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The hundreds of thousands of pointless trips generating millions of kgs. of CO2 are far worse than a few more people who need to travel deciding to take luggage with them.
Depends on what you think is pointless??
Visiting a country you might not otherwise have seen and meeting people you'd never otherwise have met can be far from pointless.
If people from different countries got to visit each other more often they'd be less likely to want to go to war with other countries and more likely to work together with other nations..
Frankly, I find it extraordinary that you seem to be so willing to be shat on by greedy businessmen. Because, make no mistake, plans to introduce a charge for using the toilet in an aeroplane are nothing less than being shat on and insulted. But no matter. You got your cheap flight, so cleary you must deserve to be treated like an animal if the airline decides so, and you should be damn grateful as well to the kind company that has allowed you to use their services at such reasonable prices...
If this is really what the concept of capitalism makes people believe and put up with, I want no part of it.
Well you obviously have a very low opinion of people in general - I took up a RyanAir deal several years ago to go to Italy for £5 return all inc and met lots of locals and hopefully by the time I left a few less people thought that everyone from England was a half sober, football hooligan ..
You seemed very concerned about carbon offsetting but with every breath you take you're sucking up more oxygen and breathing out CO2.
Have you done anything lately to offset the CO2 you create just by being alive? You talk big, I was wondering if you act big too?
What I was saying (which obviously flew over your head) is that the argument that charging money for checked-in luggage is good for the environment is moot and rather invalid, when the airline in question specialises in 1-pence-per-flight stunts that have generated tens of thousands of extra flights and released untold extra millions of kg of CO2 into the environment. Not that O'Leary gives a flying fuck about the environment of course.
I'm all for people taking short breaks (or long holidays) abroad and I've done a few myself over the years- but I also know of various people who have literally gone to another country for all of 6 hours, to have a rather quick look of a town's central square and buy a thousand cheap fags, all thanks to Ryanair's attempts to undermine the competition and achieve complete domination of the short haul market in Europe. Not only such trips are flippant, they're bad for the environment and for the British economy.
And if Ryanir does become the top dog and starts pushing other airlines out of business (or even just making them drop competing routes so Ryanair becomes the only operator in them) you can kiss all those £1 flights goodbye as well.
What kind of situation do you envisage?
I'm not willing to be shat on by greedy businessmen. That's why I would not fly Ryanair, if there are better options.
What you repeatedly fail to realise is that flying Ryanair is a choice.
Would you prefer that they charge £100 as opposed to a £10 fair just to cater for your toiletry habits? Even on a long haul flight (which Ryanair don't do), I only use the toilet on a small number of occassions and if I knew beforehand when I bought the ticket (such as being aware that there are no free refreshments), I would have a contingency of keeping a number of £1 coins in my pocket.
Ryanair isn't a monopoly. Ryanair will ONLY become top dog and push other airlines out of business if it has enough willing, paying customers to allow it to do that. And even then, some airlines will charge the same cost for the flight as Ryanair but include FREE toilets! What a concept! Competition! People never forget a bad experience and will never fly Ryanair again if they feel so embittered by the experience. I think you fret too much, old boy!
In such cases there is not that much of a choice, and I suspect many customers would not appreciate being asked to pay money to use a basic facility such a toilet.
But that is not the point. The point is about unacceptable practices and lowest common denominators. And those who willingly put up with such disgusting and unethical moves simply because it's cheaper are only encouraging further unethical behaviour from Ryanair and other businesses.
It is completely unacceptable to charge for toilets on an airplane. And Ryanair should be castigated and demonised for it. And ideally customers should boycott such an airline, for the good of all of us. Life shouldn't be about getting something as cheap as possible regardless of way it has been achieved and the methods used. That is a expressway to hell.
Sadly some people cannot afford anything more expensive. Others do indeed have Ryanair as the only viable travel option. So Ryanair will continue to see customers using its airline, even if it decided to start throwing buckets of shit at them as they disembark. That is why it is important that such move is condemned in the strongest possible way, if not made illegal altogether.
You don't really think that the cost of operating aircraft would be affected by the inability to charge money for the toilet, do you? If so I fear you're far too trusty of Ryanair's claims.
It's a fucking greed-fuelled money making scheme that takes advantage of a captive and helpless customer. It's daylight fucking robbery. And Ryanair, which is in a better financial position than most airlines, certainly does not need to do such thing to survive or even protect its profits.
They're lying, greedy cunts and they musn't get away with such appalling move. So it's definitely not about choice.
If you give people the choice, of either a £3 fare with no luggage, or a £18 fare with luggage, how is that wrong? You're giving them the choice. I agree that transparency is sorely lacking and I would blame the regulators for being too scared of growing balls. The European commissioner agreed with me that DRM should be transparent and any product you buy should clearly state that you need to jump through certain hoops to enjoy it. Yet still, nothing has changed.
I think it's fair that you don't agree with Ryanair, but I think it's fair that RyanAir as a company that is specialised in low-cost flights, is continuously looking for ways to further cut costs. If you consider a fancy restaurant, that specialises in exceptional customer service, would you berate them for considering extravagent new measures to provide new services to their customers, even if it means everyone has to pay more? That's their right as a service provider, and people's rights as customers if that's what they want. Planes are no different. The only important caveat is that human's basic health and safety / sanitary needs are met. The fact remains it was somewhat of a throwaway comment, something that they would struggle to implement because of health and safety.
