4 ms·

Ryanair is one opinionated company

8 points by mattjaynes 17y ago

jwilliams 17y ago
Ryanair say these things for the publicity. Quite often you'll see a Ryanair story about charging for toilets, or obese passengers... Keeps them on the front page.
- catzaa 17y ago
  > Ryanair story about charging for , or obese passengers... I see no problem with it. It is torture to sit on a flight next to an extremely obese person. They take up more plane space so they should pay more. They also turn a 13 hour flight into 13 hour torture for those on the left, right and in front of them. The same goes for hand luggage. You get stupid ass people that will remove your laptop (only luggage) from a safe place and put it so that it can fall down to make place for their 3 pieces of luggage.
  - pmjordan 17y ago
    Unfortunately they got shot down on grounds of discrimination for that suggestion. It's one of their crazy schemes I would have actually supported. Airlines have always annoyed me with the fact that you have to pay crazy money if your luggage is 1kg overweight but the guy next to you weighs 80kg more than you and pays the same. Ryanair annoy me in other ways though, such as the mad dash for the seats, and their habit of introducing hidden fees late in the booking process. (they happen to be the only airline to service the journey to my girlfriend's parents with direct flights, so we use them a few times a year) Odd: from the article: “Will we give you a refund on a nonrefundable ticket because your granny died unexpectedly?” he asked. “No! Go away. We’re not interested in your sob stories! What part of ‘no refund’ do you not understand?” whereas Ryanair do actually fully refund tickets if an immediate relative dies.
    - sonofjanoh 17y ago
      It used to be to protect the staff handling the luggages so they don't have to wreck their backs lifting your heavy stuff. Although some airlines charge you if you exceed 15kgs some if you go over 20 so that is strange for the same airport. Some saw an opportunity and lowered their barrier so they can rip you off. Still...it's our whining nature. Pay 5000$ for a business class ticket with a full service carrier and you will have none of these problems. I can visit places/friends more often now thanks to low cost flights even if I don't like them.
  - dazzawazza 17y ago
    Yeah and disabled people and ill people. The take up precious time and space! Is it not a slippery slope where people who are not standardised are charged more? Maybe non standard people should sit at the back of the plane so no one has to see them? I thought we'd progressed beyond this but it seems we are still a greedy, self centred species at heart willing to condemn a fellow member for a few pathetic dollars and a few minutes of our lives.
    - axod 17y ago
      Have you not sat next to a morbidly obese sweating person whose mounds of fat are spilling onto your leg, arm, shoulder? You should try it some day. The fairest system IMHO would be to give everyone a "total weight allowance" that includes, you, and all your luggage. And if you're so big you spill onto other peoples laps, buy extra seats. Next you'll be suggesting we give terrorists equal rights on flights as well! They're people too!
      - yummyfajitas 17y ago
        New law (based on Godwin): Whoever invokes terrorists or 9/11 in a conversation unrelated to terrorism loses. Incidentally, I agree with the rest of your post.
        DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        If we find out that Nazis caused 9-11, it will be the end of civilized internet discourse as we know it (ok,ok! -- I deserve the downmod for that one. Just couldn't help myself)
        axod 17y ago
        Yeah I agree with that :) I think obviously you have to draw the line somewhere.
    - yalurker 17y ago
      Your hyperbole is inappropriate here. As an analogy, laws already make exceptions to discrimination if the nature of the job requires certain abilities. Go look for manual labor jobs and you will see statements like "applications must be able to lift X pounds to a height of Y feet". One might naively claim this was discrimination against some disabled people, but an exception is made if the job requires it. Likewise, if a person does not physically fit into an airline seat, it does not seem unreasonable to me that they would need to pay for a second seat (or a first-class seat, or an extra large seat, however the airline chose to handle the situation).
  - axod 17y ago
    As well as weighing your luggage at the check in desk, they should weigh you. And if you're too fat, tell you to go away and diet, or pay an excess.
- andyjenn 17y ago
  ..exactly, like the time they claimed it was faster and cheaper travelling from London to Brussels and were in breach of advertising standards. I think they were on CNN, BBC, Ch4 etc.. every hour to get their point across. Damn fine advertising strategy.
viraptor 17y ago
Why is this hacker news? Anyways, it's annoying when they're reiterating the same line all the time... "Ryanair promises four things: low fares, a good on-time record, few cancellations and few lost bags." Fares aren't low. Easyjet beats them most of the time. Their prices are low only on the front page. It's only 30£ both ways... just add 50£ airport fees (I wonder why other airlines charge only <10£ for the same airport) each way, 20£ if you want to add even 1 piece of luggage, 10£ if you don't opt-out of fast boarding and we're going to ask you to select your nationality many times (only slightly indicating that by doing that you agree to buy insurance). Oh, and 10-15£ fee for handling any credit card at the end. And other things... So you end up paying ~200£ for a flight that's advertised as 30£. They also wanted to be excluded some time ago from services that listed their real prices. Oh and on-time flights... that's easy - just say that a 3h flight will take 3.5h - this way they're always 'on time' and passengers can wait some time at the airport (I'm used to arriving 30 min. early on my usual flight)
- andyking 17y ago
  I don't fly, but friends who've used Ryanair have tales of people going down the aeroplane aisle with catalogues, scratch cards, lottery tickets and all sorts of other junk for sale right through the flight. I've even heard an apocryphal story of someone being woken up so they couldn't sleep through the salespeople!
  - viraptor 17y ago
    Yes, that happens on every flight. Catalogue after ~1h in the air, and lottery ~1h before landing. The prices are usually lower than on the airport, but higher than in shops.
  - marcusbooster 17y ago
    I read an article that discussed the CEO's vision of having completely free flights... by turning the plane into a flying casino.
- barrkel 17y ago
  I've flown on both Easyjet and Ryanair many times - I'm Irish living in UK and no other low-cost airline will compete with Ryanair on its home turf - and I cannot agree with you. Easyjet are usually 10-50% more expensive, but I normally pay the extra for the reduced stress level, fewer ads and higher convenience of destination airport.
edw519 17y ago
(Southwest manages to take a similar approach without coming off as hostile to customers). [Disclaimer: Raving Southwest fan.] AFAIC, Southwest is better than almost every other airline in almost every other category. Why? Because they have built a business the way I would want to build one, with one thing in mind: the customer. Almost everything they do is what the customer wants because someone bothered to ask. Whenever I fly another airline, the differences are noticeable and I ask, "Don't these people get it?" Ryanair sounds like they're doing the same thing in a mechanical way. Once they engage their customers as Southwest has, they'll have raving fans too.

