Ryanair's bizarre slanging match with customer

[NM]

From news.com.au:

AN employee from budget airline Ryanair has enraged a customer after calling him an "idiot and a liar" online.

Jason Roe told the UK’s Sky News that he was “shocked” when a Ryanair employee responded to one of his blog posts with negative personal comments.

 

[2muchplastic]

I suppose that the Ryanair spokesman was right, anyone who flys Ryanair can rightly be called a lunatic.:mrgreen:

 

[Nigelinoz]

A Ryanair spokesman confirmed that an employee left abusive comments on Mr Roe’s website, but dismissed the blogger as a “lunatic”.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel," the spokesperson said.

Not too busy that they can't find time to leave comments like those,apparently.

 

[JohnK]

Management and employees say a lot about a company. It is OK to abuse customers even if they are in the wrong or lunatics. No thanks Ryanair....

 

[Nigelinoz]

Management and employees say a lot about a company. It is OK to abuse customers even if they are in the wrong or lunatics. No thanks Ryanair....

I agree with your comments Johnk,and having had the "pleasure" of flying with them I think the problem is that the management doesn't see their passengers as customers,they just see them as some sort of walking financial resource that they can plunder at will and treat with disdain.
At least with LCC's like Virgin Blue and Jetstar you do get the feeling that you're valued as a customer, not as a nuisance.

 

[WTL]

They are just an appalling operation, and they're not always cheaper. There are various European destinations where they'll beat the pants off of BA, but it's surprisingly less frequent than they'll have you believe. Especially when you consider that their advertised fare will be a 5am departure, or similar, from somewhere like Stansted (which will entail a taxi fare out there at that time of the morning), and a country-train or bus service from your destination airport into the city.

Once you start factoring in a departure from some horrid airport in the English midlands (purported to be "London" though), arriving at a satellite airport equally remote to your intended destination, and the fact that you'll need to be out of bed at 2.00am for the privilege - oh, and hidden charges like £10 per check-in bag, £2 or £3 if you don't have your e-ticket printed, £10 if you want an allocated seat, and their latest great idea to charge you for use of the loo inflight - and you'll realise, like I did, that the whole thing is a charade.

There isn't even the pretense of customer care. They closed their customer service desk at Stansted and replaced it with a premium rate, time-charged phone number.

So when you join the queue at Stansted two-hours out - as they demand - to check-in for their first flight of the day to Berlin, as my colleague once did, and find yourself second in line when the clock strikes t-minus 40 and they close check-in on you, you can spend forty-minutes on hold, paying Ryanair for the privilege, to ask them to rebook you on another flight on account of missing your original one because their business model doesn't provide enough check-in agents to deal with the number of tickets they've sold.

Ryanair's take is that you're paying "rock-bottom" so you don't have the right to expect anything more and you should bloody-well shut up about it too. They didn't even bother responding to a British government questionnaire sent out as part of an "effort to improve the air travel experience" of the British public.

I grew to despise them enough to choose another carrier every time, even if it meant flying in to the nearest town and catching a train for half an hour.

A Ryanair horror stories discussion on here would be a long thread.

 

[Dave Noble]

Seems to me that the point is that regardless of how much negative press they get, people still travel on them since they often do have rock bottom prices

They make no pretence about customer care and the model they have seems to work for them

If the person referred to in the article is going to need to recover from shock when people post negative comments on his blog, then mayhaps he should rethink allowing comments on his blogs

Dave

 

[clifford]

Ryanair's take is that you're paying "rock-bottom" so you don't have the right to expect anything more and you should bloody-well shut up about it too.

This is absolutely correct. No one should book with Ryanair if their journey is important. On the other hand, if it's just for fun, and you can stand to lose the few GBP you paid, it's fine.

I have flown with Ryanair many times, have paid very little for my flights, and have never been let down. They actually have a very good on-time record, and they are quite a safe airline to fly. Last month I flew HHN-KIR-STN for about AUD 20 all-in, and both flights arrived early.

I am booked to fly Ryanair again later this month, STN-SZG-STN, total cost less than AUD 30, and one can't say that Salzburg airport is terribly far from the city (also, STN is only a half hour train ride away from central London).

So, if you use Ryanair in the appropriate manner, it will cost you next to nothing and you will have a ball (unless you are a miserable ...).

If only DJ et al were as low cost.

 

[Dave Noble]

So, if you use Ryanair in the appropriate manner, it will cost you next to nothing and you will have a ball (unless you are a miserable ...).

If only DJ et al were as low cost.

Indeed. As another example, I just priced out a LGW-DUB-LGW and it came to GBP18.88 including taxes ( approx $41.98 )

JQ advertises itself as a low cost carrier ... when used appropriately FR actually is a low cost carrier

Ryanair does however pride itself on not spending money on customer relations and people still seem prepared to fly on them. They must be doing something right

Dave

 

[Nigelinoz]

also, STN is only a half hour train ride away from central London).

