Explain the dislike towards Ryanair?

NickNickleby

Allinall wrote: »

I know a bloke who works at the cutting edge in financial services in Frankfurt, and he says it’s great.

Sorry, last OT post I'll make.

I'm sure it is but we only got 2 nights there, and we were staying right next to the Hauptbanhoff (I think its called) and it wasn't a nice area at all. I've seen parts of the old city on telly, and it looks great.

My previous comment was unfair - it was based on my own very limited experience. Its what springs to mind when I think of Frankfurt.

Nikki Sixx

It is what it is and I use them mostly when I fly, but not by choice, mainly due to economy. You really do feel you are on a budget airline with Ryanair. You will often be surrounded by the dregs of society on such flights. I flew to Amsterdam before and the amount of scummers on the plane was phenomenal. Loud twenty somethings from the slums of Dublin, getting drunk on large duty free bottles of vodka. It was painful to say the least. I think everybody knows Michael O’ Leary is a cnut. The staff, with some exceptions don’t seem delighted to do the work they do and are treated like crap I’d imagine. The scratch cards piss me off a bit too. Oh and the seats don’t allow much leg room/ comfort.

gordongekko

I find their staff unnecessarily grumpy. Travelling can be stressful and I find the attitude of their staff to be poor. A quick smile or hello instead of a grunt would be nice.

B_ecke_r

the whole "they are grand til something goes wrong" line - isn't that just Irish customer service summed up?

mikemac2

NickNickleby wrote: »

oh my God, memories. WE got something like that from Tesco, but you didn't get to choose your destination We got Frankfurt. FRANKFURT. THe only good thing about Frankfurt is the train to Heidelberg. I'd forgotten all about that until now.

Frankfurt has apflewhein. Drink of the gods!

NickNickleby wrote: »

I'm sure it is but we only got 2 nights there, and we were staying right next to the Hauptbanhoff (I think its called) and it wasn't a nice area at all. I've seen parts of the old city on telly, and it looks great.

.

It’s probably worse now that you remember it. The Dublin councilors who want injection centers should pay a visit and learn,hmmmmmmmm

rainbowdrop

rossie1977 wrote: »

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

How much was a flight to London with Aer Lingus before Ryanair was established?

£200-300 would be average.

I remember the Eurolines buses being full and that was like 10 hour trip (3 ferry/7 bus) and cost about £40-50

I remember those Eurolines buses. I grew up in the UK, and no way my parents could afford flights for themselves and 3 kids.

Once a year, we would come 'home' to Ireland on a Eurolines coach.
We would leave our house in the UK at about 5pm, a 2hr train journey to Leeds to get the coach, arrive in Holyhead at about 3am for the ferry, arrive in Dublin at about 7am, then the coach down to Limerick, arriving at about 12pm (no motorway then), and then a 1hr car journey to my Grandads house.

Would take the bones of 20hrs to make the journey, but only cost £300 for the 5 of us, compared to probably a £1000 if we were rich and went by plane.....

How many of today's families with young kids would like to make that journey?

Now I can just get a flight for €40 and be at my final destination in the UK in about 4-5hrs......

Ryanair changed travel so much for the better, and I love them for it!!

Nikki Sixx

gordongekko wrote: »

I find their staff unnecessarily grumpy. Travelling can be stressful and I find the attitude of their staff to be poor. A quick smile or hello instead of a grunt would be nice.

I think O’ Leary puts pressure on them to reach certain targets with selling scratch cards, cosmetics and the like. They also probably are under pressure to screw people for not having boarding passes and having bags that weigh over the limit.

OneEyedORourke

Nikki Sixx wrote: »

I flew to Amsterdam before and the amount of scummers on the plane was phenomenal. Loud twenty somethings from the slums of Dublin, getting drunk on large duty free bottles of vodka. It was painful to say the least.

This attitude makes me laugh.

I'd take a group of "scummers" on a hour long flight over annoying little brats who's parents can't be arsed to control any day of the week!

Grayson

rainbowdrop wrote: »

I remember those Eurolines buses. I grew up in the UK, and no way my parents could afford flights for themselves and 3 kids.

Once a year, we would come 'home' to Ireland on a Eurolines coach.
We would leave our house in the UK at about 5pm, a 2hr train journey to Leeds to get the coach, arrive in Holyhead at about 3am for the ferry, arrive in Dublin at about 7am, then the coach down to Limerick, arriving at about 12pm (no motorway then), and then a 1hr car journey to my Grandads house.

Would take the bones of 20hrs to make the journey, but only cost £300 for the 5 of us, compared to probably a £1000 if we were rich and went by plane.....

How many of today's families with young kids would like to make that journey?

Now I can just get a flight for €40 and be at my final destination in the UK in about 4-5hrs......

Ryanair changed travel so much for the better, and I love them for it!!

I was reading an article about people who go overland rather than fly and it's gotten better. just not for Ireland. In you were doing say Manchester to amsterdam or paris, it's about the same time. You hop on a train and go there. The trip takes about the same door to door since for airports you have to turn up two hours earlier. However it's normally cheaper to fly.

And of course, going overland from Ireland would be a nightmare with Ferries etc.

Mad_maxx

Allinall wrote: »

I know a bloke who works at the cutting edge in financial services in Frankfurt, and he says it’s great.

Ask him to stop shorting Ryanair stock

Grayson

OneEyedORourke wrote: »

This attitude makes me laugh.

I'd take a group of "scummers" on a hour long flight over annoying little brats who's parents can't be arsed to control any day of the week!

Plus it's amsterdam. Whatever flight you get, whatever company you fly with, it'll be the same.

Richard Hillman

I have never had a problem with Ryanair and find their service and staff very good. Any delays are down to Airport issues. Aer Lingus, now....

mcmoustache

maximoose wrote: »

People give out cuz they don't read T&Cs and get caught out for easily avoidable charges.

These people keep my flights cheap, long may it continue.

You don't even need to read the T&Cs. The information is all there in pictures regarding what you can bring on board. Sure there are ads everywhere but when you're booking they tell you exactly what you're getting.

FTA69

Stupid scam artist scratchcards that staff are disciplined for not selling enough of. On one flight we had some lad roaring down the intercom three separate times announcing the “fun scratchcard game” which people have no chance of winning.

Berserker

Ryanair is fine. Passengers who use the wrong door, can't find their seats or try to sneak on bags and end up getting charged are the problem.

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

How much was a flight to London with Aer Lingus before Ryanair was established?

£200 (punts) but you got a free breakfast. My last Ryanair flight to Gatwick cost me €38 return.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Nikki Sixx wrote: »

It is what it is and I use them mostly when I fly, but not by choice, mainly due to economy. You really do feel you are on a budget airline with Ryanair. You will often be surrounded by the dregs of society on such flights. I flew to Amsterdam before and the amount of scummers on the plane was phenomenal. Loud twenty somethings from the slums of Dublin, getting drunk on large duty free bottles of vodka. It was painful to say the least. I think everybody knows Michael O’ Leary is a cnut. The staff, with some exceptions don’t seem delighted to do the work they do and are treated like crap I’d imagine. The scratch cards piss me off a bit too. Oh and the seats don’t allow much leg room/ comfort.

I think that this post sums up why people don’t like Ryanair - snobbery.

The only actual complaint is the legroom.

Berserker

Grayson wrote: »

Plus it's amsterdam. Whatever flight you get, whatever company you fly with, it'll be the same.

Aer Lingus to Amsterdam tends to be business people or mature people. Ryanair is party central.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Grayson wrote: »

I was reading an article about people who go overland rather than fly and it's gotten better. just not for Ireland. In you were doing say Manchester to amsterdam or paris, it's about the same time. You hop on a train and go there. The trip takes about the same door to door since for airports you have to turn up two hours earlier. However it's normally cheaper to fly.

And of course, going overland from Ireland would be a nightmare with Ferries etc.

I’d like to see those workings out. Manchester to London is 2 Hours to 2 30. Then you have to transfer to another railway. Then London to Paris on the Eurostar.

branie2

I had no problems with Ryanair either

NickNickleby

NickNickleby wrote: »

My problem is that we unwittingly subsidise their staff costs. Ryanair staff are regularly put on "unpaid leave". As they are paying Irish PRSI, they are entitled to claim benefits during these periods. However, to claim, they fly in from whatever EU city in which they reside, submit they're claim, specify the bank account to which payment will be made and then fly out on the next flight back home. Its true to say that not all the staff qualify, but an amazing number do. One day one of them tried to claim rent allowance for his flat in Poland, and said he'd been told he was entitled to do so, by his manager.

Caveat, this is from a few years ago, unless rules have changed in the interim, (they're EU rules) I'd imagine its still the same.

Despite all that, I watched a program recently about ship workers. Most shipowners register their workers in Cyprus, because that's where the lowest PRSI rates are. THose employees are also put on "unpaid leave" regularly, but the poor sods get SFA because the benefits in Cyprus are crap. So at least M.O'L isn't starving his staff.

Unemployment benefit/assistance has to be collected in person from the local post office.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Berserker wrote: »

Aer Lingus to Amsterdam tends to be business people or mature people. Ryanair is party central.

The Ryanair flights I took to Bristol and back when I lived in the U.K. were business. Early flights though. On that route aer Lingus was inferior.

mcmoustache

FTA69 wrote: »

Stupid scam artist scratchcards that staff are disciplined for not selling enough of. On one flight we had some lad roaring down the intercom three separate times announcing the “fun scratchcard game” which people have no chance of winning.

It's annoying alright but I'm willing to tolerate it as long as they are optional and I don't need to remove my headphones.

It's clear what their model is: A cheap random seat on the plane for just you and a small bag. Assigned seating and extra baggage allowance costs extra and during your flight they'll try to sell you overpriced cráp that you don't need to buy.

Sure it's a bit nickle-and-dimey but they aren't a monopoly. There are other airlines that have these perks built into their prices, making it look like the perks are free and people can choose those airlines if they like.

ziedth

I'll absolutely call them a necessity in that they make air travel cheaper and more available. Nice also to see and Irish success story and I appreciate that people can have flown with them 10's of times with no issues while I would say a majoprity of issues are from people not understanding the rules.

However, Personally I had a nightmare with them last year. Standing at the gate in Luton and told flight(s) were cancelled so next available flight wouldn't be until two days later. No Hotel, No Expenses etc. They said we should keep receipts of anything we spent waiting but I thought better than to trust that. So we got train and a boat home which got in maybe 20 hours later paying for hotel when in Dublin so maybe out of pocket the bones of €250 each.

To their credit they refunded the missed flight, paid the EU fine thing (through a third party) and my holiday insurance covered the rest so I ended up probably up money a little bit but it was a nightmare and I couldn't help but think that a different Airline would have handled the actual delay allot better.

Having said all that I am still flying with them in October so maybe it's more fool me

TaurenDruid

Because - while 95% of the time, they're fine and reasonably efficient - if *anything* goes wrong, they treat you like ****. If you can get any service at all.

I started avoiding them when our kids were young, as the stampede to get on and get seats together was just mad, back when they weren't allocating seating.

Worst experience was a few years ago, flying into Girona. Plane lands, we get off the plane, and for some unknown reason, never explained or apologised for, we are left standing on the tarmac in the noonday sun for 30 minutes before they decide they'll let us into the terminal.

Flying back two weeks later, we're ushered out onto the tarmac and made stand for 45 minutes in the 2pm sun, with no explanation or apology. Kids literally getting heatstroke. And then refused water when they eventually did let us onto the plane - that had been sitting there, ready, the whole time! Wrote to them about that, never got a reply.

The latest "We could obviously put the four people on your booking in adjacent seats, but instead we've spread you all over the plane so you'll pay more so you can sit together" is just the icing on the cake.

Yes, I'll fly Ryanair. Yes, I'll pay an extra few tenners if I don't have to.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Nikki Sixx wrote: »

It is what it is and I use them mostly when I fly, but not by choice, mainly due to economy. You really do feel you are on a budget airline with Ryanair. You will often be surrounded by the dregs of society on such flights. I flew to Amsterdam before and the amount of scummers on the plane was phenomenal. Loud twenty somethings from the slums of Dublin, getting drunk on large duty free bottles of vodka. It was painful to say the least. I think everybody knows Michael O’ Leary is a cnut. The staff, with some exceptions don’t seem delighted to do the work they do and are treated like crap I’d imagine. The scratch cards piss me off a bit too. Oh and the seats don’t allow much leg room/ comfort.

Excuse me, your Majesty.

topper75

El Weirdo wrote: »

Luton is the real jewel of the British Empire.

When I landed there, I travelled on to another destination, but not everybody is blessed with my imagination.

My memory is quite powerful too, whilst I'm boasting about my magnificent brain.
I remember £200plus UK fares as being the only game in town.

Long may you run Ryanair.

Poulgorm

Just tried to check in for a return flight with Aer Lingus (Cork to Manchester): to do it more than 30 hours in advance, you have to purchase a seat first - the cheapest seat is €12! That's in each direction. The plane used in the run is that screechy, cramped, propellor driven thing.

Ryanair's cheapest seat is €4. In a much more comfortable plane.

OneEyedORourke

Berserker wrote: »

Aer Lingus to Amsterdam tends to be business people or mature people. Ryanair is party central.

I'd be on flights to Amsterdam every few months for work - there is feck all difference between the passengers on each airline, especially at weekends.

Bassfish

On the last family holiday we flew out with Aer Lingus and came back with Ryanair as the times worked out better. The Ryanair flight was no more hassle than the Aer Lingus flight from booking to landing and at least 30% cheaper, bags and all. Hitting you for all the extras is an industry standard at this stage.
Most people won't remember the days of Aer Lingus Cork to Heathrow return costing 300 punts return, but it did!

JeffKenna

What annoys me about Ryanair is since they changed there policy on cabin bags most people now have priority boarding. I don't want to stand next to the plebs in the que. Fu*k sake.