Pleasantly surprised by Ryanair

[Cat]

A couple of weeks ago I made reservations with Ryanair to fly back to the UK for a few days.  I deliberately chose the cheapest flights I could find, 1.99 euros each way (before tax and charges).

This morning I had an email to tell me that both my outward and inward flight times had changed, and that I could either accept the changes or apply for a refund or a "travel credit".

The new times (much later in the evening) would have made it impossible for me to catch the connecting bus and train to Ipswich (my final destination).  I checked the prices and times for flights later in the week, and found that only the Saturday flight was still operating at the original early-evening time.  BUT the price was much higher.

So, with a heavy heart, I phoned Ryanair to ask if a travel-credit is only valid for the actual cost of the booked flight, or if it could be used for ANY flight (even if more expensive). I was expecting the worst, and had my trusty debit card ready in my hand, as I was certain that I'd end up shelling out loads more dosh [:(]

So I was gob-smacked when the very nice man changed my flights, free of charge, to ones that should have cost over 100 euros more.

They say good service can be defined by exceding customer's expectations.  I've never had high expectations of Ryanair (you pay your money, you take your choice) but for once they've left me with a lovely warm feeling [:)]

 

 

[Aly]

Have you seen Ryanairs new charges for luggage? All checked luggage  for flights booked after 16 March will be charged.....

[Cat]

Yes I have, it doesn't apply for the flights I had changed , as they were booked before the 16th March.

I personally won't mind the charge for checked baggage for future flights, as £2.50 seems a very reasonable price to pay for the convenience of online check-in and priority boarding.  No queuing, hurrah!

 

 

[Iceni]

Pleased to see that someone else has a good word to say for Ryanair - posts are normally whinges. Perhaps because we live in 46 ?

John

and

[Ron Avery]

Cathy

I can also vouch for Ryanair being helpful, a friend had to change flights for personal reasons at the last minute and was charged nothing for the change to another day even though it was only 4 days before the flight.  However, do you know how this check-in lark will work?  If you have no luggage can you just go to the security gate, no checking in at all? 

The other thing is how is queuing to be avoided?  If you have luggage either booked in on line or not, you still have to give it in somewhere and that will inevitably result in queuing or are there to be separate desks for checked in and unchecked in luggage?

[Mpprh]

Hi

I've always found they (slightly) exceeded my expectations :

1)Allowed me to fly with a carte de sejour when I forgot my passport

2)Twice let me on the flight after the 40mins closure of check in

3)When I missed a flight due to an accident on the M11, they provided a flat rate GBP40 ticket and even allowed me to go to a different airport

I'm amazed people complain. Flying is not glamorous. I look on it as a bus service that is cheaper than the bus !

 

Peter

 

[opas]

Exactly, and when I was sat in Carcassonne airport last week and an announcement was made that we would be delayed by 20 mins you would have thought the world had ended!( we were lucky it arrived at all...very dense fog) The comments of my fellow passengers had me smiling and my 12 year old taking the Micky out of them, comments such as ` typical , we didn`t expect anything less , ` and `thats what you get when you travel Ryanair`  , 20 mins! I waited longer than that for an overdue bus on a windy high street in temps of -5, at least in the airport it was dry and warm.

Mrs O

[Owens88]

[quote user="Mpprh"]

I'm amazed people complain. Flying is not glamorous. I look on it as a bus service that is cheaper than the bus !

Peter

[/quote]

True, true and true. However when you, I or many of the other people on here who travel a) often b) often by themselves and c) well within their 'comfort zone' then it IS a bus journey.

However Families and Holiday Travellers may think they have booked a cheap airline and  may have different expectations (e.g. T&C's notwithstanding, they might expect a round trip to be a round trip, and a family's luggage to be treated as a family not granular units).

AND it is great to hear about R (or E or F or B) having good customer care.

