Dear Ryanair – you suck.
It’s pretty common knowledge that Ryanair is probably the cheapest airline out there. Everyone knows that they are the biggest crooks in the history of airlines but we all book them anyways, don’t we?
My first “I’ll never fly Ryanair again” situation was when I flew from Düsseldorf/Weeze (which is actually their first trick: they are not even allowed to call that airport Düsseldorf, which is about 70kms away from Düsseldorf, but they do it anyway) to Girona and that whole flight (which is 2hours normally) took over 6 hours. SIX HOURS! After 2 hours I realized that we were flying circles and at some point the crew informed us that the radar system was broken and France wouldn’t let us cross the country. Fine. Happens. Not their fault. Since my dad is a pilot, I knew that a missing radar system isn’t such a big thing. But yes, we flew circles… and then: BACK TO GERMANY! Another hour passing by we landed in Frankfurt/Hahn, because obvouisly this is the closest Ryanair homebase and it won’t cost them anything to fix the system there. Meanwhile, passengers weren’t allowed to leave the plane or even stand up from their seats. After another hour fixing time we finally took off towards Spain again. Another two hours flight, without food, drinks or anything else (there wasn’t enough on board for that occasion). Finally landed in Girona, the last bus to Barcelona was already gone. Great. No service from Ryanair, obviously. And clearly no chance to get my money back. That night, I was sure I’d rather book a more expensive flight than ever fly with Ryanair again.
But as it goes, last saturday night, for lack of a better option I found myself booking a Ryanair flight. To Berlin. And what could go wrong on an one hour flight from Weeze to Berlin. Nothing, right? Wrong! I didn’t think of how bad their website system would be. I already had issues chosing the flights I wanted because of some server error. But somehow I managed to go through the whole booking process and was able to fill in all my data. I checked TWICE if everything was right, because this really isn’t the first time I book flights:
Luggage? No, thank you. Travel insurance? No, that’ll be fine, thanks. Priority boarding? Oh, no, not needed. Car rental? Nope. Newsletter? Nah. Your blood sucked? Hmmm, maybe. Or actually, no. Online check in, right flight dates, right name and credit card information.
I paid about 53€ in total and confirmed the booking. And after that… (dramatic pause)… I got my reservation number and a summary of my flight information. Wait a minute! What? Flying when? Somehow I got completely different flights than the ones I chose. Not kidding! Instead of flying in the evening I got flights at 6 in the morning, the return being on a totally different day! The good thing about that is, that they only charged me the prices for the morning flights which is 42€ in total. But what could I do about that? Nothing, actually. There was no possibility to cancel or change flights without an extra charge of 100€. Or to write an email (which is actually also againts the law in Germany). Or to call a hotline (because it was weekend), which charges you 2€/min (so thats how they make their money!). After some research I had the idea to call the Irish hotline on Monday, which only charges the normal costs of a call to Ireland. But all I got out of it was 10 minutes of hanging in the queue, a rude Ryanair employee with poor English and the conclusion that I had to pay an extra 35€ for each flight to change them to the right dates, regardless of whose fault it was that the booking was wrongly done. And if I just wanted the taxes back I would be charged 20€ administrative fee. Cheers, Ryanair.
Ironically, in the end it was cheaper just to book completely new flights. And guess what? My cousin, who wanted to fly to Berlin at the same time as me, just told me there had been an error in her booking as well and now everything is booked twice. Nice, Ryanair. Hard not to wonder if this is just some kind of trick to earn even more money.
So whats the moral of the story? I, for myself have a burn mark for a lifetime to never throw money in these crooks’ mouths ever again, even if that means I have to walk barefoot to my destination (remind me of that, later, ok?).
Tell me what you think about Ryanair in the comments below. I am stoked to hear your horror stories!
Nina
i feel with you! had an ebookers incident today.. wanted to change my flight from lisbon to berlin, after waiting about 20 minutes for the poor girl working for ebookers “customer service” (hooray for bureaucracy, waiting time and insane fees) to confirm the information i already told her, i was told that it would cost 145 pounds just in fees to change the whole thing. damn.
Oh dear God flying from Berlin to Frankfurt once was a traumatizing enough event in itself that took me 8 hours of uncomfortable pain. But worse than that is only the very confusing booking system which ticks every shitty extra even if you don’t want it. Much like you, I ended up absolutely confused, charged extra luggage even though I didn’t want any and my credit card absolutely exploded on me with wrong booking costs.
But: it only took me one letter from a lawyer to fix the issue. Got my money back in no time (and a one time lawyer isn’t as expensive). Needless to say, I’d rather fucking hike the way down than ever fly Ryan Air again.
Oh and in the end, my flight to Berlin yesterday was 2 hours delayed without any information. Nothing more to add.
I didn’t get fleeced like you did for the flights(i flew to berlin last weekend), but I think their customer service is a joke!
I’m tubby, I won’t make any pretence about that – but I’m able to fit comfortably in car, bus, and train and plane seats. I even physically fit into Ryanair plane seats. But last weekend I was horrified to find that their seatbelts did not fit me – I was absolutely mortified! What made things even worse is that I had to ask a flight attendant for help, who actually snorted and asked me to state a bit louder why i needed help. Then they made a big deal of bringing an extender over for me and fitting it themselves – again humiliating me in front of the people sitting beside me.
