To book with Ryanair now

[TheRealKimmySchmidt63]

Need to fly to Europe in the next few weeks - of course Ryan air are coming up at half the price of everyone else- wwyd?

We have no option but to fly Ryanair - or otherwise take 2 flights. It's not stopped me booking our next batch of flights. You can check on their website what flights have been cancelled. They tend to be routes where there are alternatives. I recently claimed compensation using EU261 for a 3hr delayed flight with them and received the cash in my bank account within a week - 400 Euros per head.

As people have said, it's a staffing issue due to Norwegian Air poaching their pilots with better conditions. It's going to cost them a bomb in compensation and I bet they're madly trying to recruit new pilots. Hopefully they'll improve their working conditions now.

As for printing £65 for a boarding pass - that's not true (unless you don't checkin online as you are supposed to do and wait until you get to the airport). You check in online and don't even need to print a boarding pass now if you have a smart phone.

Appreciate the responses, needed the confirmation- they just have the monopoly on my destination!!! But will heed the advice here and avoid!

Oh even more reason to not fly with them then - how the hell would you get home if they're the only ones flying! If you could use another airline I can see an argument for risking it if they're really cheap (though I wouldn't cause I think they're scum), because you could always get back another way.

You pay peanuts, you get stuck in Malaga for six weeks, basically.

Sounds great


Even without the current issue never again!

I had to fly with them several times this summer (pretty much the only airline flying frequently to the tiny Polish airport we needed) and even if I had to do that journey again, I would rather fly into a different airport and drive for hours and hours, than fly with Ryanair again.

They treat their staff like shit (hence the issues at the mo) their planes are shoddy, everythings grubby, out of 4 flights with them, 3 of them still had loads of rubbish under the seats from previous flights, customer service is terrible.....I could literally go on and on.

I ended up on a different budget airline later in the summer- Vueling, and they were much better, cleaner, nicer plane, better, happier staff etc.

I will never fly with Ryanair again!

Thank you for making the correct decision in my view. Anyone booking with Ryanair now does not deserve customer service from anyone.

they just have the monopoly on my destination

Yep, they did with mine as I said above....it's really fucking annoying isn't it??

But seriously, next time I go to Poland, I am flying into a different airport and driving, even if it takes a day, because Ryanair have totally blown it, and I'd rather not be stuck in a tiny Polish town for weeks, even if it is lovely!!

They don’t deserve anyone’s business ever! I would say their staff are all looking for alternative employment so it’s only going to get worse!

It would surprise me if anyone from Scotland flew with them again. They've completely cancelled their Scottish flights to London till March. It's as if they don't give a fuck about Scotland. Mind you avoiding the hell that is Stanstead is no bad thing.

MsHooliesCardigan I was just about to post the very same link, I agree hilarious

Sums it up really.

Spare a thought for poor ole Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair.
After arriving in a hotel in Manchester, he went to the bar and asked for a pint of Guinness.
The barman nodded and said, "That will be £1 please, Mr. O’Leary."
Somewhat taken aback, O'Leary replied, "That's very cheap," and handed over his money.
"Well, we do try to stay ahead of the competition", said the barman. "And we are serving free pints every Wednesday from 6 pm until 8 pm. We have the cheapest beer in England".
"That is remarkable value", Michael comments.
"I see you don't seem to have a glass, so you'll probably need one of ours. That will be £3 please."
O'Leary scowled, but paid up.
He took his drink and walked towards a seat. "Ah, you want to sit down?" said the barman. "That'll be an extra £2. You could have pre-booked the seat, and it would have only cost you £1."
"I think you may be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please".
Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can't squeeze in, he complains "Nobody would fit in that little frame".
"I'm afraid if you can't fit in the frame you'll have to pay an extra surcharge of £4 for your seat sir".
O'Leary swore to himself, but paid up. "I see that you have brought your laptop with you" added the barman. "And since that wasn't pre-booked either, that will be another £3."
O'Leary was so incensed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter, and yelled, "This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager".
"I see you want to use the counter," says the barman, "that will be £2 please."
O'Leary's face was red with rage. "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course I do Mr. O'Leary."
"I've had enough! What sort of a Hotel is this? I come in for a quiet drink and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to a manager!"
"Here is his e-mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9.00 am and 9.01am every morning, Monday to Tuesday at this free phone number. Calls are free, until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only £1 per second, or part thereof".
"I will never use this bar again".
"OK sir, but do remember, we are the only hotel in England selling pints for £1."

Go ahead. If you like sitting around airports.

BishopBrennansArse that's fucking inspired - where's it from? Is it from your own brain, now?

Michael O'Leary loves horse racing, indeed a horse he owns won the Grand National. The race courses should charge him for wear and tear of the grass, for a race card, for going in the winners's enclosure, or better still, ban him and his horses for a period of time until his airline is operated in a decent way.

No I nicked it off Facebook

Does anyone think tne company will actually survive this debacle?

Between the compensation and the loss of any credibility with potential customers, can they survive?

And since it is clear that the 'pilots on holiday' is a big lie and they have all decided not to work for him, how can they recover from that situation?

I gather that RyanAir hire pilots 'on contract ' or more or less hire them on a zero hours contract : a model which has now bitten tnem on tne arse.

[grin]@Bishop

Pilot here (not Ryanair!)

I'd just like to add that the conditions at Norwegian are not brilliant, which just goes to highlight how bad the conditions at Ryanair are. Nor did Norwegian set out to specifically poach Ryanair pilots, they just advertised the job and Ryanair pilots left in droves. My own airline has been very coy about jumping into the fray and saying how many Ryanair pilots it has recruited this year - but we've got more ex-Ryanair pilots than Norwegian have!

By looking for the cheapest flight the passenger has cheapened flying. This is great if you want cheap stuff - but do you really want cheap planes, cheap pilots, cheap engineers, etc? Ryanair has led the race to the bottom that is currently going on in the flying world. It is not making anything better. The stressed state that most Ryanair pilots operate in is not conducive imo to safe flight and I would not fly with them.

PS they are not going to be able to rustle up pilots from thin air - even a fully qualified and experienced airline pilot takes months from walking through the front door of a new airline to the point where they are flying passengers unsupervised by a trainer. Only the desperate and unable to get a job elsewhere would take a job with Ryanair atm, and even then they would only work there for the length of time it takes them to build enough experience to fly for another outfit.

I fly ryanair all the time and have never had any problems.

If you want cheap flights and are prepared to deal with the hassle over baggage etc it's not too bad. Yes the planes are dirty - they don't clean them between flights, which is gross, but for a short hop it's not a problem IMO. I hear concerns about safety, but actually they have one of the better safety records of the budget airlines. It's still much safer statistically than driving.

The prices were probably coming up as extra cheap yesterday because they had a sale on.

Now monarch are in trouble too. I nearly booked with them yesterday thinking they were a better bet than Ryanair. I'm glad i didn't now.

I don't really get the fuss about hidden expenses - yes if you want baggage and meals and such then you'll pay extra whereas other airlines factor this into the flight fee. But I booked some yesterday and I paid the price advertised plus 40 euro cents for booking.

I will have to get a train when I get where I'm going for £15 but actually it's much closer than I've found flights before. It's a new route which works out quite well for me.