Category: Travel

Ryanair are thieving *****

Safety CardImage by Ultrastar175g via FlickrOK, so it’s not a huge revelation but Ryanair are, indeed greedy thieving ********. Sneaky, conniving, slippery *****. And that’s just a few of the words I’d use to describe them. Any way they can fiddle you out of more cash, they’ll do it.

I’m booking tickets for some friends for the Graspop trip in June. Three people return from Stansted, one person (me) one-way from Eindhoven to Stansted. All nice and simple. Obviously, there will be credit card fees involved, so I want to book as many flights at once to reduce the fees involved.

OK, so I can’t book three out, 4 in with one transaction. It’s 3 out on one booking, 4 back on another. Or 3 return and then a separate booking for the guy going one-way. Either way, two credit card fees.

Wrong.

Either way it’s SEVEN credit card fees. Ryanair have gone all original and charge per person, per flight segment. So if I were paying on Visa, I could expect a whopping £21 in credit card charges. Frankly – ******* ludicrous. Even using a debit card, it’s £7.

More sneakiness. If you’re booking a flight from Europe to the UK, there is no choice on currency. You pay in Euros. And the flights are rounded to nice, convenient amounts – which are higher than the cost of the flight when booked as part of a return. Example – sterling price for Eindhoven to Stansted is £9.99. Booking it as a single is €14.40. At the current exchange rate this is £11.61. It doesn’t stop there as all the booking fees, card fees, baggage fees, taxes and so on are also lifted. The resultant flight is around a tenner dearer than it would be in Pounds. not to forget that most credit cards / banks charge a fee for dealing in non-sterling.

Add to that their 15kg checked luggage limit – 5kg below that of most other airlines. A 10kg carry-on limit – 2kg below that of others. A baggage check-in fee of £6 for the first bag and £12 for the next. Which necessitates that you check in at the airport… a further £3. Surely if you’re going to check one bag in and therefore have to check in at the airport (as opposed to the free online alternative), they may as well charge you £9 for the bag and include the fee? Ah, but then they’d not be able to claim their baggage fees were low…

Also note that every money-making option is selected on the web page unless you turn it off. As if anyone really wants to pay an extra £6 to be one of the first onto the plane. And insurance is selected by default.

I still loathe their advertising. My flight – according to their advertising – was £9.99. It actually cost me nearer £45. And if you want to complain (or check up on a booking you’re not sure has gone through because their website crashed)? 10p/min in the UK (34c/min in France).

I’m currently stuck as I’ve received no confirmation details for the 6 flights I booked for my friends. Have they been booked? I don’t know. I didn’t get an email confirming the details of the flight I do know went through, so the lack of mail for the other one is no indication at all.

Ryanair – the shittest airline on the planet, budget or not. British Airways may be able to decimate an entire airport terminal in 8 hours, but Ryanair are simply just ****. And greedy. Greedy and ****. And sneaky.

And we’re off!

Yes, I’m running late… But I had to get one post up to thank Delphine and her family for the last week or so. They’ve been hugely accommodating, allowing in some weird guy who barely speaks their language, feeding me (very well!) and allowing me full use of the internet. I had a great 3-day trek to get me used to the camping and walking and I’ve had an otherwise lovely chilled time.

So now I’m about to wolf down some breakfast, finish packing (without the tent – going to gamble it shows up today and Delphine can run it out to me) and get on the road. OK, so I’ll start later than I intended but I’ll just walk fast to make up!

Not sure when the next post will be but I’ll try to keep you all up to date as I go.

Situation update and some begging

I am in Nice, France. Tomorrow I’m off hiking for three days with Delphine during which time I’ll by uncontactable except (possibly) by mobile. Hence I’m hoping to get the blog updated tonight around sending all the begging letters for the 1000 Mile Walk. And upload all my photos. And other stuff.

Fingers crossed.

