'Bog' standard Ryanair
 

Sunday Independent: July 23rd 2006

Basic hygiene takes a wee holiday on Ryanair flight

LARISSA NOLAN

RYANAIR may have a reputation for being bog-standard, but even regular passengers on the low-fares airline expect to be provided with toiletpaper.

The basic provision of loo roll was too much to ask, however, on a Ryanair flight from Spain to Dublin earlier this month.

Passengers on board the 10.15pm flight from the holiday resort of Malaga in Spain on July 9 were astonished when cabin crew announced that there was no toilet roll in any of the bathroom cubicles.

The flight was packed with holiday-makers - including many small children - who had to endure the three-hour journey without standardtoiletries.

One passenger said: "The air steward was making the usual announcements about food and drink beingavailable for purchase and just at the end, she abruptly added at the end of theannouncement: 'And there is no toilet roll on this flight.'

"We thought we had heard incorrectly until one of the kids wanted to use the bathroom and we found out for ourselves.

"There was no soap either, for that matter.

"I was angry because I felt that having paid for the flight, the least you can expect is to be able to use the toilets and be provided with the the basic products to do so hygienically."

Colin Bird of the Office of Consumer Affairs said it was the first time he had heard of such a situation.

"This is a new one on me - and we receive all kinds of complaints about service. But it would strike me as a failure in the company's obligation to provide a service.

"I would imagine that anyone who felt aggrieved by this could approach the Small Claims Court with a view to looking at their case."

Curiously, Ryanair management insisted the company had "no record" of the lavatory malfunction, despite it being a big talking point amongst all those on board the flight.

Pauline McAlester, spokesperson for Ryanair: "We have no record of this whatsoever, but we are looking into it," she said, insisting that Ryanair "operates to the highest standard of service."

She emphasised that the toilet roll budget has not been removed as a cost-cutting measure by the company, which is headed up by Michael O'Leary.

"We would like to let passengers know that there will continue to be toilet paper on Ryanair flights; we have not discontinued providing it in the planes' toilets."

It's not the first time the airline has been accused of cutting corners.

It was criticised recently for limiting the number of disabled passengers to a maximum of four on each individual flight.

In 2004, the company charged a passenger €24 for the use of a wheelchair at Stansted airport in London. The disabled man was later awarded £1,300 sterling in damages and Ryanair introduced a 73cent levy to all passengers to meet the cost of wheelchair supply.

Michael O'Leary also hit the headlines when he described stationery as "the biggest waste of money ever" and advised employees to steal pens from hotels to save on the cost of buying them.

All flights have a luggage limit of 32kg per person and all goods heavier on that must be paid for in excess baggage.

The next logical step, based on previous low cost money saving schemes, is to charge for loo paper; how much per sheet?

I'm not joking either.

:eek:

Paperless airline???

I learned paperless Cockpit in the past, but paperless Airline is new to me. In this job you learn until you retire.......

When do people recognize that everything has a price and you pay for it at the end of the day. I had a smile in the face when I was reading the posting that MOL and his Knights are still able to find people who use them to fly and contribute into the ridicolous ripp off. Do not get it wrong, I am sorry for the inconventient situation they where trapped into during that journey, especially traveling with small children needs a attention and care. Something they will miss for shure. But booking a flight for the holiday in time makes no big diffrence when you compare what service you get somewhere else for not more money to spend but a better value.

The LCC coming low on a lot of things: No frills is fine to a certain extend. At the other side it is up to the customer to decide where he has his personal border and says for his own sake: I dont accept that anymore I use XY instead of EZ,FR or any other no frill to get him thrilled. MOL has had a huge impact within the European Airlines to revise the cost sheme. He teached them a lesson that they had to offer competitive fares as well. If you book a BA, AF, KL, LH, AZ or any other major carrier today in advance then you get a reasonable rate and the infrastruture you need if the flight is delayed, diverted or just you had a small mishap during the flight. The FA`s there make no diffrence when you aboard and ask them for a towel, napkin or any other small amenity you may need during your travel. Customer care has often just the diffrence between the carrier you chose. Dont blame them when they ripp you off, llok into the mirror and ask what lesson have you learned out of it. Take another Airline who does not only make promises, take one who keeps them when it is needed.

