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

OK, 1st to kick off this thread.....

Due to a family illness in Spain, I find myself needing to fly from Bristol to Ibiza, but with limited time off work, I find the following the only viable option:

Bristol - Ibiza Wednesday 06/10/10
Ibiza - UK Friday 08/10/10

So, Bristol - Ibiza, Thomson, booked 1 day in advance £50.00 ish. Website easy to navigate, flight booked with zero stress. OK, ticket to be collected at airport, but no problem.

Ibiza - UK. Only option available was the Ryanair Bournemouth flight. My first encounter of the Ryanair website. Accept it is designed to be "cheap", but after booking the flight, it is selling me car hire, Bournemouth hotels, insurance, £10.00 off my next booking if "I click continue"..... where is the print boarding pass option? Not there! So, leave the site, look at the email confirmation, enter loads of details again, get my printed boarding pass. Cost if I did not do this £40.00. Not an issue, but, here is the rub, I work in I.T. and I found it user unfriendly. Are they purposely doing this for the extra cash? (that was a rhetorical question). But the cost? £80.00ish (started at £50, but booking fees, online check-in , etc - you know the score).......

I fly EasyJet regularly for business, ok the site tries to cross sell, but you just "click through" the hard sell and get a boarding pass. Simple and acceptable.

Thomson - you get my vote for a late booking made easy.

Ryanair - if you were not the only viable option for me (yes, I know people will say this is the crux of the moan) I would bypass the "cheapest airline" option and find a company who are not so obviously trying to milk the SLF for every penny!!! Come on you can do better, you have the routes, you have a new fleet, you have dedicated staff, you can do better!!! You are not always the cheapest option, but you are often the most convenient option. Stop selling youself short - I will take a more inconvenient route if it means I am treated correctly.

Rant mode off.

TVDH

Ryanair charges sick passenger for tea and biscuits

10.10.10
Ryanair – the airline that plans to charge passengers to use the onboard toilet – charged a man for tea and biscuits shortly after he fell unconscious and had to be attended by doctors on a flight. The doctors feared he was having a heart attack, but the plane had no medical equipment onboard, not even a blanket, the Herald reports.
Eye-witnesses on the plane told the Sunday Herald that the man, in his fifties, took ill an hour before the Ryanair flight from Marseille was due to land at Edinburgh Airport. Two doctors on board responded to a distress call from cabin staff, but were to the told the only medical equipment on board was anti-sickness drugs and bandages.
After regaining consciousness, the passenger – whose condition was then found to be not as grave as had been feared – was advised to have some sweet tea and biscuits. His wife was then charged for the refreshments by Ryanair's cabin crew.

Do they charge for anti-sickness drugs and bandages as well?

Why does this not surprise me .... if it's not another sick publicity stunt by Michael O'Sneary. I am aware that CC have to account for all their 'stock', which means they can't give someone water for tablets etc without having to charge for the bottle, and that they can't have a free glass of water themselves ....

What does surprise me is that they only had
aboard. Surely it's a legal requirement that an emergency first aid kit is carried, even if there's no specific drugs, defibrillator, stretcher or emergency passenger oxygen ............ complete the list yourself ........................

Just completed a round trip with Ryanair, Alicante/Stansted. Having read the cabin luggage rules I made sure my cabin luggage complied with the dimensions and weight restrictions. I was therefore somewhat surprised that many passengers, who ignored these restrictions and had, obviously, oversize luggage went through boarding, at both airports, with no trouble at all. The upshot of this was that the overhead stowage compartments were full to the brim and the last boarding passengers were compelled to stow their luggage under the seats, as best they could. So, after all the threats of oversize luggage having a payment penalty etc. why do Ryanair staff apparently choose to ignore it? Other than that the flights were excellent value for the money.

It must vary depending on the mood/apethy of the airport staff and thier targets.

Although It's been a few months since I last used them, every time I've flown from EDI with Ryanair for the past year or so they have had a small cardboard device which has the exact dimensions of the allowed cabin baggage and they have gone right down the line checking every single bag that looks like it won't fit in. On a flight to Stockholm in March they caught out at least 3 people at the gate with this!

Same can be said for my return journey from Stockholm Skavsta where they also weighed cabin baggage in addition to the measurement device. Again, several people were caught out, by having a bag that was well within the allowed size...but too heavy!

I also returned from Billund to EDI with Ryanair in late May and they were again checking the dimensions of the cabin baggage. Never had this when flying from PIK, DUB, STN or any mainland European airports!

boarding passes
 

Hello excuse my ignorance, flying to Spain this coming week booked with Ryanair printed my boarding passes off, only taking hand luggage, I assume we do not bother going to check in desk just straight through security

kind regards

correct, just go straight to security.

hi thanks for that

Wish Classic FM had not given MOL first billing on the news about his concerns about security after the recent cargo incidents. It's just giving prominence to FR, with MOL's frequently-used tactic of commenting on anything and everything to get his name mentioned.

