Fodder for the Ryanair haters...

[jackharr]

edi_local

Age: 27
A few people saying the Ryanair Website hides information or makes it difficult to see what you need to do. I can only assume you use a different Ryanair website to me.

You are age 27 and have grown up in the computer era. It is second nature to you to use smart phones, complex websites, etc. Give a thought to the 73 year-olds like me who find such matters hard work. This is where Ryanair takes advantage of those who struggle.

One day O'Leary will be old and might find new technology not as easy to master as do his grandchildren. Has he realised that I wonder?

[The SSK]

As a first for me, I’m using a ‘budget’ airline at the weekend (Jetairfly).

I have checked the T&Cs, I have spoken to other people who have used them, and I ought to be confident that:
I do not need to print boarding passes
We have a 20k free baggage allowance plus one in hand
We will have assigned seating

And yet I am STILL paranoid that something will go wrong and a nasty surprise will be sprung on me at check-in. That’s symptomatic of the depths to which Ryanair has dragged this industry.

[Rwy in Sight]

Airline travel includes aspects and procedures not used on other form of travel. When you purchase a train ticket you can use it to go through the "traiside" are of the station and all the way to your seat. Ryanair has taken the approach of stripping commercial flying from all the elements that pax can do without (food, drink, hold baggage) thus offering very low fares for a great number of people. However a boarding pass is a necessary document to gain access to the seat you have paid so it should be included in fare much like the life jacket, additional fuel for an IFR approach, the presence of the cabin crew for the safety aspect etc.

So I really feel that cost cutting has gone too far but I think that as long as enough pax are flying on FR, our comments bear little weight to the company.

[McGoonagall]

It aint really difficult flying with lo-co airlines. Read the T&Cs, turn up on time, get on, get off. Some of the best free entertainment to be had is by arriving at the airport in good time and sitting back with a glass watching the stressed out muppets that feel their own rules apply with regard to baggage weight, check in closing times, sobriety, expired passports, an extra kid (she is only 2 and can sit on my lap) etc....

Sometimes I can only wonder at the reserves of patience the ground staff have.

[Shack37]

Edi Local
Having read your diatribe criticising this woman for not reading the RYR T&C carefully enough I note that you quote £60 per boarding card when it was actually €60 as quoted in the newspaper article.
Pot, kettle, black?

Just that whenever I book, it won't let me continue unless I specifically
click the little box stating that I agree with the terms and conditions of
travel. I must be one of the few who actually read things before I agree to it,
especially if money is involved. I guess I'm the idiot here. Just that if this
woman ticked that little box, which she would have had to have done in order to
proceed, then she surely read that she would have to pay £60 if
she didn't print a boarding card off. No? Well maybe she should read things in
the future, especially something called a contract, which is what she entered in
to when she ticked that little box stating she fully understood Ryanairs
conditions of carriage.

[Hamish 123]

Bit of thread drift, but seeing as how this thread is all about the evil empire that is Ryanair . . . .

Flying back from Seville last week with Ryanair, our flight was late arriving from Stansted, so there was a bit of a mad rush to get it turned round quickly. This may explain why the cabin crew were announcing, as soon as people started boarding, that the first place passengers should stow their hand luggage should be the space under the seat in front of them. Overhead lockers were to be used only if no space was available under seats. As me and my family boarded early, we ignored this and used the overhead lockers, but I ended up sitting beside two folk who both did the whole journey with their feet resting on their bags. There must have been many more in that situation on the flight. At 6' 2", and with the legroom available in Ryanair, this option is a non-starter for me.

Two things strike me about this devlopment:-

1. Safety - imagine trying to evacuate an airliner when there are bags on the floor in virtually every row?
2. Precedent - have we now reached a situation where virtually no one puts luggage in the hold anymore, and airliners are palpably not designed to manage this much luggage within the cabin?

Neither point fills me with much confidence. I'll go back to travelling with Monarch, even if more expensive.

[ExXB]

Originally Posted by Shack37

Edi Local
Having read your diatribe criticising this woman for not reading the RYR T&C carefully enough I note that you quote £60 per boarding card when it was actually €60 as quoted in the newspaper article.
Pot, kettle, black?

I understand that all of Cryanair's pounds and euros fees and charges are common rated. Had the lady been assessed the fee in the UK it would be £60, but since it was assessed in Spain it was €60. He common rated them a couple of years back when that was close to the actual exchange rate, and obviously hasn't gotten around to fixing it. But don't be surprised if he simply increases the euro amount. He won't reduce the pound amount.