In the meantime let the people know what you was going thru and good luck if you ask for compensation. The legal track doesn`t support your budget, only the lawyers one.....

Fly safe and land happy

NG

Years ago I was advised by a venerable old captain always to have a quick look round the passenger 'facilities' before the pax boarded. "They'll forget about your landing, but they won't forget there being no soap or paper in the loo!", he said........

Hmmm - seems you were right, 'Tubby'!

Why didn't someone check before the flight - and ask for some hygiene products to be brought out to the aircraft?

Gives a new meaning to "a sh1tty service" ;)

That might give a new meaning to 'paperless ticket' - if you have a paperless ticket, you won't get any paper.

"Ryanair "operates to the highest standard of service.""

Well, as the standard seems to be zero, that is easy to achieve.

Ryanair is an absolute joke; an insult to the airline industry. They disgust me. They will however continue to succeed simply because the majority of their passengers have no standards either! I don't, and never will, fly Ryanair - unless they change their ways of course.

Why dont they just install those pay toilet things which you find on city streets...seems to make sense to me!!! :E

This is the normal FR standard, if anything is going to impinge on an OT departure they just go without it.

A while ago with them it was announced that there was no food or drink on this flight. I asked why not and was told "they just left it off the aircraft at Stansted". When I enquired if a more professional approach had been taken with the fuel I got a frosty glare :)

Does anyone know if the strange practices at Ryanair started when Mr O'Leary took over in 94', or did it start before that? I was wondering if the way employees, and passengers, are treated is due to his leadership, or is that the way the Ryan's wanted it? Also, does anyone have any information on what kind of a leader Delcan Ryan is?

Thanks for the assistance.

The worst airline possibly in Britain
 

Hi

I understand the plight of anyone who has travelled with Ryanair, it is simply the worst airline I have ever travelled with!! Hearing anything like there being no bog paper is no surprise, that is why it makes so much money, it does not take an economics degree to work this out people. If you travel with, or work for this airline then expect to be treated like dirt, you are simply a number, sorry but thats how it is!

Lets face it, you only have to look at the faces of the staff and pilots to see how miserable they are, not to mention the passengers. But then the chavs in our liberal society never have been the most friendly of people, but then this is a cheap airline for cheap people, with low expectations of the service they expect to receive, and probably low expectations of themselves as well.

I always wanted to know how cattle felt when they travel in those lorrys to the slaughter house, now I know!!!!

Yes I'm bitter and twisted, but its true. I await your angry responses, and Ryanair defenders to slaughter me for my comments!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear, cheap tickets, on time service, modern aircraft.........no bog paper??
I went to Rome last week: £75 return. On time. Read my book, had a glass of wine. No worries.
Got off. Came home 3 days later.On time.

It is a highly successful airline. It scr@ws it's staff, it scr@ws it's customers, it scr@ws it's competitors. Whilst staff and customers accept being scr@wed, for the first, to fly, and for the second, to travel cheaply, then Ryanair will continue to succeed. The competitors dont fight back, they imitate, driving down everyomes standards (and wages).
However, I dont believe, for a long list of reasons, that this will actually continue for much longer.

Ryanair failure
 

Hello

While on the obligatory subject of Ryanair, I just thought of something else which the Nazi managers should think about! I know this is a contentious thought but shall bring it into context anyway, opinions whether positive or negative more than welcome.

Since the railways were split into regions and made private, and with the introduction of the Human Rights Act, a few things have changed. Without sufficient working toilets and yes toilet paper in the toilets, they have to be closed. If there are not any working toilets on the trains they are usually taken out of service, and for good reason! I am no liberal minded lunatic, but I do think going to the toilet and having the required necessities, i.e bog paper, to wipe my backside is not a privilege but a basic Human Right, agree or disagree?