It's fine to be security conscious, but why choose HIM as one's mouthpiece?!

Rant over. I'll get my coat.

He who shouts loudest? MoL makes good headlines, written or audible.

Goodbye, Mr. O
 

When will you all learn?

No point in complaining at all. It only serves to give MO'L a warm happy feeling. He's gotten your money, you're fecked off 'cos the service was ****e or something didn't go according to your plans. But, ho, ho, ho - does he care? Not a jot. And, pound to penny, you'll be lining up again in three weeks time for another five yoyo flight ( Not including taxes, coffee, service etc. ).

Either grin and bear it - Millions do! or,shut up and vote with your feet.

Even if something goes wrong and you end up paying a full fare to sort it, the average price for all FR flights you have taken will be a fraction of what you may have spend with a "better quality" airline - whatever that is. (One without lurid yellow interiors, window blinds and some sense of employee relations?)

Fact is that MO'L has made and continues to make shed loads of money by filling aircraft with reasonably content SLF who don't apparently give a toss about comfort or service during a relatively short flight. Well done Mr O.

In fact he's done so bloody well some other well known airlines seem to be trying to emulate his business model.

By the way, I never have nor will I ever Fly Ryanair. I'd rather walk - it's cheaper, often quicker and less likely to cause stress.

I have to wonder what gives you the right to judge then! Obviously not experience.

Quite agree but don't then come on to a forum and criticise something for no apparent reason.

As has been said before, Ryanair does exactly what's said on the tin and for many people - including me - Ryanair and easyjet are the only choices available. To use a 'better quality' airline would mean three flights to get back to where I want to be in the UK rather than one.

I flew with Ryanair twice last month. MAN-DUB return.I was really impressed for the price I paid (just ten pounds return including taxes). The crew were all very friendly and both flights arrived earlier than scheduled.

I read Munnyspinner's words as a statement of fact, not a judgement. And as such, perfectly accurate.

I work for the big orange machine, however for the last eight weeks i've been working somewhere that easy don't fly to and had to fly Ryanair. I've now done 15 departures and apart from one all have left dead on time, the worse one was only 15 minutes late. I'm not a Ryanair lover as i work for the opposition, however the planes are clean and tidy and as comfortable as any others, also the 737-800 is a nice quiet a/c. The only criticism i have is the constant hard sell onboard, just wish they'd leave the PA alone. Still i'm sure if easy flew to the same place i would rather fly them.

I took return flights with Ryanair from Stansted to Berlin this weekend so thought I'd humbly offer my two pence worth.

Someone posted a very insightful comment recently and I thought it was on this thread. It appears not and I can't for the life of me find it. Anyway, the general gist was that FR flights are generally very punctual, the 737-800 is a nice quiet aircraft and the only criticism the poster had was the incessant use of the PA system for advertising purposes.

I agree entirely.

Both my flights were punctual. The return flight actually arrived 15 minutes early. But I do agree the constant PAs are too much. There were so many! Try to sell: (1) the cabin crew calendar; (2) scratch cards; (3); food and drink (the menus were distributed before push-back and the safety demonstration?!); (d) duty free and gifts; (e) other sales-related PAs that I tried to ignore by turning up the volume on my iPod. The point is that on a 1.5 hour trip, these sales PAs make it very difficult to sit quietly and read or listen to music or a podcast without being constantly interrupted. And I know the response: "you paid less for your ticket, so be prepared for the hard sell on board". Fair enough, but in my experience easyJet and Wizzair do less promotional stuff.

The only other thing is that the CC are often quite under-confident with their English, which isn't especially reassuring. For example, the introduction along the lines: "The commander is "Captain Robert" and the First Officer is "First Officer James" sounds weird if you don't say "Captain Robert [Surname]! Have noticed this on other FR flights. Is it simply that the CC do not know the flight crew's full names?

Also, do all the FR 737s now have the plastic yellow seat-backs? I have previously flown on FR 737s which had navy blue upholstery rather than the dark blue "leather" seats and yellow seat-backs. IMHO, they were less garish, especially on night flights when the cabin is incredibly bright.

http://www.jethros.eu/fun/fun_pages/...afety_card.htm

This is of interest, maybe true???????

No Ryanair Flights From Gro After March 27th 2011
 

"Ryanair is refusing to accept any bookings to/from Girona from March 27th 2011 onward, advising passengers instead to fly via Reus or Barcelona. An unnamed Ryanair spokesman said there is nothing sinister about this: it is just that the spring/summer plan has not yet been produced. The reality (says the article) is that the new operating contract between the airline and Girona has not yet been agreed, with Ryanair demanding a further €12,000,000 subsidy from Girona to continue to operate from the airport." Quote, El Punt, 02-12-2010.

He who sups with the devil should use a long spoon (my own opinion).

Say what you will but he made it to second place (tied with the bearded one) in this industry poll asking "Who is the most influential airline leader of the past 25 years?"

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.