because it slows the turn round time down, it does, but there is still a duty of care.

Ryanair have little or no regard for its staff or passengers and sooner or later it will bite them on the bum, even the luck of the Irish will fade.

Consider this: the child in question here could have been an undiagnosed diabetic and could have died! Had this occurred who do you think Ryanairs PR team would have blamed? the parent? think not, the blame would have been laid squarely on the crew and in particular the Captain.

Once a delay goes beyond an hour with passengers on board with little sign of an improvement the Commanders remit must include the welfare of passengers.

Banning BALPA,employing CC who can barely grunt English, treating employee's like an inconvenient expense is one thing, but this is nothing short of a disgrace and will only serve to further empower Brussels to action against this outfits practices, you reap what you sow

[ltnmad]

Given that it is the Season of Goodwill to all men (and children) i will take it that your comments were tongue in cheek?

The fact remains that irrespective of Ryanairs management directives and how little they trust the judgement of their staff, the Captain is responsible for the safety and welfare of all on board including the cabin crew but especially the passengers.

It is well know that Ryanair discourage people in wheel chairs because it slows the turn round time down, it does, but there is still a duty of care.

Ryanair have little or no regard for its staff or passengers and sooner or later it will bite them on the bum, even the luck of the Irish will fade.

Consider this: the child in question here could have been an undiagnosed diabetic and could have died! Had this occurred who do you think Ryanairs PR team would have blamed? the parent? think not, the blame would have been laid squarely on the crew and in particular the Captain.

Once a delay goes beyond an hour with passengers on board with little sign of an improvement the Commanders remit must include the welfare of passengers.

Banning BALPA,employing CC who can barely grunt English, treating employee's like an inconvenient expense is one thing, but this is nothing short of a disgrace and will only serve to further empower Brussels to action against this outfits practices, you reap what you sow

Very well said.

As a poster previously mentioned, there is no need for parents to buy excessive supplies of baby products 'just incase' they are delayed for a number of hours. It's not their fault their trip was delayed for such an extended period of time and i'm sure had the so-called airline told them that they were to be sat around on the ground for so long after the aircraft had been boarded, they would have taken appropriate measures to ensure that both themselves and their children could comfortably survive the wait.

As for the CC, I can only presume that none of them are parents themselves as this treatment of Children, especially over Christmas time really does make my blood run cold. Besides, why is it RYRs policy not to sell food while the plane is grounded? With the Irish oaf, MOL you would think policies like this are the last thing on his mind in periods of bad weather and the likely grounding of several aircraft.

Stories like this really do make me think twice about flying with Ryanair!

[FR-]

I've always been told the bars are to be closed on the ground due to customs. But ive known crew to sell water/j2o only on long delays at the cews own risk, if the pax to the front. But i have also known crew get the sack for opening the bars on the ground and for not sealing them on turn arounds.
The crew only followed the fr rules, but i would of melted some ice in a cup.

[Mr Optimistic]

not enough facts to judge

About babygate, did the parents bring the condition of the child to the attention of the crew and were they denied help ?