Ryanair rant! Join me.

[Chrysanthamum]

Last New Year we flew to N Ireland with printed online boarding passes. We were turned down at Prestwick airport as the barcodes were unreadable and we had to pay an admin fee of £20 per person per flight. I was miffed.
Last Thursday the same thing happened but when we went to customer services they then told us we couldn't fly without a passport for our 18 week old baby anyway. We'd checked this out on the site beforehand and I had understood that an infant could travel with me without actually being on my passport. I did this several times with my other children in the past. Anyway my 7year old was heartbroken, my 2yr old was howling and I was by myself but no amount of pleading or cajoling would persuade the staff "he could be anyone" to let us on. Eventually we gave up and went to Stranraer to catch the boat. I know that its now their policy but the staff were such jobsworths. They don't even pretend to care about their customers and they've now tacked an admin fee of £5 on their flights to boot. They're a hateful company and the worst of the budget airlines ever. Am I alone in thinking that all the glamour and novelty value of flying has just faded and its now become a really stressful experience?

I know it is a hateful company, but I have always understood that children need ID/passports to fly anywhere.

I won't fly with anymore but that is another story.

I will not travel with them unless there is no other way since they stopped letting families on first. Going to Sweden in feb and have paid £150 more to go with another (non-budget) airline.

I travelled to Guernsey in the summer with a baby and didn't need a passport for him. Must just be a Ryan air policy, that makes it even worse if they didn't let you fly.

I think because they are so low cost they have had to costs in other areas like customer service

but then again I thought everyone knew that everyone now needs a passport to fly

hope you had anice trip though xxx

I may be wrong though, did you check with them first?

"they don't even pretend to care"

No, that is correct. In fact, they pride themselves on not caring. I think that it must be their policy to encourage any bad publicity.

I would never fly with them.

Sorry you had such a horrible experience.

We checked online but it was worded ambiguously. Also the fact that Scotland-Belfast is an internal flight and I'd done it so many times with babes without passports led me to believe it would be ok. My toddler and 7 yr old have passports as I've been abroad with them. Ryanair staff are probably used to dealing with irate passengers regularly so have become quite callous. I'm not sure what other airlines would do but I've now applied for his passport anyway. A bit daft as babies change so quickly anyway.

I am always astonished that people are surprised when the service from a budget airline is not what they expected. You pay less and take your chances. Is it not common knowledge that they will charge every step of the way when possible? Which is why the actual flight price is so cheap.
I travel quite a lot and from memory passports have been required since 9/11 (maybe official photo ID for a few years but definitely passports for at least the last 3 or 4). How could the check in staff know that your baby was actually yours? Child abduction by mothers/fathers/whoever is not that uncommon.

pretty clear to me

If anyone is going to fly with them again then I would read this before you attempt to fly (and there must be a lot of people as they are one of the few airlines not in financial difficulty)
www.ryanair.com/en/questions/what-travel-documentation-do-i-need-to-travel-on-ryanair-flights

Chippy, I think one of the issues is that they have a nasty tendency to change the rules every five minutes to extort cash from passengers keenly trying to stay the right side of it all. I actually successfully sued then a couple of years back because their website crashed and refused to let me print out a boarding pass, they denied this had ever happened and fined me at Dublin, they then tried to get me arrested when I questioned the fine and its absence on their pre-printed list of approved charges (and I assure you I was very self-contained and civil at all times, a lot more than they were - the police were on the point of doing them for wasting polive time as apparently they try to inflict arrest to every passenger they can, to save having to deal with them), yada yada. Anyway, I did a nice cheap little online small claims thing and won outright.

WRT the passport, that was a bit daft though, I have to say. You need photo ID and babies can't drive, so a passport is all you can get.

Boffinmum -you must be one of the few to have beaten them at their own game! Not loaded but never travel with them -rather pay extra and know that if the flight is messed up the airline will offer some support.

Yes lesson learnt regarding new rules on baby passport. I've travelled budget on many forms of transport for years and been happy enough with no frills transport. My ferry trip for example which cost v little was so much more pleasant as staff were v helpful and friendly. I'm not particularly surprised by Ryanair customer care tbh as I've flown with them several times and no doubt will do so again for practical reasons, however I will still let off steam when they piss me off.

Good for you Boffinmum. Several passengers were refused boarding on a Ryanair flight from Belfast recently. They had been moved to another departure lounge where the intercom system wasn't working and missed the last call. So when they tried to board a few minutes later they weren't allowed on. The plane was still there and although it would have been quicker to let them on, Ryanair delayed the flight instead by getting all their luggage off before take off. They are going to sue so good luck to them.

I personally view Ryanair as a bus and expect as few frills as if I was travelling in a Stagecoach between two provincial towns.

I thought everyone had to have a passport.

Yes their customer service is crap but hey ho you can travel to somewhere for peanuts.

As an aside, a lot of colleagues I have in teh aerospace industry will not travel with them on principle, as their busines model is tto have trainee pilots who pay to be able to fly Ryanair commercial flights, therefore the vast majorty of flights are piloted by minimally qualified flight crew. I just shrug my shoulders and think bollocks I am getting to Spain for £30 or whatever.

