Ryanair and Customer Service

No this isn’t another moan about the quality or even quantity of customer service that Ryanair offers. Well not really. No this is a comment on what Ryanair thinks it does.
You might have seen in yesterday’s media stories about how Ryanair has made €136.5 million profit (about £119 million) in the first 3 months of its trading for this year. As the largest airline in Europe, one that has grown very quickly from nothing to this status so quickly, that its management would be pretty adept. And there is nothing wrong with making a profit. There aren’t many that are making money including the American airline Southwest Airlines upon which Ryanair based its business model.
Tucked away in the very last paragraph of its press release was this statement which I quote verbatim. “The winners in a deep recession will always be those companies like Aldi, Lidl, McDonalds, and Ryanair who offer the lowest prices and the best service to consumers.”
After I picked myself off the floor from laughing at this “best service” I did wonder who Ryanair is trying to kid. There are lots of reasons to be thankful to Ryanair but best customer service definitely isn’t one of them. And there is a very strong link between customer service and customer satisfaction. And that Ryanair certainly doesn't provide in large doses.
Many years ago, long before the recession hit, a team lead by Professor Claes Fornell at the University of Michigan showed that there was a link between customer service and company value. I don’t know whether it still holds in a recession but there is no way you are going to convince me that Ryanair offers best customer service. Sainsbury’s and Waitrose might in supermarkets, Southwest Airlines in aviation, Marks & Spencer in general retailing but not Ryanair. Not judging by the thousands of complaints we have had in our customer care survey over the years.
Maybe Ryanair has been seeing the leprechauns too!

Making Money out of Ryanair

Someone spotted that Ryanair charged the same price in euros as it did in pounds. This idea comes courtesy of 360travelguide.com which was picked up by the online trade magazine, Travolution.
Because Ryanair say that a euro equals a pound, they were making an extra 16% clear profit over and above their usual profit if you pay in pounds. The suggestion is that whatever you buy, you pay with a large denomination note in euros and request the change in pounds. The example is that if you pay for a €3 coffee and pay with €50 It is based on the fact that, at present, Ryanair charges the same in euros as it does in pounds so note, the change will be £47. This equates to €54 so you will have your coffee for nothing and be €4 to the better.

360travelguide.com spotted this and Conrad, their representative, tried this out on a flight and it worked. Unfortunately for the rest of us it looks as though Ryanair spotted it as well and new brochures were printed which showed a difference. It was €3 for a coffee but only £2.70. But that is still only 11% difference.. If they will give you change back in euros it will still mean you should be about €5 better off.
See if it works if you're travelling in the next few days and let us know.
It would be nice to get some cash back from them for a change instead of donating as much as we do.

An Update on Mexican Holidays

The outbreak of a flu virus in Mexico has prompted some of the strangest media coverage. On the one hand, there have been the stories of returning holidaymakers suffering from flu like symptoms and the spread of the virus to other countries and on the other, plaintive stories of people who have had their holiday plans dashed as tour operators cancel their package holidays.
It is too early to establish how severe this scare is but comments from Michael O’Leary of Ryanair claiming that it is only a tragedy for slum dwellers in Asia or Mexico and that a couple of strepsils for the rest of us will do doesn’t help.
To those going to Mexico in the next few days, the Foreign Office travel advice means that ABTA members will probably cancel the bookings. In this case, holidaymakers are entitled to alternative arrangements or a refund. For those of you seeking compensation, forget it. Just about every travel insurance policy would rate this as outside the control of the travel agent or tour operator. If you have booked flight and accommodation separately then you will need to check with both to see what their attitude is. For example, British Airways still is flying to Mexico
Thomsons, First Choice, Airtours, Virgin Holidays, Kuoni, Cosmos and Thomas Cook are amongst those tour operators who have all stopped holidays to Mexico for the next week at least.

Ryanair: New Check-in rules for Baggage

From tomorrow, 19th March there will be some new rules for checking in hold baggage. You can now check-in your hold baggage online but there will be a charge of £5. If you continue to use the airport check-in facilities, the price has risen slightly from £9.50 to £10.
Up until then, you could only check-in online if you were an EU citizen. That changes and non-EU citizens will be allowed to check-in online as will those people who have reduced mobility.
So what does this mean?
It is the first part of the changes that Ryanair is bringing in over the next six months so that checking in at the airport eventually ends. The only method of check-in after October 1st will be online. At present it is estimated that 75% of people do check-in online so on the face of it it will not affect that many.
Think again.
Ryanair's decision will affect millions of pasengers. In 2008, they carried over 55 million passengers it is thought so over 13 million passengers will be affected by these rule changes. That's a lot of passengers they may annoy but does that matter to them?
On the other hand, checking in online has substantially reduced queues at airports leaving only the security queues to exasperate passengers at certain times of the day. Some have claimed it is discriminatory against those that have no computers and it will be interesting to see if anyone takes that to court for a ruling.
All of those travelling with just hand baggage will still have no fee to pay.
For the time being.
See the Ryanair feature, http://www.cd-traveller.com/en_ryanair_competition.php for a competion started by Ryanair about people's ides of what Ryanair will charge for next!

Mobile Phones at 26,000 Feet

Well I suppose it had to come.
After saying it would happen in 2006 and frequently in 2008, Ryanair introduced to passengers the chance to use their mobile phones on some flights yesterday.
So if you feel like paying between £2 and £3 a call you can indulge yourself by saying unecessary things like "I'll be landing in ten minutes" and "Can you put the kettle on in about half an hour" and other earth shattering items like that as you sit hunched up in the garishly blue and canary yellow decor of their planes.
Air France and bmi have trialled it, Emirates allows it and, in the ever increasing search for revenue, other airlines will probably jump on the bandwagon.
I said in this newsletter a good while ago that I would be the person who would book with an airline that promised not to introduce mobile phone usage. Now I am concerned that, in a few years time,there may not be an airline that will do that. Am I a fossil rooted in a bygone age?
Yes probably but it doesn't mean to say I like it and although I go to Dublin regularly,(at the moment it is only on Dublin based planes) other airlines will see me rather than Ryanair but how long will my wallet hold out? That's what Michael O'Leary, the Chief Exec of Ryanair relies on. He is quoted in Friday's Daily Telegraph as saying that passengers shouldn't object because they don't fly with Ryanair for peace. (Too right you don't. From the moment you enter their cabins the hard sell jingle begins.) Again to quote the Telegrpah, "Anyone who likes to sleep, we will wake them up and sell them a sandwich or coffee." So far his cabin crew have been politer than him because they haven't tried that with me.
Maybe that will be the limit?
Or not, depending on my wallet!

Holidays Next Year?

Yet again it is a combination of things rather than one that makes people think about whether they will have a holiday next year.
The CBI’s November Service Sector Survey says that travel services companies are less optimistic than they were three months ago and they predict that optimism will decline further. So what’s new? It seems all we read about are downturns.
Yesterday the pound hit a low point against the euro making the prospect of holidays in popular destinations like Spain, Italy, Greece and France more expensive. We might see a return to holiday surcharges based on currency fluctuations. And today Gatwick has been closed for hours because of the runway being frozen and the need to de-ice it. Bangkok had the demonstrations at the airport a few weeks ago which caused it to be shut for days and Ryanair announced that it will cancel all flights to Fuerteventura from January because the local tourist board hasn’t fulfilled its responsibility in promoting the island. This is despite the fact that Ryanair carried a quarter of a million passengers there this year. Cynical travel watchers are wondering whether this is really just a cutback disguised as a dispute
The holiday industry has been fairly resilient in past downturns. People might trade down from 4 star accommodation to 3 star or take an evening flight instead of a day flight. They might go somewhere a bit cheaper, maybe not in the eurozone but who is to know where currency rates will be in the peak season time next year? Domestic holiday bookings are said to be doing well.
Whatever happens people will still need a break. If for no other reason to get away from the perpetual doom and gloom the media preaches!

Ryanair & Jonathan Ross

When you see a press report about Ryanair, it usually makes good reading. Their Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary, is not known for bland language; some is more colourful than Gordon Ramsay's so the announcement of his third quarter accounts is uasually not as boring as some that travel companies issue. Ryanair calls for the removal of Harry Bush, "the hopeless CAA regulator" who rubber stamped the crazy plan to build a second terminal at Stasted which Ryanair calls a "gold plated Taj Mahal."

They claim he "stood idly by" whilst security and passport queues grew and passenger charges doubled. They are quite restrained about the introduction of a €10 air travel tax by the Irish government just calling it "inequitable".

And last week they offered to save Jonathan Ross. Yes, they went and issued a press release saying they were willing to rescue him, (I didn't know he needed rescuing). Claiming that Ross was sent to Coventry by the BBC, Ryanair suggested "Ryanaid" and said they would send him some tickets for the flights so that he could see "how the other half, who doesn't earn £18 million a year lives" .

Given that the statement was a teensie weensie bit inaccurate you have to hand it to them for audacity in linking their fare sale to Ross's actions over the last week or so.The previous week they had criticised Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) over charges suggested for rental space for check-in kiosks at Dublin Airport. O'Leary referred to the Irish airport regulator as "useless" and said that the DAA will continue to "abuse its powersI must look at their press releases and have a good laugh more often!"