Ryanair again

[James2]

We booked a flight to Bergerac from Bristol for April 2013, leaving Bristol at a comfortable time of 11.50am. Now, Ryanair, have decided to change the departure time to 6.30am, So to be at the airport two hours before take-off, means arriving at 4.30am, so we must leave home at 3.30am to be on time!!!    Grrrrrrrrr

[Frederick]

They have the German authorities after them now. They are under investigtion for declaring the wrong take off weights of their aircraft in order to get lower charges than other airlines that fly the same aircraft This if found against them will cost them millions if the practice is EU wide

[AnOther]

Difficult to believe that RA or any airline would deliberately indulge in such reckless practices. Apart from anything else it would require active and wide scale collusion from the pilots whose careers could be ruined if found out.

Maybe the reason they fly lighter is due to nothing more than the fact that they routinely fly with unoccupied rows of seats ?

Anyone know of another reason they do that, or another airline which does it ?

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[Russethouse]

For European flights I only ever turn up an hour before hand and have never had a problem, in fact at Rennes they don't even man the desks until an hour before the flight....in my experience....

It might be worth checking, although at that time of the morning it's so early it hardly makes it less awful....

[betty]

Quote

“They have the German authorities after them now. They are under investigtion for declaring the wrong take off weights of their aircraft in order to get lower charges than other airlines that fly the same aircraft This if found against them will cost them millions if the practice is EU wide”

Years ago I seem to remember that lower maximum/regulated take off weights etc. can be legally declared in the company’s operations manual thereby reducing the airport landing fees etc.

This obviously all has to tally on any official inspection (same as HGV). May have all changed with the vast amounts of regulations now in place.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="James2"]We booked a flight to Bergerac from Bristol for April 2013, leaving Bristol at a comfortable time of 11.50am. Now, Ryanair, have decided to change the departure time to 6.30am, So to be at the airport two hours before take-off, means arriving at 4.30am, so we must leave home at 3.30am to be on time!!!    Grrrrrrrrr[/quote]From recent experience of taking early morning flights from Bristol and don't think you need to be there quite so long before take-off at that time of day. But if it is Easter weekend perhaps you need a bit more leeway.

I have always found that the security queues at Bristol will let you go to the front if you have cut it a little fine.

 

 

[Val_2]

Sorry but Ryanair are a LOW COST airline, in other words you get the basic service an airline can offer.People keep slagging them off but how many of you in all honesty could/can afford to fly with a scheduled airline if there is one in your neck of the woods???

Give them their dues, they bought affordable air travel to the ordinary folks who would otherwise have had to cross the channel by car/boat or train at higher costs. I won't knock RA until proven evidence of wrong doing is brought to task or a serious accident caused by cutting corners. I only wish they still continued to fly to Luton from here and would happily use them.

If you don't like them, their practices, their charges or their hours of embarcation, well......you vote with your feet and your wallets!

[Wilko]

James 2 wrote "leaving Bristol at a comfortable time of 11.50am. Now, Ryanair, have decided to change the departure time to 6.30am"

Not just Ryanair, BA did it to me 2 months ago, which in effect cost me a day and to add insult to injury changed all flights, to Marseille, from Gatwick to Heathrow which was a real pain.

Happy Xmas one and all.

W

[Russethouse]

[quote user="Val_2"]

Sorry but Ryanair are a LOW COST airline, in other words you get the basic service an airline can offer.People keep slagging them off but how many of you in all honesty could/can afford to fly with a scheduled airline if there is one in your neck of the woods???

Give them their dues, they bought affordable air travel to the ordinary folks who would otherwise have had to cross the channel by car/boat or train at higher costs. I won't knock RA until proven evidence of wrong doing is brought to task or a serious accident caused by cutting corners. I only wish they still continued to fly to Luton from here and would happily use them.

If you don't like them, their practices, their charges or their hours of embarcation, well......you vote with your feet and your wallets!

[/quote]

I don't see so many complaints about Flybe and they fly to Exeter, Southampton and Birmingham from Brest as far as I know.

True they may not advertise fares at £1 etc, but they are not particularly expensive and in my experience have been pleasant enough to use

I just wish the flights weren't seasonal.

[Frederick]

[quote user="AnOther"]Difficult to believe that RA or any airline would deliberately indulge in such reckless practices. Apart from anything else it would require active and wide scale collusion from the pilots whose careers could be ruined if found out.

Maybe the reason they fly lighter is due to nothing more than the fact that they routinely fly with unoccupied rows of seats ?

Anyone know of another reason they do that, or another airline which does it ?

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[/quote]

 Its all here

http://airobserver.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/ryanair-has-a-weight-problem-but-wont-pay-the-fees/

[sid]

And the point of this thread is.....?

I'm with Val2, basic service but cheap, never been let down in the last 7 years. Yes, the schedules sometimes change, annoyingly, but I find that booking early usually results in a fare approximately half of the FlyBe or BMIBaby (before they disappeared). I can't even DRIVE to the ferry for the same price as the air fare, let alone pay for a ferry crossing.

Those who use RA will probably continue; those who hate RA will probably keep posting bits of "told you so" news on here.

Happy Christmas.

[Department71]

[quote user="Val_2"]

Sorry but Ryanair are a LOW COST airline, in other words you get the basic service an airline can offer.People keep slagging them off but how many of you in all honesty could/can afford to fly with a scheduled airline if there is one in your neck of the woods???

