Ryanair

[Hurricane]

I wonder how many on here watched Panorama tonight.
I thought it was particularly unbalanced.
I'm not a hardened air traveller but I have used Ryanair several times this year amongst a few other airlines.

For me, I think they offer extremely good value.
Being retired, I do get the time to book flights that fit into their schedules and I expect that there are lots of people out ther that cant take advantage of the offers that come up.

Earlier this year, SWMBO and I decided to use BA from Heathrow to get to the boat in Spain - in fact, we pre booked two separate trips during the summer. All I can say was that each one was a hassle - they were late taking off, let alone late arriving - one was over two hours late in fact.

Balance that with a number of Ryanair flights this year - ALL of which have arrived ahead of time - one was 35 minutes early.

I was going to put this post up anyway but when I heard that Panorama was running a story on them, I thought I'd wait and se what was said.

IMO, it's disgraceful that the BBC presented this program as unbalanced as it did. There was, however, one comment from a member of the public that I agreed with - she said that if this country was being run by Michael O'leary, then we wouldnt be in the mess we are in. There you go Gordon - beaten by an Irishman.

Actually, I like to think of air travel (at least short haul like trips into Europe) in the same light as other forms of travel. Last week, I took the train from Newton Abbot to Reading. It was an excellent service but I sat down in my seat for two and a half hours and didnt need to get up until the train stopped at my destination. Why should air travel be any different? In fact I'm sitting down on flights that I take to the boat far less time than I was sitting on the short train journey that I took last week.

As far as I'm concerned, Ryanair have got it right. In fact, some of the flights are so cheap that I'm considering booking a whole year's in advance and only travelling on the ones that suit me. We keep all we need on the boat so no bags checked in these days. An example, I've just booked a return flight in November for two of us at 1 euro each - all in - yes ALL IN - inclusive of taxes, check in and payment fees. You cant get a pint of beer for that. Couple that with the slightly more expensive flight out at £20 each, our entire journey to Spain and back is less than the 120 mile one way train journey I took last week.

It would be good to hear other views.

 

[BrendanS]

I didn't see Panorama, however, within the industry, Ryanair are consistently top for punctuality, least lost bags, and fewest cancellations.

The lost bags can probably be put down to them actively discouraging baggage where possible. This also helps with their turnaround times.

I think they do a good job, and the fact that they have what is probably the newest fleet of aircraft of any airline in the world of any size means they keep most of them in the air, and are very fuel efficient as well compared to other airlines with mixed fleets of older aircraft.

All in all they do a damn good job. They piss some off, by charging for extras. However, if you just want to get from a to b ontime at a reasonable cost, and if you are willing to travel when flights are cheapest, rather than at peak periods, then you can get some real bargains.

To be honest, it's not about service. If you want service, go and pay much more elsewhere, and take your chances on actually getting good service on the day.

I've flown Ryanair, and been happy at what I've received.... no frills, flies on time more than other airlines on the whole, cancels less flights than many other airlines, and pay for any extras

 

[MapisM]

I'm considering booking a whole year's in advance and only travelling on the ones that suit me.

That's exactly what we're doing since we moved the boat to Sardinia. The trip is even faster and cheaper, if compared to when we drove to the boat. Not to mention that we don't need to bother about traffic.
So yes, I also think that they got it right overall.
The only thing I can't get my head around is why they insist in not assigning the seats. I mean, these days the cost of a computer program to handle the seats assignment is probably less than the fuel burnt in one single take off.
Otoh, queueing and fighting for seats is what regularly upset most passengers. I don't think that this speeds up the airplane loading, either - if anything, I'd rather say the opposite, due to the chaos.
And on a side note, they could use an interpreter, rather than relying (as I guess they do) just on web translators for the localization of registered messages, with some really weird results...

 

[maybh1]

My husband uses Ryanair now and again and thinks that the prices compensate by far for any inconvenience he may suffer.

