* Ryanair * Ryanair * Ryanair *

ballsymchugh

jonnny68 wrote: »

Did you even read my post properly:eek:

I still fly with them because that is the only sole reason why, trust me if Aer Lingus flew to my destination i would use them all the time even if that meant paying extra, i just can't be dealing waiting around for trains and British Rail are a rip off too and arriving in my destination hours later.

yes, i read it. when you're referring to them as swineair and then complain that they're the only ones flying to where you want to go, then maybe you should change your destination so you can fly with someone else and avoid british rail and other delays?

A Dub in Glasgo

I have been flying with Ryanair for about 16 years and probably have flown over 100 times. I have not had a problem yet other than a grumpy bint who worked at the checkin desk at Dublin Airport (back in the day when everyone checked in at the Airport!).

I have only found Aer Lingus cheaper once over the last 5-6 years and that was a last minute booking due to a funeral (it was still £120 one way!).

A Dub in Glasgo

jonnny68 wrote: »

Did you even read my post properly

I still fly with them because that is the only sole reason why, trust me if Aer Lingus flew to my destination i would use them all the time even if that meant paying extra, i just can't be dealing waiting around for trains and British Rail are a rip off too and arriving in my destination hours later.

Change your destination?

British Rail died a long time ago

mfceiling

jonnny68 wrote: »

BECAUSE unfortunately swineair only fly to the destination i usually travel so if i decide to travel with Aer Lingus it's gonna add hours onto my trip not to mention the added cost of trains,etc, and getting the ferry is even more time consuming and expensive.

JUST because you may not have had any problems with Ryanair does not mean thousands of others haven't, when you have flew with them as many times as i have you get to see and hear some horror stories, i could write you a massive massive list of things ive experienced and seen flying with Ryanair, when a flight goes off without any trouble no problem i just get on the plane, buy nothing of the vastly overpriced food,etc, read my book or magazine and get off simple but when you have experiences of being delayed for over 9+ hours without as much as an apology, or stuck on a plane for 2 hours because of "technical problems" and being told if you get off you cant get back on amongst many other horror stories you seriously expect me to be positive and write nice things about this scummy airline.


Oh and another thing that is downright rubbish saying they are always cheaper than other airlines, 6 times this year ive flew with Aer Lingus to various places int he UK because they were cheaper than Ryanair.

Ryanair might be cheaper most of the time but most certainly not all the time and as someone who unfortunately has no option but to fly with them all the time i can tell you their prices have risen a good bit in the last 18 months.

Time to get real my friend.

Flown with them maybe 20 -30 times....no issue

Prices have risen....but higher oil prices, inflation etc are to blame also.

Don't hate them because they are the only ones to fly where you are going....that's life in the fast lane!!:D

jonnny68

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

I have been flying with Ryanair for about 16 years and probably have flown over 100 times. I have not had a problem yet other than a grumpy bint who worked at the checkin desk at Dublin Airport (back in the day when everyone checked in at the Airport!).

I have only found Aer Lingus cheaper once over the last 5-6 years and that was a last minute booking due to a funeral (it was still £120 one way!).

100 times in 16 years ive flown with them over 100 times in about 2/3 years probably a lot more in fact, ive travelled to London (twice) Manchester (3 times) and Glasgow once this year and each time it's been cheaper with EI than FR.

jonnny68

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Change your destination?

British Rail died a long time ago

I go to my destination for a reason not just for a weekend anyway

Trust me if i could i would

jonnny68

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/ryan.htm

FR overall rating is quite bad compared to most other airlines, i wonder why:eek:;)

Our man in Havana

Anytime I choose to fly FR are always €20 to €30 dearer than EI. I have never been able to beat EI.

jonnny68

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Anytime I choose to fly FR are always €20 to €30 dearer than EI. I have never been able to beat EI.