[/quote]

Suppose it is swings and roundabouts as well.

My sister-in-law wanted to fly from Manchester to Paris to visit us, she looked on the web at various airlines who flew that route. She finally booked with Air France who were actually cheaper the Easyjet.

When she got to the airport they informed the passengers they were overbooked and needed some volunteers to give up their seat, get a nice amount of cash back and a confirmed seat on the next flight. As there was a long wait at Paris for the TGV she opted for the cash. So a flight that was actually cheaper then Easyjet got even cheaper.

So it also works both ways. So check budget flights and normal airlines you could save money.

[PaulT]

Think at times RA plays on the Comet and large cartons in supermarkets effect, i.e. people think they are cheap - in the case of Comet they were found out.

I will admit firstly I am no fan of RA. However, on a number of occassions in comparing costs via RA having added on all the 'extras' they have actually been dearer than BA where you do not have to add on the 'extras'.

Why do companies have a low initial price that gets hiked when you add on essential 'extras'. To my mind it can only be to sucker people in.

Yes, some people will not want to take luggage but I wonder how many would if they could and suffer the inconvenience of shoving a small amount of luggage in to a cabin bag hoping they will not exceed the size and weight.

Sorry, a moan, how does RA get their pizzas to smell so revolting?

[Val_2]

Russethouse - have looked at Flybe several times but their prices are around the €300 mark return from Brest so not cheap. Also none of their destinations in the UK are near to where I want to be, B'ham perhaps the nearest but still a train ride away and I have never been there so do not know the station or airport. Luton was ideal for me and for those on the outer edges of London as there were coaches direct to Oxford and beyond stopping less than two miles from my parents but to be honest I don't want all the aggro of plane, plus train or coach as you know you have to repeat the process for the return.

As I said, don't knock what you have locally because you never know when they will pull the plug and don't even start me on those stupid idiots who bought close to RA destinations only and not for the location of their property and then moan when it ceases.

[Russethouse]

I can usually manage to get to Brest and back for around £200 ish, and could probably do it cheaper if I took only hand luggage.

Birmingham Airport is connected to the train station so it's very easy, Southampton suits me as its less than an hour to Reading by train and the airport is literally opposite the train station.

[YCCMB]

I have 2 choices - more in summer:

RA Stansted - La Rochelle

Flybe - Southampton - La Rochelle (seasonal)

BA - Gatwick - Bordeaux

Easyjet Gatwick  - La Rochelle (seasonal)

Ryanair will - generally - get me to where I want to be for a price which is less than the cost of me getting by train or car to Stansted.

I've occasionally flown with BA, but by the time I've added the cost of getting from Bordeaux to my destination and the length of time that this adds to my journey, any cost saving overall is wiped out.

Flybe have, for me, priced themselves out of contention, being generally the more expensive of all the options. They didn't use to be, but I've seldom seen a fare of under £200, which is completely out of proportion even compared to BA.

So far, I've never used Easyjet because they only fly for a couple of months of the year, and those are the ones where, if I'm travelling at all, it's by car.

I dislike Ryanair's way of doing business, although since the OFT stopped them omitting credit card prices from their headline fare, things have got better (don't get me wrong, I have used them since, and I do know that they make a charge for credit cards, and I'm sure that any loss to them is recovered by an increase in the headline price, so to anyone thinking of pointing that out, I am not that naive). At least now a family of four - if they are crazy enough or have no alternative but to use Ryanair - will not have the potential of facing a surcharge of £48 on top of the fare, just for using a credit card to pay. Although said family of four will almost certainly get a cheaper deal from a proper airline.

[Patf]

That's good news about a family of 4 - our eldest and family sometimes fly Ryanair Luton to Tarbes. It's not a regular service though.

I've just had a quick check on Easyjet flights Toulouse to LGW - returns 3-400€ up to 8th Jan, then drop to 60€ min!

But that's no use as everyone will be back at work.

[Théière]

That's the problem with Christmas and New year, they are always arranged when the flights are most expensive [;-)]

[dave21478]

[quote user="PaulT"]

Sorry, a moan, how does RA get their pizzas to smell so revolting?

[/quote]

There was a thing in the papers about the "scandal" of Ryanair food. Some chap had submitted photos of their steak sandwich, which was bread with a light dusting of what looked like mince.

WTF do people expect and WhyTF are people even buying food on board? Seriously - the longest Ryanair flight is what?? 2 hours, maybe 3 at the most...surely people can manage to go that long without having to stuff their greasy pie-holes with food? surely anyone with the slightest bit of common sense would get their food in the terminal before or after flying? It's like anything else - if people were not dumb enough to get suckered into buying it, then Ryanair would not offer it in the first place and maybe - just maybe - savings would be made by not having to have a catering service onboard.

[Val_2]

Yes I have always wondered why must people eat and drink wherever they go for such a short space of time. My son said when he visited the UK earlier this year,the amount of people wandering about in the shopping arcade eating anything from cakes to burgers and kebabs was overwhelming, no wonder they have an obesity problem there.

As for RA food, well they say the fool and his money are soon parted!

[Théière]

I just love threads about Ryanair, always so entertaining.

http://travel.uk.msn.com/socialvoices/ryanairs-sexist-tacky-calendar-is-a-new-low

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Val_2"]

... no wonder they have an obesity problem there.

[/quote]

Ah yes, obesity. Unique to the UK....

[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9612225/Number-of-obese-people-in-France-doubles-to-seven-million.html[/url]