I Hate Ryanair

Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, have been accused of abandoning passengers after one of their aircraft was diverted due to bad weather yesterday.

According to the Daily Mail, passengers were en-route to Lanzarote but ended up landing in Fuerteventura.

After being let off the plane, passengers are said to have been left to make their own arrangements to get to the correct destination.

One family were left £400 out of pocket after forking out for overnight hotel accommodation and a 30 minute ferry crossing to Lanzarote the next day.

Kay Wright, 40, was with her sons Jack, six, George, five, three-year-old daughter Kacey and stepdaughter Tabatha, 23.

She claimed they were “given no further help from Ryanair” and was “forced to ring partner Tony Wainwright at home in Bournemouth, Dorset, to help her reach their destination”.

Tony said: “I got a phone call at about 6pm to say they had landed but were on the wrong island.

“After disembarking they had gone into the terminal but there were no Ryanair representatives to tell them what to do next.

“It was left to me and a very helpful Spanish lady to sort out a taxi, arrange alternative accommodation for the night and book ferry crossings to Lanzarote in the morning.

“I don’t blame Ryanair for the bad weather but to abandon a family, on the wrong island, is unforgivable.

“It has cost us another £400.

“I know Ryanair is a budget airline but surely they have some duty of care to their passengers”.

Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, often generate well thought out and amusing rants by passengers pissed off at the entire experience this stinking example of an airline offer.

We happened across a prime example today that we thought we’d share with you. From the “ear grating euro-pop disco” music and the “bargain bus tickets” to the cash extraction scheme that is “priority boarding”, this rant has got it all covered.

Read the full and incredibly entertaining piece here:
http://adventuresintinpot.blogspot.com/2010/02/cheap-flights.html

Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, are very good at ripping their customers off given the opportunity. It come’s as no surprise that we get sent all sorts of stories detailing these acts of robbery.

The following is from a passenger called “Marie” who travelled from London to Nimes…

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I am an experienced traveller, fly several times a year, although haven’t taken a Ryanair flight for a couple of years as I’m currently working in New Zealand.

So I’m by no means a naive traveller, know all about most of the stupid rules, rip-off strategies, although I have to say they have got worse recently.

I was back home in the UK over Xmas and New Year. I have family near Nimes in France so I wanted to pay a short visit there too. I turned up at Luton airport on Dec 28th, in plenty of time for my flight. One very slow person checking in bags for the whole flight (despite £5 charge for supposed online check-in and threat of £40 charge if boarding pass not printed off before arrival at the airport). Horrendous queues through security due to events on the transatlantic Delta flight on Xmas day, not all security lanes open.

Me and 10 others finally arrived at the gate at 11am (flight was due to leave at 11). Plane was still sitting on the tarmac 50 metres from the terminal door, doors open, steps still down, going nowhere. But Ryanair staff said nope, we couldn’t get on the plane, Ryanair rules, once they close the gate no more passengers allowed on (like robots…computer says no?!).

No consideration for the security situation in the airport at the time, despite 10 people practically begging to be allowed to just take the 30 second walk out onto the plane. They actually left our checked in bags on the plane and sent them to Nimes. After the events of Lockerbie I’m sure unaccompanied luggage in the hold is illegal. And after all that supposed enhanced slow security.

All they could do to ‘help’ was charge another £100 for a flight out of Stansted at 8pm to Marseile (or wait 2 days for the next flight to Nimes). I duly paid this, plus paid for transportation to Stansted.

I checked when I booked the ticket that I wouldn’t have to pay the 40 pounds fee for a new boarding pass, but was assured that at Stansted there are kiosks where check-in and printing of boarding passes can be done for free.

At Stansted, the automated check-in kiosk I used didn’t work and didn’t print out my boarding pass; when I asked for help I was told sorry can’t help, but that I could get a new boarding pass re-issued at the ticket desk at a cost of £40; which I didn’t do BTW.

After shouting at the man, even though I ‘m very calm and tolerant (that’s what Ryanair does to a person), I paid £4 at an internet point to print, couldn’t be bothered queuing again and having to argue with another of these robots!!

I’m speechless at what these ‘people’ try to get away with!! I finally got to where I needed to be 9 hours late and feeling very robbed and mistreated. Ryanair staff and defenders on here can go on about how low prices mean we shouldn’t expect the service, but I paid over 300 pounds for my return ticket as it was Christmas, more than the BA flight from Gatwick to Marseille. But I wanted the ‘convenience’ of flying from and to airports nearer to where i needed to go, routes which Ryanair monopolize. I actually ended up paying around 450 pounds to get to France, I could have gone to New York on a decent airline for that!

I will NEVER fly with Ryanair again, and I really mean it. Cheating, thieving, uncaring company, deserve to be prosecuted and hung out to dry.

Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, left an 88 year old pensioner out in the freezing cold causing him to suffer a stroke.

Frail John Lynskey was left dazed and confused when his Prestwick bound flight was diverted to Edinburgh because of bad weather.