Surely judging by your previous posts you mean FR are cheaper than EI

FR = Ryanair
EI= Aer Lingus

unless it's a typo or you've had a few beers tonight

Our man in Havana

Nope. Ryanair are always dearer than Aer Lingus.

jonnny68

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Nope. Ryanair are always dearer than Aer Lingus.

Come on mate as much as i despise FR this is simply not true at all, FR are i would say at least 75% of the time cheaper than EI, it's just the whole Ryanair experience as a whole is not good,can be extremely horrible at times, it's bearable when nothing goes wrong.

MOH

jonnny68 wrote: »

BECAUSE unfortunately swineair only fly to the destination i usually travel so if i decide to travel with Aer Lingus it's gonna add hours onto my trip not to mention the added cost of trains,etc, and getting the ferry is even more time consuming and expensive.

JUST because you may not have had any problems with Ryanair does not mean thousands of others haven't, when you have flew with them as many times as i have you get to see and hear some horror stories, i could write you a massive massive list of things ive experienced and seen flying with Ryanair, when a flight goes off without any trouble no problem i just get on the plane, buy nothing of the vastly overpriced food,etc, read my book or magazine and get off simple but when you have experiences of being delayed for over 9+ hours without as much as an apology, or stuck on a plane for 2 hours because of "technical problems" and being told if you get off you cant get back on amongst many other horror stories you seriously expect me to be positive and write nice things about this scummy airline.


Oh and another thing that is downright rubbish saying they are always cheaper than other airlines, 6 times this year ive flew with Aer Lingus to various places int he UK because they were cheaper than Ryanair.

Ryanair might be cheaper most of the time but most certainly not all the time and as someone who unfortunately has no option but to fly with them all the time i can tell you their prices have risen a good bit in the last 18 months.

Time to get real my friend.

I used to eat in the airport before flying, before I realised that the "massively overpriced food" onboard is the same price, and better quality, than the stuff in the terminal. Plus it uses up what would otherwise be dead time, as opposed to eating before travelling.

I've had utterly crap treatment from supposedly better airlines, including Aer Lingus, who I had the misfortune of having to deal with every couple of weeks when working abroad. If I have a choice, I will never give them money again. They're a disaster.

They're not always cheaper, but in all the times I've flown to the UK I think I've once found a cheaper flight. And that was BMI. (And was late, and they lost my bag). Aer Lingus have never been in the ballpark. And on routes where the have a monopoly AL just fleece people.


I've probably flown more Ryanair flights than other airlines combined, and while they're definitely not the best for customer service, they're far from the worst. I've paid a lot more for shoddier treatment.

Fighting Irish

jonnny68 wrote: »

Nice of you to come on here Michael.



:rolleyes:

Most people usually dislike successful people

opa01_2000

killbillvol2 wrote: »

Make up your mind

Not sure what you mean - can you elaborate?

opa01_2000

Plenty of debate on here which is great. Obviously a big divide in opinion on FR.

One point which needs to be very clear is that the ‘bad old days’ of sky-high fees is at an end – hopefully never to return. I was one of those living in London in the early 90s and finding it very difficult to return home regularly. I would have loved the current availability of relatively cheap flights then. But the reason for the ending of the monopoly was not down to any one airline – it was the the EU’s ‘open skies’ policy which allowed other operators to join the market including FR, BMI, Easyjet, FlyBE etc etc. All these companies benefitted from the removal of the monopolies but none of them caused it.

From a personal perspective I returned to live in Ireland but continue to work in the UK. I have been flying on a weekly basis for a number of years now. One of my projects was based in the East of the City of London so flights to Stansted were one of the better options from a scheduling perspective. As City of Derry was my nearest airport the FR flights to Stansted made a lot of sense. So for six months I flew from City of Derry to Stansted and to be honest I hated it. Nearly every week I vowed ‘never again’ with FR but it was very difficult to change as the itinerary suited – Belfast was a much longer drive. On only one occasion in 6 months solid travelling I arrived on time in Derry on a Friday evening - to be greeted with the Ryanair fanfare. The longest delay was 6 hours – quote from the gate attendant at Stansted “don’t ask for any vouchers, they won’t give you any”. On the outgoing flight from Derry this was more punctual but on two occasions this was cancelled, while I was waiting at the gate, without any explanation and on both occasions it took more than 3 months and much effort to have the fare credited back to my credit card. While looking back over my flight bookings at that time to ascertain how many nights I was spending in the UK for tax purposes I worked out my average weekly fare was £125 with FR.