8 points by mattjaynes 17y ago

Ryanair say these things for the publicity. Quite often you'll see a Ryanair story about charging for toilets, or obese passengers... Keeps them on the front page.

catzaa 17y ago
> Ryanair story about charging for , or obese passengers... I see no problem with it. It is torture to sit on a flight next to an extremely obese person. They take up more plane space so they should pay more. They also turn a 13 hour flight into 13 hour torture for those on the left, right and in front of them. The same goes for hand luggage. You get stupid ass people that will remove your laptop (only luggage) from a safe place and put it so that it can fall down to make place for their 3 pieces of luggage.
- pmjordan 17y ago
  Unfortunately they got shot down on grounds of discrimination for that suggestion. It's one of their crazy schemes I would have actually supported. Airlines have always annoyed me with the fact that you have to pay crazy money if your luggage is 1kg overweight but the guy next to you weighs 80kg more than you and pays the same. Ryanair annoy me in other ways though, such as the mad dash for the seats, and their habit of introducing hidden fees late in the booking process. (they happen to be the only airline to service the journey to my girlfriend's parents with direct flights, so we use them a few times a year) Odd: from the article: “Will we give you a refund on a nonrefundable ticket because your granny died unexpectedly?” he asked. “No! Go away. We’re not interested in your sob stories! What part of ‘no refund’ do you not understand?” whereas Ryanair do actually fully refund tickets if an immediate relative dies.
  - sonofjanoh 17y ago
    It used to be to protect the staff handling the luggages so they don't have to wreck their backs lifting your heavy stuff. Although some airlines charge you if you exceed 15kgs some if you go over 20 so that is strange for the same airport. Some saw an opportunity and lowered their barrier so they can rip you off. Still...it's our whining nature. Pay 5000$ for a business class ticket with a full service carrier and you will have none of these problems. I can visit places/friends more often now thanks to low cost flights even if I don't like them.
- dazzawazza 17y ago
  Yeah and disabled people and ill people. The take up precious time and space! Is it not a slippery slope where people who are not standardised are charged more? Maybe non standard people should sit at the back of the plane so no one has to see them? I thought we'd progressed beyond this but it seems we are still a greedy, self centred species at heart willing to condemn a fellow member for a few pathetic dollars and a few minutes of our lives.
  - axod 17y ago
    Have you not sat next to a morbidly obese sweating person whose mounds of fat are spilling onto your leg, arm, shoulder? You should try it some day. The fairest system IMHO would be to give everyone a "total weight allowance" that includes, you, and all your luggage. And if you're so big you spill onto other peoples laps, buy extra seats. Next you'll be suggesting we give terrorists equal rights on flights as well! They're people too!
    - yummyfajitas 17y ago
      New law (based on Godwin): Whoever invokes terrorists or 9/11 in a conversation unrelated to terrorism loses. Incidentally, I agree with the rest of your post.
      - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        If we find out that Nazis caused 9-11, it will be the end of civilized internet discourse as we know it (ok,ok! -- I deserve the downmod for that one. Just couldn't help myself)
      - axod 17y ago
        Yeah I agree with that :) I think obviously you have to draw the line somewhere.
  - yalurker 17y ago
    Your hyperbole is inappropriate here. As an analogy, laws already make exceptions to discrimination if the nature of the job requires certain abilities. Go look for manual labor jobs and you will see statements like "applications must be able to lift X pounds to a height of Y feet". One might naively claim this was discrimination against some disabled people, but an exception is made if the job requires it. Likewise, if a person does not physically fit into an airline seat, it does not seem unreasonable to me that they would need to pay for a second seat (or a first-class seat, or an extra large seat, however the airline chose to handle the situation).
- axod 17y ago
  As well as weighing your luggage at the check in desk, they should weigh you. And if you're too fat, tell you to go away and diet, or pay an excess.
andyjenn 17y ago
..exactly, like the time they claimed it was faster and cheaper travelling from London to Brussels and were in breach of advertising standards. I think they were on CNN, BBC, Ch4 etc.. every hour to get their point across. Damn fine advertising strategy.