[jabird]

Not every internet user is capable of making the effort to look for all the hidden traps; in many cases elderly or disabled people simply can’t work the system and are fleeced as a result.

I have some sympathy with this point. There are regulations governing accessibility to websites, in which case I'd love to see the CAPTCHA thrown out, but I think it will take a few more test cases first.

I have a mentally handicapped daughter. There is absolutely no way that she could understand that a flight advertised as being say £25 actually costs four times that amount.

So realistically, would you send her to make an booking with any airline or travel company?

Ryanair's policy discriminates against the less capable.

We are on sticky ground here. Does it do this to people who are less capable because of reasons beyond their own control, or because they cannot be bothered to read the small print?

I'd be interested in a reasoned thread on the former, but this one is clearly about the latter.

Lot of information there jabird, are you the lady's husband perchance and therefore (rightfully) pee'd off at the extra cost?

No, I'm (rightfull) pee'd off at people who complain after they have been stung by t's and c's they agreed to. Nothing in my reply wasn't already in the original article.

Maybe she should have just stayed in the UK and taken a rail holiday on Beardie Trains. Then she could have joined the hundreds of thousands bleating about that - again, long after the rules of the game were clearly made available for the participants.

[jabird]

Safety - imagine trying to evacuate an airliner when there are bags on the floor in virtually every row?

Either the bags are dangerous or they aren't, doesn't matter how many there are. In my experience, Ryanair staff are amongst the most efficient at making sure they are stowed properly.

and airliners are palpably not designed to manage this much luggage within the cabin?

Oh please! Airliner design has evolved to take this into account. Remember when there was just a shelf, no bins?

If Ryanair's practice was not safe, it would not be happening, period.

If there are modes of public transport where bags are a problem, try evacuating a train or an urban bus in the run up to Christmas. Another one for PTDRuNe.

[edi_local]

Originally Posted by jabird

If there are modes of public transport where bags are a problem, try evacuating a train or an urban bus in the run up to Christmas. Another one for PTDRuNe.

Never mind Christmas time. I've just come off one of the slow trains from Birmingham to London Euston, after we called at BHX the carriage was an obstacle course all the way to at least Leighton Buzzard! I don't hear anyone complaining about trains not having seperate compartments for baggage. Has anyone on PPRune ever used the tube?

To suggest Ryanairs hand baggage policy is a danger to the passengers is absurd. Why not have a go at BA who allow 23Kg in their cabin baggage, as well as 2 items (2 bags in C, 1 bag+ 1 small item in Y), and that's on all routes, not just long haul and that includes aircraft which are of similar size or smaller than the FR 738's.


Anyway, Hamish 123, You state that:

"Overhead lockers were to be used only if no space was available under seats. As me and my family boarded early, we ignored this and used the overhead lockers, but I ended up sitting beside two folk who both did the whole journey with their feet resting on their bags."

Why did you blatantly ignore what the cabin crew were asking you to do? You're not in charge of the cabin safety, they are. Do you think they were making such requests for fun? They had their reasons that in the first instance you should use the space in front of you, as you stated, so why did you feel as though that didn't apply to you? Being on early surely meant that there would be plenty of room under the seats for your family's bags. Perhaps the people next to you could have put their bigger bags in the overhead bin had you not used up all the space?

[jabird]

Well all this Ryanair bashing has made me want to actually fly with them again. And here's why.

Firstly, let's get the booking confirmation out the way:

Ryanair Travel Itinerary - Don't Forget You MUST Check-in Online and Print Off your Boarding Pass

Could they make it any clearer?

Now on to the reality of pricing and service. For anyone who says other airlines are more "pleasant", then fair enough, but if you want to fly to/from BHX and actually go somewhere interesting, your main options for low cost one way sectors (ie come home from somewhere different) are now really just Flybe and Ryanair - not that baby going made any difference here!

Caveat - unlike the passengers who grumble, I don't have any excess baggage, including kids, and I like to visit new places. To be honest, this makes me much more tolerant of Ryanair than most people might otherwise be, but if everyone else hated them that much, they wouldn't still be in business.

So I say to myself - "where do Flybe go that I haven't already been to" - basically narrows it down to Hamburg, west of Ireland and Dubrovnik - so an easy win for the latter as I've never been to Croatia.

As this is one of Flybe's more distant destinations, I wasn't expecting any bargain basement offers, so when I saw the last outbound of the season for £56, I thought great, book it.

Just remember here - this is the flight nobody else wants. No romantic weekenders, no families, not sure how many Croatians come to the UK for the summer - remember they aren't in the EU.

Then I go to Ryanair, who happen to be having one of their usual big splash sales on - BHX-TRS for £18. How much to go the other way I wonder - often these a priced with a low outbound as a sweetener, but not this time - €18 for the return, obviously no £12 APD this time, but that INCLUDES the £6 card fee which I could have avoided if I was a more regular Ryanair user.

I do still have one of those euro prepay cards, so no hidden currency fees. Incidentally - also booking a new year ferry trip to NORTHERN Ireland, they want £5 for my card AND they are charging in euros!

So Ryanair still comes out just under 1/3 the cost of Flybe - and as I always want a window seat, that is also easier to get with the Ryanair freeforall than with an airline that charges you to select one.

For this, I will put up with those gaudy yellow interiors!

[Hotel Tango]

FlyBe is one of the most expensive so-called LCCs I know. I always end up on either Lufthansa (Eurowings) or Brussels Airlines. Never found a FlyBe fare to beat them.

Those who enjoy RYR are welcome to them. We all have a choice and that's exactly what we do. I choose not to fly Ryanair (or Flybe).

[Shack37]

Sober, she didn't forget. She flew out to Alicante and spent 15 days in a
villa, and never left the house to go to town once, never popped round to the
neighbours to ask if they had a printer, never bothered to ask in one of the
hotels near ALC if they could print the passes for a small fee, presumably never
spoke to anyone, zip, nada, all trip?

Lot of information there jabird, are you the lady's husband perchance and
therefore (rightfully) pee'd off at the extra cost?

No, I'm (rightfull) pee'd off at people who complain after they have been
stung by t's and c's they agreed to. Nothing in my reply wasn't already in the original article.

(My bold)

Are you referring to the "original" Independent article linked by the OP? I have just read it again and your information is much more comprehensive than that given in the article.

[jabird]

never left the house to go to town once, never popped round to the
neighbours to ask if they had a printer, never bothered to ask in one of the
hotels near ALC if they could print the passes for a small fee, presumably never
spoke to anyone, zip, nada, all trip?

Err, I think there was just a little bit of sarcasm in that comment. My point was that Ryanair online check-in opens 15 days before the flight departs.

Are you really telling me either that she (a) did not know she'd have to pay the €/£ 60 fee or (b) that she had zero opportunity whatsoever to find a printer from which to print these boarding passes at some stage in those 15 days?

[esa-aardvark]

Boarding cards.

It seems to be deliberate Ryanair policy to prevent one
printing the boarding card more than 14 days before flight.
Why ? Perhaps to allow time for it to get lost.
Incidentally it is not necessarily all that easy to print
a pass in a foreign hotel. I have been in that situation,
ie 8th floor room, laptop computer and hotel printer in
the lobby does not want to work. Staff behind the desk have no idea why and no-one else available.
Depending where the lady was staying internet cafe's are not that common in Alicante.
Still I remember some of my business training
"The main cause of failure is greed".

Anyway why does one need a boarding pass these days,
as you print it yourself it does not actually prove anything
much, except perhaps that you have printer. I much prefer
the method of putting the appropriate Credit or Airline card
into a machine and it prints the card for you.

[DaveReidUK]

It seems to be deliberate Ryanair policy to prevent one printing the boarding card more than 14 days before flight.

Why ? Perhaps to allow time for it to get lost.

That theory doesn't make sense.

If Ryanair wanted to maximise the chance of you losing your boarding card, they would let you print it months in advance, not just 14 days before your flight.

[Sober Lark]

Someone who has the ability to pass Ryanairs CAPTCHA test probably hasn't a leg to stand on when it comes to claiming an inability to remember other conditions of travel such as printing their own boarding passes.

[Shack37]

Err, I think there was just a little bit of sarcasm in that comment.
My point was that Ryanair online check-in opens 15 days before the flight
departs.

Are you really telling me either that she (a) did not
know she'd have to pay the €/£ 60 fee or (b) that she had zero
opportunity whatsoever to find a printer from which to print these boarding
passes at some stage in those 15 days?

Err, not even a hint of sarcasm, stated more as facts. So you embellished it due to having taken severe instant dislike of this woman. A good example of not letting the facts ruin a good rant.
The answer to your question is, I don't know because I wasn't there.

[Malone]

Interviewing O'Leary.

I seem to remember an occasion some years ago when O'Leary appeared on "Watchdog" and he got so caught out that he actually stormed off! I think that it may have been Nicky Campbell interviewing. I think he also had an Italian chef (Aldo Lippi??) there who found it most amusing, as did I.

[Sunnyjohn]

Depending where the lady was staying internet cafe's are not that common in Alicante

If you're in the city, I've found 20 so far. In the province, obviously, there are less.