Ryanair mobile app..

eDicky

Mikeo111 wrote: »

Having used the app. I am of the opinion that Ryanair have invented YET ANOTHER way to scam and rip its customers off.
Step forward... THE RYANAIR APP.
I booked some flights on the app and the flights were priced in Euros. When you book the flight, the app gives you the option to reject the Ryanair company rate and chose the 'official' Euro rate.
However, when you select the "reject Ryanair's rate" option, it still books the flight at Ryanair's far inferior rate which adds an approx. 8% surcharge on the price. (EG on my flight which should have cost £450, I was actually charged nearly £40 more due to this scam)
SO BE WARNED, Before you chose to book a flight with this app, be aware it WILL NOT give you the actual exchange rate but instead always defaults to the "Rip Off" direct currency conversion with Ryanair

The last ticket I bought with Ryanair in December, using the app, cost €22 (TFS-STN). That's what I paid, using my Virgin Money Essential account VISA card, at the straight VISA Europe exchange rate given by the card. I simply paid in euros and did not see any exchange options.

agarnett

For checkin and boarding passes, I've found the Ryanair App supremely useful. Not kidding but I have probably used it exclusively for boarding passes for around 40 or 50 assorted flights now, with no printed backup.

I have got 6 year old iPhone4 (not 4S). Unlike many other Apps, the Ryanair one installed just fine on the outdated iOS7. I just make sure it is charged of course.

I do however tend to agree with Mikeo111 - I think I noticed the same r!nky dink as Mikeo and consequently made a point not to book any non-GBP priced flights on my GBP card via the App.

If you have iPhone then an extra standard App included by Apple with iOS called "Passbook" is useful. When you get your boarding pass in the Ryanair App, you can select "Add to Passbook", and then when in Passbook which opens automatically, you select "Add" again and then the boarding card automatically appears (from Passbook) right up front, a bit like a screensaver every time you open your phone starting from approximately an hour before the flight. So no need to press loads of buttons to get into the App.

It is also possible if you ar booked as part of a group to simply ask the group leader for the email address they used and the booking reference, and then everyone in the group can add all the boarding cards to their own Ryanair login and App. Strikes me as a bit of a security hole but maybe not. Certainly it doesn't seem to matter whose phone you use - I have an old back up Android I carry with me. I could use either - they both have the Ryanair App on them with me logged in to my Ryanair account, but I don't actually think you have to have a Ryanair login account - just the App, the booking email and booking reference. It's easier if you do have a login and have saved your passport details so it saves you re-inputting those each checkin.

Anyway, at an airport like Stansted, where the access point to security is not manned by gated by auto scanning equipment, once you have the pass displayed either in the App or in Passbook, you can just pop your phone screen down on the scan pad and the gate will open without you needing to break stride.

At lesser airports without automated scanning gates, you just put it under the DIY supermarket type hand-scanner when instructed by the gatekeeper.

When you get on the aircraft, you'll be asked to show the pass on your screen once more to the cabin crew at the top of the steps.

However, if as a further development of today's news on banning certain electronics from the cabin on certain airlines, they start banning mobile phones in cabins on flights, then all this is moot and we'll be back to paper I guess!

Sjc1973

I really don't rate RYAN AIR, but have to use them to see my family in Ireland. However, their app which stores your boading passes is about their only positive. Its extremely reliable I use it often and easier then paper passes!

I am having to restrain myself right now from going into a rant about DIRE AIR as I know it's not relevant to the thread. I will therefore wait for a more appropriate opportunity - so for now I will zip it !!!!

agarnett

Sjc1973 wrote: »

...I am having to restrain myself right now from going into a rant about DIRE AIR ...

I used to rant regularly about them, but find them the best now at what they do. That's quite a turnaround for me ...

Maybe it is a specific route based thing ... perhaps they take Dublin routes too much for granted and don't try hard enough to be consistent with improvements they have made more generally?

Anyway the app is extremely convenient, but worryingly flexible in terms of no limit it seems on how many smartphones can access the same booking ...

I wonder for example, if two people using the same boarding pass on different phones could slap down their phones on adjacent scanner gates simultaneously and manage to get both gates opened?

Sjc1973

OHHH you have drawn me in now - going to rant about them:mad:

But to be fair - many people like you have spoken about them getting better.

I have only used them in the past couple of years but many times. My issues with them is their turn around times are too quick, staff are rushing, looking stressed and flustered where they are a bit short with people. Tend to only fake smile when they are wanting to flog you something!

Three times they have told me a gate and changed it at last minute. On one occasion two flights were booked at the one gate. so those going to mayo (Knock) my flight and another country were all intermingled in one que. Its was bonkers!!!!

I find the expereince with them all a bit rushed and i am not a nervous flyer but do get a bit so with them becuase of their presentation. However, I appreicate their USP is attactive for would-be flyers particulaly price so they serve a need I guess. I also accept that like you say, it might only be certain flight routes as well

Although If i had a choice I would not fly with them but i can't justify chartering my private jet all the time

agarnett

Yes now you mention it, there are still those loose ends which are sometimes questionable.

