Ryanair

gavney1

I know this topic wouldn't necessarily be deemed most suited to this forum, but I'd like to get people's opinion here on RYANAIR.

I read an article this morning about a website, www.ihateryanair.com that has been shut down (but since moved and removed some links).

I actually hate hearing people complain about Ryanair. From my own perspective, what they've done is remove some antiquated business practices (e.g. people checking in at the airport) and broken down what you're paying for, been very cost efficient and forced other companies to be more competitive.

One thing people commonly complain about is that Ryanair started the thing of paying for your sandwiches. Well, I NEVER liked airplane food or packaged sandwiches. I would only eat it on a long-haul flight when I'm desperate.

When other airlines give out sandwiches for "FREE", they aren't really giving it out for free. They're incorporating it into their costs (which the customer ultimately pays for). So, you end up paying for it, whether you use it or not. I LOVE the idea that I only pay for what I use.

I've also found them to be very punctual, and I like the idea of checking in online. I appreciate that there are old people out there who aren't computer savvy - that's my only problem with it

Only real issue I had with them was when they started charging people for not checking in online. It WAS a good way however to force people to start checking in at the airport - and it forced the issue QUICKLY.

I may have a biased view about this, which has come from my own business - where I often want to introduce more efficient ways of doing things which would benefit everyone, but I'm prevented from doing so because other people are too stuck in their ways.

Basically, I understand people's annoyance with Ryanair, but in the bigger picture I personally think they've forced competitiveness and efficiency

pavb2

I agree with the sandwich thing I could never understand why people hang around an airport for 2 hours or don't eat before they get on a plane,and then complain about the food for me any airline food isn't that great.

reverenddave

as much as i dont like using ryanair i do on the odd occasion

and you have to admit that they really chopped the prices of other airlines
due to major competition

perfect example september '09 i went to hamburg, germany to visit a few friendsfor a couple of weeks i paid about €79 all in from dublin to hamburg lubeck then about a 35-40 minute bus journey into hamburg ZOB (central bus station)

if i went with the likes of lufthansa or klm
all i would have saved was a short bus journey to hamburg
and it would have cost between €350 and €450

same route same date around €300 saved for the sake of a short bus journey

if only michael o leary was taoiseach
he'd tell the banks to FÚCK ÓFF and save the country billions

maxwell smart

Ryanair are great when you get a bargain from them. But if Aer Lingus were the same price I would pick Aer Lingus every time.
I went to Milan on Tuesday with Ryanair and back with Aer Lingus. It took me 1:30 to get into Milan from Bergamo (where Ryanair land) but took me 20 mins to get to Linate (for Aer Lingus).
Ryanair have revolutionised air travel in Europe, no doubt. But they are not the best out there if their price is matched.

BnB

I would admire a lot about them.

The only thing that does annoy me about them is the way their Customer Service is so crap. It is shocking

Like the previous poster. I would fly with them a bit. But I would always check out the Aer Lingus Flights first. If they were the same price or even if Aer Lingus were a small few quid dearer, I'd probably go with them.

bigneacy

I like Ryanair. I think they are one of the most innovative and forward looking businesses to come out of Ireland for the past 20 years. They are now the biggest airline in the world by international passenger numbers, which is no small achievement.

I think Michael O'Leary is brash, hostile and unprofessional but he's also one of the sharpest most astute business men in the world. I love the fact that he'll tell the boss of airbus to **** off and then pose for pictures with him two minutes later. The mans a walking legend in my eyes. He made ryanair the giant it is today.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Aer Lingus are not competitive with Ryanair at all pricewise anymore, havent been for at least a year, more even. Aer Lingus "sales" don't even get lower than Ryanair's standard prices.

bigneacy

nm wrote: »

Aer Lingus are not competitive with Ryanair at all pricewise anymore, havent been for at least a year, more even. Aer Lingus "sales" don't even get lower than Ryanair's standard prices.

