Ryanair Share Discussion Threads

[sheeneqa] 14/5/2009 13:16

You have to admire the audacity of everyone's favourite love-to-hate chief executive Michael O'Leary.

His latest stunt, to cause outrage by suggesting that Ryanair might start charging holidaymakers "a pound to spend a penny" onboard, made it on to the cover of The Daily Express. In the process, one imagines, reminding several hundred thousand hard up Britons to take advantage of the airline's spring seat sale.

This week The Sun reports: "A saucy stewardess is putting the thrills in no-frills airline Ryanair."

The "34B Czech stunner" , it alleges, has been given her bosses' blessing to moonlight as a porn star.

Depressingly, all publicity is good publicity when you are the world's leading budget airline and Ryanair doesn't give a damn whether you like it or not. O'Leary knows that when it comes to the crunch, especially this credit one, you will still turn to him for a cheap weekend jolly.

But while the airline can be cheap, the customer service truly sucks. So, here are 20 things to remember next time you are led into temptation by those 1p flights.

1. 1p flights are never 1p

Even if you strike it lucky and find a 1p flight you actually want to take, Ryanair charge you for the pleasure of paying for it. To the tune of £4.75. For each passenger. Each way.

And that doesn't even include...

2. The check-in charge

If you want to book a bag into the aircraft hold you must check in at the airport, which will cost you £4.75 per passenger, per way, if you book online and a whopping £10 per passenger, per way if you pay at the airport or over the phone. And it doesn't matter if only one person in your party takes a bag, everyone else still has to pay to check in at the airport too.

This week Ryanair announced that it's all change from May when airport check in will rocket to £20 per person, per way. That is a grand total of £160 for a return flight as a family of four.

All without factoring in...

3. The baggage charge

Which is an extortionate £9.50 per bag, per flight. Or £19 if you book at the airport or over the phone.

4. The sneaky weight limit

Ryanair set its weight limit for hold luggage at 15kg catching the majority of passengers off guard.

You're not allowed to pool bags either so, even if you have a party of four sharing luggage, if the bag weighs 16kg you will be charged £14 per additional kilo. Nevermind that it makes not a jot of difference to the weight of the aeroplane.

5. Queues glorious queues

If you're still talking to your partner following the inevitable blazing row about why you shouldn't just pay the bloody charges listed above, you won't be after being told to join the back of the enormous queue at the 'payments' desk.

6. The additional baggage charge

Probably best to wear all of your clothes at once on the flight if you are travelling somewhere for more than a couple of days (until Ryanair start charging passengers for excess body weight that is). Check more than one bag in and it will cost you another £19 per extra piece of luggage, per way.

7. The website is rubbish. On purpose.

You have no choice but to book a Ryanair flight through its website so the airline may as well make it as stressful an experience as possible. The website is ugly for starters, and it crashes. All the time.

Because you can't easily browse for dates when cheap flights are available you have to dedicate at least five precious hours of your life to sitting in front of the screen and laboriously trying different combinations to find a good deal.

And if you don't understand what the hell you've just pressed there is no one to e-mail. Because Ryanair want you to spend more money and phone its...

8. Premium rate internet helpline

Calls cost £1 a minute to speak to someone in a call centre. Be amazed if you can explain what your problem is for under a fiver.

9. You can only fly cheap mid week

To get the bargains that make the pain of Ryanair worth the gain you have to be prepared to fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, which can rule out the bargain European weekend break. Kind of why you wanted to book with Ryanair in the first place.

10. You have to travel at obscene hours.

Not only are you travelling on a Tuesday you also have to be prepared to wake up at 2am to get to the airport two hours ahead of your 6.55am flight. Or, if you choose a more civilised evening departure time, arrive in your destination at midnight with no where to stay because...

11. The destination airports are in the middle of nowhere.

Don't expect to fly to Frankfurt if you book a flight to Frankfurt, to name one of many examples. Frankfurt Hahn airport where Ryanair land is 120 km from the city centre.

12. A bottle of water on board costs £3

I know the moral of this story is to buy a drink from WH Smith before you board, but it's still annoying.

13. Sweaty, plasticky seats

Whatever you do, don't wear shorts or you might be stuck to your seat forever and forced to listen to...

14. The in-flight musak

Pray that your flight is not delayed before it takes off or you'll have to put up with the bleepy, computer-game inspired musak that is played on loop as your board, over, and over.

15. The fanfare

Do we really need the shrill fanfare that sounds when/if the flight lands on time? Or does it just ruin the first three minutes of each passenger's holiday?

16. You can't book a seat

As if the British holiday ritual of crowding round the baggage carousel isn't enough to warrant the use of blood-thinning medication, Ryanair invite you to partake in the extreme sport that is racing across the tarmac to get a seat next to your companion. Flip flops are a distinct disadvantage.

17. No refunds, ever

Unless you have a spare few days to waste do not even bother trying.

18. Poor compensation

A report by the UK's Air Transport Users Council has found that the world's airlines lost more than one million bags in 2007 and more than 42 million pieces of luggage were mishandled worldwide.

Guess who it named as the worst airline for compensation if your bag goes missing or is damaged?