Overall though, there has been a big change associated primarily with the relaxing of baggage limits (the total withdrawal of those 'orrible baggage police we used to read about), and the introduction of the App (making it unnecessary to print boarding passes so much reducing chances of turning up without one and getting charged a penalty admin fee).

Re baggage police - that was slow to get out of the system - I had some very serious chats with numbers of gate staff about the way they seemed to target young mothers with pushchairs and arms full with their kids and then ask them to measure their bags. I intervened on their behalf more than once.

One day I embarrassed gate staff into ceasing and desisting in harassing one such mother only to find they let her through with no further ado (great!), but then picked on me to measure my cabin bag even after they had put a free hold baggage tag on it! I refused on the grounds of victimisation (because I had embarrassed a staff member and they clearly colluded with one other at the actual gate to get me back!). At that point I demanded they send for the manager i/c handling in that satellite.

I told him exactly what I thought of his team's failed interpretation of Ryanair's now 2½ year's old (was then about 6 months old) "Always Getting Better" slogan and changes that were already beginning to happen with cabin baggage limits.

At one point it was a regularly sight at the gate to see bags being deflated by passengers putting on a second pair of trousers and extra jumpers from their over stuffed bags, so as not to get charged up to £60 for oversized cabin bags at the gate - I think it had reached that sum at one point :eek:

Now it is the norm to be able to take onboard your 55cmx40cmx20cm main cabin bag PLUS a second smaller bag PLUS what you buy in the airport (within reason - a wheelbarrow load of beer might still cost you!)

Anyway, back to my baggage police intervention story ... time was marching on and I was left as the last passenger gate, and they had relieved me of my printed boarding pass and weren't offering it back! But I was patient, and the handling manager did arrive and asked what the problem was. I asked him if he was really going to deny me boarding for refusing to put my bag in the measuring box after it had already been okayed once.

I told him of the unfair targeting of the young mother that I had complained about, and that his team was not keeping up with Ryanair's efforts to put a much friendlier face on the business - i.e. not keeping up with the complete turnaround from their previous pretty ruthless attitude when Ryanair were slashing costs (e.g baggage handling costs), imposing outrageous penalty style admin fees which added directly to the bottom line, but all of which simultaneously succeeded in grabbing enormous market share via those customers who became fluent with the draconian Ryanair T&Cs!

The handling manager did however get my drift, took my advice and let me through as the last passenger at the gate whilst about six of his team had gathered round hoping and failing to see an opinionated passenger reduced a peg or two

So gate staff have eventually changed in attitude (they are not Ryanair). I don't think I have seen a gate staff v. passenger altercation of any sort for a full 2 years now. There used to be one almost every flight!

Onboard, I actually find the cabin crews very friendly if you engage with them in a way that recognises that their job is not exactly a fantastic one. Actually the cabincrews and pilots are largely not Ryanair direct employees either, but they reflect as closely as you'll ever see it, the actual Ryanair culture being inculcated from the top:D

As for being sold stuff - I look forward to buy their Lavazza filter coffee as often as not, as it is not bad value, bearing in mind its hotter than you could achieve by smuggling one on board from the departure lounge (which is something I had actually perfected without spilling over many years)

Something else about my attitude to Ryanair that has changed, is that I even buy scratchcards sometimes - if I rate the humour of the cabin crew and their sales ability (some of them are quite comedic, and good at building rapport). I was impressed to learn recently that despite the profit Ryanair might make from scratchcards, some tens of thousands of pounds a year do seem to be distributed to grateful children's charities around Europe.

And, as I have said in another thread, with over 380 same type aircraft (the highly reliable 737-800) and knowing a bit about the consistency of operations, and consistency of maintenance this cannot fail to bring as a major benefit to both Ryanair as a business, and to passengers, I feel particularly comfortable every time I fly with them and have done for over 10 years because of their size and same type aircraft.

Ryanair pilots also seem to have more experience than most of operating into interesting airports - so much so that I have confidence that if ever an emergency diversion was necessary to a non-scheduled alternate destination, I doubt it would raise the pulse rate of the pilots a single beat if it was an airport they hadn't flown into before. I have a feeling that, other than SAS perhaps, who routinely operate excellent services in the icey windswept airfields of the frozen north in winter, Ryanair probably field the most capable least-fazed pilots.


I do however still see them sometimes having passenger count problems at the last moment, delaying doors closed, and wonder if it isn't mistakes made in general haste which has caused the doubts that require late recounting.

The fast turnarounds do involve some unholy haste sometimes, but generally I think Ryanair are the masters of it, and at some of their smaller destinations, the airport managements and staff totally buy into it and are truly excellent in achieving it, just like the best F1 teams in the pits! When the turnarounds are that good, it also generally means I think that regular passengers can really push the limits on a regular basis too - some of the airports will allow arriving at security when the inbound aircraft has already started disembarking, and last minute meaning passengers can still easily make the gate on time even though they may still have been on the motorway 15 minutes before! (PS don't try that at Stansted though!)

All in all, it's very good value in my book - and now, (if you can accept it as a well meant attempt, and one unquestionably backed by Europe's most robust airline operation now), it is surely as friendly as it gets outside your private jet charter;)

elverson

IAmWales wrote: »

It does, yes.

Cheers, tried using the app instead of printed boarding passes and all went fine.