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Ryanair - complete bastards?
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
A particularly bored SG read this at work earlier today in The Times. "A dispute broke out last night between Ryanair and the BBC before the broadcaster’s planned documentary on the budget airline. The Panorama programme, scheduled to be aired on Monday and titled 'Why Hate Ryanair?', is expected to investigate not only the secret of the airline’s success but also the reasons why it is apparently so unpopular with many customers. However, Ryanair has accused the BBC of preparing a 'hatchet job'..."
Okay, an admission. I have never flown with Ryanair before. I've heard plenty about them, though. Aside from their... shall we say, flamboyant chief executive Michael O'Leary, all I've heard is bad. I am told they charge about £40 if you haven't printed out a boarding pass in advance. I've heard they want to charge for pretty much everything under the sun - even for taking a piss when on one of their flights. So here's my question.
How much of this stuff is true? Are they really as bad as people make out? I need to know...
Okay, an admission. I have never flown with Ryanair before. I've heard plenty about them, though. Aside from their... shall we say, flamboyant chief executive Michael O'Leary, all I've heard is bad. I am told they charge about £40 if you haven't printed out a boarding pass in advance. I've heard they want to charge for pretty much everything under the sun - even for taking a piss when on one of their flights. So here's my question.
How much of this stuff is true? Are they really as bad as people make out? I need to know...
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
I have no problem with them. It's not as though there arn't any alternatives.
The bloke in charge of Ryanair said they were trying to encourage passengers to take less luggage. Which I just think is stupid. It's an aeroplane for fucks sake, people do take luggage. But yeah, the tickets are cheap. But if you want to take more than just your finger nails then you'll have to pay.
Oh and the guy also said if he could charge more for fat people he would.
Ridiculous.
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Why? If you take more weight you cost more in fuel. That's as logical as it gets.
And as I said before, if your not happy with it fly with somebody else.
:yes: Exactly
If you want better service then pay 3 times the price with BA.
If you want cheap tickets then accept that you'll have to do a bit of running around yourself to find out what's included in your ticket, and possibly have to go without certain luxuries.
People want cheap tickets WITH all the extras you'd expect from a more expensive airline. Doesn't work like that sorry.
A final point which people seem to be unable to grasp. If you don't like the service then don't use it! Next people will be complaining about the lack of room service at youth hostels :rolleyes:
Ryanair piss people off because they try to charge for things that are seen as standard in the industry (like going to the toilet for fuck's sake :rolleyes:). Nobody complains at a hotel charging for wifi access or breakfast, but they'd soon complain if they started charging extra for bedding (which you couldn't get from elsewhere). Particularly when they're selling non-refundable tickets to something, so even if you find an unexpected charge, you essentially have to pay it. It's about transparency, not the charges themselves. What other industry that sells to the public gets away with advertising prices without tax ffs?
Er ffs shopping centres and railway stations charge for toilets...whats the difference? If you're paying £50 less for a ticket £1 to use the toilet isn't exactly a hardship is it.
I agree that they are a little shifty in advertising the full price, but in my opinion like it or lump it. If you don't want the hassle then fly with a more expensive airline. It'll cost you more than ryanair, even if you go to the toilet 10 times in the flight.
Their customer service record is appalling with countless reports of not only planes being cancelled for no apparent reason, but customers being basically told to fuck off and make their own provisions for the extra night they are going to have to spend abroad.
The price of tickets is often more expensive than other airlines after all the outrageous charges are added. What started as a £1 one way becomes £35 after all the bullshit they add.
Some of the charges are so wrong they are offensive. Charging for checking in online? Charging £4 for using a debit card? Fuck off you scumbags.
Its chairman is an odious bully who won't even allow employees to charge their mobile phones in the office and who threatens to sack anyone posting comments in the various Ryanair watchdog websites who is identified as an employee of the company.
And he actually takes delight in ripping off and scorning his own customers, even joking about printing his face on toilet rolls for those who object paying £1 for the toilet.
