RyanAir and Customer Relations.

[Baz]

[quote user="P2"][quote user="Wilko"]

P2

If it wasn't for R/Air BA would not be offering prices at their current level, they have to compete. O'Leary has changed european  flight prices forever, and good luck to him. I can't wait till he starts opening up the US market, that'll be really interesing. All this whinging about R/Air is pathetic, half the people on this site maybe wouldn't have second homes in France if  R/Air and their like hadn't happened. So he profits from the CC charges but he's still cheaper than BA. To compare this to the the overcharging of the banks is ridiculous.he provides a service, he gets you from A to B, the banks just rip you off !!!

Rock on O'Leary

Regards

Wilko

[/quote]

Ah but RA are not always cheap. Searched for fares to go to France for a weekend in June. The dearest at nearly £300 was........Ryanair with BA and Easyjet cheaper.

So please do not run away with the myth that 'if it is Ryanair then it is cheap'.

Paul

[/quote]

Paul. I agree with your sentiments and have for few years now said that BA are often the cheapest and I would always use them in preference to Ryanair. However, the problem is that Ryanair fly into 21 different French airports to BA's seven and that is one reason  for the success of Ryanair. Also to maintain profits Ryanair has had to find other ways of raising revenue by additional charges in order to make it appear their fares are low.

It is hard to knock O'Leary as he has shown enterprise and massive profits building one of the worlds largest airlines in a short space of time. Like him or hate him each individual has to make their own choice.

Baz

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Baz"]

It is hard to knock O'Leary as he has shown enterprise and massive profits building one of the worlds largest airlines in a short space of time. Like him or hate him each individual has to make their own choice.

Baz

[/quote]

I find RA's business model a little perplexing. I don't know about massive profits but I notice their share price has halved in the last year, presumably in anticipation of the expiry of their much-vaunted $68/bbl fuel hedge at the end of this month and the likely subsequent impact of their "no fuel surcharges - ever!" policy. They've frozen the pay of their management too. I can't put my finger on it yet but I get a sensation of a house built on sand. The emphasis is always on expansion, expansion, expansion which reminds me a little of Enron [8-)]

I admire the RA's brass neck and enterprise in finding all those little non-frills they can chrage for, but the paradigm for low-cost carriers is shifting and I don't think they can depend any longer on continued revenue growth simply by adding more and more routes. This year people are far less likely to take the extra weekend breaks they've indulged in in the past. So either fares go up, or they cut away unprofitable routes and go after costs. I suspect 2008 is when we find out just how good their model is.

If I had any money to invest in an airline shares, which I haven't but it is fun to speculate, I think I'd buy British Aiways in preference to RA or Easyjet.

[Ron Avery]

If I had any money to invest in an airline shares, which I haven't but it is fun to speculate, I think I'd buy British Aiways

When you do, can you get BA to fly to the 14 airports in France that is doesn't bother serving at the moment[:D] 

 Anyone booking with Ryanair at the moment for flights in the summer is not going to get cheap flights, they are charging high fares for those flights at the moment, its those passengers who "have to be" on a flight who are now paying the cost of the flight.

The travel experts say that 60 days before each flight the numbers of bookings are reviewed by the lo-costs and if the flight is "paid for" they drop the price of the spare seats to pence, this price goes up as the plane fills up,  then 14 days before the flight, the price goes up again. If the flight is not paid for you will get lower fares but not the pence ones up to 14 days.  BA is in the business of competing with the lo-costs on some routes, so it can offer up front cheap flights subsidised by business class passengeres on its other flights, a luxury the lo-costs do not have.

[Iceni]

[quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"]
If I had any money to invest in an airline shares, which I haven't but it is fun to speculate, I think I'd buy British Aiways in preference to RA or Easyjet.
[/quote]

Yesterday's fiasco at T5, Thiefsrow shows the world what an unbeatable team BA and BAA can be. Who needs substance when you have such a stylish pile.

But, as Michael O'Ryanair might say, if they can afford to fly long haul on BA they can afford to buy new luggage and contents.

John

[Clarkkent]

Yesterday's fiasco at T5, Thiefsrow shows the world what an unbeatable team BA and BAA can be. Who needs substance when you have such a stylish pile.

But, as Michael O'Ryanair might say, if they can afford to fly long haul on BA they can afford to buy new luggage and contents.

 

But did you hear Mr O'Reilly on Radio 4 "Today" this morning? Effectively defending BA and castigating BAA (and its Spanish owner).

[Bugsy]

A Ryanair booking today..............................................[:D][:D]

********12.99 GBP Total Fare

********25.63 GBP Taxes, Fees & Charges

*********6.00 GBP Passenger Fee: BAG

*********3.00 GBP Passenger Fee: Airport Check in

*********3.00 GBP Passenger Fee: CC

********50.62 GBP Total Paid

[josa]

RyanAir fitting coin-operated slots from today to the overhead baggage containers.[:)]

£2.00 for flights less than 1 hour, £2.50 for flights over??

