Comments on: Ryanair, we love you but you’re bringing us down

By: RAMONA

RAMONA — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:11:44 +0000

So very true. I’ve traveled fairly extensively all over the world, and have recently become very reluctant to fly. Unless Southwest is flying to my destination or I can drive, there is great pause before leaving for the airport, esp for an international flight. Between increasing fares, nonsensical TSA hassles (2-3 security checks within the airport at places like Heathrow, Frankfurt and Hong Kong) and economy grunge experiences, even a trip to fab Barcelona and the Italian and French Rivieras seems in retrospect like twilight in Dante’s inferno.

On United recently, leaving Frankfurt for San Francisco, the flight attendants were presenting the meal as “chicken or beef.” I asked (politely) what kind of chicken or beef and was told in a loud sarcastic voice “Chicken as in cluck-cluck and beef as in moo moo.” Suppose this was also for the benefit of any others who might have the temerity to inquire about the menu (none did!). Turns out it was breast of chicken and chunks of beef in wine sauce – how hard would that have been to announce? Mind you, this is one of the rare flights that even offers a meal at no additional cost — in Economy!

Ryanair and EasyJet don’t have ANY comp offerings — but they do offer huge helpings of ignorance, disdain and callous disregard.

Now where did I put my trowel – will be time soon to plant the tulip bulbs for next season – and of course I’ll need to be around when they start to grow …

By: Pete Meyers

Pete Meyers — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:38:56 +0000

@ RAMONA — your comment cracked us up.

But I think there’s something to your comparison of Southwest’s ability to be seen as “good budget” versus Ryanair’s position. Cheap + enjoyable don’t have to be mutually exclusive, now do they?

By: RAMONA

RAMONA — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:10:40 +0000

Admire your generosity, Pete, to say you “love” Ryanair. Flying economy on any airline (unless you’re in business or first class, that is) and esp flying on Ryanair or EasyJet, genetic heirs of the Marquis de Sade — is torture at the exquisite bottom! Every single one of their policies seems designed not only to extract every last nickel, but to do so with the most gleeful pain, leaving the victims (their pax) without dignity or the ability to even complain — after all, “you knew I was a snake when you brought me into the bar.”

Southwest by comparison is like flying on Air Force One. I have to congratulate them on so vastly improving their treatment of customers from, say, 15 years ago to what it is today. In the spirit of the season, Cheers to Southwest — and Bah Humbug to Ryanair, Easyjet and their creepy cousins, who degrade the concept of humanity in all their policies.

By: Pietro

Pietro — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:39:01 +0000

I totally agree.
I try and avoid Ryanair wherever and whenever possible.

Easyjet is way superior in treating its customers a bit more
like human beings but unfortunately have a smaller network.

If one counts the stress of having to fight their nickel-and-dime mentality, the time wasted, the aggraviation, etc. it is really worth flying with them only when the price differential is significant.

What if they had simply quoted Pete € 120,00 for the same deal but without the aggraviation? Pete would have probably accepted and they would have made €20 extra.

I do know people who take full advantage of some of their routes but what good is for Ryanair to charge them a bare minimum when they could charge a bit more and still get the business?

As someone has said , life is too short for bad wines so I say: life is to short to be treated like an animal just to save a few bucks…

And a smile doesn’t cost anything but at Ryanair they are thinking of charging you if you want one 🙂

By: Pete Meyers

Pete Meyers — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:54:01 +0000

Good point Kfo. I think it’s those little price “gotchas” that just make the experience more frustrating and demoralizing than it really should be.

By: Kfo

Kfo — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:03:06 +0000

My wife and I flew Ryanair this past summer. All was good, but I am tired of the “nickel and dime” charges plus their checked bag weight allowance is less than others. As far as I know it is the lowest of the airlines at 15kg. Most are 20kg or more. When flying with someone else and two checked bags, easyjet, for example, is okay with one bag being 22 kg and the other 18, as long as the total weight is 40 or less. Not Ryanair! We will avoid Ryanair whenever possible. Last year we flew from Stockholm to Edinburgh and did not have many options.

By: Kristjan G. Bjarnason

Kristjan G. Bjarnason — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:00:55 +0000

Thanks Pete for sharing this experience with us and for recommending Dohop.

The EU parliament approved new rules fr on-line shopping in June which might help. The new law requires on-line traders to give buyers precise information on the total price. All EU member states need to implement this rule before June 2014.

Not sure what this exactly means but I know that easyJet is working changes that will help sites like to Dohop to display total price.

Kristjan

By: Pete Meyers

Pete Meyers — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:39:03 +0000

Thanks Stuart. Great point about Momondo, too – big fan of their company and another solid option to find low fares.

But let’s not underestimate the value of a nice bag…!

By: Stuart

Stuart — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:56:32 +0000

Good article as per Pete. Just a quick sup.

Air France and Alitalia are both charging £417 o/w on Saturday 5th January…
Okay you get a bag but hey that’s tres cher. Makes Ryanair look great value.

However my top tip would be Orly Rome on Easyjet on 05/01/13.
90 euros all in. Bish bash bosh.

So, so much easier…

ps favoured Euro LCC site is Momondo by Cheap Flights. as well as flights they chuck trains into the mix (tis good value to Berlin, Brussels, Lille and Amsterdam) by train from Paris…

pps. we don’t do Europe 🙂