Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of

Not true. You're mixing up basic pay with sector pay - hence why they want the plane in the air, because if they miss a sector at the end of the day, they'd miss out on some of their salary. This is normal in aviation for both cabin crew and pilots.


Quite normal among LCC's to operate such a model. What you're neglecting to mention is that the cost of training is actually covered by a 'new joiners allowance" - which covers the cost of the training. Essentially, it stops people wasting Ryanair's money by backing out if they don't fancy the hard work.

Amazing that the little ATR's could go on with one engine, isn't it?

Is that so, Delph (may I call you Delph?). And I was so quick to sympathize with the cabin crew after the explanation.So they are just a grumpy bunch. And I bought sandwich from her! Thinking that it would help her!

It's probably much to do with the pressure that they're under to keep the plane in the air - Ryanair (as does everyone else) will lose money by not flying, so everything is geared around getting the plane in the air as quickly as possible.

I agree with the poster above who said that much of the complaints come from people who demand a certain level of service - but they also expect bus-style fares.

You tend to get what you pay for in the airline world. The main reason I won't touch Ryanair is because they carry very little spare fuel. When you've been held in as many holding patterns as I have, this matters more than the lack of free food.

Please fasten your seatbelts, switch off your mobile phones and read the following. If you at any time feel queazy during reading, you will find a 'sick bag' err, oops I can't find one, sorry! Guess you will have to suffer!!!

The thing people have to remember is, as had already been mentioned, 'you get what you pay for'!.
Someone earlier mentioned the word 'scam'. But Ryanair aren't using scams. Come on guys, you have the option to cancel at any time during the process.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of their tactics, but they are money making tactics, not 'scams'.
We, the general public, want everything as cheap as possible. So of course companies are going to create our 'dream' product, but they can't give it away free, so they try to re-coup money where ever they can. As another poster said earlier, don't forget to check-in on-line, don't forget to print your boarding pass, don't expect a free meal, don't try to take a bag weighing 15kg as hand luggage.

If you book a flight from Wroclaw to Stanstead, and you indeed arrive at Stanstead, hey, you got what you paid for!!!
Otherwise, contact Richard Branson and tell him to start a low-cost airline flying from Poland to the UK. Virgin is one brand where they keeps costs to the customer low, but still try to ensure value for money and quality service.

If you want an interesting book to read, 'Business Stripped Bare' by Richard Branson.

In life. RyanAir are no frills. They suck. But they are cheap. So do your research and get ready for a cheap ass bumpy ride.

I once nearly got ripped off by RyanAir. Flying home from Malaga on Christmas Eve. I have a 1,000 euro limit on my card(strictly debit) and spent all that on presents and drinks twelve hours beforehand. I was over the 8kg or whatever it is personal carry on luggage and had to sweet talk the Irish RyanAir staff at check in. I only had a score on me and me card had reached its limit for twelve hours. They wanted me to pay for the extras, but I played the ould sure we are all Irish card.


Exactly and thats why RyanAir thrive. If you want extreme comfort during short haul flights, be prepared to pay top dollar for it.

Plus, I am a nervous flier and drink like **** beforehand. Their ham and cheese ciabatta is littered with salt. That and a litre of two of water is the best hangover cure known to man.

RevokeNice approved.


Best 4 euro you shall ever spend. Good stuff, that. Laced with salt, msg and all that garbage.


Retract that slur!

O'Leary is meant to be a sound bloke. Apparently his media persona is just a facade and hes a completely different man when hes out of the media spotlight. Meant to be a good boss to work for, too.

Ryanair flights especially must be an absolute nightmare for those that are obese, crikey just imagine having to get on a flight knowing that youre tipping the scales at 120kg+!! Those tiny little seats aren't built for that, hell they should also charge fat people for all that extra weight the plane has to carry. We have to pay an extra 100 PLN or whatever for a few KG's over, what about a fat dude thats 50kg over the norm?

Yeah Ryanair would be all over that one - if they could.

Flying from Poznań to Luton via WizzAir, we had a situation where a clinically obese man found himself stuck and was incapable of getting out of his seat[s]. Two of the cabin crew had to assist, one pulling him up while the other pushed the seat in front of him with all her weight trying to create a little extra space. We were told to move on so as not to cause a scene or block the aisle.

Must have been embarrassing for all concerned but why the hell do people let themselves get that big.

My feeling too. And pretty miserable if you're on a long haul (or any flight) between two huge people spilling out of their seat.

Given that low cost airlines are getting so fussy about excess baggage and carry on weights, charging for any slight excess, surely there's a case for changing that to just an allowance - passenger and baggage together, say 110 kilos for a man, 100 for a woman and 90 for an unr 16. And an extra payment if they're so fat they're likely to encroach onto other passengers' seats and cause discomfort to others.

edited,,

Cant argue with that.

