Ryanair ---- Now Too Much Hassle?

tingtong

SaveTheEuro wrote: »

The problem is these are our rules. Ryanair is not outside the law when the Office of Fair Trading continues to accept such practice.

That's what I'm trying to say really - we seem to tolerate such a load of crap, when what the OFT should be doing is getting some proper rules in place (like NO debit card charges) then enforcing them without exception. The OFT know that it's unacceptable, they just seem to be faffing around instead of getting it sorted.

To be fair, Ryanair are just exposing the OFT's weakness in dealing with the issue.

EDIT: The OFT have 'asked nicely' for companies to drop debit card charges, before they eventually force them to. At the moment, this request has been largely ignored.

SaveTheEuro

Ryanair are to be congratulated on making the online check in procedure even more long winded. Before printing the boarding card you are now presented with yet another opportunity to purchase luggage and must consider an array of questions, such as do you wish to bring a bicycle with you?

landsberger64

I assume the security code is there to stop some screenscrapers comparing flight costs. If Mr O'Leary is so fond of competition, he has a strange way of showing it.

Ryanair went out of the window for me financially and organisationally a couple of years ago. I regularly visit my partner's folks in south western Germany, and for some time, the quickest (and cheapest) way to get there was to fly to Hahn, take a bus there to Homburg, and a train from Homburg onwards.

It wasn't just that the company running the buses stopped the service; nor was it the ever increasing welter of charges that increased fares from what were bargains to nigh on what I would pay to fly to 'real' Frankfurt and take the train from there; nor was it the hassle of getting to Stansted 2 hours before the flight and spending ages in a queue and JUST making the plane because of 40 minutes spent queueing to check in and another 30 in security; nor was it the sharp practice of dynamic currency conversion, hard to spot and uncheck; nor was it automatically adding in insurance so you have to remove it; or outrageously overpriced debit card fees and the prepaid Ryanair MasterCard debacle; nor was it the sharp practice of reweighing hand luggage prior to boarding, although I've not flown with them since they introduced it. It was the gradual realisation that I could travel more quickly, more comfortably, with less hassle, often by not using Ryanair.

To be fair to Ryanair, not all of these issues were Ryanair's fault, but I just slowly came to realise that I was arriving in Germany, knackered and tense and thoroughly hacked off. Delays would often mean I had to wait 2 hours for the next bus to Homburg, and there isn't a whole lot to do in Hahn.

2 things prompted me to rethink - someone I knew had flown to Brussels (ha) Charleroi and returned for the evening flight. Technical reasons meant that the plane couldn't fly, and each passenger was given a refund - in cash euros - by the airline staff there - and then, without further ado, asked to leave the airport, which was closing for the night. No help in booking travel back - infact people were told the next day's flights were already full. The last bus to anywhere had gone, and there were no taxis available for the 100 plus passengers now stranded. Now you may say "That's why you only pay €10 a ticket etc etc" - well, I can assure you, my colleague had paid €100 plus. The staff felt the 'technical failure' meant that they could wriggle out of EU regulations.

And one incident where I was there to witness it. December 23rd 2008 at Stansted, I arrived 2 and a half hours early for the flight, at 5am for a 7.30am departure. The airport was rammed, as you can imagine. I eventually found a Ryanair staff member and asked if/when the check in desk for Hahn was opening, which it would be. I hied myself to the desk, and saw an already lengthy queue there, with no sign of staff. With 90 minutes to go, they laboriously started checking people in, and 45 minutes later I managed to extract myself from that queue, and queued for 30 minutes at security, making it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare, with myself and other passengers who had check in after me already being paged. The worst of it all was that we were parallel with a check-in queue for Belfast. The check in desk opened *1* hour before the flight was due to depart, and closed, 20 minutes later "because we can't check people in with less than 40 minutes to go", leaving around 80 of the passengers unchecked in. Two of them told me they'd been offered a ticket to Dublin by the staff, but getting from Dublin to Belfast was their own business and cost. People who complained that they'd been in the queue for 2 hours were told that they needed to be there earlier ! The fact was the whole queue had been there 2 hours plus, Ryanair had just messed up the staffing.

SNCF and DB invested in new trains and RFF (the French version of Railtrack) built a high speed line from Paris to Saarbrucken, which cut the travel time from 4 hours to 1 hour 45 minutes. Thus, travelling to Paris via Eurostar, walking 5 minutes and taking the ICE train means that I can now get to my destination happy, relaxed, with reasonably priced food enroute, and absolutely no-one telling me how much luggage I can take. Check in and security take a total of 10 minutes, on a bad day. The journey time is about an hour longer than via the plane. On occasions where there have been problems, staff could not have been more helpful. I haven't flown Ryanair now for about 2 years, as I always check beforehand if it can be done cheaper. On each case, it could.

If Ryanair begin to compare favourably with other carriers or routes then I will begin to use them again. I don't need 1st class service or free drinks/snacks to entice me back, just reasonable, transparent charges and a fair fare.

jayok

Just booked another Edinburgh to Dublin return flight for £26

landsberger64

All Taxes, luggage, online check-in charges, dust tax, cc charges inclusive ?:D

Ryanair definitely has a market - if you are travelling light and don't mind the risk of (occasionally) not flying then they are your people. I just wonder if Ryanair creates a market or follows it.

I do remember a luggage shop in Stevenage going bust, and one of the reasons she gave was that there wasn't a market anymore for higher end (and presumably high profit yield) luggage that weighed 3kg plus, because so many airlines were charging for above 15-20kg.

jayok

landsberger64 wrote: »

All Taxes, luggage, online check-in charges, dust tax, cc charges inclusive ?:D

Yes, all inclusive of charges :T

budgetflyer

Remember with Ryanair, 1 £ = 1 Euro so if you book one ways the return sector is often priced the same in Euros as £s. If you can then avoid dynamicic currency conversion and with the right PP Mastercard (travelex Globe) you will get around 1.19 so thats about 20% saving. and avoid card fees too (except Ireland)

For me, although it may seem a hassle, but you are nagged just the same during the Easyjet booking process, when you add up the fares plus ALL the charges.
FEB school hol week - Edinburgh to Tenerife with 1 hold bag Ryanair £154 RTN versus Easyjet £223 RTN

Quick maths thats a THIRD cheaper!

MarkBargain

budgetflyer wrote: »

Remember with Ryanair, 1 £ = 1 Euro so if you book one ways the return sector is often priced the same in Euros as £s. If you can then avoid dynamicic currency conversion and with the right PP Mastercard (travelex Globe) you will get around 1.19 so thats about 20% saving. and avoid card fees too (except Ireland)

That's a really good tip. I have a FairFX card that I thought I would never use again, but if I use it for the return legs of flights then it seems it works without a £6 card fee.

2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/8974365/Credit-card-fees-to-be-banned.html

Card charges to be made illegal in the UK (eventually)but I don`t think it`ll affect RA because it`s Irish.

richardw

2010 wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/8974365/Credit-card-fees-to-be-banned.html

Card charges to be made illegal in the UK (eventually)but I don`t think it`ll affect RA because it`s Irish.

Is that in the same way it won't affect McDonalds because they're American?