Last time I took it it cost £24.00 (About $54.00) return and took nearly 50 minutes.

it will cost you next to nothing and you will have a ball

Unless you want to use the bathroom,at least that will be the case if Mr O'Leary has his way.

 

[Dave Noble]

Last time I took it it cost £24.00 (About $54.00) return and took nearly 50 minutes.

Going to Heathrow on the Heathrow express costs GBP14 each way and the connect is about GBP10 ach way

Going to Gatwick costs about GBP10 each way

GBP12 for STN isnt that bad

As far as which is the shortest journey , it really depends on where you are starting from. London bridge to gatwick is 35 minutes , Paddington to Heathrow is 15-25 minutes on the express and longer on the connect and Liverpool Street to Stansted is 47 minues

Where you are actually starting from makes quite a difference to the overall time to get to the airport rather than just the time on train

Dave

 

[WTL]

No one should book with Ryanair if their journey is important.

That's a very good summary.

 

[WTL]

Going to Heathrow on the Heathrow express costs GBP14 each way and the connect is about GBP10 ach way

Going to Gatwick costs about GBP10 each way

GBP12 for STN isnt that bad

As far as which is the shortest journey , it really depends on where you are starting from. London bridge to gatwick is 35 minutes , Paddington to Heathrow is 15-25 minutes on the express and longer on the connect and Liverpool Street to Stansted is 47 minues

Where you are actually starting from makes quite a difference to the overall time to get to the airport rather than just the time on train

Dave

There are many scenarios where buying the advertised Ryanair low fare, and to make it to the airport the regulation two hours before, can only be achieved by taxi.

 

[Dave Noble]

There are many scenarios where buying the advertised Ryanair low fare, and to make it to the airport the regulation two hours before, can only be achieved by taxi.

not that many scenarios. Even really out of hours a hire car could be used. It is just one of the things to consider when booking. The same issue would apply with any airline when travelling at certain times of day and not unique to FR

Dave

 

[Traveller F]

G`Day,

It makes me laugh how they can class some of their airports after major towns , eg Düssledorf – Weeze (Germany) is 78km from the centre of DUS
Frankfurt-Hahn (Germany) a whopping 123km from FRA!!!!

Both are in the middle of no ware, not far by Oz standards perhaps, but by European it’s a hell of a long way!!!

BTW Weeze is a ex RAF base (I believe that when you take off to the west you start in Germany and lift off in Holland, the runway crosses the boarder and visa-versa) and Hahn is ex USAAF base.

Kind regards, Traveller F

 

[2muchplastic]

...
BTW Weeze is a ex RAF base (I believe that when you take off to the west you start in Germany and lift off in Holland, the runway crosses the boarder and visa-versa) ....

Yes, that's correct, Düssledorf – Weeze used to be RAF Laarbruch. My folks were stationed there for a few years until it closed.

This airport naming has caused a few problems before, such as about 3 years ago when my mother-in-law was flying to see my sister-in-law who lived just inside Holland. The flight that she got was to Dusseldorf-Weeze, but chose to only pass on the Dusseldorf part of the name along with the arrival time. So she landed, rang my sister-in-law with a "where the hell are you" type of question, (sis-in-law and husband were just about to arrive at the proper Dusseldorf airport), and then looked a little bit stupid when she found that the second part of the name was actually quite important as it related to an airport 80km away.:mrgreen:

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

Especially when you consider that their advertised fare will be a 5am departure

Ryanair don't have any 05:00 departures from Stansted.

Once you start factoring in a departure from some horrid airport in the English midlands (purported to be "London" though)

What airport are you on about here?

£10 if you want an allocated seat

Ryanair won't give you an allocated seat for any amount of £££.

They closed their customer service desk at Stansted

It was there last week.

So when you join the queue at Stansted two-hours out - as they demand - to check-in for their first flight of the day to Berlin, as my colleague once did, and find yourself second in line when the clock strikes t-minus 40 and they close check-in on you,

Your colleague won't have this problem again, they have closed all check-in desks, It's online or kiosk at Stansted.

I like Ryanair, the 737's are clean, well maintained, flights are generally on time and they are paranoid about safety.

I generally do out and back day trips with them from Stansted, I check in online, arrive at the airport about 35 mins before departure, 15 mins to get through security, 7 mins max walk to the gate and board the aircraft and generally get seat 1B, take hand luggage only and don't buy any of the overpriced cough from the trolley.

I do have the advantage of a cousin who lives in Elsenham, which is a 3 min drive from the terminal at Stansted, so that is where i stay when i am in London.

Cheers
DJ737

 

[jakeseven7]

pretty simple. you get what you pay for.

you pay next to nothing, expect next to nothing in return.

 

[straitman]

pretty simple. you get what you pay for.

you pay next to nothing, expect next to nothing in return.

That sums up this thread completely :!:

 

[anat0l]

pretty simple. you get what you pay for.

you pay next to nothing, expect next to nothing in return.

I prefer the line someone used whilst I was working at Harvey Norman:

"You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."