Ryanair pricing... new costs or computer error?

[nina wang]

Flew with them once. Determined not to make the mistake twice.

[Sober Lark]

Originally Posted by nina wang

Flew with them once. Determined not to make the mistake twice.

I can fly Dublin to Malta for EUR24. I don't mind paying EUR18 for my preferred seat up front. There are 5 people here who won't fly Ryanair and off site there are 180 million who do. Ryanair has carried over 1 billion passengers without loss of a single life. How many airlines have achieved that safety record?

I fly Lufthansa Dublin to Frankfurt, I'll pay EUR130 and a seat reservation costs EUR20. I know they probably won't be on time, they may cancel the flight and if they do, customer service is deplorable.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by krismiler

So do I and back in those days tickets had coupons which had to be pulled out for each sector.

In those days there were tickets ...

[FUMR]

You are comparing 5 posters on this thread who don't with 180 million who do. A very balanced comparison! I would in fact suggest that a great deal more than 180 million don't fly with Ryanair.

[FarTooManyUsers]

Originally Posted by meleagertoo

I think Ryanair's rationale is that there aren't enough people (daft enough) to buy allocated seating so that revenue stream isn't performing - and some toxic little grey-faced gnome in the accounts department has had a brainwave - to make pax's lives so utterly miserable and fearful by threatening to subject them to lengthy, uncomfortable and hated queues at checkin with the added incentive of worrying if you're going to miss the flight (which is of course also to Ryanair's great financial advantage) thus inducing/co-ercing/bullying/frightening pax into coughing up for the outrageous allocated seating. $$Ker-ching$$
It also shows up the nasty cynical ripoff of charging £20 for an airport-provided boarding pass (perhaps because you've comitted the social crime of not posessing a smartphone) - when this new policy sees them dishing the damn things out en masse for free - so what was the justificaton of the £20 charge, except cynical opportunistic ripoff?

Having originally set off ostensibly trying to make air travel easier and more accessible they have now realised that by means of a total volte-face and turning it nasty and awkward they can extract yet more cash form their long-suffering victims.

What a revolting commercial morality these people have.

I'm perfectly happy when airlines use charges to align the passenger interests and the company's interests - so a reasonable airport check in fee that reflects the cost to the airline of having staff and desk space at the airport - absolutely. This means that other passengers don't end up effectively paying for services that they don't consume.

Ryanair charging 55 gbp / euro for checking in at the airport - that's just nasty.

https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful...lp-centre/fees

[Bull at a Gate]

Don’t get much chance to fly Ryanair, but when we do we find them a great way to fly. Follow their rules and you will pay a tiny amount of money for a service which is exactly as advertised. The alternative is a full cost carrier which often delivers a low cost service.

[Eutychus]

Originally Posted by Bull at a Gate

Don’t get much chance to fly Ryanair, but when we do we find them a great way to fly. Follow their rules and you will pay a tiny amount of money for a service which is exactly as advertised. The alternative is a full cost carrier which often delivers a low cost service.

My son recently booked a long-haul flight with a flag carrier which he chose for their attractive price over the route. Only when he sent the travel details to us did he notice that the attractive price was because he had picked the default ticket option which included no hold luggage - for a flight of over 10,000km!

In other words, it's not just Ryanair that play fast and loose with their booking systems.

I've flown Ryanair quite a lot, have been (very) delayed only once and have always found one gets what one pays for, provided one reads the small print carefully.

(Ryanair also gave me one of my most exciting takeoffs ever back in the day with quite an empty plane, what must have been an ex-air force pilot and I guess a B737-200. Took off like a scared cat).

[Sober Lark]

Originally Posted by FUMR

You are comparing 5 posters on this thread who don't with 180 million who do. A very balanced comparison! I would in fact suggest that a great deal more than 180 million don't fly with Ryanair.

Brilliant reply.

and... more than 80% of the world's population has never flown.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by FUMR

You are comparing 5 posters on this thread who don't with 180 million who do.

Let's hope that all the latter don't now decide to post.

