Message to Michael O'Leary

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Bill Gates

Guest
Location
West Sussex
The "If you don't like our nonexistent customer service - tough!!! airline" or known more widely as Ryanair. Wouldn't touch them with barge pole. The cheap fare is a cheap con trick when you include the add ons.

When you travel by any means of transport then sh!t happens and it's how you deal with it that counts. Why any one would use that shower is beyond me. You get what you pay for and as their reputation is well known then their customers should take the consequences or travel Easijet BA etc.
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
I've flown with RyanAir several times and have no problem at all with them. Their fares are genuinely cheaper, their service is just as good as other charter carriers, they don't have a dinosaur union trying to run their business for them and I don't have to use my taxes to subsidise their inefficiencies.

O'Leary says that getting disabled people from check-in to the plane is something the airport should provide, not the carrier, and if you are paying £9.99 for a flight why should you get the same compensation as someone who has paid £200. Both perfectly reasonable points.
 

yello

Guest
Whilst I am no fan of O'Leary or Ryanair (I had one experience of Ryanair many many years ago and will never again chance a repeat), I have to say I have some sympathies for airlines in this situation (more for the stranded passengers obviously!)

From the beeb's website

"There is no legislation designed that says any airline getting a fare of 30 euros (£26) should be reimbursing passengers many thousands of euro for hotel accommodation. It is absurd," he said.

"he" being O'Leary.

Isn't this why people have travel insurance? The delays are no fault of the airlines.
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Except that the other airlines absorb the costs
Absorb the costs? Don't talk daft - they charge more.

and the courts disagreed with him.
Granted, but it was a perfectly reasonable argument at the time.

Don't forget that before RyanAir came along, the good citizens of Eire were paying once at the check-in for their Aer Lingus flag carrier and as much again in subsidies; and so were their counterparts in most European countries. Michael O'Leary has done as much to benefit passengers as the man at Direct Line did to shake up the insurance industry.

If you want to pay a lot more and get a bit more, fine. I'm perfectly happy to get a 'what it says on the tin' service; flying with someone whose attitude to bureaucracy and vested interests I support is a bonus.
 

Bill Gates

Guest
Location
West Sussex
That's why I've no sympathy with the customers of Ryanair. You pays your money you takes your choice. Their representatives are an obnoxious bunch of tossers though aren't they? Especially O'Leary.
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
yello said:
Isn't this why people have travel insurance? The delays are no fault of the airlines.
The airlines know that they are required to pay compensation in these events: why do they not insure against it?

It's hardly completely unforeseable that "some day a really bad thing may happen and european airspace be closed for a week", even if the exact nature of the threat couldn't have been guessed
 
The airlines don't have to pay in extraordinary circumstances. A bit of a non-story.
That is why one should buy travel insurance. .. not that some of those companies are paying up either due to "act of God" clause.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4271197.stm
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
coruskate said:
The airlines know that they are required to pay compensation in these events: why do they not insure against it?
They self-insure, which is cheaper.

If I had been stuck here or abroad by having airspace closed, I can't see how that is possibly my carriers fault. If I was bothered about the risk, I would take out my own insurance. In fact I self-insure too: the only insurance I ever take out is motor and building insurance, in both cases because I have to.
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
Take the hit, for goodness sake. You can afford it. There'll come a time (and it's not far off) where people won't put up with it because the flight won't be much cheaper, and then it'll be about reputation and how you treat people.

After the discussions I've had with your airline about your refusal to absorb the minimal costs of helping your disabled passengers at airports(we don't discriminate!) I'll not be flying with you anyway. You might want to be a bit more concerned about the others who may form the same view.


I quite agree, but as messages to Michael O'Leary go, isn't this one unnecessarily polite and thoughtful? I should have thought, "**** off, you insufferable ****" would just about have it covered...
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
When I've calculated total costs for flights (adding in the little extras that O'Leary Airways charge) I've only found them cheaper than others on 2 occasions since they started - out of around 40 return flights. One of those was a special offer on the first flight on a new route!

Last nights reports on Points West about how Easy Jet had been the best and Ryanair the worst (country mile comes into both btw) in handling stranded passengers didn't surprise me at all.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
I think the Radio 4 programme Money Box was talking about this last Saturday. It was saying that some holiday insurance companies do not cover flights being cancelled, because it was supposed to be covered by the airlines' insurance. John Lewis and Virgin didn't for example. Their argument was that it would cost the customers more money to duplicate the insurance. Many other insurers were willing to cough up though.
 
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