When we kept our boat in Jersey we flew out on a very regular basis on Flybe from Southampton. We put up with a no frills service, late flights and even cancelled flights because it was CHEAP!

Even allowing for the add ons Ryanair is still cheap. £20.00plus 1 Euro each return to Spain is what Hurricane is paying - so approx £42 return for two people - what a bargain

For shorthaul trips that are costing a few quid what is all the fuss about? You get what you pay for.

If you chose to use Ryanair -then you have to put up and shut up - or switch to another airline.

Unfortunately, we missed the Panorama programme last night which is just as well if it was as biased as you are saying.

May
xx

 

[Steve Clayton]

I wonder how many on here watched Panorama tonight.
I thought it was particularly unbalanced.
.......
It would be good to hear other views.

Here's the email corrspondence between BBC's Panaorama and Ryanair (25 pages) re an interview with RA boss:

http://www.ryanair.com/site/news/releases/2009/docs/Panorama Correspond.pdf

 

[Solitaire]

I have recorded the program as I have just got back from Spain having flown with Ryanair for the first time. There was a post put up some time ago complaining about them, but I can only say that I found them to be very very effective.


My flight was out of Bournemouth, it left exactly on time and arrived 15 minutes early. The return flight yesterday left on time and arrived 20 minutes early. The cost (I didn't pay, the client did) was £10 out £11 back with £5 on line check in. I took a bag to their spec and had no problems at all.

I'll watch the program later and see how it compares with my experience.

 

[nonitoo]

I don't know why anyone beefs about the extras on Ryanair. The only interesting bit is at the bottom where it tells you what your flight cost/credit card bill will be.

If it is too much then look for another carrier otherwise go for it.

I did have the experience of intending to fly Ryanair on the last flight of the day from Blackpool (when they still flew from there). Announcement made to the effect that the plane was cancelled, please return to the ticket desk for reassignment next morning - clang, down came the screens and that was it. 22.00 at a deserted airport !!! I was not a happy bunny.

I learned from that never fly Ryanair at the end of the day.

Mostly it works.

Tom

 

[oceanfroggie]

Cheapest 30 minutes of free advertising in world history! O'Leary must be jumping for joy, cause the BBC hammered home his message for free to a huge audience - low cost, low cost, low cost.

I thought the BBC were quite fair, but ryanair compeditors must be hopping mad.

 

[Adrianwool]

As with all things in life, you get what you pay for. For short haul (i.e. Europe) I regard planes rather like buses provided it arrives on time at the destination I am happy, I am not concerned with a lounge, or 'uprated' in flight service. It is nice to be pampered, but only when someone else is paying! (a la MP's). In my experience both Ryan Air and Easy Jet are pretty good on punctuality.

Mike Oleary is an acccomplished self publisist for his company, Ryan Air are rarely out of the news because of his contreversial views, (i.e. a pound per pee), BUT look at the free publicity he gets as a consequence of this.

 

[ninky]

i think someone at the beeb must have shares in ryanair. this was advertising masked as (very ineffective) criticism. they just featured them on watchdog too - again it was a great ad for ryanair. the 16 year old lad flying for 2p a time was unbelievable. all the show made me do was want to check out their website. i bet o'leary is enjoying increased traffic to his website and laughing all the way to the bank.

yes they use some unsavoury employment practices (not paying for training, keeping people on contracts and using agencies) but they are far from unique in this - it's the lack of decent employment law that is to blame not ryanair.

 

[gjgm]

As regards flight ought to be considered the same as other forms of transport, then in my experience, if you do it alot, thats exactly what it is. Most people use the car or train more frequently, and so tend to think of flying as something out of the ordinary. I always laugh at the " we hope you enjoyed flying with us today"... eh.. what is there to enjoy.. its a bloody plane, not a theatre ticket !!
I ve rarely found Ryanair to be cheaper than other airlines,by the time you ve added in all the extras-trains, taxis,car parking etc. Sometimes the weird locations they fly to are convenient, but otherwise its just more bills. I dont mind using them, but I always check who else is flying that way!

