Ryanair goes too far
Filed under: Travel
Ryanair, you either love them or loathe them. I'm firmly in the loathing camp. Of course I'm naturally predisposed to like anything that's cheap, so I'm shocking myself, but there's something about all those underhand charges that sticks in the craw.Now they have gone a stage further, and propose cutting the already no-frills service to something akin to getting on a coach – only slightly less glamorous.
The thing that really irks me is that they're not just making life awkward for their passengers this time – they are affecting everyone else in the airport too. So what's the plan?
Apparently they are going to get passengers to carry their own baggage to the plane. So there's no dropping things off at the desk, you cart it through security, round the duty-free shops, across the huge expanse of airport, and to the waiting plane.
This already puts me off. If you have ever traveled with kids, the suitcases, travel cot, car seats and other general assorted paraphernalia, you'll know it's a struggle to get from the car to the desk, let alone any further. You can kiss goodbye to airport browsing or eating. You'll just have to huddle in a quiet corner as your kids go out of their mind with boredom.
I'd rather eat my own arm.
But it also occurs to me that those people who opt to cart things around in return for a bargain are going to be getting spectacularly in the way.
Getting through security and the x-ray machines already takes anything up to an hour as people try to coordinate hand luggage, coats and mobile phones. If you start throwing suitcases into the mix, you can expect to spend a good portion of your holiday in the airport.
And browsing the airport shops is a calm boredom beater, which will just become a massive irritation if you have to clamber over massive suitcases in order to get to the perfume counter.
And my final worry? Most people in airports have a coat, trousers with pockets, and their hand luggage, and still spend about 20 minutes searching for their boarding pass. If you add in the suitcase, you may never actually get on the plane at all.
There is, fortunately, a ray of hope here. The airports have to agree to it. So come on BAA, don't let us down, chuck a bucket or 50 of cold water over Michael O'Leary's latest hare-brained scheme, and keep the irritations of the airport down to a dull roar.
I know, there are up-sides to this scheme. Those wiling to cart their bags could save the £20 Ryainair charges to check bags in, and apparently they'll get cheaper tickets into the bargain. But frankly I reckon the price everyone else will pay for these savings is just too high.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-25-2009 @ 7:33PM
John thomas said...
Wow, I am surprised anyone at all flies them! I sure wouldnt!
RT
www.anon-tools.tk
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 7:35PM
Joel Diegert said...
This is the most whiny thing I've read in my life...
Reply
6-25-2009 @ 9:32PM
Kuma said...
Brilliant idea!!
No thieving ground crew, no queues at the bag collection point...
Sounds golden to me.
Reply
6-26-2009 @ 4:35AM
marcus said...
Dont like it? Fly another airline. It's a fairly simple solution. With Ryanair you get what you pay for.
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7-03-2009 @ 10:44AM
Markuu said...
I've always flown Ryanair with just a carry-on anyways. It's a cheap-o airline and great for "backpacking around Europe". If they can make it even cheaper, then do it!
If you don't want to put up with this, fly the new Emirates plane for $8,000/flight
Reply
6-26-2009 @ 7:24PM
Sawyer said...
Wow, you're whining about something you had a choice in. Congrats, you've won the idiot of the year award. There's other airlines for a reason. If you don't like it, and feel like throwing your money somewhere else. Don't be a whiny little kid.
Reply
6-27-2009 @ 3:46AM
Benny the Irish polyglot said...
An easy solution that I apply all the time with Ryanair is to simply take everything in your hand luggage. I move house a lot and believe it or not, I do it all with Ryanair.
I commend their attempts to get prices down; Ryanair is perfect for budget travellers going somewhere for a few days who don't need to take their whole wardrobe with them. If you just take hand luggage Ryanair is really simple (print your ticket in advance, go straight through security as soon as you arrive in the airport, and go straight to the airport exit as soon as your plane lands). If you have to have an "uncomfortable" flight for an hour or two, so be it, although I've found Ryanair staff to be surprisingly chirpy for all my flights, and the seats and everything are FINE. There are plenty of other airlines that do better but have you pay for it. Ryanair's business model is great; they are one of the only airlines actually doing well in this recession, because of ideas like this. They aren't losing my business any time soon...
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6-27-2009 @ 3:14AM
Benny the Irish polyglot said...
Wow, what a very unsocial commenting system... no links back to websites and no ability to provide links relevant to the article. There is a 2 minute video you can watch about fitting everything you need into your hand luggage with Ryan air (that I had previously included, but isn't being shown) on irishpolyglot dot com. Go to the site map and you'll see it. I use it all the time and it works (I brought 50kg with me when moving to Prague using these techniques and some others!)
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6-30-2009 @ 4:54PM
Angie - 1800HOTELS.com said...
I can't believe this is real, what with all the enhanced security measures!
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