Aer Lingus are barely even a blip on Ryanair's radar... They only reason they feature on Ryanair's agenda is because they both originate from Ireland. Ryanair are competing with Lufthansa and British Airways... They are on par with Soutwest, AA and Delta.

When Ryanair made a bid to buy Aer Lingus, they issued a worldwide press release letting the world know about "an all cash offer for the small regional airline, Aer Lingus"

mel1

The flight i paid for said

London - to Dublin

Simple

Ryanairs duty of care was to get me to dublin. They did not provide the service paid for.

mel1

Why was my comment removed?

jetsonx

gavney1 wrote: »

which has come from my own business - where I often want to introduce more efficient ways of doing things which would benefit everyone, but I'm prevented from doing so because other people are too stuck in their ways.

Hang on a minute, this is your business you say, but you are prevented from doing things your way? If it is your business, you are ultimately responsible for their actions or inaction.

Other people being stuck in their ways, as you say, can mean decay can set in very quickly but in a barely noticeable way in your business. From my experiences, small business and inertia are not happy bedfellows. In fact, the sad thing is that when you are compelled to do things more efficiently due to market pressures. It can sometimes be too late to change and lead to the demise of your business. Bear this in mind next time you hear your employees resistance to change.

Make these efficiency changes now while you comfortably can and set yourself and your staff a deadline or schedule of key dates otherwise they will never get done.

true

bigneacy wrote: »

I like Ryanair. I think they are one of the most innovative and forward looking businesses to come out of Ireland for the past 20 years. They are now the biggest airline in the world by international passenger numbers, which is no small achievement.

Its an astonishing and brilliant achievement, and is an inspiration which shows Irish people can cut it in the world of business. How many other world class businesses - or Irish brand names - have come out of Ireland in the last 20, 50 or 100 years?

mikemac1

Lots of world class businesses

Dawn Farm Foods in Naas supply every Subway in Europe

700 million euro contract

Dawn Farm Foods has won a €700m, seven-year contract to supply the Subway sandwich chain in Europe with its meat.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0217/127730-dawnfoods/

Actually very few airlines give meals in economy nowadays and those that do eg TAP its just a horrible bun and a soft drink. Its fashionable to run down Ryanair but O'Leary has created a really great business.

mikedd

I think Ryanair is great for low cost flights.. You can cross Europe for a bargain.. If you follow the rules of checking in online and booking a bag before it stays cheap..

Except when you have overweight baggage your kind of screwed since they charge big time .. It's the same with the food on the plane.. But then again if you don't like it the way Ryanair is presenting jr you should book an more expensive flight with a different company..

I think overall it's great and it keeps the cost low.. That's why it works.. As not everyone wants a drink or food etc

true

mikemac1 wrote: »

Lots of world class businesses

Dawn Farm Foods in Naas supply every Subway in Europe

big deal. Nobody in Europe ( I bet ) has heard of Dawn Farm Foods.
Everyone in Europe has heard of Ryanair, and many have used the Ryanair website and flown with them. Ryanair, being the biggest airline in the world by international passenger numbers is known and respected outside of Europe. The name means something to the non-european tourists who may have flown on it. It means something to the thousands who work in seattle building the ryanair planes. Nobody outside of Europe gives a fig about DFF.

Ryanair has magically got away a kind of 'anti customer service' growing their business massively despite often having contempt for their customers. Just shows you where price can get you in business.
I've been doing a lot of travelling in scandinavia recently using Norwegian air and SAS. Two airlines that provide low cost travel as well as transatlantic etc. The difference between them and Ryanair is night and day in terms of services with free internet on the flight, very easy to change a flight or transfers onto another flight, reasonable charges for baggage, much different and relaxed checkin system. A far nicer choice of travel but paying a little more to get to the better airports.

