Have RYANAIR cancelled your winter booking but not told you yet?

Sam_Bee

Use a pseudonym! You could be 'The Scourge of O'Leary'.

peterbaker

Nah ... why the scourge of him? I am sure if he employed me as a consultant, I could save him money - for starters, he wouldn't have to send four emails resulting in zero change to my original booking, would he? He could just say "If you want to remain working here, accept any changes or else !":money:

vikingaero

I fly Ryanair and I hate them in equal measure. In fact I believe that my attitude towards their apathy to their "customers" helps when we get delayed or bent over and rogered silly. If you expect them to be crap they can only impress you when it almost goes to plan.

My major gripe with Ryanair was turning up for a lunchtime flight to Cork to find that the departure board didn't display my flight. I went to a Cork check-in desk to enquire and was told that the flight had been removed from their schedule and that I was booked on the 7pm flight. Oh joy 6-7 hours to while away at Stansted. No-one from Ryanair had called or emailed to tell me. And I'd even called them to day before to see if there were any operational delays!

"Is the 3pm flight to Dublin full?" I asked

"Let me check. No, it's at half load."

"Can I transfer onto that flight please?" I asked

"Noooo sir. I can't do that."

"Why not?" I asked

"Because I would have to charge you the full fare." said the robot

So we had a "discussion" for 5 minutes about why I couldn't travel on another sector. I was calm and polite at all times.

Then an American passenger at the next check-in desk for some obscure airline piped up. He had been listening to my plight:

"Man, that's one screwed up airline!"

That made the check-in agent lose it and she threatened to call the Police to have the American passenger removed from the terminal! Other passengers hearing this came to his defence and the check-in agent just picked her things up and left.

My beef with Ryanair is the contempt that they hold for passengers budget or not. And the way they either train their staff to be equally contemptous beggars belief in a service industry.

richardw

There are other airlines to fly from Stansted

Scheduled http://www.stanstedairport.com/portal/site/default/template.PAGE/menuitem.5fd6e662c9ff5e8a91348810c02865a0/?javax.portlet.tpst=18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_form.validation.flag.err.msgs=Invalid%20Airport&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_destination=all&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_airline=all&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_form.validation.flag=false&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_y=10&javax.portlet.prp_18491b33c1437f581d4ac77ec02865a0_x=47&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Charter
http://www.stanstedairport.com/portal/controller/dispatcher.jsp?Ch=Charter+Flight+Timetable&ChID=a17c2f62436e3010VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&ChPath=STN%5EFlight+Information%5EFlight+Timetables%5ECharter+Flight+Timetable&ChIDPath=4cf597dc2eb12010VgnVCM100000147e120a____%5E3f5797dc2eb12010VgnVCM100000147e120a____%5E96d26d35771a2010VgnVCM100000147e120a____%5Ea17c2f62436e3010VgnVCM10000036821c0a____

budgetflyer

vikingaero wrote: »

I fly Ryanair and I hate them in equal measure. In fact I believe that my attitude towards their apathy to their "customers" helps when we get delayed or bent over and rogered silly. If you expect them to be crap they can only impress you when it almost goes to plan.

My major gripe with Ryanair was turning up for a lunchtime flight to Cork to find that the departure board didn't display my flight. I went to a Cork check-in desk to enquire and was told that the flight had been removed from their schedule and that I was booked on the 7pm flight. Oh joy 6-7 hours to while away at Stansted. No-one from Ryanair had called or emailed to tell me. And I'd even called them to day before to see if there were any operational delays!

"Is the 3pm flight to Dublin full?" I asked

"Let me check. No, it's at half load."

"Can I transfer onto that flight please?" I asked

"Noooo sir. I can't do that."

"Why not?" I asked

"Because I would have to charge you the full fare." said the robot

So we had a "discussion" for 5 minutes about why I couldn't travel on another sector. I was calm and polite at all times.

Then an American passenger at the next check-in desk for some obscure airline piped up. He had been listening to my plight:

"Man, that's one screwed up airline!"

That made the check-in agent lose it and she threatened to call the Police to have the American passenger removed from the terminal! Other passengers hearing this came to his defence and the check-in agent just picked her things up and left.

My beef with Ryanair is the contempt that they hold for passengers budget or not. And the way they either train their staff to be equally contemptous beggars belief in a service industry.