These days, train operators and the like, to include coach operators, can and do get sued for consistently not providing something so basic as toilet paper. Luckily for me because I am still young and healthy, or so I think, I can still retain moderate control of my bowels and bladder, but what about the elderly or young?

Im sorry for bleating on about what might seem like a trivial matter to some, but in this day and age people need to be held to account for failing to provide basic facilities on board a plane. I also would like to say people and not an individual, as I believe more in collective responsibility rather than individual the majority of the time, with a few exceptions of course.

To all of you who have had a good service with this company, Im pleased for you. But the vast majority of the time all I hear is copious amounts of complaints from friends and family who have received nothing but a poor service from this money grabbing airline!!!!! I am not expecting the level of service I would get from hiring out a private leer jet, no no, simply to get treated with the dignity and respect every human deserves, and not get treated and spoken like a sack of s**t.

Sooner rather than later, passengers and crew are going to wake up, lets make it sooner rather than later please.

Regards :)

Oh my, that's not nice things to say about millions of people. I bet you the percentage of ABs on FR flights is higher than in the general population, and his airline has made it possible for decent hardworking people who don't earn much money to afford to go somewhere different on holiday.
I tell you something, if I saw O'Leary in a pub I'd go up and buy him a pint. He has done more for us passengers than all the rest of the legacy airline chief executives put together.

You are not quite right here, the requirement on the trains relates only to the DISABLED toilet (which takes the space on current trains of about 15 seats), which has to be in working order when the train starts its journey. If not the train has to be cancelled. This is despite the fact that there are other (non-disabled access) toilets in the train which are serviceable.

So 300 able-bodied passengers are late for work or miss their plane flight because of the necessity to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act by having a serviceable disabled toilet that, as any train crew member will tell you, is hardly ever used by the disabled anyway.

It's a great example of bureaucracy first, because when the train is cancelled there is of course nowhere else for any disabled passengers to use while waiting an hour or two for the next one. The regulations only apply to the train.

Fair comments, I stand corrected on a couple of points! I can certainly accept without hesitation that people are independently minded enough to make their own rational decision as to which airline they choose to travel with. My main issue of concern was going to be crew fatigue before I got obsessed with Ryanair.

With cheap budget airlines selling tickets at such low prices, it has been neccessary to push crews to working up to the legal limit every month of their allocated flying hours. Yes it can be great for the new guy or girl who gets their first job, plenty of jet hours, loads of different sectors to be flown, plenty of take of and landings, but at what cost? These low budget airlines make the profit they do as everyone knows by fitting in as many flights as possible in the crews working day, and having a very short turnaround time, and then its a case of get back in the air as quickly as possible! Yes cheap tickets are great for the consumer, but what about the crew, and their physical and even mental health. I know and realise that stress is something that is associated with every job, to a high degree in aviation, because of shifts, flying through different time zones etc etc. It may be me, please point out if it is, but stress with flight crew seems to be at an all time high amongst low budget airlines for the reasons stated above, and for crews than ever are complaining of severe fatigue. With the airline industry expanding so fast, and the skies being occupied by more aircraft than ever, should not the safety and interest of passengers and crew take precedence over corporate financial gain?

I know slim_slag regularly tells us about what a jolly good chap MOL is, and how he would buy him a pint, and so on....(yawn!). But aside from this kind of nonsense, I just cannot believe that intelligent people actually pay good money to fly with Ryanair. It really beggars belief that people have been hoodwinked into believing that MOL is a 'man for the people' fighting for your rights to a cheap flight. What utter tosh.

see this thread; http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=234377

As for Ryanair being some kind of pioneer in cheap flights, it just isn't so. Southwest got there long ago (35 long years ago, in fact) , and all the staff at Southwest take great pride in their standards of service.

Ryanair was kicking around for years doing nothing much before Easyjet, but it wasn't until Easy showed Ryanair how to do things right, that Ryanair started to get more successful.