Ryanair named worst short haul Airline

Nick_C

RyanAir is hugely popular with the majority of consumers who think price is more important than quality.

It's just a shame that BA have followed the same low cost model, when I think there would be a sufficient market for a profitable high quality airline.

And of course BA, flying out of Heathrow, paying some of their staff a decent wage, and having a costly pension scheme to fund, will rarely be able to compete with RyanAir on price.

peterbaker

zagfles wrote: »

Yes it sounds like the questions were mainly about additional fluff like food, drink, seats etc. And CS which you hardly ever need these days. People just use flights to get to a destination, and will choose the airline based on price, timings, convenience etc rather than how good the coffee is.

Actually Ryanair's Lavazza brew in the cup coffee is pretty good - I usually treat myself to one with a four finger Kit-Kat chocolate bar for €4.50 all-in. Did so just yesterday even though I sneaked a Pret coffee onboard at the start of the flight ... I know I know, too much caffeine isn't good for me and sneaking a dangerous hot drink on board was naughty

But more to the point, I was pretty annoyed with Ryanair an hour or so after the flight yesterday because I wasn't getting any help from them after I thought I'd left something small and valuable onboard and didn't notice until the flight was in the air back to Stansted. I had rashly judged that it would be a simple matter to get a message to the arrival gate and thereby vastly improve chances of going straight to my seat and looking under it and successfully finding what I'd believed I dropped.

I spoke with two or three at Ryanair and gave up- they were totally unsympathetic and made the crass comment that Ryanair had no way of contacting the handlers or the airport and I would have to do that myself. It was impossible to get them to pass a message to the receiving handlers. I know the handlers at Stansted are Swissport but their website gives no telephone number. I called Stansted Airport and discovered after several journeys around their automated switchboard that there is a lost property option but there is a special routing for Ryanair inflight lost property (onboard) telephone enquiries and it results in being given a third party website URL to register all enquiries first online before anyone can be spoken to, and then only between 9am and 1pm Mon-Fri I think it said. I discovered no less than three different automatic routings on that Stansted number for the airport which simply dropped the line every time you chose that option. Manchester Airports (who run Stansted) are obviously no more interested in offering a decent service to us, "the self loading freight", than Ryanair, Stansted's biggest customer.

As luck would have it, I happily later discovered I had simply misplaced the item, but I would have had little chance of ever recovering the item had it actually been lost on the plane because probably another four or five flights would have taken place that day before the cleaners got on board.

But as I say, the Lavazza coffee is actually pretty good when 7 miles above the nearest ground-based coffee pot:p

zagfles

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Oslo, but we all know Ryanair do the same for lots of their destinations.

Other airlines manage to find the right airport, so I blame Ryanair. :cool:

Other airlines use the airport name. Wizz Air fly to "Stockholm Skavsta" which will land you in Nyköping 100km from Stockholm.

Sometimes Ryanair and other budget airlines use airports closer to the city than the city's main airport, for instance in Rome they use Ciampino which is closer to the centre than the main airport Fiumicino, and in Kiev the budget airlines use Zhuliany which is much closer to the centre than the main airport Boryspil

zagfles

peterbaker wrote: »

Actually Ryanair's Lavazza brew in the cup coffee is pretty good - I usually treat myself to one with a four finger Kit-Kat chocolate bar for €4.50 all-in.

Do they still do the 1-1 EUR/GBP exchange rate? If so hope you paid with a EUR50 note. I did this once, and they said "sorry, not got enough EUR cash, is it OK if I give you the change in pounds"? So I paid for something costing 3 EUR with a 50 EUR note and got 47 GBP back in change! Result!

Did so just yesterday even though I sneaked a Pret coffee onboard at the start of the flight ... I know I know, too much caffeine isn't good for me and sneaking a dangerous hot drink on board was naughty

And nowhere to put on takeoff as no seat pockets and can't have your tray down!