Since then as I have moved around on projects I have flown with BMIbaby from Belfast Intl, FlyBe from Belfast City, EI from Belfast Intl and more recently what was BMI now BA from Belfast City as well as EI from Dublin (on hols). Most of my flights were EI from Belfast Intl – two solid years from 2008 – 2010 my average weekly fare was £75. Prices have risen more recently to around an average of £125 per week but there is no longer an FR option from Derry at a suitable time.

I would still fly FR if the schedule, cost and destination suited best but all things being equal I would prefer any of the above alternatives.

Going back to the monopoly arguments my concern is that what FR is trying to achieve is an effective monopoly from most Irish Airports with the attempted purchase of EI.

So I think there will always be opportunity for us to agree to disagree, I’m sure we’ll all choose the airline we are most comfortable with/suits our needs at that point in time but I think we are all agreed that competition is what must be guaranteed to keep fares low and customer service up. If this disappears then we are back to the ‘bad old days’.

killbillvol2

opa01_2000 wrote: »

Not sure what you mean - can you elaborate?

An organisation cannot exhibit psychopathic behaviour.

opa01_2000

killbillvol2 wrote: »

An organisation cannot exhibit psychopathic behaviour.

I wouldn’t wholly agree with this statement. I think there are a number of studies which show the opposite. In the Leadership Advisor William Powell opines:

What makes a psychopath?

• Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
• Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
• Incapacity to experience guilt
• Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.

Think back about the antics of Charles Manson and read each one of these from that context. Makes sense, right? Now think of a company like Enron or Lehman Brothers and read each one of these from that context. Equally accurate, right? Focus on how your company operates and carries out its day-to-day business and read each one of these from that context. How does your organization fair?

How many of these symptoms does your organization have? How does that make you feel in your gut? Don’t misread this as a fire and brimstone judgment, but rather a way to re-contextualize your perception of your own organization. For example, the “incapacity to maintain enduring relationships” could easily reference your turnover rate. Under the guise and practical application of “It’s just business“, does your organization line up with the “callous unconcern for the feelings of other” in how it expresses this sentiment?

How does FR fare against these symptoms? I think there are some strong opinions already on this site but I’ll leave that to you and other posters to provide an opinion.

shar01

opa01_2000 wrote: »

I wouldn’t wholly agree with this statement. I think there are a number of studies which show the opposite. In the Leadership Advisor William Powell opines:

What makes a psychopath?

• Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
• Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
• Incapacity to experience guilt
• Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.

Think back about the antics of Charles Manson and read each one of these from that context. Makes sense, right? Now think of a company like Enron or Lehman Brothers and read each one of these from that context. Equally accurate, right? Focus on how your company operates and carries out its day-to-day business and read each one of these from that context. How does your organization fair?

How many of these symptoms does your organization have? How does that make you feel in your gut? Don’t misread this as a fire and brimstone judgment, but rather a way to re-contextualize your perception of your own organization. For example, the “incapacity to maintain enduring relationships” could easily reference your turnover rate. Under the guise and practical application of “It’s just business“, does your organization line up with the “callous unconcern for the feelings of other” in how it expresses this sentiment?

How does FR fare against these symptoms? I think there are some strong opinions already on this site but I’ll leave that to you and other posters to provide an opinion.

Sob... all I want to do is fly to somewhere I've never been before for less than 3 gazillion euros... Now I'm supporting psychopaths. Wahhhh!

Our man in Havana

Yes.

Ryanair, the airline of peasants.

