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Ryanair: The guardian of international equality · 25 April 06

It’s official, I apologise. Crap customer service is not in fact restricted to America. I had forgotten at the time of my earlier blog entry, as I so often try to, the appalling manifestation that is Ryanair. One thing that helped me forget their existence is that up until now I have managed to avoid letting it impact me. I have never flown with them, as there has always been a choice between them and another airline in the past, and I have always opted for the other airline. Although I must stress that this is not by random chance, as their reputation most definitely precedes them. One strategic difference between Ryanair and the companies that I previously disparaged is the complete lack of any pretense of customer service. They are virtually uncontactable, unaccountable, and god help you if anything goes wrong with your journey, because they sure as hell won’t.

They specialise in flying between obscure airports in the ‘vicinity’ of major cities. This I have no problem with; it is the paradigm that is also used by Easyjet, who all things considered do a sterling job, with service, as well as customer service. Ryanair fail on both accounts. They have no qualms about stranding young girls in the middle of nowhere long after the public transport has stopped running, and taxis and hotels are beyond their means (my cousin). They take no responsibility for missed connections, delayed or cancelled flights (friends and family too numerous to list). They are officially the worst airline for losing luggage (if you want, I can find links to the reported statistics), and no compensation, delivery or even a toothbrush is forthcoming from them. It is impossible to communicate with them through any means other than a premium rate, restricted hours telephone line. The reassurance I have been offered by a third party that my flight has not been triple booked is “they know they can’t do that – or they ought to know, they’ve certainly been in court over that kind of thing enough times”. Wow. Yes. That’s mighty reassuring.

I have more than been confirmed in my avoidance of them up until now. A monopoly on the exploitation of pilgrims may have prevented me from avoiding them this time, but I will be equally religious in my avoidance of them from here on out.

  1. Actually, really bad customer service is rapidly becoming the norm, rather than the exception. This is a fairly tragic state for the world economy. Companies once strove to best serve their customer, and now they actively try to avoid having to help their customer in any way. Profit has become their primary goal, and yet they don’t seem to realize the customer is really the key to long-term profits.
    — Dan    Apr 25, 23:27    #
  2. Well I got stung for £50 excess baggage. Damn them. My case was 25kg – the maximum and then they made me weigh my hand luggage…something i’ve never had to do before. Damn them damn them it was more than a full week’s wages as I’m on a Lithuanian rate. Aaaaaaaarrgh.
    — Caskared    Apr 26, 12:46    #
  3. yup they suck bigtime, and thats comming from an irish gal, and we take everything with a pinch of salt but ryanair just suck, and try having a disibility with them, as well as myself there was anothere completely Deaf guy on a trip we took with them to Barcelona, and they were as unhelpfull ever! and i have to fly with them again this summer to rome! MEH!
    — lette    Apr 26, 14:57    #
  4. Yep as lette said they suck although I’d use stronger language to describe them (but I won’t here). They screw you over and when you finally board the “plane” you are met by surly ignorant staff. Ryanair is the Irish Aeroflot (sorry Aeroflot). Their planes are nothing more than old (Bus Áras) buses with wings tacked on.

    Jaqian
    – an Irish “boy” :)
    — Jaqian    May 3, 11:05    #
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