You should have got compensation for that.
per http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=306&pagetype=90&pageid=4408

Which also states they should have "re-routed" you as early as possible. ie the 3PM flight.
Regular travellers should print off and laminate the pages dealing with delays, cancellations and bumping.

It certainly persuaded Air Scotland staff to provide me with overnight accom and meal vouchers a few years back. Nothing was on offer until I produced a printout of the relevant EU regs.

ahll

I am concerned about what I am readin on this thread. I have some of the cheap flights booked from Man to Dublin on 17th October for a day trip. I have just looked and the flight is still listed.

Can anyone tell me the best way to check and make sure the flight is still going to go on that date ? I went on this deal in July and all went to plan. They sent me an advisory email a few days before the flight. If I get one of these advisory emails does that mean the flight will got as planned we us on it ?

I would be awful to turn up for a day trip and find its been cancelled or they have put us on a flight alot later in the day or the day after....

peterbaker

Hi there all, again!

I see that there may apparently be a little concern (about late advised or not yet advised cancellations) that has been generated by me starting this thread and shining a light on my own (surely very unusual?) experience ...

Let me say that I have relied on Ryanair yet again since I started the thread, so especially if you can get a good deal like completely free flights again as we do at the moment (excepting the car park charges :mad: ) then I for one wouldn't be overly concerned ... they would look a bit silly if they cancelled too often surely? If you are a day-trip organiser with co-workers to keep happy, then I do understand. But I think you could give yourself and your co-workers plenty of notice of not yet advised cancellations just by regularly checking to see if you can still book the same flight and flights around it. Then if you spot anything odd, then you have reason to call Ryanair and obtain assurances about what is going on and give your co-workers good notice...

However, I am generally a little concerned that the reason they might be cancelling any flights in the first place might be because there might already have been a considerable thinning of demand this winter. My most recent flight didn't even use the start of the runway at Stansted because it was obviously light enough to leave from further down (it seemed only about 1/3 full, and this is on a many years old route that has already been reduced from two flights to one a day in the last month.

I am also told that for the first time (I think) if you are prepared to pay 89.99 for almost any sector on any route, you can book right through into next summer. Ryanair used to wait a bit longer before allowing such advanced bookings.

So is demand tailing off? Have we reached saturation, and have some of us actually had our fill of wantonly cheap excursions every other weekend to places we never dreamed we'd ever go ?

Or is it becoming difficult for Ryanair to predict demand on particular routes because they have opened up so much choice perhaps?

Have the cheap good food and accommodation days all gone, with European economies now beginning to balance out in globalised fashion, courtesy of MO'L facilitated massive injections to the newly discovered regions?:beer:

Maybe a bit of all three, and now a bit of "green guilt" thrown in for good measure too?

Interesting to watch ... I do hope Ryanair don't fall into the trap of becoming 'unreliable' in any way different to the way they measure it at the moment! ... can just see them publishing a chart headed: Percentage of booked flights cancelled or rescheduled by more than 4 hours, can't you? (NOT!!)

Sam_Bee

peterbaker wrote: »

Hi there all, again!

So is demand tailing off? Have we reached saturation, and have some of us actually had our fill of wantonly cheap excursions every other weekend to places we never dreamed we'd ever go ?

now a bit of "green guilt" thrown in for good measure too?

Bonanza. Massive expansion, new, expensive planes being added on a monthly basis whilst flights are cancelled and planes are mothballed over the winter, a shortage of new viable destinations, even their arch enemies BA are affordable these days, leading to loss-leading promotions. Increased costs, minimal customer loyalty.

I'm half expecting Ryanair to implode under a strain of borrowing, debt, and a cripplingly low margin.

richardw

They may have problems next winter if they bring back some of these cancelled flights after having upset peterbaker and others.

ynot2005

yes i can see demand tailing off for low cost flights, once you have been on a few free/cheap flights to various destinations and been there and done it, the novelty soon goes and "look where i have been for a £10" conversations get boring and wel lets face it everyone seems to have done it now

and the real cost is lot more with fuel/parking/accomodation and it soon becomes not very cheap at all

the big problem is the airport hassle , its just not nice hours of grief going out and coming back, that memory stays with you and the next time you see a ryanair cheap flight, you start to think is it really worth it for a weekend

the faces of travellers says it all, waiting for bags , stuck in passport queues, security queues, crammed in on parking buses, its a grind and we all know it

i expect regular travellers who binge on these cheap trips will do less trips in the future and some will just get sick of it all