 

[mjf]

I have never flown with them but watched the bbc video on the uncut interview O/S Ryanair HQ and i watched the Prog. last night which was very anti O'leary.

Seems to me you get exactly what you pay for - no more no less. The cost cutting pieces were interesting, Pilots have to go without bottled water etc. Planes are new, the accident records and time keeping are up there with the best. Makes you wonder a bit how the cost side works in the hangar???

What happens on Ryanair if they cancel a flight if there is techn issue or bad weather? Do you have to pay again for the next flight or what?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I wonder how many on here watched Panorama tonight.
I thought it was particularly unbalanced.
I'm not a hardened air traveller but I have used Ryanair several times this year amongst a few other airlines.

For me, I think they offer extremely good value.
Being retired, I do get the time to book flights that fit into their schedules and I expect that there are lots of people out ther that cant take advantage of the offers that come up.

Earlier this year, SWMBO and I decided to use BA from Heathrow to get to the boat in Spain - in fact, we pre booked two separate trips during the summer. All I can say was that each one was a hassle - they were late taking off, let alone late arriving - one was over two hours late in fact.

Balance that with a number of Ryanair flights this year - ALL of which have arrived ahead of time - one was 35 minutes early.

I was going to put this post up anyway but when I heard that Panorama was running a story on them, I thought I'd wait and se what was said.

IMO, it's disgraceful that the BBC presented this program as unbalanced as it did. There was, however, one comment from a member of the public that I agreed with - she said that if this country was being run by Michael O'leary, then we wouldnt be in the mess we are in. There you go Gordon - beaten by an Irishman.

Actually, I like to think of air travel (at least short haul like trips into Europe) in the same light as other forms of travel. Last week, I took the train from Newton Abbot to Reading. It was an excellent service but I sat down in my seat for two and a half hours and didnt need to get up until the train stopped at my destination. Why should air travel be any different? In fact I'm sitting down on flights that I take to the boat far less time than I was sitting on the short train journey that I took last week.

As far as I'm concerned, Ryanair have got it right. In fact, some of the flights are so cheap that I'm considering booking a whole year's in advance and only travelling on the ones that suit me. We keep all we need on the boat so no bags checked in these days. An example, I've just booked a return flight in November for two of us at 1 euro each - all in - yes ALL IN - inclusive of taxes, check in and payment fees. You cant get a pint of beer for that. Couple that with the slightly more expensive flight out at £20 each, our entire journey to Spain and back is less than the 120 mile one way train journey I took last week.

It would be good to hear other views.

I watched it and I thought the programme was very poor. Panorama has dumbed down considerably recently and the 30 min slot as opposed to the old 1 hr slot does not allow any in depth investigation of the issues. I agree with the others that it was a superb piece of advertising for Ryanair. As a fairly frequent flyer myself, I thought the real issues with Ryanair were not properly investigated. Firstly, the ticket prices are not always the cheapest and Ryanair are regularly beaten on price by other airlines, even BA. I flew to Venice last week on BA and it was cheaper than Ryanair to nearby Treviso. This brings me to another point about Ryanair. Generally, they don't fly to the main city airports but they advertise that they do. Milan (Bergamo) is nowhere near Milan, similarly Reus (Barcelona) is nowhere near Barcelona and Prestwick is nowhere near Glasgow. IMHO, the Advertising Standards Authority should stamp on this. Panorama completely failed to mention that Ryanair's business model is based on flying to these out of town airports where, not only are landing fees reduced but in some cases, Ryanair receive subsidies to fly there, an issue which I believe was or is still being investigated by the EU. I thought the laboured points about Ryanair's website were unfair. Ryanair are no worse than Easyjet in the way they try to induce (trick) customers into paying for extras.
IMHO, the best point made in the programme was about Ryanair's brand loyalty. Ryanair's customers are driven by price and they only fly with Ryanair because of price and for no other reason. This actually is quite a dangerous place for a company in a cut throat industry like aviation to be. Should competitors decide to compete with Ryanair's low cost business model head on, then customers could desert Ryanair. Or, should Ryanair's policy of singlemindedly driving down costs in every area of their business be shown to affect safety, then, similarly, the business would suffer considerably.
Personally, I avoid flying with Ryanair because their policy of seeming to make a virtue out of abusing their customers and their staff does not make me want to spend my money with them

