I know there are hundreds of opinions about Ryanair around there, but at first sight quite alarming amount of them seem to be positive. And why are they positive? Because whatever happens to some few thousand unfortunate passengers travelling on Ryanair, there are always tens of thousands of people who enjoy their cheap air travel and with a bit of luck, without problems.
NO THRILLS, NO FRILLS.
Ryanair has taken to this point a bit too literally. This policy doesn’t just mean: no meals on the plane (which is a great point to advertise, because everyone hates them anyway), it also means one (or very occasionally, two people) person ’herding’ two hundred people around, whether this is in the check-in desk, departure gate, actual airplane, or the arrival airport. It also means rude staff who seem to be trained on a day’s crash course of: ’how to be most unhelpful to customers’. It also means that since you are so cheap to travel with Ryanair, you take responsibility on absolutely everything that goes wrong on their flights. I mean, in the end of the day, you could’ve flown with BA…
I know they offer great fares for much less money than other airlines. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that some savings have to be made at other points of business. Now, perhaps they claim it’s because online booking reduces the handling costs. That is probably partly the case, but see how many other budget airlines are out there, functioning on the very same basis than Ryanair, yet their fares cost more. So, further savings have to be made elsewhere. The following is my experience about Ryanair’s cost-cutting in the customer service side of things. I would like to apologise in advance for its length.
THE GREAT BIG MINUSES.
I have never experienced such pushing and shoving than on Ryanair flights, sometimes it seems that a 50p ticket gives you a right to behave like an a***hole. However, since this opinion is about Ryanair rather than the people who travel with them (like myself used to), I’m not going to go into that minor detail any further. In the defence
of those people though, I would like to add that this shoving and pushing (in order to get to and from the plane) is usually caused by Ryanair’s delays in the first place.
I have never felt scared on a plane before (I have airtravelled since I was 4 years old), but on Ryanair flights you kind of get the feeling that if something goes horribly wrong, it’s up to yourself to get out alive (which means steering the plane, opening the emergency exits and helping the other passengers.
I have never been so p****d off with an airline that I felt punching, not one, but three of their staff in one day… now, perhaps I need an anger management course, but it seems, so do their staff.
THE great subjective experience of flying with Ryanair:
About two years ago me and my partner flew to Paris from Glasgow. Initially, our flight was delayed, but eventually we did get there. Obviously, flying to a Ryanair style obscure airport (Beauvais), meant that you have to pay a premium busfare to get to where you were actually going in the first place (Paris). Contrary to what Ryanair may say, Beauvais is NOT Paris.
Now, we had a nice four days in Paris and things were looking up. On the day of our return flight, we had to leave our wee hut in time to get to the outskirts of Paris (about 6am), where a bus would be waiting to get us to the airport (an hour journey or so). We made it to the bus, just, since the underground operates very randomly at that time of the day.
Some time later we arrive to Beauvais, and the first thing we notice on the screen is that our flight is delayed because of the weather. Yes, it is a bit foggy outside, but this is surely normal for an early morning. Anyway, the flight is announced to be delayed for further two times. By this time we have been waiting around two hours at the airport, which is not THE oasis of entertainment either (as some of you are aware). Then, all of a sudden, Ryanair annouces that the flight is cancelled (because of the weather) and that all travellers who want to go back (!), should contact the information desk. Now this is the bit where pushing and shoving comes in, as people rush towards the two members of Ryanair staff at the desk. Since we’re not too keen on that activity, we decide to stay put, since logically thinking, it doesn’t make any difference whether we are the first or last in the queue, right, Ryanair has the responsibility of getting us out of here asap anyway. I mean, there’s plenty of old people and families with children around, and they’re all in the end of the queue, surely they have priority. Surely…?