Also, I’d like to ask another favour. You lot did it before and I’m sure you can do it again. Previously it was a school roof ripped off in a storm. This time it’s three kids who considered dropping out of school to help their one employed brother pay off their deceased father’s medical bills. Please pop over to the Blue Dragon Blog for more information.
Post Script: (word for word from Michael) We’ve done it! Enough money has been donated to the boys! And I’m the lucky guy to tell them on Saturday morning! Thank you, blog world… – Friday 12.21 pm

Thanks in advance.

Looks like a month for it…

Two posts in a row, two complaints… This one to Blu-Express who were anything but express in getting me from Rome to Nice… 11 hours of delays, no staff available to tell us what was going on and an inability to stick within the EU guidelines enforced since January last year.

Basically, don’t use this mob. I noticed that every flight they had on the board (those that were even displayed) were delayed by at least 2-3 hours.

I am writing to complain about your company’s handling of the delayed flight listed above: flight BV1770 from Rome Fiumicino to Nice on 22nd July 2007. This flight was due to take off at 20:00 on the 22nd. Instead, when I arrived at the airport I was informed that it would be 03:00 on the 23rd.

At some point in the evening, this was changed to 04:30, though nobody thought tell the passengers. The first I knew was when my friend in Nice who was meant to pick me up sent me an SMS. There was no tannoy announcement, and the screens in departure lounge B did not have the flight listed at all.

4:00 came and went before an announcement told us the flight would then be at 06:10. We eventually boarded slightly after 06:30.

Throughout all this, no staff were available to give us any information on what was going on. The airport itself must surely shoulder some of the blame, but the attitude from Blu-Express was one of complete indifference. Your check-in staff packed up and went home shortly after everyone had gone through the security gate and left no presence in the airport whatsoever.

Further, EU Regulation (EC) 261/2004 (available here: http://www.aviationreg.ie/images/ContentBuilder/reg261.pdf) states that staff should provide passengers with written details of their rights in case of a delay or cancellation – article 14(2). I asked both at the check-in desk and the departure gate. No such information was available, so decisions were made by uninformed passengers.

Secondly, for a delay which means the flight departs the next calendar day, the airline is obliged to provide hotel accommodation and transport to / from the hotel (Article 9(1)(b) and 9(1)(c)). I requested this and my request was denied.

Thirdly, I asked how I was supposed to contact my friend in Nice who would be awaiting my arrival. I was told that payphones were available or I could use a coin-operated internet terminal. I am legally entitled to two telephone calls, faxes, telexes or emails paid for by your company which I was denied. This is a direct contravention of the Regulation (Article 9(2)).

We were offered and given an evening meal of satisfactory quality. The airport gave us water at around 4am. However, no breakfast was given – not acceptable given the length of time between the evening meal and the actual take-off (Article 9(1)(a)).

I had to make a phone call to France at a payphone which cost me a small fortune. This cost should have been borne by your company. I should have been provided with food, but was not. Given the delay in flight time, I should have been offered a hotel bed and transport there and back – but was not.

In all, your company made a “half-assed’ effort to try to claim it was doing all it legally had to. Sadly, even in this it failed. You did less than the legal minimum and for that I seek and demand some form of compensation. Had you actually satisfied all the terms laid out in the aforementioned Regulation I would not be writing this mail, but you did not. As a result of your ineptitude and uncaring attitude, I effectively lost a whole day of my holiday in Nice – half of it stuck in an airport in Rome to which I will also be complaining, and half of it asleep from exhaustion as there is nowhere to sleep in the airport.

I will, however, be fair and leave it to you to decide a suitable amount of compensation. Rest assured, if the amount is unsatisfactory I will be taking this complaint further to the relevant administrative body in Italy from where you can certainly expect to recieve a hefty financial penalty.

Email is the best way to contact me at present, though if you prefer a land address then please ask and I will be glad to forward one on to you.

Yours faithfully,

etc

Handy holiday hint

Here’s one for you. If you’re someone who wears contacts most of the time, please bear this in mind. Should you wander around for weeks wearing nice mirrored sunglasses, and then change them for no contact lenses and a pair of regular specs… stop perving women in an obvious fashion as they can now see that you’re doing it. Just because you can feel that little weight on the bridge of your nose and the backs of your ears doesn’t mean your eyes are obscured.

Yes. Whoops.