Fodder for the Ryanair haters...
 

...or for the "not very smart passenger" haters. Either way, please enjoy:

Ryanair boss flies off the handle over 'idiot' critic - Business News - Business - The Independent

It's LCC, and you're expecting..?
LCCs pounce on you at every opportune moments, wanna travel cheap then equip yourself with some basic knowledge.
Half a million haters? Get a grip, wait till you really get 30million hits on your facebook then probably the CEO twit may look your way and bow.

Another boring article. More free publicity for the little gnome. I don't see their doors closing in the immediate future.

In this case the gnome is right.

Its made quite clear on the website the fees involved.

End of.

I fully agree with MoL - much as I despise his company's ethics and modus operandi. People have a choice, providing a foolproof way of not having such problems. It's one I made long ago, I don't fly Ryanair.

It's like going to the North Pole and then bitching that it's cold.

Trouble is, the best laid plans of man etc.

I arrived at my London address, only to find the printer dried up. That was not in my plans. I was totally knackered and it was too late to do anything. Fortunately, I wasn't flying with Ryanair. As it happens, we also cleaned the heads, but that's not the point. If I'd been a dad with a large family, I'd have been stuffed, and a little help from someone you're sending money with would be appreciated. But no, people like that are just empty inside, so there's nothing you can do about them.

Here's a little business opportuity for someone then, to set up a little bureau with a computer and a printer at the airports and offer to print peoples' boarding passes for say £5 a shot. That's a huge discount on the Ryanair price!

Ah, but I forgot, most airports have an internet cafe anyway, so it begs the question as to why people don't think of this simple solution.

These days, people often book flights, hotels and hire cars on their smart phones or tablets while on the move and they don't have a convenient printer to hand. I fell foul of this nonesense about a year ago when a hire car company demanded to see a printout, even though I had the agreement on my laptop and could show them the booking there and then. It was resolved by going next door and asking nicley if I could use their computer and printer. Needless to say, I won't be using this care hire company ever again.

Other airlines allow you to check in on line without printing anything. In this case, it's just another opprotunity to extract more cash from you. Five pounds I can believe is reasonable, but sixty? And I know the Ts and Cs are there to see and it's a case of "Caveat Emptor". Seems theres a lot to beware of with flying with Ryanair.

It makes me wonder how long their policy of "If you don't like it, then f#ck off!" will last. Seems that if this woman got so many people to agree with her, then this is a lot of people who are going to follow O'Leary's advice. And referring to your customers as "Idiots" just gives the impression you just don't care about them - which I'm sure he doesn't.

I don't like Ryanair's policy - I'm one of their ex-passengers who has taken the advice of their CEO and will always use their competitiors in preference. Thanks for the hint Mike!

The irony is that most of those people will travel Ryanair because they think it's cheap and that they won't get caught out. But they will. Again and again. Human nature and greed. That's what he trades on, and that's why he's so succesful.

Mr Ratner
 

He had a similar respect for his customers, and look what happened to him.

I do not agree that just because the small print advises of the death penalty for not having a print out, that it should be enforced.
Unfortunatly until such time as the passengers are shown some respect by MOL, then there will continue to be such issues with the Irish.

As much as I dislike RYR from a pilot's / employee's point of view I have enjoyed them as a customer. It's cheap and simple to fly them if you just follow the rules. In fact, in some places like Spain you can even bend the rules to your advantage, i.e. more weight.

I hate to come to their defense but in the 100 plus times I have used them they were late only once, diverted only once but provided a free bus ride to original destination, and bumped me once for being late one minute for a snow storm. The latter was annoying indeed. Aside from that no problems at all.

In 2011, RYR had a pax volume of 72m, which is expected to grow again this year. The 500m Facebook like clicks that that unhappy woman has received are about .8 percent of the 72m folks O'Leary had flown in 2011. Don't think he cares that much.

There are laws in the UK to prevent "unreasonable" penalties in a contract. The UK banks know all too well about this when they were pulled up for charging 40+ quid for a letter. So my advice would be to explore this avenue. I am assuming UK law applies, which may not be correct.

I would not be surprised if this WAS a MOL stunt! But, hey, you have to admire the guy for what he has built.. love him or hate him, he has made the traditional boys sit up and pay attention.

I don't fly Ryanair as I have safety concerns. Nothing to do with the flying, it's the getting out that concerns me. Max. capacity with cabin crew that don't seem to have this as their 1st priority. I am sure all the regs are met but there is more to it than just ticking the boxes.

I don't have any problem with the principle of printing your own boarding card pass at home, or paying to have it done for you at the airport if you don't.

But if the latter, the charge should bear some relation to the actual cost, to Ryanair or the handling agent, of doing so - otherwise it's just a fine/penalty.

Yes, of course you are deemed to have agreed to the charge in your ticket contract/conditions of carriage, but contract terms still have to be fair and reasonable.

It would be fascinating to see this tested in a court of law.