IngazZagni

Reading some of your comments here, some of you could benefit from this promotion.

http://www.ryanair.com/ie/notices/070508_EN_doubledifference

Although I do admit they make it VERY difficult to make the claim though.

Their business model is brilliant and in the future when everyone is used to that level of service they don't need to do much to improve it along the lines of how southwest have improved their service in recent years. Suddenly people will feel Ryanair is quite a good airline to fly with.

jonnny68

Flying with FR doesn't actually faze me as long as everything goes ok and there are no delays,etc..in fact im just back from a flight and flying again next week, no problems as of late touch wood, but ive had so many nightmares i always expect the worst!

The worst in recent years though was the really bad snow around Xmas 3 years ago, some flights were cancelled which in certain situations are to be expected, i had booked an FR flight on Xmas eve from LBA > Dub and after waiting around for 2 hours we were notified the flight was to be cancelled because of adverse weather and we could either wait until 26th December to get on another flight or apply for a refund , i choose the latter (but i was still waiting 2/3 months for the refund), but anyway other flights were taking off from LBA,when i queried about this i wasn't given a straight answer, in fact i was practically ignored, chaotic scenes in that dump of an airport, i ended up waiting for another 2 hours to get a Taxi too the queue was massive and i couldn't see any buses running.

I made my way to Manchester eventually and paid a good whack of money with EI to Dublin, no delays and no cancellations so i was delighted and relieved ,why though was an FR flight from LBA to Dub cancelled when other flights from LBA were taking off, yet 42 miles away in Manchester airport i could jump on an EI flight and there were no delays or cancellations to Dublin, i would have understood if all flights from LBA would have been cancelled but at least 60% of flights from what i remember appeared to be departing allbeit delayed which is to be expected in adverse weather, this cost me an absolute fortune when you factor in taxis and paying for a flight on the day, usually id grin and bear it and get the ferry but it was Xmas eve and i wanted to get back home to be with family and friends, i swore blind after that id never fly that horrible airline again but after 2 months i bit the bullet and went with them again as the time constraints and paying more for trains,etc was getting too much.

Anyway just another FR "adventure".............:pac:

IngazZagni

jonnny68 wrote: »

The worst in recent years though was the really bad snow around Xmas 3 years ago, some flights were cancelled which in certain situations are to be expected, i had booked an FR flight on Xmas eve from LBA > Dub and after waiting around for 2 hours we were notified the flight was to be cancelled because of adverse weather and we could either wait until 26th December to get on another flight or apply for a refund , i choose the latter (but i was still waiting 2/3 months for the refund), but anyway other flights were taking off from LBA,when i queried about this i wasn't given a straight answer, in fact i was practically ignored, chaotic scenes in that dump of an airport, i ended up waiting for another 2 hours to get a Taxi too the queue was massive and i couldn't see any buses running.

I made my way to Manchester eventually and paid a good whack of money with EI to Dublin, no delays and no cancellations so i was delighted and relieved ,why though was an FR flight from LBA to Dub cancelled when other flights from LBA were taking off, yet 42 miles away in Manchester airport i could jump on an EI flight and there were no delays or cancellations to Dublin, i would have understood if all flights from LBA would have been cancelled but at least 60% of flights from what i remember appeared to be departing allbeit delayed which is to be expected in adverse weather, this cost me an absolute fortune when you factor in taxis and paying for a flight on the day, usually id grin and bear it and get the ferry but it was Xmas eve and i wanted to get back home to be with family and friends, i swore blind after that id never fly that horrible airline again but after 2 months i bit the bullet and went with them again as the time constraints and paying more for trains,etc was getting too much.

