Don't lose it at the airport!

[swee'pea99]

In the context of a plane trip you're getting for free - £90 or so won't even cover the cost of processing you through two airports twice, let alone fuel, plane maintenance and insurance, issuing a ticket, contingencies and profit for the airline, or even the environmental cost of your cheap flights or the disruption and suffering to the poor buggers who live near the airports - £30 to give you back glasses which probably cost ten times that seems like a bargain.

If you want to pay less for your own forgetfulness, start paying what the basic service actually costs.

Ok, well, from the top...

It wasn't £90, it was £114, but either way, if you pay for something, you're not getting it for free.
Ryanair made profits of $1.4 billion last year, so I guess they covered their costs pretty comfortably.
Environmental impact and the suffering of locals are, however regrettable, totally unrelated issues.
The price of the glasses is nothing like ten times the cost, and is in any case totally irrelevant.
£35 for 'shipping' a small item that will actually cost £3.35 to post doesn't strike me as much of a bargain.
I expect to pay for my forgetfulness. I just don't think I should pay £35.
And what I pay for 'the basic service' has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I think that covers everything.

 

[screenman]

It costs me £4.45 in terms of Royal Mail charges, it takes me time that needs paying for to wrap, invoice, packaging, fuel, amongst other thing's.

If only business was as easy as some think it is.

 

[DaveReading]

In the context of a plane trip you're getting for free

Yes, Ryanair lose money on every ticket sold, but they make it up on volume.

 

[Drago]

They're a company, not a charity, but you could get sunglasses shipped from China for less than a fiver, so I don't see how they justify the cost. Usury, cos they have you by the balls.

 

[jonny jeez]

I bought a small carry bag from Argos in Derry last year, realised it was too small and went back to get a slightly bigger one.In doing so I left my car keys in a small flap inside the first bag.

Got back to Stanstead and couldn't drive home (another story).

Argos lady remembered me, found the keys, and just posted them on. They arrived the next day in a padded box, with a bunch of postage stamps on it.

No charge.

 

[jonny jeez]

Maybe the firm that charges is only trying to teach people to take more care.

They should post them to a location, about 5 miles from your house and demand on you being there to take delivery.

that would teach you a lesson.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Maybe the firm that charges is only trying to teach people to take more care.

 

[swansonj]

Ok, well, from the top...

It wasn't £90, it was £114, but either way, if you pay for something, you're not getting it for free.
Ryanair made profits of $1.4 billion last year, so I guess they covered their costs pretty comfortably.
Environmental impact and the suffering of locals are, however regrettable, totally unrelated issues.
The price of the glasses is nothing like ten times the cost, and is in any case totally irrelevant.
£35 for 'shipping' a small item that will actually cost £3.35 to post doesn't strike me as much of a bargain.
I expect to pay for my forgetfulness. I just don't think I should pay £35.
And what I pay for 'the basic service' has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I think that covers everything.

Plus, as I understood it, the firm charging you for the list property was not the airline. So even if you'd paid full fare for a business class ticket from a full-service airline (were such a thing available from Stansted...) you would still be facing the same bill for the lost property.

 

[srw]

Yes, Ryanair lose money on every ticket sold, but they make it up on volume.

No. They lose money on the cheapest tickets and make it up by selling some tickets for far more, by making the passenger pay for "extras" like baggage and printed tickets and by screwing down their contracts with suppliers.

Plus, as I understood it, the firm charging you for the list property was not the airline. So even if you'd paid full fare for a business class ticket from a full-service airline (were such a thing available from Stansted...) you would still be facing the same bill for the lost property.

As you imply, such a thing isn't available from Stansted and Ryanair because their shared business model is based on screwing over passengers and suppliers.

Try losing a pair of specs in the BA lounge at Heathrow or, as I did, a bunch of keys in the business class cabin of an Emirates plane, and you'll have a very different experience. Because their business model is based on customer pleasure.

As for whether £35 is reasonable - I don't think it's gouging. Take off the fiver or so actual cost of P&P and £8 or so in VAT and that £22 has got to pay for the cost of handling, tracking and storing the lost item. It also has to pay for the cost of handling and legally disposing of all the items which aren't claimed. My best guess would be that each lost item takes an hour or so to handle. Even at minimum wage, allowing for on-costs that's a good £12 to £15.

If you don't want to pay don't choose a so-called "cheap flight".

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Ok, well, from the top...

It wasn't £90, it was £114, but either way, if you pay for something, you're not getting it for free.
Ryanair made profits of $1.4 billion last year, so I guess they covered their costs pretty comfortably.
.

Not paying pilots helps them make profit. Like the other budget airlines. For that reason alone, I don't use them.

 

[nickyboy]

So this is a company operating a lost property service in the Airport?

Do you think that they will get this contract from the people that operate the airport for nothing? The airport will charge them and they have to pass this on to people who lose stuff

@srw is correct in his analysis. Handling fiddly little things that get lost, storing them then organising the posting out all costs money. You can't compare with Chinese shipping costs as minimum wage in China varies but is typically less than £100 per month

If the airport management company wanted to absorb all the cost and provide a free or cheap service they could. Your beef is with them really

 

[Crackle]

It's a rip off and worst than that it's a kind of theft by blackmail. We got your stuff and if you want it you have to pay us. This is what playground bullies used to do. In my world, these farkers would be up against the wall next to the owners of train companies.

 

[Tanis8472]

£815 per sq/m per anum for some of the cheaper areas at Heathrow.
Probably in the region of £120,000 per anum for rent plus service charges and utilities.

 

[srw]

It wasn't £90, it was £114, but either way, if you pay for something, you're not getting it for free.

It's worth coming back to this point.

Air Passenger Duty costs Ryanair £13 per passenger leaving the UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...and-allowances-excise-duty-air-passenger-duty). Italian tax costs them €10 per passenger (http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2016-01-25-01.aspx). Stansted publish their charges (http://www.magworld.co.uk/magweb.ns...ges/$file/stal_conditions_of_use_ 2013_14.pdf) and it's easy to work out that they levy an effective charge of about a fiver per passenger. We can assume that the Italian airport will do the same. That's a third of the cost of the ticket gone already, before anyone's even employed a pilot or leased an aeroplane or bought some fuel. Or set up a website to handle bookings or employed check-in staff. Or compensated the people of Essex for disrupted sleep or increased pollution from increased traffic.

"Free" might have been an exaggeration to make a point, but it's not too much of an exaggeration. "Cheap flights" are only cheap if you exactly follow the demands of the airline. Customer-centric they're not.

 

[rvw]

As another example of how this should work, some while ago I managed to leave my purse on a train. Customer services at the station located me (via a store card) and contacted me before I'd even noticed the loss, and handed it back the same evenng as I got onto the train.

I can't find a link for it, as it was too long ago - but the first time @srw and I visited Orkney there was an article in the local paper about someone who dropped his wallet on the tarmac in North Ronaldsay, and had it handed back to him as he got of his plain in Inverness - the staff having found it, checked all the various flights (OK, this is Orkney, so not a huge job) and managed to get the wallet to the right place to meet the guy.