Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, once called British Airways "expensive bastards". Having recently spent almost £300 for a one hour flight from London Gatwick to Cork I would have to agree. Except it wasn't with BA I booked the ticket, this was Ryanair. Despite booking the ticket seven weeks ahead of the flight date this is the ridiculous price I had to pay over Christmas for the short haul flight.

The Boss of the low-cost airline has also been quoted to say, "No, we shouldn't give you a bloody cup of coffee. We only charge 19 euros for the ticket."  However, even if you pay close to £300 you still have to pay for your own coffee (incidentally, the average price for a BA flight is £178).

Low cost airlines are superb, as long as they remain low-cost, but if you have to pay above average prices for no frills then you don't ever get a sense of customer loyalty. Since Go was absorbed into Easyjet and Barbara Cassani its CEO left the low-cost airline industry any sense of customer service vanished with her. It certainly doesn't exist in Ryanair. 

I was in Cork Airport on Friday 29th Dec awaiting a 30min flight to Galway, when announcement came over the speakers advising the 200 or so people waiting to board Ryanair to Stanstead that the flight was cancelled. This was 10mins before it was due to leave. The announcement went on to say that all passengers must go down and reclaim the luggage and call the numbers given to them, now for the cherry on top, "Ryanair would like to inform those passengers that all flights from Cork to Stanstead are fully booked until the 4th of Jan". Even by Micheal O' Learys standard a classic.

I was waiting for "Now piss off and stop annoying us" to be announced next.

My christmass experience with Ryanair. Commenced on Friday 22nd December 2006. Arrive at Duiblin aerport for flight to stanstead with onward connection to Dinard France.Given previous experiences with Ryanair (and the fact of their insistance that if you fly from Dublin to France via England with them it really is two separate journeys!!!!) I allowed 3.5 hours between flights to make sure that I would not miss my connection.

Flight in Dublin delayed..... abosuletly no information forwared by Ryanair in relation to delay. Nobody present at Ryanair desk so we all just sit around and wait and watch the departure time move forward and forward. Eventually board the plane and Im thinking excellent I sill have 1.40 minutes so I can make checkin at Stanstead. Doors closed should be leaving in a few minutes ..... wait whats that we are opening the doors again. I wonder why.  People start asking questions of in flight staff who plead their usual ignorance. Eventually after some 10-15mins have passed the Pilot comes over the intercom to say that they have more luggage than they have passengers??? I ask myself how can this happen. When a person checks in (irrespective of the airline) they are given the opportunity to check in luggage at which point it is tagged through the system which produces the little sticker that is attached to the bag!!!! Quite simple I would have thought. So now we all have to get off the plane to identify our luggage which has already commenced being offloaded. Start at the back single file only bla bla bla!!!

After about 15 mins of this the identification of luggage is stopped. People on runway are invited to get back on the plane. What now im thinking? When we are all back on the plane the in fight service girl (wh's first language was not english and was incredilby difficult to understand) calls out a particular name. At this point a passenger answering to this name stands up and comes forward. There is some heated exchange. The passenger leaves the plane. What we witnessed here was a plane which had more passengers than its manifesto would have shown. This particular person had managed to board a plane for which she did not have the correct boarding card??? I ask you how can this happen. Surely in this age of increased terrorism threats ensuring you have on your plane only those who should be there is crucial. The boading card states your name, your flight details and your departure gate (but ignore that cos Ryanair change dearture gates every few minutes). So lets see the difficult job that staff have to do. Check identifictaion and satisfy yourself that the picture looks somewhat like the person in front of you and the name matches and then check the flight number on the pass. How incredibly difficult.

So finally we are on our way,no announcement , no apology no nothing from the staff. But wait our pilot again. We have now missed our take off slot (based on the incompetance of the people working for the company ... i felt like adding) so we waited another 20-30mins  to eventually take off. I eventually arrive in Stanstead.

I run as fast as I can to luggage claim to get my luggage I now have forty minutes before my next flight but Im sure I can make it. 15 mins later I am still waiting for luggage to arrive. I evetually get it and run to the other end of the airport to check in for next flight to Dinard?  Im sorry Mam check in closed 10mins ago????

I was not allowed check in. Meanwhile I am watching (along with the thousands of other discontented Ryanair passengers as multiple flights are cancelled out of Stanstead by ryanair). Beside my flight appears "delayed". Im thinking my flight is delayed due to fog so surely i should be able to board it. I tried talking to several different "Personnel" from Ryanair" and the message was the same.... NO NO NO NO.

Bear in mind its Xmass. There were no flights out of Stanstead until 28th so in the interest of Good Customer Service one would have though they could have made an exception!!!! After all the other passengers were just sitting in the boarding area waiting to board????

So here I am stuck in England on the 22nd December with no way out until 28th??

 Ryanair just keep sending a girl through the crowd saying all flights booked out until 28th December. Also if we have cancelled your flight and you are looking for accomodation on a different flight or a refund please apply online??? I ask you this had to be the biggest insult to everyone. Your standing in an airport and you are asked to apply online???? To me this stunk of Ryanair's attitude and basically said tough shit for cancelling your flight but your on your own now and sort yoruself out.

To cut a long story short with the help of some friends I manged to stay in london for the night and book a Euro Star (first class 260sterling) one way ticket to Paris for the 23rd. I dealt with the most professional and helpful people in Euro Star and the police in Liverpool station where it departs. They helped salvage a potentially disaster of a journey. Arrvie in Paris 23rd and after 3 different trains and a two hour car journey i arrvie at my destination at 1.50am on 24th December..... even meet santa clause on the way!!!

All the passengers on the Eurostar in my section (Carriage 8) had been ditched by Ryan Air and were endeavouring to make to home to their families for Xmass, some opting to go to paris and fly from their to their destination. The conversation and comments and experiences noted by these people would have made very interesting hearing for Michael to Leary.

And the moral of the story. .........

We all know if we pay peanuts we get monkeys. This applies to the Ryanair airline and those associated with it. However what I cannot accept is the idea that to treat people with respect is a difficulty or somewhat of an inconvenience. Im sure Mr O'Leary expects the people who fly with his company to treat his staff with respect and therefore Mr O'Leary I expect the same from you and your staff when I fly with you which by the way I will never do again. I would much rather spend that little bit more, have a pleasurable experience and actually arruve at my destination on time!!!!

To all those passengers I met on this journey I hope you all eventually made it home for Xmass and thanks for the good spirit shown. And finally i hoe Ryanair honoured your return flight!!!!!!!! Thats another story for another day!!!!! 

Happy new year

Blondie