RyanAir have offered AerLingus just under 700 million in cash to buy out all its shares.

Agreed. The weight is ridiculous too. How is it Wizzair can offer 30kg and Ryan only mange 15?

The other thing which bugged me was the "save money and time" with on-line check in, which you had to pay for and still queue. Well, now it is compulsory but I still have to pay for it. If you are going to make people pay for it, offer an alternative. So, I save RA money by printing my own ticket and cutting down their admin costs... but have to pay for the privelege.

One thing which really bugged me was, having made a mistake, that I rang the help line in Warsaw... "Oh, I'll try to speak English!" (they advertise it as Polish only), which was kind of the guy... but at 4 euro a minute, I'd have wanted a bit more than "try".

Have Ryanair entered the sex line market?

Well I certainly felt I was getting screwed over the phone.

If there is a way of ripping people off, MOL will find it. Here is one of his best scams.

The scam, aimed at non-EU passport holders, involves catching people out by allowing them all the way through to the departure gate before informing them that they need a Visa Check stamp on their boarding pass. The unfortunate victim then has to attempt a mad rush back through security, queue up at an often unmanned desk, obtain some bullshit stamp and then try to get back to the gate before the flight departs which, of course, is highly unlikely and results in a new flight having to be booked along with all the associated costs and hassles of missing a flight.

It's not a scam when it says so clearly on the printed boarding card - prominently.


I think the difference is that WizzAir are looking somewhat more towards the business end of the LCC market, whereas Ryanair don't care and just want people on seats.

(interestingly - have you noticed how Ryanair and Wizzair don't really compete? Same major shareholders...)


Personal, isn't it?

Ryanair were causing havoc with their 30% shareholding too.

Post #42 makes complete sense. A 110kg allowance would give me 22kg of luggage (that's a lot of Ptasie Mleczko and DVDs lol). Under the current rules, I would be charged for the extra baggage, while some lazy 130kg salad dodger doesn't pay any more for his ticket, and still gets to take a bag! It makes no sense at all if you think about it.

tell you what makes even more sense, price the flight's on weight only, or even - weight and size/volume (muscle is heavier than fat). They could have weight brackets, forget about everything else. If somebody has a 23 month (under 2's fly free) old baby but hes tipping the scales at 20kg, charge them for the weight. With the amount of obese people around the globe they should do quite nicely.

lol true WB, the Chinese would save a fortune, Americans would pay through the nose. Sounds fair to me. Especially as I'd rather sit next to a slim HK cutie, rather than some huge US porker lol

I try to avoid Ryanair like the plague. Luckily most of my flying between the UK and Poland these days is done between cities where Wizzair flies to. I have never had any problems with them and sometimes it's worked out cheaper for me to fly to Warsaw with Wizzair then get the train down to Kraków rather than fly direct to Kraków with Easyjet or Ryanair.

They deliberately fail to issue the stamp unless asked to. No other airline does this.


Yup.

Thats a serious warchest for any airline to have easy access to, in todays climate.

O'Leary claimed that only four major EU airlines will survive the recession. I wouldn't be surprised if he snapped up a few.

Aerlingus is the template, if he gets them without the EU's disapproval, he has complete control of some 75% of all internal and external flights over Irish airspace.


Makes perfect sense but it would breach equality legislation.

The perpetually offended would go apesh*t.


Aye.

Its a problem the government want rid. During the good times they could afford to subsidise AL, but not anymore. The T&Cs the older staff have there are ridiculous. A know a girl who used to work weekends and after college there, cleaning the planes. She picked up circa 500 euro a week and half the time, she spent that in the staff areas playing pool, watching tv and just foooking about. It took 15-20 minutes to clean a short haul flight, but they were allotted 90 minutes and just under an hour for a long haul but they were allotted three.

When management tried to reduce their allotted cleaning times, the unions went mad.

It's all in the name of money saving - other airlines get the gate staff to do it, but Ryanair (and probably wisely) doesn't trust them to do it properly. Given that for the UK at least, it's a 2000 pounds fine for the carriers when approaches passport control without valid papers - it would soon add up.

It also does save time at the gate and so on - and speeds up the whole process. One thing about Ryanair - I've always, always been on time with them.

What I like personally about Ryanair is that they've been incredibly sensible with their cash. When everyone else was spending huge amounts of cash for whatever reason, O'Leary was still telling airports and Boeing to get lost unless they gave him substantial discounts. Now that the good times are over, O'Leary is sitting on a cash mountain and a well run business financially, while everyone else is struggling.