Anyway just another FR "adventure".............:pac:

There could be many reasons for this. LBA is more weather prone than MAN. Better facilities at MAN would mean less disruption. Bad weather would lead to more ATC restrictions meaning certain flights unable to make it in. Aircraft could be stuck at other airports that are badly affected and unable to make it back. Crew out of hours due to delays. Ryanair ops closes early afternoon on Christmas eve and doesnt open again until early afternoon on stephens day so they would be unable to send replacement aircraft and crew.

jonnny68

IngazZagni wrote: »

There could be many reasons for this. LBA is more weather prone than MAN. Better facilities at MAN would mean less disruption. Bad weather would lead to more ATC restrictions meaning certain flights unable to make it in. Aircraft could be stuck at other airports that are badly affected and unable to make it back. Crew out of hours due to delays. Ryanair ops closes early afternoon on Christmas eve and doesnt open again until early afternoon on stephens day so they would be unable to send replacement aircraft and crew.

I take onboard your points but i could see that other flights were taking off from LBA but the Dublin flight wasn't, but anyway regardless i made it home in the end, if there was ever bad snow again i wouldn't take the risk of flying on xmas eve again,lesson learned:eek::)

joeysoap

my order of preference is Aer Lingus (Dublin) EasyJet (Belfast) Ryanair (Dublin). I did use Aer Lingus out of Belfast previously but they have changed airports and it doesn't suit me anymore. What suits is what makes passengers choose- whether it's price, flight times or airports. What annoys me most about Ryanair is passengers queueing when there's no need (often there's no aircraft at the gate but they queue anyway), passengers trying to queue jump by pushing up the side of the queue and then pushing in, Ryanair staff going around with that box, and the run to the aircraft itself once clear of the building. In the air Ryanair staff are usually ok, not as friendly or chatty as Aer Lingus or EasyJet but ok.

I for one hope Ryanair don't get to take over Aer Lingus. I think it would be very bad for customers and I sincerely hope the Government consider this before selling.

zuroph

jonnny68 wrote: »

Flying with FR doesn't actually faze me as long as everything goes ok and there are no delays,etc..in fact im just back from a flight and flying again next week, no problems as of late touch wood, but ive had so many nightmares i always expect the worst!

The worst in recent years though was the really bad snow around Xmas 3 years ago, some flights were cancelled which in certain situations are to be expected, i had booked an FR flight on Xmas eve from LBA > Dub and after waiting around for 2 hours we were notified the flight was to be cancelled because of adverse weather and we could either wait until 26th December to get on another flight or apply for a refund , i choose the latter (but i was still waiting 2/3 months for the refund), but anyway other flights were taking off from LBA,when i queried about this i wasn't given a straight answer, in fact i was practically ignored, chaotic scenes in that dump of an airport, i ended up waiting for another 2 hours to get a Taxi too the queue was massive and i couldn't see any buses running.

I made my way to Manchester eventually and paid a good whack of money with EI to Dublin, no delays and no cancellations so i was delighted and relieved ,why though was an FR flight from LBA to Dub cancelled when other flights from LBA were taking off, yet 42 miles away in Manchester airport i could jump on an EI flight and there were no delays or cancellations to Dublin, i would have understood if all flights from LBA would have been cancelled but at least 60% of flights from what i remember appeared to be departing allbeit delayed which is to be expected in adverse weather, this cost me an absolute fortune when you factor in taxis and paying for a flight on the day, usually id grin and bear it and get the ferry but it was Xmas eve and i wanted to get back home to be with family and friends, i swore blind after that id never fly that horrible airline again but after 2 months i bit the bullet and went with them again as the time constraints and paying more for trains,etc was getting too much.

Anyway just another FR "adventure".............:pac:

Highlighted the main parts of your story, none of which are Ryanairs fault.

You know full well why the flight may have been cancelled, considering the hours waited to be notified. Ryaniar run their planes much more frequently, simply, it may not have been able to take off from another airport, or land into LBA, you only mention planes taking off. this would be a decision by airport staff, not ryanair. the last thing they want to do is have to refund you, they'd prefer to get in, take you out of there and be done with you.

opa01_2000

zuroph wrote: »

Highlighted the main parts of your story, none of which are Ryanairs fault.