But rather than ensure the pensioner was cared for in the sub-zero temperatures, he was simply told to get a bus, which dropped him off in the middle of nowhere.

The shocking catalogue of events unfolded when John decided to spend Christmas with his daughter in Coylton.

He was due to arrive at Prestwick at 6.50pm, on December 23 on the Ryanair flight from Shannon.

His daughter Patricia Christie and grand-daughter Nicola were eagerly awaiting his arrival when they heard that the flight had been diverted.

Son-in-law Kenny said: “The next couple of hours were a blank for them. They presumed that the passengers would be brought by bus to Prestwick but John never showed up.

“Meanwhile I was phoning the airport and trying to phone Ryanair but nobody was able to confirm what was happening. It was a nightmare.

“John doesn’t have a mobile and he didn’t have anyone’s mobile numbers on him so there was no way of him contacting us.”

Unable to contact him, John’s frantic family had to call in police who filed him as a missing person.

Meanwhile, John had been advised to get a bus to the city centre and then to Prestwick.

But the city bus he caught dropped him at a remote location and he stood with his heavy suitcase in dark sub-zero conditions for over an hour before he was able to catch another bus back to the airport.

Kenny continued: “By 11pm we were in absolute panic mode. I phoned Strathclyde police, who phoned their colleagues in Lothian and Borders.

“By 1am, they found John sitting alone in the airport totally helpless. He didn’t know what was happening.”

Savvy officers put John in a taxi to Coylton– at a cost of £167.

And when Patricia and Nicola arrived home at 3am they found a cold, hungry and scared John waiting in the porch – more than seven hours after he was due to arrive.

But the family nightmare wasn’t over.

Patricia explained: “I was so relieved to get dad inside. We got him a cup of tea and something to eat then went to bed.

“The next day I was rushing around making breakfast and noticed that my dad was spilling his food all down his front. Then I realised the left side of his face was drooped.

“I just rushed into the hospital with him and doctors said he’d had a stroke brought on by the stress and cold.”

John, from Galway, is now recovering at Patricia’s home. He was released from hospital late on Christmas day.

John said: “I’ve never been through anything like that in my life before.

“We still don’t know if Ryanair ever put on a bus for passengers to get to Prestwick.

“I’ve travelled here plenty of times on that flight and nothing like that has ever happened.

“I dread to think what could have happened to me.

“It ruined our Christmas.”

But Ryanair had no sympathy with John’s plight.

A spokesman said: “Ryanair flights were diverted due to the weather. Passengers were fully advised of onward connections.”

The boss of Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, claims he has become so unpopular with the airline’s passengers that half would be happy to see him dead.

Michael O’Leary said many more would rejoice when he finally steps down in around two years’ time after more than 17 years at the helm.

“I think there will be great joy, I think there will be dancing in the street at the idea of O’Leary leaving Ryanair,” he said.

“It will be a nicer, warmer, caring airline with me gone. I think half our passengers would like to see me dead and buried, actually, and eventually they’ll get what they want. Frankly, I couldn’t care less as long as they fly with us.”

Mr O’Leary (48), who recently announced he is considering ripping out seats on some services to take standing passengers, admitted he had done little to improve his image but said he was unconcerned about what people thought of him.

He predicted that once he had gone, the public perception of Ryanair would improve.

“I don’t think I’ve done a very good job on the whole customer image of Ryanair,” he said.

“Actually the service is phenomenal in terms of fares and our performance on punctuality, lost bags, and cancellations. One way or another we’re going to change come 2012.”

Asked about the qualities his successor would require he said: “All the qualities that I don’t have — sensitivity, passenger care, environmentally sensitive — all that kind of good, warm crap. They’d need to make up for 20 years of my mis-management in the areas that I don’t manage well.”

A Ryanair aircraft has gone off the end of a runway at Prestwick Airport in the west of Scotland.

Emergency services are on the way to the scene. Strathclyde Fire and Rescue have confirmed they have sent three appliances to the incident.

It is understood the aircraft had been coming in to land when it overshot the runway. An eyewitness said it had come to rest partially on the grass.

Police said there were not believed to be any injuries.

Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, have been voted exactly that in the annual TripAdviser travel awards.

TripAdvisor UK announced the results of its annual travel trends survey of more than 700 Britons, revealing that travellers are unable to predict the final cost of their flight, with nearly one-third paying unexpected additional costs at check-in.

Travellers have become more surprised by the final price of their air ticket in the past three months. As a result of ‘add-ons,’ 73 percent have been surprised by the final cost of flight, up five percent from a survey conducted in September.*

Additionally, 32 percent, up 18 percent from three months ago, have checked in at an airport and paid additional costs they were not expecting.

The favourite airline for British travellers is Virgin Atlantic. For the fourth year in a row, Ryanair is travellers’ least favourite airline by an overwhelming 41 percent, up from 30 percent last year.

It’s the 4th year in a row that Ryanair have “won” this prestigious accolade and demonstrates clearly that they are universally hated.