But more to the point, I was pretty annoyed with Ryanair an hour or so after the flight yesterday because I wasn't getting any help from them after I thought I'd left something small and valuable onboard and didn't notice until the flight was in the air back to Stansted. I had rashly judged that it would be a simple matter to get a message to the arrival gate.

I spoke with two or three at Ryanair and gave up- they were totally unsympathetic and made the crass comment that Ryanair had no way of contacting the handlers or the airport and I would have to do that myself. It was impossible to get them to pass a message to the receiving handlers. I know the handlers at Stansted are Swissport but their website gives no telephone number. I called Stansted Airport and discovered after several journeys around their automated switchboard that there is a lost property option but there is a special routing for Ryanair lost property telephone enquiries and it results in being given a third party website URL to register all enquiries first online before anyone can be spoken to, and then only between 9am and 1pm Mon-Fri I think it said. I discovered no less than three different automatic routings on that Stansted number for the airport which simply dropped the line every time you chose that option. Manchester Airports (who run Stansted) are obviously no more interested in offering a decent service to us, "the self loading freight", than Ryanair, Stansted's biggest customer.

As luck would have it, I happily later discovered I had simply misplaced the item, but I would have had little chance of ever recovering the item had it actually been lost on the plane because probably another four or five flights would have taken place that day before the cleaners got on board.

But as I say, the Lavazza coffee is actually pretty good when 7 miles above the nearest ground-based coffee pot:p

One of the things you need to accept with Ryanair is that you'll either get charged a fortune or get no help if you do something wrong. Or sometimes even if they do something wrong!

bagand96

Nick_C wrote:

It's just a shame that BA have followed the same low cost model, when I think there would be a sufficient market for a profitable high quality airline.

Whilst it might be a shame that BA, and many other airlines, have adapted their business models, the fact is they have had to. It goes back to my previous post, in surveys, on web forums, and down the pub, the public are happy to say they hate Ryanair, and would avoid at all costs etc... But when push comes to shove, and they have to get their credit cards out, they book the cheapest.

All industry research and analysis shows this - and that's why all the old "state" airlines have had to follow and adapt. They couldn't even make their European Business class work so it's now a glorified economy product.

Nick_C

bagand96 wrote: »

Whilst it might be a shame that BA, and many other airlines, have adapted their business models, the fact is they have had to. It goes back to my previous post, in surveys, on web forums, and down the pub, the public are happy to say they hate Ryanair, and would avoid at all costs etc... But when push comes to shove, and they have to get their credit cards out, they book the cheapest.

All industry research and analysis shows this - and that's why all the old "state" airlines have had to follow and adapt. They couldn't even make their European Business class work so it's now a glorified economy product.

And yet the growth in Premium Economy on long haul shows that there is a sector of the market who are happy to pay more for better quality.

I think it would have been better if BA had maintained standards, and competed against the low cost carriers on their own terms. "Go" was very successful, but they sold it off and it ended up as part of Easyjet.

IAG has its low cost airlines. Vueling, and Level. And the schizophrenic Aer Lingus, which is low cost on short haul but quality on long haul. I think a slimmed down BA could have filed a gap in the premium market.

peterbaker

zagfles wrote: »

Do they still do the 1-1 EUR/GBP exchange rate?

Varies I think. No exchange commitments made in the current inflight magazine anyway.

Did so just yesterday even though I sneaked a Pret coffee onboard at the start of the flight ... I know I know, too much caffeine isn't good for me and sneaking a dangerous hot drink on board was naughty

...And nowhere to put on takeoff as no seat pockets and can't have your tray down!

Ah Ryanair takeoffs are as predictable as BMW smooth running engines. You can place the coffee on the floor as an experiment and despite the acceleration to maybe 170mph on the runway, and just like trying one of your ill-gotten pound coins balanced edgeways on a BMW bonnet with the motor running, it won't topple like many think (actually don't try this without a safety backup plan)