Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

"Ian F." wrote in message
...
"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...

Did you have a bad experience, or are you just reacting to the chattering
campaign about them?

I've had a couple of bad experiences - herded around like cattle, talked
at by snotty-nosed ground staff like I was a piece of ****, shown no
respect whatsoever...

I'm a reasonably frequent flyer and I'm too old and dyed-in-the-wool to
worry about saving a few pennies to be treated like that. I'd far rather
spend the extra and be shown some degree of care. And this is not just
me - I know dozens of friends and colleagues that feel the same way.

I have always found easyJet to be far superior in every way to Ryanair,
although, understandably, not on a level with the major airlines. I would
travel with them like a shot, but I will never, ever, ever travel Ryanair.

That said, I know millions of people are happy being treated like **** in
order to save a couple of quid - that is their prerogative and I'm glad
that Ryanair is there to provide them with what they require.

Ian


I've flown Ryanair numerous times and they've never treated me like ****.
Their staff are pleasant and courteous.

By the way, my worst flying experience is being stuck in Hong Kong for 36
hours a couple of years ago due to technical problems with a Qantas flight.
Yes, they provided a hotel room and meal vouchers, but their communication
(or rather the lack of it) was pathetic.

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

In message .com, at
23:27:56 on Wed, 14 Oct 2009, MC remarked:

A colleague flying Business Class on United got bumped Saturday (flight
cancelled) and had to wait 24hrs for the next flight.

But, for the premium paid to travel first class

Business class.

and for the fact that it was not his fault, did the airline look after
him?

A free hotel room for 24hrs, and half the weekend trashed. (It was a her,
incidentally).

If operating within the EU, compensation is also payable.

In your colleague's case, the minimum they should have expected would have
been a seat on the next flight home, hotel accommodation as necessary

They got those.

and compensation set down by EU regulations. These are the minimum
every passenger should expect when the flight originates in the EU.

But the flight didn't involve the EU.

Why was she bumped. If it was due to overbooking, the way airline bump will
depend on the the type of ticket (flexible or budget), frequent flyer
membership, class of travel etc. I am surprised that you colleague was not
offered a seat in economy and some compensation. They would then bump an
economy passenger to make room.

"Bumping" perhaps not quite the right word. The entire flight was
cancelled (I did say that above), but I don't know the reason.

There seems to be no
incentive to volunteer being bumped on a budget airline though.

Most budget airlines claim they don't overbook, and I've never seen it
happen, even when flights are completely full. KLM-UK on the other hand,
was always bumping people when it was busy coming back from AMS to the
UK; and a different colleague got bumped out of Business Class *both*
ways on a long haul to South America (Iberia I think) a couple of years
ago. Was offered a choice of an economy seat instead, or a flight the
next day. Chose the first option on the way out, the second coming back.
--
Roland Perry

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

"Adrian" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

If anything the Berlin Metro train to get to the airport, plus the long
walk to the actual airport from the station [1], was the worst aspect
of the trip.

[1] Presumably that's Ryanair's fault too!!

Considering Ryanair use Schonefeld, rather than Tegel like the "proper"
airlines - yes, it is...

On the bright side you get an interesting train journey into Berlin. When I
went in 2007 the U-Bahn was not in use so I took and enjoyed my first ever
double-deck train. Admittedly I spent most of the way hoping the train was
going to Berlin and not out to Poland or Switzerland!

Geschlater?: a term I learned at OstbahnHof on the way home....

Schonefeld is a very modern terminal and quite simplistic in layout. Easier
to get there than most London airports.

Nick

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

wrote in message
...
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 18:40:32 on
Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:
I would rather have needles stuck in my eyes than fly Ryanair.

Did you have a bad experience, or are you just reacting to the
chattering campaign about them?

Am I allowed to say I have never travelled with them and never will?

So 100% prejudice. Glad we got that out in the open.

This is based on what you'd probably call an irrational dislike of their
business model and of dear old Mr O'Leary. He's a clever bloke but I
don't like his business methods or attitudes whereby Ryanair are always
right and everyone else can go hang.

If I want to experience bus travel then I'll use a bus thanks very much!

Or quite a lot of trains. Indeed, Ryanair's planes are mainly pretty new,
and not bad to travel on at all.

No reclining seats, no pouch in the back of the previous seats,
instructions printed onto the back of each seat, surly staff, and possibly
standing room only in the future.

I'm just wondering how this doesn't differ from the Tube.

Do you need a reclining seat for a flight that takes less than 3 hours? Be
honest, the prices are low because they don't spend on luxuries like this.
I've got long legs and had plenty of legroom the last 4 times I flew
Ryanair. Staff were perfectly OK too.
Biggest issue I have with Ryanair is the credit card fees, I don't believe
it costs £5 per transaction and they don't need to treat each flight as a
separate purchase when you only pay once.

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

In message , at 07:37:54 on Thu, 15
Oct 2009, Nick P remarked:
Biggest issue I have with Ryanair is the credit card fees, I don't believe
it costs £5 per transaction and they don't need to treat each flight as a
separate purchase when you only pay once.

That's because it's not really a "Credit card fee" any more than the
"Tax and charges" add-on you get with a conventional airline necessarily
reflects specific taxes or airport charges (it often also has a "fuel
surcharge", something the budget airlines have avoided so far).
--
Roland Perry

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

"rail" wrote in message

In message
" wrote:

[snip]
There was a service a few years ago, that was running trains out of
Waterloo to Southampton for about £1. The problem, however, was that
passengers who paid that fare were confined to one car on the train.
I'm under the impression that it was not the most pleasant journey.

Still exists though I've never actually seen a £1 fare available.
It's not a seperate train but Megatrain have bought batches of
tickets on SWT services. So the journey is the same as travelling on
an ordinary SWT ticket, these days they don't even have a dedicated
(part of) coach.

Megatrain isn't a separate company -- like SWT, it's owned by
Stagecoach.

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

wrote in message

Recliner wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 21:19:24
on Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:

I don't feel I have lost out by not travelling by Ryanair. I would
hope Mr O'Leary's planes are pretty new given the huge rate of
expansion that he has managed with his airline
I'm sure it's part of his business plan to buy new planes to give
easy and consistent maintenance and operations. As opposed to
BMIbaby who have a rag-bag collection of surprisingly old planes.

Yes, Ryanair buys huge batches of identical planes from Boeing (but
always with the threat of defecting to Airbus, as easyJet did), for
knock-down prices. O'Leary proudly shows off about ordering them
during recessions, when he can get the best deal. They are then kept
for a relatively short time, before being sold on, with little or no
depreciation (as Ryanair buys them for less than the second-hand
price).
IIRC , the Panorama report stated that he was practically ready to do
a deal with Airbus, then backed out at the last minute. I think that
one of the Airbus executives also said that Ryanair were trying to
secure planes at unacceptably low prices.

No, just hard bargaining. Ryanair is a willing buyer, and both Airbus
and Boeing are willing sellers. The price that is struck is presumably
acceptable to both, or no deal would be done. It's in Airbus's interest
to lose the deal to Boeing if the competition results in Boeing getting
a lower price than it might otherwise have done.

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

wrote in message

Buddenbrooks wrote:

wrote in message
...

Same here. I also find getting to Heathrow a lot easier than
Stansted or Luton, for example.


Unfortunately the time from touchdown to hire car is longer than the
flight from schipol when you go via Heathrow.

You will have to get used to it, the trend from the 60s onwards is
for air travel to become functional and the term 'jet set' is
probably meaningless to the majority, certainly not
bringing to mind upper class exclusive travel.

Give it a few years and Business Class air travel will be the same
concept as the business class section of the underground trains.



I've heard that this is already happening, unfortunately.

No, the opposite is true.

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

In message , at 08:57:20 on
Thu, 15 Oct 2009, Recliner remarked:
It's not a seperate train but Megatrain have bought batches of
tickets on SWT services. So the journey is the same as travelling on
an ordinary SWT ticket, these days they don't even have a dedicated
(part of) coach.

Megatrain isn't a separate company -- like SWT, it's owned by
Stagecoach.

Despite the common ownership, it's still a separate company. Also,
Meagtrain is now available on East Midlands Trains (since they are
operated by Stagecoach too).
--
Roland Perry

Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
 

In message
"Recliner" wrote:

"rail" wrote in message

In message
" wrote:

[snip]
There was a service a few years ago, that was running trains out of
Waterloo to Southampton for about £1. The problem, however, was that
passengers who paid that fare were confined to one car on the train.
I'm under the impression that it was not the most pleasant journey.

Still exists though I've never actually seen a £1 fare available.
It's not a seperate train but Megatrain have bought batches of
tickets on SWT services. So the journey is the same as travelling on
an ordinary SWT ticket, these days they don't even have a dedicated
(part of) coach.

Megatrain isn't a separate company -- like SWT, it's owned by
Stagecoach.



As far as ATOC (and the taxman) is concerned, it is a seperate company.
Presumably Megatrain could do similar deals with non Stagecoach-owned
companies if the latter were willing.

--
Graeme Wall

This address not read, substitute trains for rail
Transport Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail