It would be true to say that the route and time of my flight was convenient and as such my Corporate travel team rightly presented it as the best option.
It soon dawned on me however that in essence Ryanair is an acronym...
R - Rushed
Y - Yellow
A - Annoying
N - No Sanitation
A - Animal-like
I - Irritating
R - Rip Off
Let's take a look at the detail...
RUSHED
The moment that there was the slightest stirring of the inadequate embarking counter a rush or more like stampede occurred of people jostling for position in a human fragmented line. From my perspective the flight did not appear to be full, so it was difficult to understand the hysteria and stress of the rush.
Upon embarking it became apparent that the rush was wholly unnecessary, yet the flight crew started to execute several announcements to generate a sense of urgency for passengers to sit down. This caused more pushing, impatience and peripheral stress into the mix as people focussed their entire mental intellects into the concept of "I must find a seat".
Once everyone sat down and the realisation dawned on all passengers that there was indeed plenty of room a few precious moments of quiet bliss graced the plane.
YELLOW
As the safety announcements loudly commenced, I looked up to see for the first time a clear sea of Loud Yellow from the tops of seats to the overhead lockers. Notes from the Coldplay song echoed in my ears with indefatigable tones all within the moment of an instant. Ah the world is yellow I concluded; trouble is not a very nice or warming yellow. If it were ever possible to select a shade of yellow that appeared somewhat cheap and at home on a Ryanair flight, this was undisputedly the one! How did the Ryanair powers that be manage that?
ANNOYING
There are all manner of minor annoying little things that serve to remind you that perhaps it was a bad idea to take the cheap flight option. Each minor annoyance plays on ones mind and strips the soul of travel dignity.
Let's start with the fact there are no seat pockets beneath the tray tables. Nowhere to place a book, magazine, Newspaper, Mobile or anything for that matter which may prove to be useful of help to pass the time. One is forced to place such items in the overhead locker (most inconvenient) or to squeeze them to one side of the seat in secret, which is annoying and contravening safety somewhat, especially on the emergency exit.
With no seat pocket there are NO sick bags, to help cope with the yellow effect or even travel sickness. Note there were no sick bags for sale either!
Another annoying factor is not realised until later on in the flight, which is the fact there is no reclining seat function. Most annoying when one wants to take 50 winks.
NO SANITATION
Upon arrival to the plane it is apparent that the turn around was fast to say the least. Subsequently the plane had not been cleaned or prepared properly for the flight. In particular the floor had the remnants of the previous flight or night for all to see.
One greater area for concern occurred when a flight attendant with a particularly acute acne problem served my wee bottle of wine. He put his fingers deep inside my water and wine glass, which seemed to happen in slow motion and he clearly had NO idea of the consequences of what he was doing. So much for Ryanair training!
Overall the seats were dirty in places with marks and grimed in dirt. I may project the image of being awfully fussy, but its not the case, as the above is an objective reflection.
ANIMAL-LIKE
There is definitely the sensation of herding as one boards and rubs shoulders with fellow travellers that collectively hold the objective of securing that elusive seat.
Such behaviour is masterly exaggerated by the fact no-one has a confirmed seat number! This reality in the Budget Boarding equation provokes the worst in people with an array of creative solutions surfacing, as decent law abiding couples resort to occupying a window and Isle seat to block the middle one!
The whole Budget system tends to stimulate uncivilised practices, which although travellers should rise above, they invariably get caught up in them.
IRRITATING
The most irritating issue on Ryanair is the constant stream of announcements that result in sheep-like conditioning. Not happy with a few timely Mic tasters, Flight Attendants do their utmost to overkill. This assures that no passenger in the evening at no juncture is able to relax or sleep. Just to make sure there are no recliners, bright in-flight lights prevail and the colour yellow is everywhere!
