Ryanair to charge for priority boarding

[Neil]

It seems that with the launch of OLCI they have now decided another way to make money out of the pax is to charge for Priority Boarding instead of offering it free, like they used to for families[n].

Full details are in the second half of this page.

I'd be interested to know how many of these priorty boarding's they are going to sell for each flight, because if every pax buys one then it kind of defeats the object.

Just another money making scheme imo[V] - low cost, whatever!!

Neil:)

I can't see everyone wanting to buy prioirty boarding esp. single pax who don't need a block of seats together. TBH, this has again lowered my (already low) opinion of the airline and I hope that no one buys this "product"[n].

VS

Money-grabbing idiots [:(!] All the more reason not to fly with them. If they want to give passengers choice, why can't they follow Jet2's example by allocating seating at check-in and allowing them all to board at the same time...Ryanair have already broken the LCC model once so they can get away by doing this, or can they?

[Bazz]

Heard this morning that they have also dropped the baggage allowance (from 20kg to 15kg?) meaning that retuning pax who went out when the old rule was in force are being charged excess baggage for being overweight on their return! Sound like Ryanair shooting itself in the foot again. [V]

[Neil]

I saw this the other day, which says Ryanair have been voted the worst airline (finally!), you would hope that MOL might take some notice but if you look at the comments from Ryanair, it doesn't seem to of done so[V] - so for me I will continue to protest in the best way possible, which is never to fly them, would rather walk.

Neil:)

Originally posted by Attitude23
I saw this the other day, which says Ryanair have been voted the worst airline (finally!), you would hope that MOL might take some notice but if you look at the comments from Ryanair, it doesn't seem to of done so[V] - so for me I will continue to protest in the best way possible, which is never to fly them, would rather walk.

Neil:)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA![}:)]

The problem is that Mr O'Leary will not change his ways unless there's a big lawsuit involved, and usually finds a way to use bad publicity/praise for his rivals to his advantage (anyone noticed their advert when Stelios of easyJet got knighted?). He will probably use the figures of passengers carried on Ryanair to hit back or something like that.

I agree with you Neil that I'd rather walk than fly with Ryanair. Fancy coming to try to swim across the Irish Sea sometime to Dublin

Or if not I'll be more than happy to join you in protesting about how bad Ryanair are etc.

Well, we may love to hate him and granted his constant search for margin through changing the rules is irritating but passenger numbers and profitability suggest that as a businessman he is doing something right. I'd never fly Ryanair out of choice, but no one else could fly me from Shannon to Stansted for the princely sum of £8 (taxes included).

Paul

I can certainly see them being voted the worst[:?]

I don't fly with them myself, but I do dislike it when people complain about low cost airlines and then complain about the cost on full-fare legacy carriers; you can't have it both ways.[:0]

VS.

Originally posted by pjh
Well, we may love to hate him and granted his constant search for margin through changing the rules is irritating but passenger numbers and profitability suggest that as a businessman he is doing something right.

Now i ain't in Ryanair lover but Finally somebody is talking sence. The industry has become one where profit is the aim. MOL is a genius when it comes to making a profit and thats what seperates the men from the boys. If it ain't broke then don't fix it is his model and it seems to be working pritty well for him. It's a shame that it can't be said for other airlines espically the US ones. Everyone seems to be Ryanair are bad at this or they have done that. But the truth of the matter is that they have changed European and possibly along with Southwest world air travel, by bring low fares. Like someone else said in one of the replies you can't have frills and low fares. It's a case of put up or shut up and if you don't like it then take the train or boat.

[Neil]

AerJohn - you make some good points and I do agree, at the end of the day, Ryanair are in business to make money. I just find their attitude to customer services appauling compared to some of the other low cost airlines - Jet2 and Bmi Baby are more than often as cheap if not cheaper than Ryanair but they don't charge for priority boarding or for putting baggage in the hold, my point is that Low Cost seems to becoming less and less, as whilst the fares are cheap you end up paying for everything else, which overall makes them not that cheap.

Neil:)

Now i ain't in Ryanair lover but Finally somebody is talking sence. The industry has become one where profit is the aim. MOL is a genius when it comes to making a profit and thats what seperates the men from the boys. If it ain't broke then don't fix it is his model and it seems to be working pritty well for him. It's a shame that it can't be said for other airlines espically the US ones. Everyone seems to be Ryanair are bad at this or they have done that. But the truth of the matter is that they have changed European and possibly along with Southwest world air travel, by bring low fares. Like someone else said in one of the replies you can't have frills and low fares. It's a case of put up or shut up and if you don't like it then take the train or boat.

Too right[^]

HOwever, Neil also makes a good point that they don't need to go so out of their way to lower costs - lots of things they save on such as losing the window blinds are very small reductions and make little difference to the price of tickets; it's all just to improve profit margins I'm sure.
In my mind, I think they've done enough now and need to stop before we see Ryanair aircraft taking off without those weight increasing nuisances such as chairs, FAs and other "non-essential" items[}:)];)

VS.

I've never understood all the hype about LCC's.
I worked on an oil project in Scotland in the Early 90's before LCC was invented. A lot of the guys I was working with would fly from London on a Monday and go home again on a Friday, week in week out. The price to fly up on a Monday and Back on a Friday was £200. But if you were sensible you would book overlapping tickets two weeks in advance to fly up on a Monday and back on a week on Friday. Doing it this way put you into the good old fashioned APEX ticket bucket and it cost £80 all inclusive eiter on BA or BD.... And you got a cooked breakfast on the monday and a cream tea on fridays with CHINA cups and plates and METAL cutlery!!!

Friends working recently on a project in Aberdeen are paying pretty much the same price by working the same ticket overlaps but getting no service, no food, and no guarantees to actually get you there.

That said the passenger numbers on RyanAir speak for themselves and they fly to the places I want to go, so I suffer the lack of service for an hour.

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by PVGSLF
Doing it this way put you into the good old fashioned APEX ticket bucket and it cost £80 all inclusive eiter on BA or BD.... And you got a cooked breakfast on the monday and a cream tea on fridays with CHINA cups and plates and METAL cutlery!!!

Friends working recently on a project in Aberdeen are paying pretty much the same price by working the same ticket overlaps but getting no service, no food, and no guarantees to actually get you there.

I and many researchers have noticed the same thing. Good for the traveling public in the short term but bad for use all in the mid to long term. What is it Benjamin?

Airline fare tend not to reflect increases do to inflation where there expenses do (with the cost of oil being on a wild ride).

Yes, of course I left inflation out of the equation, but in truth UK inflation has been pretty low since the early 90's. I am sure one of our friendly accounting types here can do the maths and tell us what the £80 ticket in 1991 should cost today.

My point is the simplicity of the pricing structure back then. The price advertised was the price i paid, and i knew to book two weeks in advance and stay a saturday night to be sure to get the flight at that price.

And I got china cups in Y!

Jeez what is it with VS still clinging to platic cutlery in UC AND the clubhouse.

I've done a lot of flights around the far east/india in the last two months and ALL had china and metal, even in Y.
[V]

Ok, I have to admit it, I flew Ryanair yesterday from Girona. the situation that the OP mentioned had an almost violent effect on boarding. On the disply board in front of check-in it says that families with small children will be boarded first, so several families sat around the departure gate while everyone else queued up. when the boarding was announced, there was no mention of families, so everyone else started boarding, at this point some of the fathers went up and asked why they were not called, they were told that as from 1St. nov. they would have to pay extra, but they were not informed about this at check-in. So all the families had to join the back of the queue!!! It delayed the departure by 1/2 hour, as on board crew were trying to move people around to accommodate all the split up groups, not to be helped by the plane being totally full!!!

Originally posted by stoneman
On the disply board in front of check-in it says that families with small children will be boarded first, so several families sat around the departure gate while everyone else queued up. when the boarding was announced, there was no mention of families, so everyone else started boarding, at this point some of the fathers went up and asked why they were not called, they were told that as from 1St. nov. they would have to pay extra, but they were not informed about this at check-in. So all the families had to join the back of the queue!!!

Though I don't have the averse reaction to Ryanair that many here do, I think this is pretty shabby. If the policy is "you get what you pay for" you should at least know what you are expected to be paying for!

Originally posted by stoneman
It delayed the departure by 1/2 hour, as on board crew were trying to move people around to accommodate all the split up groups, not to be helped by the plane being totally full!!!

I guess there's a plus point here in that at least they tried..or would have been a riot had they not attempted to seat people together ?

Paul

This one can only backfire on Ryanair... if none of the families pay for priority boarding, I'm sure there is going to be a lot of delay due to reshuffling becuase the kids are at the front of the plane next to some wierdo stranger, and the parents are stuck down the back. Not an ideal situation, but why should families pay extra to ensure it doesn't happen, I know i wouldn't.

[Neil]

Originally posted by PVGSLF
This one can only backfire on Ryanair... if none of the families pay for priority boarding, I'm sure there is going to be a lot of delay due to reshuffling becuase the kids are at the front of the plane next to some wierdo stranger, and the parents are stuck down the back. Not an ideal situation, but why should families pay extra to ensure it doesn't happen, I know i wouldn't.

I think that families will pay extra just to ensure they can sit together, and because Ryanair know this, they have decided to implement this new system/charge. My biggest fear when flying with someone is that we will not be sat together and is probably amongst the main priorities for a lot of pax, knowing there is a better chance to sit together for only £2/3 each is worth it for most people and Ryanair are exploiting this fact.

Neil:)

Originally posted by Attitude23

I think that families will pay extra just to ensure they can sit together, and because Ryanair know this, they have decided to implement this new system/charge. My biggest fear when flying with someone is that we will not be sat together and is probably amongst the main priorities for a lot of pax, knowing there is a better chance to sit together for only £2/3 each is worth it for most people and Ryanair are exploiting this fact.

Unbridled capitalism isn't pretty. I wonder, however, whether his aim is to *deter* people from insisting on sitting together so a faster turnaround can be achieved. When I first flew Ryanair about 10 years ago I'm pretty sure there was no priority boarding at all - but ISTBC about that.

Paul

Originally posted by pjh
... When I first flew Ryanair about 10 years ago I'm pretty sure there was no priority boarding at all - but ISTBC about that.

Paul

I'm sure I remember LCC being famed for the rugby scrum at first. If you wanted to be sure of sitting together muscle your way to the front of the queue!

Maybe I'm just too tight... I'd happily leave screaming child next to a total stranger, than pay the money... I would of course be hoping that said stranger likes the idea less than I do and eventually offers to swap seats.

[Neil]

Originally posted by PVGSLF
I'm sure I remember LCC being famed for the rugby scrum at first. If you wanted to be sure of sitting together muscle your way to the front of the queue!

Didn't LCC used to allocate seats when they first started like "normal" carriers? I am sure you used to get a boarding card with a seat number on it[:?] - this was of course until they realised how small things like boarding cards cost money and that they could easily do away with them, I would love to compare LCC 10yrs ago to today and see what changes have happened.

Neil:)

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by Attitude23

Originally posted by PVGSLF
I'm sure I remember LCC being famed for the rugby scrum at first. If you wanted to be sure of sitting together muscle your way to the front of the queue!

Didn't LCC used to allocate seats when they first started like "normal" carriers? I am sure you used to get a boarding card with a seat number on it[:?] - this was of course until they realised how small things like boarding cards cost money and that they could easily do away with them, I would love to compare LCC 10yrs ago to today and see what changes have happened.

Neil:)

Some of the LCCs like bmibaby still allocate seats but like PVGSLF, I have experienced the rugby scrum of 10 years ago on Ryanair. Over recent years they introduced boarding by sequence with boarding cards 1-90 allowed on first. However I'm still puzzled by our experience last week. Aer John and I checked in together onthe same e-ticket. He had sequence number 59 and I had 110!! Can Ryanair count?

Well, if MOL can make an extra few Euros out of those prepared to pay for priority boarding l including families IMHO) good luck to him. It seems to me you have the choice - book early with no extras and pay 12 Euros, or book late and have the extras but pay more. Of course some people may not like LCC'S or Ryan in particular, but that is a totally different point.

Originally posted by honey lamb
Can Ryanair count?

Good at counting the cash....[}:)]

Paul