[blind pew]

In the old days customers would buy several tickets for the same day especially on Fridays on BA and would claim a full refund on those not used. The mean no show was 12% on the code share route LHR -ZRH. Was a question of commuters being able to travel on an earlier or later flight depending on time of finishing work.
RIO would be far more of a problem when they had rampant inflation as the locals bought tickets in local currency when they got paid and cashed them in when they needed the money at the new exchange rate as the tickets were priced in USD.
I had one of the first flights which included airport printed tickets..the staff hadn’t heard of it at Nimes..mind you they are french (moi Aussie b4 I get any flack.
Dublin on the way out had introduced the hand baggage mafia for the first time since before covid.good.
Happy to fly with O’Leary’s lot but will never use the trump coloured airline again and avoid my old lot after a disastrous trip to the gulf.
It’s a terrible shame imho that the french stopped FR expansion there..destroyed tourism and 8? Years on Nimes in just getting back on its feet.
Sadly I have to pay a massive premium if I decide to travel the next couple of days ..as in 2000% on my last trip.

[FUMR]

Originally Posted by Sober Lark

I fly Lufthansa Dublin to Frankfurt, I'll pay EUR130 and a seat reservation costs EUR20. I know they probably won't be on time, they may cancel the flight and if they do, customer service is deplorable.

Are you suggesting Ryanair never cancel flights?

[beardy]

I have flown, as captain (not in RYANAIR), with many FOs who had been trained by RYANAIR and found their skills and knowledge to be excellent. I believe that their training dept to be very good indeed, that makes them a safe airline to fly with. The rest is money and expectations.

[listria]

In terms of splitting families, I was a passenger on Ryanair yesterday. The aisle seat was occupied by a child of 8 or 9 years who flopped onto the tray table for the whole 3 hour flight and was very difficult to wake up when I went to the toilet . He appeared drugged, to be honest. I've no idea where his family were and they didn't visit him for the whole flight.
IF there had been a serious emergency involving an evacuation one wonders what would have happened.
​​​​​​(the other thought that occurs to me after the event is that he may have been a victim of trafficking, he really was doped out...I wish I'd brought it to the attention of the cabin crew)

[Charlie_Fox]

I don't believe that Ryanair has tray tables.....

[soarbum]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Fox

I don't believe that Ryanair has tray tables.....

They certainly do, how else could they upsell you inflight food and drink.
They do have some non standard mods such as no recline on the seats and safety card printed on the back of the seat instead of a card.

[FUMR]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Fox

I don't believe that Ryanair has tray tables.....

You're possibly confusing with that they have no seat pockets.

[listria]

Originally Posted by FUMR

You're possibly confusing with that they have no seat pockets.

It was a tray table. Please let's get back to the very bad situation that Ryanair or the child's parents decided it was a good idea for him to sit on his own with an unknown man like me for a three hour flight.

[FUMR]

Originally Posted by listria

It was a tray table. Please let's get back to the very bad situation that Ryanair or the child's parents decided it was a good idea for him to sit on his own with an unknown man like me for a three hour flight.

Oh, I do beg your pardon but I was answering Charlie_Fox. Nevertheless, did you actually read and understand what I wrote? I was simply pointing out that they do have tray tables but they don't have pockets in the back of the seats.

[krismiler]

If you read the small print, follow all the rules and treat it as a bus service then you shouldn’t have a problem. Unfortunately legacy airlines are following their lead, previously there was a clear distinction between full service and low cost, the full service gave you meals and a baggage allowance whereas the low cost charged extra. Now these are add ons to an already higher fare. If it wasn’t for the down market airports that LCCs use, there would be little incentive to pay for a full service airline.

[Eutychus]

Originally Posted by krismiler

If you read the small print, follow all the rules and treat it as a bus service then you shouldn’t have a problem.

The French high-speed train market offers some interesting comparisons. The standard TGVs are run much like a standard airline, while the low-cost Ouigo service is run much like a LCC (right down to the garish colour schemes), you pay for luxuries such as baggage space and a power outlet at your seat, and in case of any difficulty on the line your train is much more likely to be delayed or cancelled than the standard TGVs.

Or (as I recently found out) resized. A few hours before my most recent trip I got a text telling me my double-decker train had been replaced by a single-decker train and as a result my seat no longer existed. I could travel but with no guarantee of anywhere to sit, and in a Ouigo there literally is nowhere else to sit apart from on the floor.

The lesson I've taken from all this, much as for LCCs, is not to take a Ouigo if I have a connection or really need to arrive more or less on time anywhere.