Ripped off by Ryanair.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

I despair of the sort of rot advocated as fair business practice in the last two posts. Where did you learn it ? Oh hang on, the railways was one ... shining example, eh ? NOT.

Errata

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

I despair of the sort of rot advocated as fair business practice in the last two posts. Where did you learn it ? Oh hang on, the railways was one ... shining example, eh ? NOT.

Some might despair of those who buy something and can't be bothered to read the instructions which accompany it.

notakid

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

I despair of the sort of rot advocated as fair business practice in the last two posts. Where did you learn it ? Oh hang on, the railways was one ... shining example, eh ? NOT.

As the railway is the only transport service which will offer transport to stranded people with no money I don't see your point. Also what you seem to be missing by a mile is if you buy a cheap no frills ticket you need to abide by the conditions and not moan if you as an individual invalidate your right to travel.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

notakid wrote: »

As the railway is the only transport service which will offer transport to stranded people with no money I don't see your point.

The railway seems more likely to strand people so they miss Christmas right now than to unstrand them, if you don't mind me pointing that out!

Also what you seem to be missing by a mile is if you buy a cheap no frills ticket you need to abide by the conditions and not moan if you as an individual invalidate your right to travel.

Are you refering to the copious amounts of caution and wearwithall I should don before purchasing a ticket with the largest European airline carrier (largest by far) ?

Who is missing what by a mile, notakid ? I am notakid too, but I know Ryanair inside out. Most people still don't, so they must either get a guide like me (not sure about you because I think you might just wave them off without a word of warning but just 50 pages of T&Cs stuffed in their pocket), or before they can fly Ryanair all alone they must truly educate themselves on Ryanair's odd ways (educate doesn't mean read T&Cs - I suggest mastery of the subject would ultimately be the most moneysaving and that takes years!).

Otherwise, as Ryanair counts upon in its business model, they might easily make expensive mistakes - so they need help e.g. warnings they might read on MSE that Ryanair is not a company famed for fair business practice.

New Ryanair customers need guides - adopt a Ryanair virgin for Christmas and help them save money I say! :snow_grin

notakid

=TurnUpForTheBooks;64164157]The railway seems more likely to strand people so they miss Christmas right now than to unstrand them, if you don't mind me pointing that out

And if you bothered to research before posting an opinion you would know the railway have a duty of care to get their customers to their destination. So again, your point is invalid unless you want to get God involved blaming an entity for the delay.

!Are you refering to the copious amounts of caution and wearwithall I should don before purchasing a ticket with the largest European airline carrier (largest by far) ?

I would advise anyone to make sure they understood fully before purchasing a service, to behave otherwise would be extremely foolhardy.

Who is missing what by a mile, notakid ? I am notakid too, but I know Ryanair inside out. Most people still don't, so they must either get a guide like me (not sure about you because I think you might just wave them off without a word of warning but just 50 pages of T&Cs stuffed in their pocket), or before they can fly Ryanair all alone they must truly educate themselves on Ryanair's odd ways (educate doesn't mean read T&Cs - I suggest mastery of the subject would ultimately be the most moneysaving and that takes years!).

Making sure you print off your boarding pass doesn't take years to study, this is what is being discussed on this thread. However, if you book with Ryanair surely you don't for their famed customer service you do so because of the price and protect yourself by understanding the limits of the service.

Otherwise, as Ryanair counts upon in its business model, they might easily make expensive mistakes - so they need help e.g. warnings they might read on MSE that Ryanair is not a company famed for fair business practice.

New Ryanair customers need guides - adopt a Ryanair virgin for Christmas and help them save money I say! :snow_grin]

I've been caught out with Ryanair many moons ago when they first started cheap flights to Dublin, even when out of pocket I still paid less than I would have with the other carriers. I repeat if you pay for a limited service and I would agree that is what Ryanair is, then its is up to you, only you, to be informed, its not anyone else's fault.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

notakid wrote: »

And if you bothered to research before posting an opinion you would know the railway have a duty of care to get their customers to their destination. So again, your point is invalid unless you want to get God involved blaming an entity for the delay.

Aw come on, don't bring the Almighty into it! That's not an argument. Last night I spent four hours on and off watching the live departure information at a number of stations because a family member was travelling home for Christmas and I needed to advise and update them on what I could see because they were working and could not do that themselves. The information was extremely unreliable. I watched as trains were marked as ontime for over an hour but then when they were due suddenly became delayed. Happily despite a rash of cancellations around it, the train did run (platform was switched last moment on the passengers as it came into the station so much running down and along and up steps was heard over the phone!) but that one arrived at its destination 40 minutes late, early this morning. God indeed made the world in which businesses are very privileged to operate. The world contains weather. Trains are supposed to be weatherproof machines run on weatherproof networks by weatherproof employees else they are not fit for purpose. Engineers are the people whom businesses should employ to manage the risks. Many of the breakdowns and landslides are due to bad design and bad maintenance. A landslide on an unreinforced overly steep man made cutting is not an act of God, it is an engineering cost cutting risk. Any engineer will tell you if you build such an unweatherproof thing, the risk becomes a statistical probability when it rains a lot!