 

[Major Catastrophe]

Panorama completely failed to mention that Ryanair's business model is based on flying to these out of town airports where, not only are landing fees reduced but in some cases, Ryanair receive subsidies to fly there, an issue which I believe was or is still being investigated by the EU.

We must have watched different programmes, because on the one I saw last night not only did they mention that RA's low costs was due to the use of out of town airports, but the reporter actually flew to 'Stockholm' to prove it was out of town.

Hurricane, even with Panorama adopting a dumbed down Tonight style of reporting and putting the boot in, he did say on several occasions that despite RA's cost add ons and penny pinching, most people did not mind, as they still got a good value flight.

 

[nicho]

Cheapest 30 minutes of free advertising in world history! O'Leary must be jumping for joy, cause the BBC hammered home his message for free to a huge audience - low cost, low cost, low cost.

I thought the BBC were reasonably fair, but ryanair compeditors must be hopping mad.

I have to agree with that, O'Leary 5, BBC 0!! It was not as biased as I expected, and though they did their best to highlight the so called "hidden" charges, they did highlight the new fleet of aircraft, best punctuality etc.

O'leary is very clever, and the way he turned around his hijacking outside the Ryanair AGM into a fully blown 2 minute advert for Ryanair was brilliant.

He is often called rude, but in all the interviews I have ever seen, he is polite but firm. Having said all that, I recently posted to say that for some reason Ryanair is always at the bottom of my list of preferred carriers - still don't really know why, and I still do use them!

 

[ninky]

had a look at the website - they put 1.1 million flights up for free from midnight. think many have done what one of the other posters suggested though and booked up whether they decide to use it or not as i couldn't get availability on the destination i fancied.

 

[Dyflin]

For those who missed it;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8298000/8298750.stm

The uncut "doorstep" interview with the lovable Mr. O'Leary...

 

[gjgm]

I have never flown with them but watched the bbc video on the uncut interview O/S Ryanair HQ and i watched the Prog. last night which was very anti O'leary.

Seems to me you get exactly what you pay for - no more no less. The cost cutting pieces were interesting, Pilots have to go without bottled water etc. Planes are new, the accident records and time keeping are up there with the best. Makes you wonder a bit how the cost side works in the hangar???

What happens on Ryanair if they cancel a flight if there is techn issue or bad weather? Do you have to pay again for the next flight or what?

What next flight ? !

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

We must have watched different programmes, because on the one I saw last night not only did they mention that RA's low costs was due to the use of out of town airports, but the reporter actually flew to 'Stockholm' to prove it was out of town.

Hurricane, even with Panorama adopting a dumbed down Tonight style of reporting and putting the boot in, he did say on several occasions that despite RA's cost add ons and penny pinching, most people did not mind, as they still got a good value flight.

Yes but as I said Ryanair recieve or have received subsidies either from the airports themselves or from local authorities to fly to these out of town airports which is or has been investigated by the EU for being anti competitive. This point was ignored by Panorama. Secondly, whilst many people might appreciate that Ryanair fly to out of town airports when they book, it is clearly stretching the truth to describe Bergamo as Milan or Reus as Barcelona and this should have been taken up by the ASA years ago in many peoples' opinion, again a point which was not made by Panorama. It's a bit like booking a train to Manchester and finding the train actually stops in Stoke! There'd be a huge outcry about that but for some reason I dont understand, Ryanair get away with it

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

had a look at the website - they put 1.1 million flights up for free from midnight. think many have done what one of the other posters suggested though and booked up whether they decide to use it or not as i couldn't get availability on the destination i fancied.

What a surprise? It's an advertising gimmick