19. You are always being flogged stuff

No we don't want your ridiculously overpriced travel insurance, car hire or Ryanair tea-towels. Go away.

20. Michael O'Leary himself

Don't tell me you can bear to make him any more smug?

By Laura Whateley

[holdforever] 10/5/2009 09:21

is this stock ISAble?
thanks

[mryesyes] 25/4/2009 14:00

Can anyone help me as to how many shares I hold
I have (certificated) 200 E0.0127 purchased 2004,no replacement cert
and 296 E0.0635 purchased 2007
I do not know if this means I have 496,696 or less?

[lbo] 20/4/2009 21:36

Fundamental View: We are changing our rating on Ryanair to sell, primarily on valuation grounds. Our price target remains unchanged at €2.85, with the recent price appreciation in the stock prompting our downgrade. While recent data suggests a slight hardening in fares, we still expect a double digit decline in passenger yields. We expect traffic numbers to hold up reasonably
well in the coming year, for low cost, short haul carriers, like Ryanair. However, we expect passengers to be increasingly cost sensitive, over the period. We see potential for ancillary revenues per passenger to decline significantly in coming months.

[lbo] 09/4/2009 13:30

Figures from OAF aviation show that the number of commercial aircraft held in storage (with long term storage typically in the south western deserts of the US according to Bloomberg) rose 1.3% mom in March and 62% yoy (an improvement from 65% in February). On a 3-month moving average basis, there was a 3% rise in the number of planes in storage in the month. However, over the last number of months there has been a deceleration in the number of planes per month going into storage, so it would appear that much of the capacity removal has already been completed (although this data may have a US bias). The removal of capacity, where feasible on a cost basis for airlines, should go some way to offset yield declines, although given the economic conditions in Ireland and Europe, fares are still expected to show marked declines. We are expecting a 17% decline in average fares for Aer Lingus this year (as well as 1.7 percentage point decline in load factor), while at Ryanair we are forecasting a 15% fall in the average fare for the year to the end of March 2010, with constant load factor.

[lbo] 24/3/2009 13:53

Ryanair check-in charges probed

[lbo] 16/3/2009 22:26

If O'Leary has a problem with a €10 travel tax then I wonder what he thinks the upcoming emergency budget and tax rises will do to the Irish economy!



50 jobs lost as Ryanair cuts Dublin routes

'at a time when governments and airports all over Europe are reducing costs in order to stimulate tourism, the Irish Government is raising costs and introducing taxes which can only damage tourism.'




Lenihan says increased taxes on the way

[lbo] 12/2/2009 15:05

Ryanair to cut flights, 200 Dublin staff

[lbo] 08/2/2009 19:06

Ryanair prepares for €60 million write-off

[lbo] 06/2/2009 14:23

Ryanair anger at Dub Airport disruption



Failure to de-ice access ramps and routes for trucks to re-fuel aircraft has seriously disrupted flights at Dublin airport this morning, according to Ryanair.

The no-frills airline slammed Dublin Airport Authority for overlooking access routes to service aircraft and called on the Authority to compensate passengers.

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said "Ryanair today calls on the DAA to explain why a fundamental part of its operation had been overlooked by this incompetent government monopoly. Passengers now face delays and cancellations which are as a direct result of the failure to ensure that ramps and access routes are accessible to fuel trucks. Since early morning we have had aircraft sitting on stands but have no way of refuelling them. The longer these aircraft sit on stand the more they impact on arrivals. This total shambles is the making of the DAA monopoly and call on them to compensate passengers for the costs which they now face as a result of their claims that the airport was operating normally when they failed to ensure aircraft could depart the airport

[lbo] 02/2/2009 09:37

Well at least we now know why O'Leary wanted Aer Lingus!

[bmw30csl] 19/1/2009 14:30

Lithuanian Air Lines gone bust.

[lbo] 13/12/2008 16:15

Panel says Ryanair broke rules in bid offer

[lbo] 08/12/2008 20:49

Takeover could pull Ryanair back into black... but O'Leary kept quiet on that

[lbo] 04/12/2008 23:23

Perhaps David needs to read up on Michaels Oil hedges and schedule cut backs!

Why O'Leary would be a fine catch for Aer Lingus

[lbo] 03/12/2008 17:08

Ryanair offer for Aer Lingus unlikely to succeed

[lbo] 28/11/2008 17:41

LONDON, November 28 (newratings.com) - Analyst Uwe Weinreich of UniCredit maintains his "sell" rating on Ryanair Holdings Plc

In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company is likely to continue to face declining demand going forward. Oil prices and fares in the industry are likely to continue to fall this winter due to the ongoing recession, the analyst says. The company's earnings are likely to recover significantly in the forthcoming year in case oil prices persist at the current levels, UniCredit adds.

[keelingr] 10/11/2008 13:37

damn birds!!

[jamesclives] 10/11/2008 12:43

pic of the plane emergency landed....

[spob] 04/11/2008 13:48

you're welcome

did you watch the ryanair webcast on the website ?

Michael O'Really was on top form

ranting and raving at everyone

praying for the deepest darkest recession

LOL

[keelingr] 04/11/2008 12:15

nice new thread...nice upside today too!