I would advise anyone to make sure they understood fully before purchasing a service, to behave otherwise would be extremely foolhardy.

I worry you may be less than knowledgeable in regard to developments at Ryanair. How many times have you used them and over what period?

Making sure you print off your boarding pass doesn't take years to study, this is what is being discussed on this thread.

As it happens the family member I refer to forgot to print their ticket before leaving for the station. How is that dealt with by the railway when they can show the ticket pdf on their phone screen for example? Compare and contrast with the Ryanair example?

However, if you book with Ryanair surely you don't for their famed customer service you do so because of the price and protect yourself by understanding the limits of the service.

Er, isn't that a bit naive? You book Ryanair because they are the largest and the others have been knocked off the competing routes in many cases. Ryanair is not cheap tickets anymore. It hasn't been for quite a while. If you have a life where you can trawl for promotion prices and use them on odd days of the week then yes you can find bargains, but 75M passengers last year did not buy bargain tickets.

I've been caught out with Ryanair many moons ago when they first started cheap flights to Dublin, even when out of pocket I still paid less than I would have with the other carriers.

Dublin is a special example in Ryanair's case (their head office is there on airport). Evenso, Ryanair prices are not at all like "many moons ago"

...and even so I repeat if you pay for a limited service and I would agree that is what Ryanair is, then its is up to you, only you, to be informed, its not anyone else's fault.

You call it a limited service, but it is an airline that has led the way to altering generally encountered "airline service" not limited it in any way other than you can't lean your seat back and you can't book your baggage through to another route. That's all. It has altered it so it can make some of its profit by confusing passengers with constant change. The railway does that too with its impossible to understand fare structures. Mobile phone companies have done it for years. These businesses are all playgrounds for unscrupulous business minds.

notakid

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

Aw come on, don't bring the Almighty into it! That's not an argument. Last night I spent four hours on and off watching the live departure information at a number of stations because a family member was travelling home for Christmas and I needed to advise and update them on what I could see because they were working and could not do that themselves. The information was extremely unreliable. I watched as trains were marked as ontime for over an hour but then when they were due suddenly became delayed. Happily despite a rash of cancellations around it, the train did run (platform was switched last moment on the passengers as it came into the station so much running down and along and up steps was heard over the phone!) but that one arrived at its destination 40 minutes late, early this morning. God indeed made the world in which businesses are very privileged to operate. The world contains weather. Trains are supposed to be weatherproof machines run on weatherproof networks by weatherproof employees else they are not fit for purpose. Engineers are the people whom businesses should employ to manage the risks. Many of the breakdowns and landslides are due to bad design and bad maintenance. A landslide on an unreinforced overly steep man made cutting is not an act of God, it is an engineering cost cutting risk. Any engineer will tell you if you build such an unweatherproof thing, the risk becomes a statistical probability when it rains a lot!

I'm staggered by your reply. The reason the information was patchy is because it was dangerous to proceed, the maintenance of the railway is now the best it has been for decades, but you cannot predict if winds will bring down the lines of the trains or debris on the track. These winds were not the norm. The motorways were closed too, you do understand what weather conditions means? However all of this is a moot point, as I said, it is a duty of care of the railways to ensure that the customer gets to where they paid too, even if its at the cost of the company. Thats good customer service by anyone's standards.

I worry you may be less than knowledgeable in regard to developments at Ryanair. How many times have you used them and over what period?

Ive used then for the last 18 yrs at least twice a year. Some years Ive used them 5/6 times a year esp in the wonderful days of 1p flights. I've never been disappointed yet.

As it happens the family member I refer to forgot to print their ticket before leaving for the station. How is that dealt with by the railway when they can show the ticket pdf on their phone screen for example?

No, they have to buy a new ticket. Its in the terms and conditions
that unless it is a mticket a paper copy must be presented.

Compare and contrast with the Ryanair example

?
The same. No ticket no travel.

Er, isn't that a bit naive? You book Ryanair because they are the largest and the others have been knocked off the competing routes in many cases. Ryanair is not cheap tickets anymore. It hasn't been for quite a while. If you have a life where you can trawl for promotion prices and use them on odd days of the week then yes you can find bargains, but 75M passengers last year did not buy bargain tickets.

I book Ryanair not because I have a fondness for the company but only because it is always the cheapest. I've posted on here before, if it was the same price elsewhere I would book with the other company as it may offer better aftercare, but it is never cheaper, Ryanair is the king of cheap flights.