I suspect some difference of attitude even between airports - e.g. I find R at Perpignan very rigid and unhelpful whilst R at Gerona are much more laid back and at least smile.  I would like sponsorship to research this more thoroughly. (smile)

 

As for people complaining for being 20 mins late Mrs O. --- Duh, if they weren't ranting at that they might be upset because the staff at Carcassone were French. Too much time being driven around by their parents I suspect !

[opas]

How right you are, they were moaning that they could not buy a drink( in the departure lounge) , that they were sat next to the toilet door(their choice) Oh and lets not forget the whinger who wanted to know why I had a Priority boarding card(I didn`t ask for it.....I had the pleasure of my 2 children to get that!), It is that long since I have traveled with a Knife and fork airline that I cannot remember what their customers whine about.........not enough Broadsheets? prefer nuts to cheddars or that the tonic isn`t cold enough?

Mrs O

[opas]

How right you are, they were moaning that they could not buy a drink( in the departure lounge) , that they were sat next to the toilet door(their choice) Oh and lets not forget the whinger who wanted to know why I had a Priority boarding card(I didn`t ask for it.....I had the pleasure of my 2 children to get that!), It is that long since I have traveled with a Knife and fork airline that I cannot remember what their customers whine about.........not enough Broadsheets? prefer nuts to cheddars or that the tonic isn`t cold enough?

The only reason I was flying out of Carcassonne was because ryanair changed the flight times after I had booked(first time this has ever happened to me) my orriginal flight girona/Liverpool was changed and my arrival time in Lpool would have been just short of Midnight, not an option for me as public transport was my onward travel, the changeover was done easily and excess money repayed to my account within days..........looking forward to my next cheap booking later on in the year!

Mrs O

[Lollie]

A friend of mine travelled recently from Nantes airport with Ryanair and the lady at check in was quite rude, she complained to Ryanair, who in turn said that ground staff in many airports outside of the UK are not employed by Ryanair but are outsourced to a private company.  She in turn spoke to the relevant company.   She also asked them how the new system would work and they said they had heard of ryanairs plans but were unsure how this would happen as it is not their staff checking in and providing the security at the airports . If you think about this logically this maybe able to happen in airports with ryanair ground staff but others it will not be possible.  You will still have to queue to hand over your luggage and go through airport security and passport control.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

Lollie

[Gardian]

First of all, agree with everybody else, no bad words re Ryanair whatsoever.

Second - why worry re all the surcharges, or rather price re-structuring? So if you or your guests have to pay another tenner because they're a bit overweight (on their luggage!), then why loose sleep?

Summer's coming and down here, you won't need much luggage anyway to keep out the cold of the area north of the Loire (or am I in the wrong thread?)  

 

[Mpprh]

[quote user="Opas"]

Exactly, and when I was sat in Carcassonne airport last week and an announcement was made that we would be delayed by 20 mins you would have thought the world had ended!( we were lucky it arrived at all...very dense fog) The comments of my fellow passengers had me smiling and my 12 year old taking the Micky out of them, comments such as ` typical , we didn`t expect anything less , ` and `thats what you get when you travel Ryanair`  , 20 mins! I waited longer than that for an overdue bus on a windy high street in temps of -5, at least in the airport it was dry and warm.

Mrs O

[/quote]

An experience worth whining about :

Having checked in and arriving in the departure hall, passengers were told there was an 11 hour delay. No food, no drinks and the douaniers would not allow people to leave the hall.

Air France.

Peter

 

 

[Owens88]

>Having checked in and arriving in the departure hall, passengers were told there was an 11 hour delay. No food, no drinks and the douaniers would not allow people to leave the hall. Air France.Peter

I am sorry to hear that and intrigued about what you did Peter. From your other postings I find it difficult to believe that 11 hours  later you were still there dehydrating and counting the ceiling tiles.

John

[Mpprh]

Hi

afraid I had no choice. The A/C was very cold, and I didn't have a coat = very unhappy passenger !

But we did have a full explanation "the late departure was caused by the late arrival of this flight".

Obviously, AF knew of the delay before we were herded into the departure hall (it was an 8 hr flight, so hadn't set off) , but didn't feel it useful to announce it.

Peter