Now, while we are waiting for the queue to get shorter, you start hearing funny stories from people in the front of the queue about the state of affairs, as well as not so funny shouting by the customer desk. When we finally make it to the desk, a French Ryanair staff (and I DO like French people in general) taps on her computer and tells us without a blink that the next available flight back to Glasgow is in two days. Well, this is not the right place and time for jokes, but that’s what she tells us, again and again. Now, do I have to tell you the rest?
Well, I’ll do anyway (by the way, you can always stop reading, if you’re bored).
Now, I try to explain to this woman, that no, it’s not possible for us to travel in two days, see, we have to get to Glasgow today. We have run out of money, we have to get back to work, we have no hotel reservation, and we’re most definitely not going to stay at the airport for two days. ’Sorry, but that’s all we can do, all the other flights are gone.’ When I question Ryanair about their responsibility and whether they will provide us with food and hotel, she just blatantly adds: ’It’s nothing to do with us, it was the weather.’ Perhaps stupidly (for myself), I pursue my point further, and suddenly, the clerk says, ’Okay, next!’ and starts serving the person behind me.
I’m about to lose it at this point, and the other member of staff (also French) realises that perhaps her colleague shouldn’t have behaved like that and starts babbling to her in French. I understand what she says: ’you have to serve these people. You have to.’ The girl who had been serving us, has obviously had enough of me (!), and looks completely reluctant to deal with me. ’Go back to them, you have to serve them.’ The other staff member says and finally the girl returns to us. She explains to us that in two hours, there will be a flight to Dublin. We could get on that, perhaps, by paying more money (you would think not since it’s not your fault in the first place, but as it happens, it’s nobody’s fault anyway).
Since we don’t have any alternatives, unless we want to camp at the airport for two days, I grudginly pay her. Great, now we’re on the plane to Dublin. So, how are we going to get to Glasgow? She shrugs. ’When you get to Dublin, go to the check-in desk and see if they can get you on stand-by for the next plane to Glasgow…’
(While we are waiting for the Dublin plane, we admire the bright blue skies outside. Funny that any fog that was ever there, disappeared about 15 minutes after Ryanair cancelled the flight…)
We’re in Dublin. We go to the check-in desk, where a friendly (!)-looking Ryanair staff is waiting for our query. I explain our situation and say that we would like to be put on stand-by for the next plane to Glasgow. She says: ’Ryanair doesn’t operate a stand-by policy. You will have to pay for your fare to Glasgow.’ I cannot believe what she’s saying, so I try to explain again. She is not interested, saying it was our own fault, since we decided to come to Dublin rather than wait for our own flight to Glasgow.
At this point I raise my voice, and another member of staff asks what’s the problem. I explain our situation again, and she says something to our clerk, who turns to me and says, ’let me have another look at the computer, I’m not promising anything but…’ and so she taps on her pc, and then, without any expression on her face says: I can give you two stand-by seats to the next flight to Edinburgh….
We did get to the next plane to Edinburgh (not everyone was so lucky). I don’t know how many people stayed overnight at Beauvais, for one night or even two nights. In any case, Ryanair took no responsibility over any of the above mentioned, and hasn’t to this date replied to my complaints letter.
You might say ’all is well that ends well’, but I’m not so sure I agree. The most frightening bit is that Ryanair seems completely indifferent towards their passengers’ opinions and complaints, and their company’s policies defies all logic known to human kind. (One of my friends also told about a Ryanair incident where they were already on the plane coming home to UK from Sweden, when the captain announced that all luggage has to be unloaded because the plane is too heavy for take-off… believe me, this is not a joke!)
Finally, I would like to say that as long as the amount of people flying Ryanair with no problems is greater than the growing percentage that does encounter them, Ryanair will keep making money and even further success. No frills, no thrills. I rest my case.
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Advantages: Low fares! Extensive range of routes and destinations. Good Punctuality Disadvantages: Can be uncomfortable on longer flights. Extra charges expensive if you don't play by their rules.
olster99 22.10.2009 ·
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Review of Ryanair - RYR
May 28th, 2003
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