But if they said they were going to reduce leg room to the minimum safe amount (if it's not already there lol) then fair play to them. If people don't want to fly RyanAir but can't afford to fly with other carriers then they shouldn't fly. That may sound harsh but that's capitalism - I'd love to go to Thailand this summer but I just can't afford it. I'm not entitled to travel there and carriers shouldn't be forced to give me a lower price, just as RyanAir shouldn't be forced to give people a better service because they can't afford the nice ones.
If you don't like capitalism that's fine, it's not a perfect system by any means. But what you are arguing against is people's rights to provide a certain service at a certain price and other people's rights to choose that service. You are stepping in and saying that service is immoral and wrong (but the price is ok...).
And I am not arguing against people's rights to provide a certain service at a certain price and other people's rights to choose that service. Ryanair already provides that service, and has proven it can do so while making exhorbitant profits without the need of charging for the use of the toilet for more than two decades.
If Ryanair claims it needs to introduce this morally repugnant charge to keep its company in profit, it's lying. Anyone can see that. And the mantra of "a company must be able to do anything it sees fit to reduce costs" mantra is a very dangerous and wrong one.
I agree also, that the mantra is dangerous, but it is efficient. That's the absolute downfall of capitalism. If it were legal, people would have slaves, no? That's where the government and the regulatory bodies must intervene to say 'Hold on just a minute...'.
Things that are inconvenient and not 'nice', like no leg room, no luggage, no in flight meal, no free drinks - and in mcdonalds; shitty food, shitty service, unclean floors, unwashed staff, should be within the remit of decision makers (those being the service providers, and the service users). However I agree there should be a line with regard to health, safety & sanitation. This is not just to be nice, but these are things people neglect in their purchasing decision (i.e. lots of people don't bother with medical insurance) and it is something they should have in case they need it.
http://www.ryanair.com/site/DE/news.php?yr=09&month=mar&story=pro-en-120309
So to all those who seem quite content with putting up with the cattle transportation conditions and service Ryanair offers so long as tickets are cheap, I ask you this: Are you still happy to use the services of a company whose chairman clearly has nothing but contempt for his paying customers and actually brags about ripping them off in new ingenious ways?
Are you actually prepared to put up with being mocked and ridiculed by the owner of a business you're spending money with, because it's cheap? At which point would you consider stop using their services in protest? What price dignity? £5 a ticket? £10? £30?
If I can get a return flight from London to wherever for 10 quid then I certainly don't feel like I'm being ripped off. On the contrary, I think I'm ripping them off.
But I agree that we need to look at the wider issue.
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/bulletin/dailynews/article/905767/?DCMP=EMC-MarketingDailyNews
What will it take for some people to realise that by the time the thieving cunts end up adding up all the 'supplements', charges and fees, in most situation Ryanair is no cheaper than others?
And at least other companies don't publicly laugh at you and take pleasure in humiliating their own customers.
People are smart enough to work that out themselves and 'choice' will lead customers away to other airlines.
The last three times I've flown with Ryanair I've paid 2p return, including taxes and charges. They're still cheap, but people need to be smart about what they use and what they don't.
I couldn't care less what O'Leary says about the world if the fares are good value. The second they stop being good value, I'll shop with someone else. I include travelling conditions and customer service in my definition of good value.
And I'll say this from bitter past experience: Ryanair's customer service is still 100% better than the tossbags you have to put up with at Shittish Airways.
People who have a medical condition can show a doctors note to staff for free access to the facilities.
I agree with many of the comments said - yes, toilets are a sanitary right, but then again, people have choice. When I go abroad, it's my choice if i want to pay more for in-flight meals. If I want them, I can pay for them as an extre. If I want them included in my ticket cost, i'll have to look elsewhere.
Id buy some of that toilet paper.
As a result all of us end up having to pay extra for services that until very recently used to be free- or at least included in the price of the ticket. For this I blame Ryanair customers as much as the greedy airlines.
You forgot their pioneering of cheap tickets - I can remember the times before the cattle providers got into airlines. Oh it was top quality, great food, attentive air hostesses; it was also virtually impossible for me to travel back home to Northern Ireland for a weekend break if I wanted to eat for the rest of term.
You get charged to take a piss on most city centres nowadays.
Until the cheap airlines came along the only option for many holidaymakers was the coach, which was slow and not all that cheap. I'd rather pay a tenner (never mind a quid) to have a wee than ever have to travel with Eurolines again in my entire life.
The cost of the tickets is given at £1.99 each way- very good indeed.
Or is it?
Ryanair doesn't include taxes and charges. So now it's gone to some £50 for the return trip.
But hold on! I'm having the temerity of needing to take luggage on a trip. How selfish of me. Well, that's another £30.
and I'm going to be nice and click on online check in, rather than airport check in, which would add another £10.
Right, let's pay. Oops, what's this? I'm one of the 99.99% of the population who don't have a Visa 'Electron'. That's another £10
So, total cost of my "£1.99 each way" trip with Ryanair: £89.96
And from next week, when they start charging for the privilege of checking in online: £94.96
This is with the very low fares of £1.99. Fuck knows that the final amount would come to on the very common occasions when the standard web fare only is available.
All of that for an airline that doesn't even give you the time of day for free, that has a terrible cancellation record and subsequent customer care (if your return flight is cancelled, you're literally told to piss off back to the hotel and come back the following day with no explanation or help), and which will soon further humiliate its own customers by charging them for the toilet.
Ryanir cheap? My arse it is.
Eurolines charge £205 return, for those who don't like flying, and it takes 34 hours to get there.
If you don't want to fly Ryanair you can fly with Iberia and pay £61 more, plus credit card fees.