2 ms·

It doesn't matter what you or your family did, it matters what folks do on average. It's possible to swim the english channel free of charge, but that doesn't

It doesn't matter what you or your family did, it matters what folks do on average. It's possible to swim the english channel free of charge, but that doesn't make $0 a fair comparison against the train. You don't benchmark Costco by the price of its rotisserie chicken. Ryanair isn't flying planes just for you, they're flying them for average customers, so it makes sense to compare average fares. What if there's only two $15 tickets made available per flight? The problem is you don't know how many they're making available at a given price point or how they're distributed - it's a trade secret. That doesn't make cherry-picking the lowest possible value a fair comparison point.

InCityDreams 4y ago
What would you consider a fair comparison? Oh, i and all my friends often go no-bag. I have clothing in four different countries. My mother has a wardrobe of things at my place and my sisters. She flies with nothing, too.
- arcticbull 4y ago
  Again these are anecdotes. I've certainly done that too but I've also paid $200+ for a short hop on Ryainair when it was the cheapest option, picked an extra legroom seat and checked a bag too. The point is that expensive fares and ancillary fees subsidize cheap loss-leader fares. It's a complex system and you have to consider it as a whole instead of looking just at the subsidized loss-leaders when making a cross-mode comparison. I would consider a fair comparison point to be for a given flight: 1. Sum total spent on airfare by all passengers on a flight - PLUS. 2. Sum total spent on ancillary services by all passengers on a flight. 3. Divided by the number of passengers on a flight. And average it out across all flights between the city pair over a year to eliminate the effects of seasonality and timing. Without having access to Ryanair's revenue management data this is the best we can do.

InCityDreams 4y ago

What would you consider a fair comparison? Oh, i and all my friends often go no-bag. I have clothing in four different countries. My mother has a wardrobe of things at my place and my sisters. She flies with nothing, too.

arcticbull 4y ago
Again these are anecdotes. I've certainly done that too but I've also paid $200+ for a short hop on Ryainair when it was the cheapest option, picked an extra legroom seat and checked a bag too. The point is that expensive fares and ancillary fees subsidize cheap loss-leader fares. It's a complex system and you have to consider it as a whole instead of looking just at the subsidized loss-leaders when making a cross-mode comparison. I would consider a fair comparison point to be for a given flight: 1. Sum total spent on airfare by all passengers on a flight - PLUS. 2. Sum total spent on ancillary services by all passengers on a flight. 3. Divided by the number of passengers on a flight. And average it out across all flights between the city pair over a year to eliminate the effects of seasonality and timing. Without having access to Ryanair's revenue management data this is the best we can do.