Regardless of whether a flight is internal or international you need photo ID which can only be in the form of a passport for an infant

And if you don't like shoite customer service for which RyanAir are well known pay a bit more and travel with someone else!

My DH is french and we fly between glasgow and paris several times a year. Everytime I plan a trip I always check out all the options to see whether Easyjet, AirFrance or BA are any cheaper and Ryanair are always (even with all their charges) considerably cheaper. You get what you pay for and I cannot see any justification for us to pay £100 more to get slightly better customer service.

We have never had a problem getting seats together and there are other benefits for flying with them. I love the ease of the small airports that Ryanair use. At Beauvais and Prestwick you walk across the road to the car park. No 2 mile treks like at Paris CDG.

Ryanair have had this policy of passports for all for many many years. A friend of mine got caught out by it about 10 years ago on an internal flight. It is pretty clear on their website so you can't blame them for not making an exception for you

I wouldn't fly with Ryanair because money is tight and I need to know upfront what the cost will be, with Ryanair you have a very cheap basic and then then they charge shedloads for everything else. I would rather pay more with the piece of mind of knowing that I am not going to get to the airport and and have to pay more.

I find their costs very confusing. A few years ago we booked flights to Italy quite a few months in advance, a couple of weeks before we departed we were sent an email which stated that they had changed their policy and were now charging extra for luggage. When we got to the airport we were expecting to be charged but were told that we didn't have to pay! I am completely clueless as to how their charges work.

I wouldnt actually say Ryanair are a BUDGET airline any more - not after you add taxes, luggage, tickets if you dont have access to a printer, etc. Maybe if you are going somewhere for a couple of days and only need a holdall but for a family holiday when you need 3 suitcases and have to fly at peak times other airlines have similar prices.

I have used them a few times and have to agree their customer facing staff not exactly chirpy but I dont think they are the best company to work for either.

I regularly fly to Belfast with a toddler on budget airlines (Flybe & BMIbaby) and have never ever needed to show any ID for my child

while you do need a passport for your child I will join you in bashing Ryanair.

I had a hideous experience with them in the summer (was due to fly to porto for a friend's wedding in Spain and there was no alternative) and we got stuck in a massive queue with too few desks open and the flights weren't called and we got to the desk minutes after the flight had closed and they refused to let us fly.

This was the weekend when it was all in the news when David Dimbleby had been caught in similar the next day.

We had to miss out on the wedding and were about £300 out of pocket for the flight (which left 45 minutes late anyway so we could easily have made it).

Having come home and read more reviews it appears that it is fairly standard for people to be refused boarding for one reason or another but then sold tickets for the next flight.

It's not just about getting what you pay for, it's about a company that if you look into it further has some very dubious practices and means to make money which are not always clear..

Actually sb6699 - you're right, I've just paid £140 each for return tickets from the UK to Berlin. But they were the times and airport of choice, so I took the risk.

It's actually for dd and two of her friends - all 16 - travelling to visit a friend in Berlin, and I'm getting very nervous reading this thread!

We did have a nightmare experience in Italy with them once - 11 hr. delay and no information - but then the flight was £6.99!

Never had a specific bad experience with them (flown a couple fo times from Prestwick to Paris) but now refuse to fly with them on principle because their CEO shows such contempt for customers. Therefore I choose not give him my money. Unless more people do that, they will continue to abuse their customers.

I do use budget airlines though - I have found Easyjet to be professional and efficient, so it is not a case of having to accpet poor customer service just because the company is a "budget" one.

I don't buy the "it's just like getting a bus or train" line: if it were, you would have to pay to take luggage onto a train, or pay for the privilige of printing off tickets.

I fly regularly both for pleasure and business but always try to book far enough ahead to get good deals - or check out LastMinute and Expedia for good deals for weekends away.

You shouldn't fly with Ryanair unless you're absolutely confident you can abide by every one of their rules and also if they're the only option, because more often than not, they aren't the cheapest when you add all the extras on. The staff are on commission for every extra charge thay can levy on you and are trained to identify easy targets. e.g they'll pull lone travellers, towards the end of the boarding Q, and ask them to put their bag in the frame. If the bag doesn't fit, you've no with you to take any extra to allow you make the bag smaller. They pick people at the end of the Q so they can then pressurise the person as the flight is due to leave. They immediately whisk the boarding card out of the passenger's hand and you either pay 35 euro for the bag to be put in the hold or you don't fly. A few of those on each of the hundreds of daily flights and it's easy-peasy revenue.

not so budget either IMO - had a quote recently stansted to verona £585ish for 4 of us Ryanair, £475 BA from Gatwick. If we weren doing this trip I'd def use BA not just because it was cheaper but just because.
Flew with them last year and it was pretty rubbish - the boarding in particular.

Actually prettybird, have flown with Easyjet loads of times and they are far better.

Staff are helpful and friendly and their pricing policy is much clearer.

I agree - Easyjet are so much better, so it is possible to be "budget" and "helpful".

Because of that, I didn't mentally include Easyjet when I said I booked in advance: in fact, I am currently researching flying to France from Scotland for a skiing holiday and the only one I don't even look at is Ryanair.