What the fuck is to like? Unless there were the only company that served a city and I had a family emergency, I'd sooner eat my own arm that ever pay a penny of my money to those cunts.
I haven't flown with ryanair for a while but have with easyjet, who are much the same. Found the staff to be rude and scruffy compared to other airlines. Planes are cramped and some of the passengers behave stupidly - running to the plane, pushing and shoving, stuffing the lockers with 5 thousand bags so there's no space for other people's stuff.
I'd much rather pay a little bit more and go with a decent normal airline these days.
Well I don't know about you, but I've never found myself trapped in a shopping centre for several hours with no way of getting out.
If your in London or many of the majoy city centres you'll be hard pushed to find a free toilet.
I've seen a public toilet you had to pay for... and I used to stay in london at weekends for a few years.
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I'm talking about central Lodon ie the City Of London, Westmineter, Holborn, Clerkenwell, not the whole of Greater London. Most of the toilets charge.
Even in my local city of Salisbury all the public toilets in the centre are chargeable.
Still I really don't understand this hate for Ryan Air. If you don't like them go somewhere else, it really is that simple.
Obviously enough people are happy to fly with them else they wouldn't be in business. I think it's a logical way to run your business. Offer the cheapest deal for the most basic flight and any other services you use top up the price. It's the definition of paying for what you get.
When the fuck did that happen??? My great gran lives in Salisbury, last time I went was March for a funeral... actually, don't think I've used the public loo's though...
And- the hate for ryan air? I've never used ryan air. but they seem like wankers, so I doubt I'll ever fly with them.
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I let the company work for me, and for my benefit. If the price gets too high after all the fees are added on top then I simply don't pay for it. There's no coercion involved.
Just as an example, I looked on the website at the costs. A flight to Marseille, booked online with no human contact and with a 15Kg bag costs £25. The same flight on the same dates with B.A. is over £100. You get what you pay for, if you're not willing to pay more than £25 for a flight, then you need to live with the fact that you'll not be served fine wine with your meal.
I don't fly with Ryanair, and I never will. I like to fly in some semblance of comfort, and I'm willing to pay for it. But I don't begrudge the cheap bastards who use them.
Well fly with a different airline and stop complaining then! Like I said, it'll most likely cost you a load more even if you went to the toilet 10 times in the flight.
You get what you pay for. If you don't like budget airline service then don't fly with a budget airline.
I'm with stupid - thats 75 toilet trips before you're out of pocket! Fucks sake, you can hardly argue it's poor value for money :rolleyes:
Online check-in: it can be up to £30 each way, though the normal charge is around £5 or £6 (unless it's a "free" online check in- how fucking generous of them)
Use any credit or debit card apart from some Electron, which most people don't have: add another £4-£5.
Have the temerity of having check-in luggage with you: prepare to mortage your house
And then there are various other things to think about... such as the fact that in many cases Ryanair doesn't fly you to the city you are buying the tickets for, as the poor souls who fly to "Barcelona" find to their cost. They find themselves landing in a city 60 or 80 km away, and have to spend considerably more getting to the city itself as those flying with any other airline, as they are flown to the airport closest to it.
Honestly, in a surprisingly high number of cases the fare isn't cheaper by much (if at all) once you take everything into account. And then there is the self-respect factor. I'll be fucked if I'm going to be paying a penny to a man who clearly has nothing but contempt and scorn for his own passengers and treats them like shit. I'd rather pay extra and fly like a human being.
Customers are able to vote with their feet but Ryanair isn't doing too badly, is it?
So stop whingeing and just fly with someone else. Ryanair certainly doesn't have the monopoly.
"You pays your money and you makes your choice". Period.
Ok so do that then. Some people obviously wouldn't prefer to pay extra, which is why ryanair is still in business.
I think ryanair provides shit service - I'm not arguing against that. But what's the point in hating them, no-one is forcuing you to fly with them.
I rarely fly so I couldn't give a fuck either way, but a lot of my friends and family use ryanair - they'd rather sacrifice luxuries and convenience for the cheaper tickets. It means they can go places they wouldn't be able to afford with a more expensive airline. None of them have falled foul to hidden fees or been flown to a city miles from their destination.