You know full well why the flight may have been cancelled, considering the hours waited to be notified. Ryaniar run their planes much more frequently, simply, it may not have been able to take off from another airport, or land into LBA, you only mention planes taking off. this would be a decision by airport staff, not ryanair. the last thing they want to do is have to refund you, they'd prefer to get in, take you out of there and be done with you.

I think there are a few assumptions here which I don't believe should be presented as fact.

“You know full well why the flight may have been cancelled.” Well perhaps the poster did not believe the reasons given as they went on to query this.

“this would be a decision by airport staff, not Ryanair”. Not necessarily e.g. Ryanair may have decided that due to the load factor on the inbound and outbound flight it was not worth the risk of having an aircraft stuck at LBA and simply used the excuse of ‘bad weather’.

“the last thing they want to do is have to refund you”. As above – not necessarily. Again it may have been more profitable for FR not to fly an aircraft from where it was when the bad weather struck dependent on the load factor of both incoming and outgoing flights. As another poster says “Crew out of hours due to delays. Ryanair ops closes early afternoon on Christmas eve and doesnt open again until early afternoon on stephens day so they would be unable to send replacement aircraft and crew”. In these instances it could be a commercial decision by Ryanair not to pay overtime and send replacements together with having the cost of an aircraft in the wrong location on St. Stephens Day as it would be more costly than having to refund the passengers. I’m sure there are a number of people who can’t be bothered to follow the convoluted process of reclaiming the fees that should be automatically credited to their payment card which means more profit for FR.

There are also a couple of important points which you have not highlighted.

“but i was still waiting 2/3 months for the refund” absolutely no excuse for this and having been on the receiving end of this on two separate occasions I believe it is unforgiveable.

“when i queried about this i wasn't given a straight answer, in fact i was practically ignored” again we don’t know who was at fault here, may have been airport staff but in this instance the staff were representing Ryanair, with whom the passenger had a contract, and failed in their duty.

On the other hand it may be true, as you say, that either the aircraft was not allowed to land at LBA or take off from where it was – I doubt we will ever know for sure now. However, due to track record, the default position for a lot of customers/the general public is to disbelieve whatever Ryanair says and I think we all recognise that Ryanair will always make decisions based on the best commercial result for it. Not only customers but a High Court judge who said “The truth and Ryanair are uncomfortable bed fellows” and went on to say Ryanair had told “untruths to the court, untruths about the court and untruths about the Minister”. Why the Judge did not charge the organisation with contempt of court I still don’t understand. You will also remember the case of Mrs O’Keefe who sued Ryanair and won for breach of contract by reneging on the committment to provide her and her nominee with free flights for life. The Judge found that Ryanair had been “bullying, hostile and aggressive” in it’s interaction with Mrs O'Keeffe.

joeysoap

looks like 1st Feby is the deadline for Irish customers who use the Ryanair Cash passport to avoid cc charges. I have one Ryanair return flight next year so only avoided €24 in return for a top up charge of €3. Just about worth the hassle of getting the card in the first place but it will be interesting to see how Ryanair explain how you can 'avoid' their charges ie bags, boarding, 'administration' and the EU 261 levy. Just greatful that I have a better than average choice of carriers (half way between Belfast and Dublin)

Cherry_Cola

Quick query folks, I had a flight booked for myself and my friend to go to London. When booked, I booked a checked bag under my friends name, however they are no longer able to go.

Am I able to still take the checked bag with me? It's been paid for so I can't see any issue but can't seem to find anything in their terms.

Nevermind, just found that you can't do this.

Beefy78

Cracking opinion piece in The Observer today about our favourite airline:

Ryanair deserves a new name

Rock Steady Edy

Glad to see Ryanair finally brought to task on the payment fees ruling, about 10 years after it was pointed out that these fixed debit and credit fees were unfair.

The replacement 2% credit card surcharge is fair enough; any propaganda that everyone is now paying the fee is just wondow-dressing.

If it takes this long to deal with one issue, and there are plenty of other issues that need to be dealt with, it really needs a task force to plough through it all.