And yes, I believe him. Ryanair have enough cash to do pretty much what they want - and how they want it.


Ridiculous. It's the same issue that brought down Alitalia, the same issue that haunts Air France and so on - and the same reason why Ryanair, Wizzair and Easyjet do much better.

Interestingly - there are still murmurings that Wizzair and Ryanair could merge one day once O'Leary retires - the two don't really compete, they have similar investors and so on. He's already said that he doesn't plan to stick around forever, so once he's taken Ryanair as far as he goes, I can see it happening.

Well, Delp, one thing we cannot accuse MOL of being and thats boring. Love him or loathe hime, he has spiced up the airline industry. He pays millions in taxes, so he is entitled to exercise his gob. Thats one thing I will say about him, he does not shy away and pays his due. He could easily dodge the RevComs, but he does not.

Even with access to the best lawyers in the EU.

Go business class.

youtube.com/watch?v=UfIY24BErBE

Merged: Another ryanair one to watch!

we all know about the baggage fees, re-print of your bording pass etc etc and all that bollocks but there is more!

On one of my trips with them in January i had flown with hand baggage only. Having gone to add a check-in bag for my return flight and pay for it online, there were problems with the system, but thats my fault, then trying to call there customer services was a waste as the ******* were closed so i has to pay the full bag fee at the airport.

Plus if you try and add the bag within four hours of departure, it appears you cant, just like check-in online.

BE AWARE of the four hour before print off! On at least 20 occasions this year I have gone on their website and the system is down. Print off up to 15 days before you fly is available, use it so you can be sure to avoid any bollocks they play at.

Also you my notice the advert they have on the boarding pass when you view online. this is not one of there own it is an external advertiser, seems to vary by time and route-If you save this to a PDF on your desktop it reverts to the photobook advert-so if you do see something you want it will be gone, unless you print immediately upon check-in. Bet the advertiser would be happy if they knew, ******* Ryanair probably scamming them too. Furthermore the monkeys at the gate almost alwasy tear the ******* voucher on your boarding pass in two, rather than along the TEAR HERE line.

Once I was so hungry i bought one of their hot breakfast 'things' my god i have never tasted shite like this in all my life, i had to spit it out -so just DONT waste your money.

Buy your soft drinks in the departure lounge, these ******* will charge you the equivalent of €10 Euro or more per litre for water.

Be aware that as the flight fills up,many seats on Ryanair can be well over £400 /€500 too, before all the extra bullshit, and landing further away than you expected from where you actually want to be. You might be surprised to find a national carrier or more 'corporate' airline can be similar cost or less without the extras and lack of service.

Regards service, to be honest most of Ryanair's crew are very decent, except the constant sales pitch, most frequently you cant here a thing they say over tanoy as it rarely works (can say that for 20 flights over last year), more hilarious is the poor sod thinks they are speaking english, and even if you can hear them directly, how they are permitted to do this i don't know as if you can make out one word in ten its good.

I only fly Ryanair when flights are 40-120 return. wont give them more than this. If ryanair was 120 and easyjet 170 ej will get it. If Ryanair was 200 and BMI 300, BMI will get it, If Ryanair was 120 and EJ 220 EJ would get it. If Ryanair is 40 and EJ 140 Ryanair would get it.

You see the picture. Based on similar times and similar suitable airports. For example don't fly from London to dusseldorf with Ryanair, its much quicker to fly to Cologne and get a train. Oh yes, for an airline that claims such good timings I can say 2-3 flights from each 10 has 1-2 hours delays, based on maybe 50 flights.

Mr O'Leary if i ever happen to meet you in a bar, on the street, on a plane (not likely i wont be on Ryanair again), at a horse race or an airport I will smack you so hard in your face you will never speak again!

Join the queue, he certainly knows how to bring out the best in people. Irate previous customers, animal rights activists, feminists and even Manchester United football fans would love to drop the chap.

He must be one of the most hated men in Europe.

Card fees will need to be included in the fare price, says UK's OFT
bbc.co.uk/news/business-18718556

They need to lengthen ground time for each plane between flights,as Its completely illegal. He's both ends of a cu-nt that O leary pr1ck.

Why is it completely illegal? Could you perhaps point out which IAA regulation they're breaking?

Most people are happy that Ryanair don't **** around and instead get people there on time.

He may be.

I am thankful for him hiring me on Saturdays when I was 14 years of age and I hadn't a pot to **** in.

I am thankful he pays so much tax into this countries pot. His company too.

I am thankful he made flying into european cities so cheap.

He is a Man City fan, but. He is from Rover land. He should be a hoop.

I hold that against him. :)