RIP-OFF
We all know about the nauseating tricks that Ryanair and to be fair other low cost airlines adopt at the point of online reservation. In addition to the fact one needs to uncheck the insurance box (not always easy to see), pay for checking-in luggage and pay to board in a civilised quick manner, now there is a charge to check-in online. This completely floors the silent public concept, whereby if one does something online directly which avoids a manual labour task there is no charge for the activity. As such, banks, travel agencies and like encourage online self driven tasks as a way for the consumer to avoid cost. In the whole ethos or business model of the Budget Airlines is to avoid Agency and ticket costs by consumers booking flights online directly.
Then there is the food debate, whereby passengers are charged for what they consume in flight. It would be fair to say that the Low Cost brigade won this argument. The average discerning flight passenger does see the logic of the concept and providing the food is good they are generally willing to pay. After all one can purchase a snack in the airport and enjoy it on the plane. In fact it would be perfectly reasonable to state that this Budget Airlines concept has helped to generate expenditure within the airport too. Now back to my gripe: on board that fateful Ryanair flight of mine, I decided to go for the safest option and purchased the most expense snack at 5.85 euro for 2 small chicken wraps. Unfortunately they were dry as a bone and 2 euro more than the airport. The wine I ordered came in the smallest bottle I have ever seen served and cost nearly 6 euro. Ryanair, if you are going to charge over the top at least invest in quality.
So there you have it the Ryanair acronym which essentially means dissatisfied in service. Looking at the big picture though, it is clear that Ryanair has achieved great success with a sound business plan of excellent smartly crafted routes between smaller towns, clever usage of cheap efficient airports, and a debundled package. The reality of the matter is however that Ryanair is polarising people, often loathed by its own passengers and few consider it a good service by any description, but it is cheap in every way!
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I fully agree. Never ever RYANAIR again. Please people... You always are responsible for your own doings. So you personally make a choice... Remember one very important thing... your health ... stress is the biggest threat of your heart... You don’t need a RYANAIR to endanger your heart.
ReplyDeleteThink about it.
You may have forgotten to mention one thing in your rant - the CHEAP Fare! Some points: Rushing / Queing - Ryanair doesn't make people do this. You will find the same phenonmenon in movie theatres, concerts, etc.
ReplyDeleteSeat pockets - if there are pockets, someone has to clean and stock them. This adds costs.
General dirtyness - agreed, this is inexcusable.
Online charge - they have always charged for check in - the online charge was a reduced price version of the regular check in charge - to incentivise people do it online.
No seat number - this is part of what keeps prices low.
Animal like / herdedness: Any airline is the same. Airplanes are taxis. Simple. The only exception should be long haul flights. Ryanair isn't that.
Attitudes of staff: they are only human. If people keep ranting and raving at them, of course their smiles will wear off! Let's all be civilised. The ryanair fare covers the seat cost only and everyone knows this, and Ryanair doesn't promise anything else.
thank you very much for the information...imagine that i was just going to fligh with ryanair!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments. In quick response to some of the defenders of Ryanair I would like to state the following...
ReplyDelete1) Ryanair creates the conditions or environment that provokes negative human responses. This is the real issue.
2) The fact that Ryanair is cheap is well documented and mentioned in the article. This does not forgive some of the poor sanitation practices and cheap tricks that they are adopting to alienate passengers though. Easyjet is also cheap but its a safer, cleaner and better ride.
3) The plane was designed with seat pockets and they were ripped out. There were dirty marks in this area which suggests that cleaning as a result of this action is infrequent. Easyjet, Flybe and other reputable low cost airlines did not take away seat pockets and they are definately cleaner.
4) The main problem with the staff was that they were not sanitation trained. I did not rant or rave at them. I am just informing the wider public that sanitation is not a high priority on Ryanair. I am a Consultant in the Cruise Industry and know what I am talking about when it comes to sanitation.
5) I fail to see that preventing people from having a confirmed seat number saves money somehow. If they allowed seat numbers and enabled people to book their own seats, it would encourage early booking practices, which has to be in the interest of Ryanair.
In general, negative approaches cause negative responses, as behavior breeds behavior.