The genius of O'Leary and Ryanair for me is really providing an awful customer service experience yet still retain and get more customers. I don't know of any other company that is able to do this. The companies that pioneered most of the ryanair policies like Southwest don't seem to have this 'anti customer' corporate culture going on at all.
So I say well played O'Leary!

rugbyman

Have flown over 400 times in ten years with them, use aer lingus a bit.

Ryanair is simply superb as a business. For the customer ,flights to scores of places.

Service usually good, sometimes average

When something goes wrong, usually not Ryanairs fault, hard to get info. I have been diverted twice , bussed to destination

re their hard to get in contact policy , its understandable, people on whinging about this ,that and everything else. On occasion I have had to ring , often answered in Milan, not great language situation,. Spent an hour phoning from France one day, finally ended up with airport people in Beauvais, Not ryanair people in fact now that I think of it There may not be any Ryanair people there!


The anti ryanair website is worth reading, some horrible stories and a few un reasonable ones ,even if like me ,you are a Fan

CelticRambler

Without a doubt, Ryanair has a very successful business model and had done a lot to force efficiencies onto an industry that had taken its 1970s/1980s state-subsidised existence for granted. I'm a "satisfied" RA customer, accepting the T&Cs and using MOL's service far more than any other, but that's mostly because he provides connections to places that the others don't. When RA doesn't provide the connection at a price/convenience that suits, I'm more likely to used trains, cars and ferries instead of a competitor.

In the coming years, however, I think RA will face a lot more competition, and the model become increasingly vulnerable. Much of RA's advantage is based on apparent cost saving which can only be maintained by an "all or nothing" service. When the number of passengers on a route drops below a certain number, the route is dropped. That means that businesses in/around a "regional" airport can't make long-term plans that depend on the connection.

RA has also pioneered the de-humanisation of the airline industry, leaving the end-user to make his/her own arrangements and (often) alienating travel agents. This means that there is no mechanism for anticipating future trends or new opportunities - everything has to be based on historical data. This is common across the whole airline industry, and is in direct contrast to almost every other industry nowadays.

There has been no "paradigm shift" in aviation for the last hundred years, so it's well overdue. RA demonstrates a lot of creativity in its marketing but I wonder if, at its heart, it has become just another big global corporation and will be undermined by some cheeky start-up that captures the public imagination.

The Corinthian

I think there's no doubt that Ryanair has been instrumental in reforming the airline industry and bringing down prices across the board. Where only twenty years ago a return flight to Rome would have set you back €400, you can easily do so now for a quarter of the cost and much of the streamlining of services (online sales, removal of 'obligatory' in-flight meals, on-line check-in) has been spearheaded by the company, which in turn forced other airlines to at least make efforts to do the same.

However, I dislike flying Ryanair, not because they're a no frills airline that will get you from A to B at a low price as long as you don't mind travelling in the equivalent of steerage, but because Ryanair doesn't always get you from A to B.

Overbooking is a common enough trait in most airlines, but Ryanair appear to be quite bad in this regard. I'm sure many have been approached by one of their reps at an airport, seeking to convince you to take the next flight, because of it. Additionally, many of their rules are seemingly designed to catch people out and deny them their flight, rather than for any practical or reasonable purpose. And if there is any problem, that they're responsible for, you'll go through Hell to get any compensation.

In short, I can live with a crowded flight, being treated like someone in a nightclub at closing time, if I get from A to B for a good price, but I'd rather not have to deal with not knowing, when I check in, whether I'll get to B, because the airline has overbooked or is going to go out of it's way to deny me passage due to some technicality. And that is what I find Ryanair tend to do; other airlines - even budget ones - less so.

As such, I avoid using them. Most of the time you'll find an alternative that's twenty or thirty quid more expensive, but between the above and that you're probably going to have to pay much of the difference for a bus to get from the airport where you land to the actual destination city, it's a small price to pay for that piece of mind.

Caveat; I've never been denied travel on Ryanair. I have been asked to give up my seat twice (I refused), which has never happened anywhere else. This is a personal opinion and my experiences may not be the same as those of others.