If customers put up with the humiliation of having to pay for the toilet, having to pay for checked bags, having to pay for checking in online, all for the sake of saving a few quid (which often is not the case anyway), then other airlines might, and in some cases have, decided to introduce similar measures.
And if any of those things become industry-wide, then there is no way of avoiding them or boycotting an airline, as you'd have to boycott them all and not fly.
So the way I see it, when people prostitute themselves to Ryanair for the sake of a cheap ticket, instead of refusing to fly the cunts for as long as they behave immorally, they are endangering the customer service and flying experence of everyone who flies by giving the idea to other airlines that they too can get away with murder.
It is because of it that more airlines now charge for checked baggage (even one or two national flag carrier ones are thinking about it already). If one day everybody has to pay £1 to use the toilet, be under no illusions: it will be the fault of Ryanair customers.
I don't agree.
Firstly, Ryanair doesn't really do long haul. Most people can withstand some discomfort if it's only for a few hours and there really would be an outcry if this was introduced on all long haul flights.
Secondly, there are always people who are prepared to take the more expensive but comfortable route offered by other suppliers.
Thirdly, if Ryanair DID influence the other companies, then there will be competition once more in the cut-price flight industry. And what will differentiate one budget airline from the the other? Why, it would be the reintroduction of services that make a passenger's life more comfortable! Ta da! Full circle.
The subject of the thread is about whether or not you like Ryanair, so this "fly with a different airline then" line that people keep coming out with is bullshit. Do you think I'm under the impression that I'm obligated to fly with them or something? I'm just giving my opinion of them.
Where I do think there is a real issue is in the area of consumer rights. I don't take the libertarian view that businesses should be allowed to do absolutely anything they want, and customers should just take their business elsewhere if they disapprove. I think every company should be legally required to make any additional costs clear, so that people don't get a nasty surprise on their non-refundable ticket, because of something hidden in the smallprint. I think that every company should be required to comply with employment and safety regulations, not have pilots working unsafe numbers of hours putting passengers in danger.
If I was to complain about any other company in relation to things like employment practices, safety standards or consumer rights, no-one would bat an eyelid. When it's Ryanair, for some reason "well don't fly with them then" seems to be the only response people can come up with.
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Okay. Let's make this simple then. I like Ryanair. I make sure that I read the small print and know what's in store for me when I book my ticket and I turn up at the airport. I choose to fly with them. That's not 'bullshit'.
Because it's a CHOICE. I can't change government policies that don't suit me, I can't change the price of fuel when we are paying more than almost anyone else in Europe but need a car to get to my work 25 miles away which has no public transport to get there, I can't make the local council resurface my road even though I have to drive along it every day because there is only one way in and out of the road where I live - but I can choose to save money flying with Ryanair just as I can choose to shop at Sainsburys rather than Tesco because Tesco are rip-off merchants. So it IS relevant to tell people that if they don't like it, fly with someone else. It's ridiculous to make this an issue when noone is forcing anybody to fly with Ryanair.
So you guys think Ryanair are cunts? They probably are - but my sums prove to me that in spite of everything, I can save money using them to fly into Europe. I deal with it. Why don't all of you?
we are dealing with it. By talking, just like you are...
Sorry it seems like I've stressed you out- I didn't mean to. I was just giving my views on your views. I accept what you are saying, but I disagree with the content of it. Therefore I, like you, am entiteled (spelling?) to give my thoughts on the issue at hand.
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^ This.
There is also (for fans of capitalism) the issue of unfair competition. Why on earth are Ryanair still allowed to get away with their price advertising and booking system? It seems to me that if any other company dare to advertised their products at £1 on big billboards and newspaper ads, and then the customer had to end up paying £40 for the the product in question, they'd be given a seeing to by the authorities so severe they wouldn't dream of ever doing it again.
But not Mr O'Leary's fine company. Oh no.
Bizarre