Dublin is a special example in Ryanair's case (their head office is there on airport). Evenso, Ryanair prices are not at all like "many moons ago"You call it a limited service, but it is an airline that has led the way to altering generally encountered "airline service" not limited it in any way other than you can't lean your seat back and you can't book your baggage through to another route. That's all. It has altered it so it can make some of its profit by confusing passengers with constant change. The railway does that too with its impossible to understand fare structures. Mobile phone companies have done it for years. These businesses are all playgrounds for unscrupulous business minds

Dublin was 18 years ago, when a flight before ryanair would have cost in the hundreds. I do feel you are missing the point. Ryanair brought prices down of course they are going to try to milk every penny from their customers as they operate on the bottom line. Its fun to navigate their website to fun the cheapest flight but anyone who doesn't read their terms and complains after is a fool, if you want your hand held pay for that service, Ryanair doesn't offer that.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Well notakid, its Christmas! So I do trust you are in Ireland with you and yours preparing to enjoy it to the full!

Seriously, it is so easy to loosely allude to unusual weather but until we experience a "Day After Tomorrow" type change in the UK which freezes HMG's helicopters out of the sky over Balmoral, then our transport infrastructure managers really shouldn't be making so much of a little bit of wind and rain.

A lot of the flooding problem I think results from reduced investment in proper drainage whether it be near the railways or the roads.

The wind problems with the likes of QEII bridge for example are a feature of our governments choice of cheaper bridges rather than further tunnels for major crossings. The problems are not the particularly high winds themselves, but with bits of infrastructure which we build in exposed places and then fail to invest in protecting them.

The vulnerable overhead lines on some routes are a case in point - they were simply poorly designed and/or were risky cost cutting in the original build. You will know full well which routes suffer most because of that. One certainly does hope that the network is maintained ten times better than it was in the bad old days of Hatfield and Potters Bar. I am one who visited Railtrack and told them what state the engineers left the trackside in which I could see out of the window every day from Potters Bar to Finsbury Park. Sadly Potters Bar happened about a year after my visit I think.

So lets hope you are right on rail safety maintenance. On weather protection maintenance I am not too sure. We too easily con ourselves that the weather conditions are "bad" and cause upset to all manner of business, from railways to retailing.

Have you noticed how the media now calls any gusty weather "a storm"? I lived on top of a 110m hill for the first 20 years of my life. I know what wind is, and I know what a storm is because I can still remember the whistle from the 1987 hurricane! On St Judes this year (or should I say in it?) I cycled but didn't get blown away - just a bit blown about!

You didn't like my report of patchy information on the railway. There may have been incidents and short time periods when dangerous to proceed described a particular train's predicament, but it is surely never dangerous to proceed with giving customers accurate information.

If a train hasn't even departed from its terminus why show it as "On time" further down the line right up until the last 5 minutes before it is due?

You are clearly a Ryanair fan. I am too in the sense that it created an European opportunity for me because of the reasonable cost initially. I too have the credit card receipts to show my 1p flight successes, but that was then (5 years ago I think?). I don't know the Dublin route which you have to admit Ryanair do guard jealously, but I know many others because I fly up to about 30 times a year and have used a variety of their routes summer and winter and a variety of competitors to same or similar airports. Ryanair is always worth a look, but it simply isn't true anymore to say it is the cheapest so look no further. They really cane the summer holiday traffic now since they have pretty much knocked out the near European charter traffic of old.

What did you mean by an M ticket?

I have a copy of a first class advance Intercity Ticket ticket here (which cost eight quid!) and it has one of those square barcode thingies on it. Is that swipeable at the station and on the train?

So in 10 minutes it is Christmas Day. Has the railway got everyone home for Christmas or are there still some who might now miss lunch?

:xmassmile

BusinessStudent

I love Ryanair :-)

SandraScarlett

As annoying as it is, surely it's a case of "once bitten, twice shy", because you'll definitely read the T & C in future! I am £55 out of pocket, because on Christmas Eve I needed to take my DH to the GP.


As we both have blue badges, I could have parked outside the surgery, on the yellow band, but as this is on a busy road, I decided to park in a side road opposite.


It's a narrow road, also with a yellow band, and lots of cars behind were parked half on the pavement, where I could see a broken white line, so they were permitted to do that. I merrily parked in front, displayed my badge and took DH, who has severe Alzheimer's, into the GP.


When I came out a quarter of an hour later, I was horrified to discover I'd been fined. Barstewards, I thought and me with a blue badge. But my fine was because the white line didn't extend to the front wheels of my car.


I thought this particularly mean, as they must have seen the blue badge, but it was my own fault. I should have realised there wouldn't be a yellow band, and also a broken white line on the pavement - but I didn't.


In future, I shall either park on the main road, or block half the side turning by keeping all 4 wheels on the road.


An expensive lesson, but one that I have now learnt!


xx