Ryanair - Comments & Feedback Thread

stoneman

omelette451 wrote: »

Very true, though I take issue with your use of the phrase "on a whim". Whatever Mr O'Leary is he's not capricious, and if he decides to stop flying somewhere it will be for a good reason (most likely because he's stopped making money out of it, in which case he's right not to feel sorry for anyone... why should he pay to fly people?).

Not really a phrase one would thought was worth "taking issue" with IMHO, just my own embellishment Agree he shouldn't feel sorry for anyone though. Just giving some maybe welcome advise. Look at all the destinations he mothballed during the winter, many people might find it hard to get to there homes without alternative airlines flying close by.

Steve_xx

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

What's misleading about a website that clearly sets out the charges at each step and shows the total price payable at the end?

What isn't misleading about a company that offers a flight for £1, only for it to end up at £50?

Online and offline retailing is two different things. You cannot compare Ryanair's almost exclusively-online offer with something that is mostly offline.

Are they two different things, why?

Look at the basic figures. Ryanair try to cut costs in every aspect of their operation, except maintainence. This model means that they have to aggressively chop costs everywhere they can, and means they don't provide free customer service to people that are clearly idiotic and cannot read instructions. It's a sensible approach, and I wish more would follow that path. I've lost count of the amount of times that valuable time has been wasted by someone arguing over something trivial.

If you can't understand it easily - fly someone else. It's really simple.

What makes you think you're suitably enough qualified to call others idiotic?


They don't have to fly Ryanair. They can easily fly other airlines - the point is that Ryanair is not a monopoly operator. I'm too young to remember, but I've heard stories about the behaviour of many airlines before deregulation kicked in across Europe. Some of the stories make O'Leary look like a saint.

Yes, as you say, perhaps too young to remember.

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inflationbusting

Let's be realistic here - the Ryanair system is not misleading in the sense of the word. If Easyjet (or any other airline) decided to use a marketing campaign around this point, the ASA would definately not permit it.

The system, is, however not overly consumer-friendly or useable. For instance, it took ages for the fares to be displayed with taxes on the flight choice screen. And then, the default of insurance to YES. But these reasons are not enough to accuse it of misleading.

I would suspect that the system is what it is as some sort of customer filter. The Pareto principles would suggest that a minority of customers would cause a majority of problems. Anyone who can't use the booking form to get their promotional price/deselect the options they don't require is likely to be need more 'hand-holding' than others. Clearly, O'Leary sees this translated into additional administrative expenses, which you will pay through the nose for.

Polishbigspender has it right, though. I mean, going through the booking process, past all the confirmation screens, entering your card details, paying for it despite seeing the final total and then coming on here to moan you have been ripped off is pretty idiotic by anyones standards.

Steve_xx

inflationbusting wrote: »

Let's be realistic here - the Ryanair system is not misleading in the sense of the word. If Easyjet (or any other airline) decided to use a marketing campaign around this point, the ASA would definately not permit it.

The system, is, however not overly consumer-friendly or useable. For instance, it took ages for the fares to be displayed with taxes on the flight choice screen. And then, the default of insurance to YES. But these reasons are not enough to accuse it of misleading.

I would suspect that the system is what it is as some sort of customer filter. The Pareto principles would suggest that a minority of customers would cause a majority of problems. Anyone who can't use the booking form to get their promotional price/deselect the options they don't require is likely to be need more 'hand-holding' than others. Clearly, O'Leary sees this translated into additional administrative expenses, which you will pay through the nose for.

Polishbigspender has it right, though. I mean, going through the booking process, past all the confirmation screens, entering your card details, paying for it despite seeing the final total and then coming on here to moan you have been ripped off is pretty idiotic by anyones standards.

That's your view, and of course you are entitled to hold it.

However, with much of it I do not agree.

laura-lovecat

Hi, I don't know if this is in the right bit but here go's.
My boyfriend was supposed to be flying to Rome with a friend on ryan air. His friend has had to drop out so I'm going instead. He had to get his friends name changed on the ticket to mine. They charged him £100 to do this! He went ahead and did it online without telling me. I'm furious now that I found out because its double the price he paid for the tickets! How can they get away with charging that amount of money to change a name! I don't know what to do now because its my boyfriend thats paying but I don't like him being ripped off like this, is there any way we can claim back the money? is it worth complaining? Would we be able to cancel and rebook or would they chrage for that aswell?

jayok

It is the fee that Ryanair charge. You will not get it back, what have are you going to gain by complaining to Ryanair?