Then on the return flight, I pre-empted any embarrassment by asking the flight attendant for an extender when I boarded the plane, he seemed cool, until I sat down and heard him say to his attendant friend to remind him to ‘get a belt for that fatty over there’.
I’ll just be paying the extra for easyjet next time – they are friendlier and even if they do think i am fat, they don’t make me feel bad because of it!
Yeah Ryanair…
they even receive subsidies at some airports for having there base there; instead of paying landing/starting fees they earn additional money.
I only flew with Ryanair twice and have nothing to complain about, but had a nice experience with Easyjet last weekend, flying from London Luton to Berlin Schönefeld.
We got to the airport by EasyBus and arrived early, so we would have plenty of time for a nice airport breakfast, since it was 6 am. our flight was supposed to leave at 7.50 am, we queued for an hour to check in until they opened an emergency check in for 5 flights whose passangers had not been able to check in although their gates were about to close. we queued another half an hour there just to be told we had 5 minutes to get to the gate. If you have been to Luton you might know how far away the gates are. we ran straight for 15 minutes with our backpacks, having neither slept nor eaten nor drunken anything through the whole night, wearing no ideal running shoes (…) just to wait another 20 minutes at the gate. they did not apologize nor offer us water or anything. plus, a very nice lady at the passport control who called me “honey” made a scene about why we were so late. nice.
The worst thing about their hotline is not, that it costs 2 Euro, it´s the fact that the hotline costs 2 Euro before anyone picks up the phone. I think that is ridiculous. So you´re paying without getting something for your money.
@nina: funny, you say that with the double booking. because i had a very similar experience once. i had to really quickly book a flight and was in a hurray. but i was sure i had booked the right flights on the correct dates and times. but when i got my flight confirmation the dates and times were totally different althought the ticket price was smaller.
at that time, i had thought i had made the mistake and had maybe not been as attentive as i should have been considering the hurray i was in but now after reading your story i am not so sure anymore – too many similarities!
i did call the helpline and payed 2€/min, i had to change the flights to the correct times because they were for that same evening, so i also payed the 100€ fine in addition to the price difference, because in the meantime the flight prices had doubled. and then when i wanted to pay, they wouldn’t accept my credit card. the guy on the phone kept saying my credit card is refused, so while staying on the phone to him on line 1, i had to call around and find a friend and get their credit card number. when i finally found one the ryanair guy on line 1 had hung up. so the whole process started again.
in the end i paid around 400€ for a 65€ flight and will never ever fly ryanair again, if i can avoid it in any way. i’d rather walk then have a company i am paying for a service treat me like s*** for using their service.
OMG, Ryanair is the worst airline ever… I also think that it’s not ok to charge 100 € for changing the flight date or the name on the reservation.
Exactly the same thing happeed to me with easyjet last night!!!
Did you notice that when you say Ryanair backwards it pronaunces same as forward… Ryanair – Rianayr… To make me comment more constructive… 100% agree.
haha, great comment lynne!
I have not had any troubles with Ryanair but I do know for a fact that their Customer Service is shitty as that. Did perhaps anyone hear about the rumor that they’d want to use standing places so they could fit EVEN MORE people in their horribly small plane and make more money ?!?!? That just about sums it up. But I was able to book a flight from Weeze to Zaragoza for 10€ total so couldnt let that oppertunity pass me by. Will update when I return.
Im very sorry that your booking was messed up,however, that could happen to any website. You know you tick the box ” I agree with terms and conditions”,sot then you shouldnt be surprised that at ticket desk you will be charged for changes made to your booking. Ryanair system is very well done and if you follow the regulations,you can get to for eg. 20 euros return from London to Girona and Mallorca for 7 euros return from Girona. My friend went for 2 euros return to Paris from Glasgow. No problems at all. If you know you will try to bring more luggage than you are allowed to,then you shouldnt be surprised that you will be charged at the gate,by airport (not Ryanair) employees,because they are obliged to follow certain regulations as well. If they are rude to you,then complain to their employer,not to the poor cabin crew that just happened to be flying you home. they have nothing to do with this. Passengers often behave like they own the place, even though some of them wouldnt be able to afford a ticket in business class with a non low-fare airline. But they think will they will get breakfast/lunch/dinner and newspaper for free? you didnt pay for it! so dont be rude. If you wish to have extra service then you have to pay for it,but Ryanair ideology is to cut all the extras to very basic flying from point to point for minimum price. If you adhere to the rules, you wont be charged extra,it is not compulsory to rent a car,get travel insurance,get priority boarding,or buy a sandwich onboard. you will get a seat for euros, and believe me, very likely your flight will be on time or even ahead of schedule,unless there is a problem with traffic, ATC on strike,weather conditions or other..which is unavoidable.
Julie,
I am sorry about your experience,you probably had one of few stupid cabin crew onobard your flight.It is absolutely inacceptable to treat a passenger like that and you see that this is a character issue,that particular person was a genuine idiot.Again,nothing to do with Ryanair.You can meet these people anywhere. Normally you would be given an extension seatbelt dicreetly,without any comments. Boeing 737 next generation is a modified version of 737,wings adjusted,higher fuel capacity, quieter,more fuel efficient engines, interior, single aisle,with bigger hatbins. Seats do not recline, I wish they would,but 737-800 is a very good plane.
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