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I look at the overall price I have to pay, and if it's cheaper than the other competition (which it often is) I like it. :yes:
I wouldn't be happy if these extra charges topped up the cost to something outragous but they don't.
I have done several times and I would again. How may times have you flown with them Aladdin.
Oh I'm cool!
What he is doing is obviously not illegal or else someone would have taken them to task about it. He has enough enemies to be brought to heel very quickly so the allegation that you make that he is allowed to do something over and above the law is just nonsense.
:yes:
:yes:
:yes:
Actually it's not as straightforward as that. I need to dig the article up but somebody on another board posted something about the arm of Ryanair responsible for advertising being located in a country in which the advertising standards authority had little jurisdiction.
One thing is clear: Ryanair is in regular breach of advertising standards and has been asked to change/remove countless claims over the years. But nothing else is done about it, and it is still allowed- incredibly- to advertise fares on its website and on adverts for a price that often ends up being many times higher. Quite why this is still happening is indeed a mystery- Private Eye has documented this extensively.
However I have done several phantom bookings and have seen the charges creep up before my eyes.
And then of course there is the issue that you don't normally check in until 24 hours or less before the flight. Are the check-in prices clearly stated at the time of booking the flight, or do you only find out when it's time to check in a few hours before the flight?
And heaven forbid you forget to check in online. Even if you only have hand luggage, Ryanair will charge you an unbelievable £40 to check in at the airport- something that is a given with every other airline: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=68500267.blog
I really despair that some people, as customers themselves, are so willing to sell the most basic concept of customer service down the river and defend the very company pissing on their rights for the sake of a cheaper deal. Talk about selling your soul to the devil.
Yes, their advertising is very dubious. As O'Reilly has stated, it gives Ryanair free PR.
So a Dublin-based company is not infringing any EU advertising edicts? Considering how the EU went after Microsoft, one would have thought they would step on any illegal advertising.
As an aside, what conclusions did Private Eye come to? Ryanair hardly has any political influence in the UK - or does it have more influence within the EU?
Apparently this is not a valid point :rolleyes:
If you fly with Ryanair you are required to check in online. This is one of the conditions of the ticket, and is one of the many reasons they can keep the ticket price low. If you forget to check in online you are subject to a fee. How is that different than if you travel by train on an advance ticket and forget to set your alarm clock in the morning, or you forget the train time and miss your train. You will then be forced to pay a full fare ticket due to your mistake.
If you want or need to check in at the airport then the answer is simple, I do believe it has been suggested before...
Fly with another company!
A person more mean spirited than me would be wishing all of you Ryanair cheerleaders will one day forget to check in, or have a computer crash and run out of time, resulting in having to check in at the airport. And then discover you've left your change in the trousers you were wearing yesterday, and have to beg for a Pound coin from other passengers or see if the cabin crew will accept a £1 credit card payment on your credit card so you can have the temerity of using the onboard toilet.
That would be terrible indeed. But oh well, some people are getting cheap tickets so everything's fine. Please continue to fuck us up the arse, Mr O'Leary. Let me apply the lube for you.
Ryanair are no more greedy than British Airlines, it is simply that their business model is different to provide a different (cheaper) service. Their safety record is excellent and their average staff salary is higher than BA. They offer very cheap flights with reduced luxuries.
Maybe one day I will forget to check in, or run out of time, or my computer crashes. It is just as likely that a bus will be late, or I'll leave my train tickets at home, or lose my house keys and have to pay for a new ticket on the train. Maybe I won't have £1 for the toilet, maybe I won't have £1 in my pocket for a drink of water on the train and I'll deghydrate and pass out. Shit happens.
I really don't see how people are being given a bad deal when they can take advantage of incredibly cheap fares and visit places they could never afford.
To be honest if you're incapable of adding up the charges shown on the website, and you can't remember to check in online, and you forget to bring some change for the toilet then you're better off flying with an expensive airline and hoping that the air hostess feeds you, burps you, wipes your botty and tickles you under the chin for the duration of the flight. Utterly pathetic.
At which point are you prepared to draw the line, I wonder? How about if the flight you're booked is no cheaper than those offered by normal airlines, and you are still stung by online check in charges, toilet charges, or a whopping £40 airport check in fee? Will you limit yourself to 1p flights only?
Do you think Ryanair treats customers who pay £80 or £100 for a flight any better? Do you think you'd be treated any different? I mean, I could understand why some people are happy to sell away their consumer rights if all flights were 1p each. But that's not the case at all.
http://gospain.about.com/b/2009/03/11/ryanair-online-check-fees-the-office-of-fair-trading-and-fixed-non-optional-costs.htm
So I have to ask again, why are they still getting away with such things?
There is no 'whopping' check in fee if you abide by the terms and conditions which state that you must check in online.
The flights aren't 1p after tax and check in etc but they're pretty damn cheap. If it's a promotional price then what you pay is what you pay - no taxes or check in fee. There's a full list of additional fees on the website, if you exceed your luggage allowance or take sports equipment - so for certain people flying with ryanair may not be the cheapest option. Again, this is their business model - and to me it seems like a fair way of doing it, why should a person taking hand luggage pay the same as someone taking two suitcases?