Pont

I've got to agree with Polishbigspender in the case of Ryanair (we have disagreed in other posts) - it's there, you pays your money and takes your choice. I know many people get angry when their requirements fall outside the box so to speak. If you can work your way through all of O'Learys gobbledegook you can get a good deal - if not you won't.
Laura-lovecat, your situation is when Ryanair is at their most maddening. I don't think you will have any claim as it is all there in their t&cs. I know it won't help your present situation but in the future it is usually financially better to ditch the original booking of the friend and just booking an extra flight for you as a separate booking.

Pollycat

laura-lovecat wrote: »

Hi, I don't know if this is in the right bit but here go's.
My boyfriend was supposed to be flying to Rome with a friend on ryan air. His friend has had to drop out so I'm going instead. He had to get his friends name changed on the ticket to mine. They charged him £100 to do this! He went ahead and did it online without telling me. I'm furious now that I found out because its double the price he paid for the tickets! How can they get away with charging that amount of money to change a name! I don't know what to do now because its my boyfriend thats paying but I don't like him being ripped off like this, is there any way we can claim back the money? is it worth complaining? Would we be able to cancel and rebook or would they chrage for that aswell?

£100 for a name change does sound steep, BUT it is stated in Ryanair's T&Cs.
I've never had to do any changes to Ryanair flights, but I'm sure that when your boyfriend did the change, the fee would have been shown before he actually went ahead.
It's a good thing he did the change online - if he'd rung the Reservation Center or done it at the airport it would have cost £150.

Did your boyfriend check the price of doing a new booking on the flights?That may (or may not) have been a cheaper option.

You can spend time and money complaining and trying to get the £100 back but I don't think you'll get anywhere.

_Andy_

laura-lovecat wrote: »

Hi, I don't know if this is in the right bit but here go's.
My boyfriend was supposed to be flying to Rome with a friend on ryan air. His friend has had to drop out so I'm going instead. He had to get his friends name changed on the ticket to mine. They charged him £100 to do this! He went ahead and did it online without telling me. I'm furious now that I found out because its double the price he paid for the tickets! How can they get away with charging that amount of money to change a name! I don't know what to do now because its my boyfriend thats paying but I don't like him being ripped off like this, is there any way we can claim back the money? is it worth complaining? Would we be able to cancel and rebook or would they chrage for that aswell?

There is no 'rip off' - this is as per the T&Cs of the ticket. If you feel this is a 'rip off' then I guess you'd be more than happy with all economy flights being fully flexible and costing several hundred pounds?

What you need to understand is if they didn't charge a fee that would put people off, what would happen is people would buy up all the flights when they were cheap, and then 'sell' them on (by doing a name change) at a profit.

PolishBigSpender

_Andy_ wrote: »

What you need to understand is if they didn't charge a fee that would put people off, what would happen is people would buy up all the flights when they were cheap, and then 'sell' them on (by doing a name change) at a profit

This is exactly what Ryanair are doing - and more power to them for doing so. Far from being a "rip-off" - it's actually in the end consumers interest as he/she has more chance of obtaining the cheapest possible flights.

As far as I recall, Ryanair are actually quite good about very minor name changes - such as changing Jenny to Jennifer.

Steve_xx wrote:

What isn't misleading about a company that offers a flight for £1, only for it to end up at £50?

It only ends up at 50 pounds because you take all the optional extras. If it says that the flight is 1 pound, it'll be 1 pound - unless you choose to select all the optional extras. In which case, you can't blame Ryanair - they're offering you the seat for 1 pound, are they not?

Are they two different things, why?

Why don't you ask online retailers that question? Amazon were a terrible company for imposing ridiculous delivery charges, for instance.

What makes you think you're suitably enough qualified to call others idiotic?

I'm able to understand a simple website. Idiots aren't.