 

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="josa"]

RyanAir fitting coin-operated slots from today to the overhead baggage containers.[:)]

£2.00 for flights less than 1 hour, £2.50 for flights over??

[/quote]

Its after 12.00 so that doesn't count[:D]

[PaulT]

[quote user="Jacqui Too "][quote user="josa"]

RyanAir fitting coin-operated slots from today to the overhead baggage containers.[:)]

£2.00 for flights less than 1 hour, £2.50 for flights over??

[/quote]

Its after 12.00 so that doesn't count[:D]

[/quote]

Jackie

With RA how do you know that it is a joke!!!!

Paul

[Ron Avery]

P2 wrote

Jackie, With RA how do you know that it is a joke!!!! Paul

With BA you would know its a joke Paul as your bags would still be still in a big heap at T5 terminal.

[PaulT]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]P2 wrote

Jackie, With RA how do you know that it is a joke!!!! Paul

With BA you would know its a joke Paul as your bags would still be still in a big heap at T5 terminal.

[/quote]

Ron agree with you.

I do prefer travelling BA to France. However, when they screw up they sure are masters at it - and luggage seems to be their forte. Fortunately, have never had problems on the France run.

Wanted to fly over in July and whilst they are the cheapest of the 3 sure are not cheap. Thought, with all of this bad publicity they might have dropped their fares but no - still £136 for the Sunday evening flight Toulouse to Gatwick. Unlike after 9/11. We flew, in early 2002, to Washington DC for £126 each return and Atlanta for £119 return with BA.

Paul

[breizh]

I hope someone can explain something for me regarding flight luggage.

If you check in luggage at the desk, it then disappears. What happens to it then? The reason I'm asking is that I keep seeing BA blamed for the T5 problems, but Heathrow is owned and operated by BAA, surely they are responsible for what happens to luggage, between check in and the plane? I just have a picture in my head of the chaos 40-50 different airlanes fighting over "their" luggage after it disappeared down the conveyor belt, not necessarily at T5 but other Terminals.

El Prat airport in Barcelona lost my luggage 8 or 9 times, over a 3 year period. The airline, Iberia, always blamed the airport.

So is it the fault of the airline or the airport?

[Pierre ZFP]

I think it's probably the fault of The Prat at Barcelona  [Www]

[breizh]

El Prat de Llobregat

Yes, I did have a certain puerile pleasure explaining to any of my Catalan friends and colleagues what a prat was in english. They didn't think it was funny. No sense of humour the Catalans, fortunately I don't have to live anymore.

[PaulT]

[quote user="breizh"]

I hope someone can explain something for me regarding flight luggage.

If you check in luggage at the desk, it then disappears. What happens to it then? The reason I'm asking is that I keep seeing BA blamed for the T5 problems, but Heathrow is owned and operated by BAA, surely they are responsible for what happens to luggage, between check in and the plane? I just have a picture in my head of the chaos 40-50 different airlanes fighting over "their" luggage after it disappeared down the conveyor belt, not necessarily at T5 but other Terminals.

El Prat airport in Barcelona lost my luggage 8 or 9 times, over a 3 year period. The airline, Iberia, always blamed the airport.

So is it the fault of the airline or the airport?

[/quote]

From what I have read, it is BAs repsonsibility to take it off of the conveyor belt and place on the planes. However, they were not quick enough hence the pile of baggage.

Wonder if this was accidental or the baggage handlers did not want to go to Terminal 5?

Think you will find the 'operated' only applies to certain areas - for instance, as far as I am aware, BAA has nothing to do with passengers - that is the lot of companies such as Servisair or, in this case, BA.

Paul

[Renaud]

"If you check in luggage at the desk, it then disappears. What happens to it then?" See Toy Story 2, all is explained.

Breizh - I think that BA is the only airline using T5. 

I am waiting for Sirlan Sugar (as they call him) to send the trainee apprentices to T5 to sort out the baggage handling but maybe he already has, hence the chaos.

[AnOther]

I was talking to some BA aircrew in a hotel at Aberdeen airport on Tuesday night and the problems HR T5 were what is commonly referred to as a cluster f***, amongst which were the following:

Due to confusion and lack of space staff arriving were unable to park their cars.

When they attempted to go "air side" their new security badges didn't allow them through.

Those who managed to surmount those hurdles then discovered that they were unable to log onto the computers.

Apparently the much praised rehearsals were not conducted with the real time staff many of whom had only been deployed to T5 the previous day or that very morning.