Ryanair has done it again…For those of you who haven’t noticed, we aren’t big fans of the European discount carrier. For a better understanding of some of their safety concerns, you can check out the Youtube presentation of a documentary….Ryanair: Caught Napping(Click to Play), which doesn’t even cover their disgusting business practices, just the inflight experience. Prepare to be shocked…if you can sit through 40+ minutes on Youtube.That isn’t what has gotten our ire up recently. It is a policy shift on the airline known for its disgusting and inflammatory press releases. Their press releases use terms like ripoff, crook, etc.Ryanair issued a press release on August 24th, entitled Ryanair Makes Web Check-In Free to Reduce Airport Queues.
These new measures will, we believe, encourage more and more passengers to travel without checked in baggage and use Ryanair’s free web check-in and priority boarding service. These passengers will do so entirely free of charge, whilst avoiding the check in queues and being among the first to choose their seats onboard. Our web check-in/priority boarding service is undoubtedly the way forward, and with Ryanair’s combination of lowest fares, more flights, best punctuality and now, free of charge web check in and priority boarding, passengers have never had a better deal on Ryanair, the world’s favourite airlineâ€.
Now…their “generous hand baggage allowance of 10 kilos(22lbs)”…is not exactly what a frequent traveler in the United States would consider generous. But in Europe, it can be. Either way, it is essentially a way to charge more money for people checking bags. Perhaps the Coalition for Luggage Security would do better in Europe, where people would take them seriously about the economy of shipping luggage ahead.
Just to prove that our view of Ryanair is not biased…take this other press release…Consumers Using Reliable Airlines Should Pay Less. In it, Ryanair announces it has written to the Association of British Insurers to urge them to introduce risk assessed consumer travel insurance policies based on airline performance. After all:
“Why should consumers choosing Ryanair pay the same for travel insurance as those who fly with British Airways when British Airways loses 70 times more bags? The ever widening gulf between Ryanair’s industry leading customer service and the bag losing, frequently delayed habits of British Airways means that insurance actuaries should now launch policies which provide discounts for passengers travelling with reliable airlines.”
Airlines provide their own statistics…and most believe that Ryanair, despite its statements, does not provide accurate ones.
And finally, our favorite recent Ryanair press release includes the following lovely statement…demonstrating their class as an organization.
“Only in the parallel universe of the ASA quango can a 1 hr 10 minute flight be declared to be longer than a 2hr 11minute train journey. Even a 4 yr old with basic maths could tell you that the flight is shorter.
Similarly, only the mathematically challenged ASA could declare that a £15 airfare is ‘not necessarily cheaper’ than a £27 train ticket”.
Ryanair has today sent a Dummies Guide to Mathematics to the ASA who clearly can’t add and they can’t subtract either. This false ruling should be reversed.”
Certainly amusing, but would you want to fly an organization like this?