Biggest lie ever
 

Biggest lie ever: “I read & accept the terms of use of Ryanair's General Terms and Conditions of Carriage and website Terms of Use” ✔

There is a government investigation proposed into the whole aspect of credit card charges for making bookings in many industries. It is proposed that the charge should reflect the charge made by the CC companies to the provider, and not be a source of extra randomly decided profiteering. It seems this scope of customer rip off could be widened.
Add to this little story the one about RYR refusing to accept a boarding card PDF on a smart phone; unlike other customer orientated market leading airlines who encourage such an environmentally friendly procedure.

Ho ho ho. Just like watching the Jeremy Kyle show - which I also despise. As someone recently said, Pikeyair do us the favour of keeping the !!!!e off decent airlines. But that's all.

Ryanair is an Irish company with it's HQ in Ireland and the "unreasonable" request to print off your own boarding pass or pay through the nose for it being printed off at the airport by Ryanair has already been challenged in Spanish courts where Ryanair "won" at the end of last year when they appealed an earlier decision where it was declared to be "abusive" as it had been "the customary practice over the years has been that the obligation to provide the boarding pass has always fallen on the airline". Unfortunately, "customary" is not necessarily "law" so, according to the appeal judge, surcharges for not printing off your own boarding pass are in compliance with international law and Ryanair were able to keep said clause in their T&C's.

Any attempt to challenge things in the UK would probably also fail, since we are looking at it being classed as being under Irish law, so if you don't like the potential surcharges the, don't fly O'LearyAir.

Shrek
 

diverging slightly ... there is a certain character in one of my daughters DVD's that has an uncanny resemblance to somebody .. I can't quite pin it down.
It was something about sign here .....:E

I don't think most people would have the option to print-out a boarding pass at the airport as you cannot print it out within four hours of the flight...

Passengers can check-in online from 15 days up to 4 hours before each scheduled flight departure time.

I think it's pretty good going for MoL - rip this woman off to the tune of £300 for five scraps of paper, then publicly humiliate her for being stupid enough to get herself ripped off.

Does Ryanair still claim Southwest as its role model? Thankfully Herb Kelleher doesn't have a grave, otherwise he'd be spinning in it.

They have covered that also, you can only print your boarding card up to 4 hours prior to flight time.

Easyjet today announced allocated seating following a summer trial where 70% of passengers approved of the new policy. No charges unless you specify certain rows. Now contrast that positive piece of news from a passenger friendly airline to the comments Mr o'leary. I cannot believe that the CEO of any organisation can use such foul language including the "F word" to describe the unfortunate charges that one of his passengers was forced to pay. If O'leary had simply stated he disagreed with her complaint fair enough but now 500,000 people who joined in with this woman probably feel similarly insulted. Did she use such language?... Its about respect Michael and quite honestly the PR stunts don't work anymore so how about trying to be customer focused and see what you could truly achieve then.

The issue was that the passenger printed off the outward boarding cards but because her return flight was more than 15 days away she was unable to do the same for the return sector. I don't have a problem with a "reasonable" scale of charges for certain services but have to say €60 is a scam.

British aviation is very naff.I flew in the last good company(dan Dare)>we would have given her a boarding pass and sent her on her way with a smile.Ryanair,easyjet,thomas C,thomson..whomever,naff people running naff brands for naff customers.Then theres Ba..a pc self-satisfied over-rated poor shadow of its BOAC greatness.And thats it!Thats British aviation today.I got out.I worked abroad and enjoyed it.Lived in Korea,Italy,Japan and others.Brits are very naff people.All the good genes got wiped out in both wars and what was left emigrated.
As for O'Leary,hes bog Irish so it doesnt count.Most Irish are okay fellas.

I bid (and won) on a radio charity auction a holiday in Europe which included the flight. When we contacted the carrier who was credited on the radio as 'giving' the flight, they said that we still had to pay for everything except the flight, i.e. bags, seats, etc. In the end the 'free' flight cost us around £360!
I may add that the firm offering the accommodation did not ask us for another penny.

FunFly free flight
 

Please ensure that the radio station is aware of the free flight, and the actual cost.

There is a duty of care by the station to ensure that comps are real, free and fair.

This will ensure that this company does not benefit from incorrect indirect advertising due to the promotion.

(from the inside)

print 4 hours before flight
 

what if you only book 3 hours before flight,,,,are you still :mad: by MOL.

Gulfstreamaviator
This was well discussed with the companies concerned when I realised the situation. Both radio station and the resort expressed concern and have apologised to me. In effect the 'gift' was made by the resort but they had to add a flight to make it a total package. What XXXXXXX airlines offered was just that - a flight - and reading the small print this included flight and airport tax so I was due to pay the rest, I can't quibble about this but it came as a bit of a surprise because, as you can imagine, one tends to offer more at a charity auction that the package is actually worth.
I just thought that it was a bit stingy and more than a bit misleading and I feel that this typifies the attitudes of the transport industry today. Treat em bad, pack em in and screw em if you can. (anyone mention Beardy here?)
Rant over, had the holiday and a wonderful time.

As I always post when the Daily Mail publishes its bi-monthly anti-Ryanair article - you have a choice; if you don't like O'Leary's complete contempt for the people that have helped him achieve the success he has, then don't fly with them.

I will never fly Ryanair again as long as I live. If more people stopped complaining and started voting with their feet then this nasty little man would have to learn some manners. But whether he does or not is of no relevance to my life because I won't ever be setting foot on one of his aircraft again. :p

I honestly think that there are plenty voting with their feet. However, there are also still too many who continue to be brainwashed into thinking RYR is the dog's boll*cks. Furthermore, as they expand and enter new markets, as in Eastern Europe, they have plenty new innocents to brainwash and abuse. Ryanair is not the only LCC in the world. There are plenty of them. Most of the other treat their customers with respect and provide a reasonable service with reasonable T & Cs. I have no problem flying with Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue, Air Berlin and TUIfly. I don't and will never fly Ryanair whilst their product remains as it is and MOL remains in charge.

The same twaddles who will book with Ryanair and then complain about being ripped off with extra charges such as this, won't bat an eye at the fact that the company - whose credit card they're using to pay for the same tickets and fees - is charging them north of 20% interest on the unpaid part of their bill. :D

I have flown Ryanair 100+ times over the years, and have always been treated nice, have had very few delays, and also experienced nice cabin crew but who are quite strict that passengers are listening up, not chatting during safety announcements, than in most airlines. Reassures my safety awareness.

Marginal comments is I hate the yellow interior, I think they are too picky w overweight (but comes with the package), too much selling garbage onboard (comes w the package). And Girona is NOT BCN, and Nyköping is NOT Stockholm.

BUT always damn cheap if you know how to take advantage of the booking system, in spite all extras. Always direct flights, which is great for me flying from "Stockholm". Love the non-reclining seats, I´m 1.94 and hate the regular mouse-traps.

So I will vote with my feet and continue to use Ryanair.

MOL? Why should I care about him?

Exactly what the man said at 5th Sep 2012 16:44!

O’Leary loves ANY publicity and is a regular on breakfast TV programmes. I can’t wait for the time when he and a disgruntled passenger are interviewed together.

Who I wonder will be the first to thump O’Leary on live TV? It will happen. Compelling viewing!

Mrs W used Ryanair this summer to and from airports in France which aren't served by other carriers. This allowed us to have an extra long time over there at marginal cost aside from the flight so it was a no brainer. Flights were even cheaper than using an ID90 and all that entails. Flights were on time and no other issues as we carefully checked things off. I always add £40 to any fare shown to cover other costs and as a rule of thumb not too far out.

But here's how things are changing, when I see a route i.e MAN - PMI with other carriers then I look at them first and will willingly pay extra to be treated with a little respect. Ryanair remind me of Airtours holidays years ago.. Coffee and biscuits on Dan -Air and £13.84 airport taxes extra. When they scrapped this and improved the customer product they boomed.. Sure in time Ryanair will do the same.

Not that I wish to leap to O'Really's defence, Jackhar, but he frequently goes on record to say that he is very happy to debate anything with anyone as long as it's live and unedited. Journalists don't go for that because he seems to make them look like morons most of the time.

He certainly does, I remember the Panorama interview a few years ago (John Humphreys?) and MoL came across like somebody's favourite uncle and made the interviewer look a total tosspot.

Line him up against the tough Jeremy Paxman, the oh-so-polite James Naughtie or the often-ridiculous Jeremy Clarkson. If none of them can get manage to get the measure of O'Leary, then I might consider becoming a Ryanair fan myself:sad: Bring it on.

The stupidity in all this is not with the customer or Ryanair but with Facebook. So I fall foul of Easyjet, lambast then on Facebook and six million people hit the 'Like' button. Facebook will fall long before Ryanair.

What pathetic "reasons" for not flying them. Over 70m people choose to do the other thing every year, at reasonable cost, in fairly new aircraft, supervised by staff who have a vested interest in the safety of the operation.

So tell us please, how Ryanair's cabin crew are somehow less well trained and certified than any other airline? And how does your idea of only booking flights that are half full work out? I'd be interested to know.

I've used them for ten years and in all that time, there's been two short delays, and one cancelled flight. And they fly to places legacy carriers are not interested in. What's not to like?

60 Euro for a boarding pass? How can anyone defend this and blame the passenger? If a one page printout was 1 Euro It would still be double any "internet cafe in Alicante". You blame this woman, have you never woken up to find your printer ink low? Have you never lost your boarding pass print somewhere on the way to the airport. If you wanted to buy a Diet Coke at the airport and the snack bar demanded €45 for it would you pay? No freaking way! You think you are getting a cheap ticket but you are actually being set-up to be exploited.

Obviously this is a cynical ploy to extort a absurd sum from the occasional passengers who arrive without a boarding pass who have no choice but to pay or incur greater costs in hotel booking / purchasing a new ticket.

Ryanair CEO Calls Customers 'Stupid': Shame On You - Forbes

MOL is disgusting. Just listen to his own statements. He thinks his passengers are stupid, and you keep feeding him more business? A gangster's level of exploitation. Again, I will never fly Ryan for any reason. The sooner Ryan goes bankrupt the better. I edited this post to be sure it's noted that I'm not down on Ryan's crews. I'm sure they are great and I hope someday they can take their experience and ability somewhere else where they can make a difference.