viraptor 17y ago

Why is this hacker news? Anyways, it's annoying when they're reiterating the same line all the time... "Ryanair promises four things: low fares, a good on-time record, few cancellations and few lost bags." Fares aren't low. Easyjet beats them most of the time. Their prices are low only on the front page. It's only 30£ both ways... just add 50£ airport fees (I wonder why other airlines charge only <10£ for the same airport) each way, 20£ if you want to add even 1 piece of luggage, 10£ if you don't opt-out of fast boarding and we're going to ask you to select your nationality many times (only slightly indicating that by doing that you agree to buy insurance). Oh, and 10-15£ fee for handling any credit card at the end. And other things... So you end up paying ~200£ for a flight that's advertised as 30£. They also wanted to be excluded some time ago from services that listed their real prices. Oh and on-time flights... that's easy - just say that a 3h flight will take 3.5h - this way they're always 'on time' and passengers can wait some time at the airport (I'm used to arriving 30 min. early on my usual flight)

andyking 17y ago
I don't fly, but friends who've used Ryanair have tales of people going down the aeroplane aisle with catalogues, scratch cards, lottery tickets and all sorts of other junk for sale right through the flight. I've even heard an apocryphal story of someone being woken up so they couldn't sleep through the salespeople!
- viraptor 17y ago
  Yes, that happens on every flight. Catalogue after ~1h in the air, and lottery ~1h before landing. The prices are usually lower than on the airport, but higher than in shops.
- marcusbooster 17y ago
  I read an article that discussed the CEO's vision of having completely free flights... by turning the plane into a flying casino.
barrkel 17y ago
I've flown on both Easyjet and Ryanair many times - I'm Irish living in UK and no other low-cost airline will compete with Ryanair on its home turf - and I cannot agree with you. Easyjet are usually 10-50% more expensive, but I normally pay the extra for the reduced stress level, fewer ads and higher convenience of destination airport.

edw519 17y ago

(Southwest manages to take a similar approach without coming off as hostile to customers). [Disclaimer: Raving Southwest fan.] AFAIC, Southwest is better than almost every other airline in almost every other category. Why? Because they have built a business the way I would want to build one, with one thing in mind: the customer. Almost everything they do is what the customer wants because someone bothered to ask. Whenever I fly another airline, the differences are noticeable and I ask, "Don't these people get it?" Ryanair sounds like they're doing the same thing in a mechanical way. Once they engage their customers as Southwest has, they'll have raving fans too.