With the fuss people are making about I just went on the website to see for myself. Entered a date and destination and lo and behold, a list of cheap flights with a full breakdown of the costs involved. A quick scan of the additional charges table documents any extra costs. Simples
Bristol - Dublin
Free Online Check in
Depart:
Bristol 06:30
Arrive:
Dublin 07:25
1 x Adult 10.00 GBP
Fare: 10.00 GBP
Online Check-In: 0.00 GBP
Taxes / Fees: 0.00 GBP
Total Price: 10.00 GBP
These non optional costs are clearly shown throughout the booking process (see previous post) so it's hardly like people are being tricked into it.
I think people need to get over it. You want cheap flights - compramise on luxuries and do your homework to see exactly what you get before you travel, instead of complaining after. Can't be bothered with the hassle? Fly BA.
Never mind the food. Even a bottle of water will cost you money. Add £3.
Have luggage. Pay at least £12.
Landing in an airport miles away from the city you're actually intending to fly to? Pay anything between £5 and £30+ extra to get there.
I don't deny that for some flights it is cheaper. But it is a lot fewer flights than some people think.
Which is, in itself, an unreasonable request.
If you had gone to the next step in the booking process, you would have found out that unless you got the piss-poor and rather rare Electron card, you'd have to pay another £5 fee for, er, paying Ryanair for the ticket.
At every little juncture there is more bullshit popping up from that company.
No it's not. Check in at the airport is a 'service' that costs Ryanair. Why should that costg not transfer to the customer?
I think it's a logical way to do business. Give the customer the price for the most basic flight, and then charge as the customer uses those services. Iut works for me and thousands of others. They're doing something right eh?
Such meausres are not needed for Ryanair to survive or to be able to offer cheap flights- since it has been doing nicely on both counts for many years without it. Other companies are also able to offer cheap flights without stooping so low. Ryanair simply does this now because O'Leary reckons he can get away with it. And make no mistake, he will continue to introduce new charges for services that have always been included in the price, for as long as his customers continue to be sheeple.
Well by looking at the costs and how to reduce them to no-frills is why Ryan Air and the other cheap airlines shook up the business. Sure we could return to the days when only the wealthy could travel and get rid of the hoi-pollio (or sheeple as you prefer to refer to them) which clutter up the airlines - I think that would be a retrograde step. Or we could treat people as adults, capable of making their own choices and not seek to control their every move and decision.
And there you are. You have just admitted that customers CHOOSE to fly Ryanair. While people are prepared to accept these charges for 'extras' to gain a cheaper flight, he'll do okay.
No one will get caught TWICE so it seems that most people accept and understand the charges and find the whole experience cheaper. And as the company has grown from strength to strength, people caught out the first time around will still come back and fly the second time.
Just because I choose to accept their business rules and understand the implications, it doesn't make me a 'sheep'. It makes me a wily traveller.
Yes thats exactly why Ryanair requires passengers to check in online. Not because it'll cut costs and streamline the checking in process. Just because he can get away with it. :rolleyes:
I imagine that Ryanair are having to come up with new strategies to keep prices low with fuel prices rising and spending decreasing. Online check in doesn't cost the customer any more, but reduces Ryanair's overheads so they can keep prices low. I don't see the problem with that.
I dont fucking want built in costs, who' goives a flying fuck if that's always the way they;ve done it - flying also used to be a upper class only thing. I don't want to pay for soemthing I don't need to. If I check in online why shoudl I pay to cover the cost of the wages of the check in staff? If I don't use the loo why shoudl I pay for somebody to clean it?
It's logical Jim. You pay for what you get. I'm under no illusion, yet you call me a sheep? You keep paying through the nos for services you aint using and lets see who the mug is.
All I need is to put a big banner outside saying "eat for £1.99", and I'm in business it seems!
:rolleyes:
And if the same meal works out cheaper than at another restaurant (with all charges inclusive), why not? It doesn't seem like an argument to me.
This was part of the original no-frills package, and such airlines did well out of this.
To, after all these years of successful business, start charging for such fundamental services as using the fucking toilet on a plane, checking in at the airport or even having checked luggage is move motivated by pure, naked greed and nothing to do with a need to survive as a business. Such measures markedly deteriorate the travelling experience of passangers, some of whom are far too willing to renounce esential services for the sake of (sometimes) a cheaper flight, and there is a danger other airlines might adopt it too, harming the travelling experience of us all.
And in my book at least, being charged for the toilet is while being inside an aeroplane is denigrating, morally repugnant and humiliating.
I have no doubt some Ryanair customers would readily agree to put a Ryanair sticker on their forehead for the duration of their holiday if it gave them a further discount.
What about the pay toilets at train stations, for example? Do you not use trains because of this?
"denigrating, morally repugnant and humiliating"??? I wonder how you would describe something like 'rape'. Nothing better than stringing together a few hard-hitting adjectives for something that is so inconsequential as this, eh? :rolleyes: