Cheap but NOT cheerful (Ryanair)

Member Name: hot_rock_chick

Product:	Ryanair
Date:	18/12/00 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speedy service

Disadvantages: Rude Staff

Myself and a friend took advantage of the £1 tickets deal from Ryanair only last week (December 12th). First of all, it is not a pound - yes only a pound goes to Ryanair, but you get charged airport taxes, yes I know you get charged these whatever tickets you buy, but the point is the total amount we paid was not £1 but £20.80p. Still not bad for a return flight to and from Dublin. The check in was straightfoward, as Ryanair are a ticketless airline, so all they needed was our names and passports. There was a delay though on the day we went becuase Bill Clinton was leaving Dublin so the plane was delayed for one hour. This would not have been that annoying if we got to wait in the airport, but instead, Ryanair got all the passengers onto the plane (which is not spacious by any means)before announcing this - and they knew there was going to be a delay in advance becuase they told various passengers during check in!!!

On the way back, horror of all horrors, we were late so missed our flight back to Manchester. That was strange as the lady at check in told us the Manchester flight had been delayed for quite a while, so we had a chance of making it, so we had to go and find another counter who told us to go to another office and by that time, the plane was definately locked and ready to go. So we went to yet another desk only to be served by possibly one of rudest receptionists known to man. When we first told her we'd missed the flight, she was fine and told us we had to pay extra to be put onto the next flight a few hours away. Obviously we weren't too happy since it really wasn't our fault we were late, and it took away the whole bargain element of the flight. The receptionists attitude had changed once she realised we had a bargain ticket, and that we didn't have enough money in punts for the next ticket. We were told that Ryanair were doing us "a favour" and that otherwise we'd have to buy a whole new ticket. When
i asked if here were any other flights we could board, we were told we couldn't "pick and choose" and any flight avalible was good enough for us.

Another thing is that we were told there were only 2 seats left so we'd have to hurry and get the money for the next flight. When we boarded the flight, there were at least 10 empty seats.

Also, Ryanair don't allocate seats to people. Fair enough, children, disabled people get to board first, but it leaves everyone else in a scramble for window seats. And as a result, the overhead lockers were filled by random peoples baggage, often searching for any empty space and we were left with no space for our bags. My bag had to go into the front of the craft, and the memeber of staff dealing with this didn't tell me I had to pick it up with other checked in baggage, so when I finally got to the front of the plane, I was told to pick it up at the airport, and even then I had to wait for 20 minutes for it to appear.

If I were being very critical, I would also add that the staff on board are also rude in comparison to other airlines I have flown with which have all had excellent staff - Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Luthansa and Continental. When offering on board magazines myself and my friend were completely overlooked, and well before the landing, my friend was told to put her seat back into the original position and put the food tray back up, although the pilot didnt make the annoncement for another 15 minutes.

The positive points were that the actual flights were fine, and the service is fairly speedy, and for that reason, I may consider flying again. But then again, I am glad that even with the subsidised amount we had to pay, the flight wasn't over £60 because then I would've felt truly conned, decieved and very unhappy that I spent that much on a airline with such bad service. I've flown with Airtours and Easyjet which are bargain airl
ines, but even those airlines have more redeaming features that Ryanair. For speed the flight is fine, but next time I am opting for the Ferry which is about 4 hours longer, but at least Stena have generally better staff, and the ships give a lot more leg room.

Summary: