Preparing to meet RyanAir on the battlefield
 

I finally did it: I bought tickets on RyanAir. The outskirt cities and flight times were right, and the fare beat the train.

But I'm worried. RyanAir's business model is that a lot of passengers get a great deal but a few passengers get ripped off by confiscatory add-on charges at the airport and swear never to fly RyanAir again. Nobody on the airplane pays a fair price for the trip. The price is always too high or too low.

This business model strikes me as fundamentally dishonest, not to mention being murder on employees and customers alike. I prefer not to do business with dishonest companies unless I can be certain that I will be ripping them off rather than vice versa. At FlyerTalk, that mission is right up our alley!

I've read many of the posts about RyanAir in this forum. It appears the main pitfalls are:
1. Forgetting or losing your home-printed boarding pass: about $100
2. Hand luggage exceeding 10.00 kg or not fitting into the 55x40x20 cm sizing box: about $60
3. Neglecting to get the visa stamp outside security or forgetting travel documents
4. Arriving at the gate too late (due to item 3 or any other reason): purchase of a new trip
5. Checking luggage too heavy or too late for cutoff

The hardest of these seems to be the 55x40x20 cm size. The 55 and 20 dimensions are smaller than standard carry-ons, and I have not found a wheeled carry-on less than 56 cm. Close but no cigar.

Several companies in the UK make lightweight bags specifically for these requirements, but none of them deliver to the USA within less than a month. Fortunately I have relatives able to take delivery in Europe and give me the bag when I arrive. Prices on eBay run about $20 delivered for a collapsible nylon bag (a rectangular duffle) able to use the full 55x40x20 cm. At that size overstuffing the bag should not be necessary. I discovered that one can order eBay items for delivery in Europe if one starts at the eBay site for the delivery country, e.g. ebay.co.uk.

As to the boarding passes, I plan to print them days ahead of time and place one full set (for all travelers) in each passenger's bag. That should cover us.

Have I missed anything to complete my battle plan?

Preparing to meet RyanAir on the battlefield
 

I think you can print the boarding passes about a month before the flight so you should be ok.

It's not dishonest really. All the charges are there in black and white and you have to tick to say you've read the booking conditions before you're allowed to even search for a flight, never mind book.
They just give the impression that they are trying to squeeze every last penny out of you, which of course they are.

Here's an analogy near and dear to our hearts: credit cards.

Imagine that a bank offered 100k bonus miles to sign up for a credit card, but the bank charged a 100% fee on your entire history of purchases from inception to date if your payment is ever late one day (which actually means one second). The outrageous fee is disclosed, as are arcane limits on payment amounts and frequency.

The applicant is not forced to read about these fees and limits in the application process, allowing applicants to make false assumptions of reasonableness. Not disclosed is that the bank has a policy of "no waivers, no favors". Unlike other banks they enforce their rules to the absolute limit. Normal leeway does not exist, and this predatory policy is NOT disclosed.

This hypothetical bank's business model precisely matches that of RyanAir: Offer loss leader pricing and burn every customer you can with exorbitant fees. This bank in effect steals from the less sophisticated to give to the more sophisticated. Every one of its customers is playing with fire. Many will escape but some will be burned badly.

Such a bank would be illegal in most countries, for good reason. The business model is predatory.

I have flown Ryanair twice (FEZ-MRS in 2008 and OPO-FAO in 2012).

1. No issue in 2012. Printed boarding pass a week before flight.
2. No issue as we checked our larger bags. No one was checking that closely at OPO but most people that had rollaboards were using small ones you don't see very often in the USA, like this "approved" one: http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryana...d-carry-on-bag.
3. At OPO check-in agent forgot to stamp documents, and we were sent back from security. No line when we went back to agent (although this was a domestic flight, so probably not a lot of people checking bagge/non-EU citizens).
4. Not an issue for me, although both departure airports were pretty empty when I was there
5. No issue. In 2012 we purchased the 20kg option, which combined with the 10kg hand baggage was plenty for us for a two week trip.

This statement could apply to any airline. No airline flying today that I know of sells all tickets for the exact proportion of the all inclusive cost of the flight. Your assumption that Ryanair specifically only sells tickets too low and makes up for this by 'burning' a few passengers with add on fees is incorrect.

Ryanair ticket prices rise just like 'traditional' airlines as the plane fills up. Yes they may start lower, but a few times I have seen Ryanair prices higher than other carriers when booking a few weeks/month out. Most recently BA was cheaper than both easyJet and Ryanair for a flight 2 months out.

I know a few people who just go to Ryanair or easyJet to book a flight as they believe they will always be cheaper than 'traditional' carriers.


Ryanair stick to the rules (granted some are of their own volition) for baggage, printing tickets, OLCI, etc, where other carriers may be more leniant and let people get away with an oversized carryon. Their excess baggage fee for example is lower than some other European carriers.


Apart from the charge to reprint a boarding pass, all the other 'pitfalls' you list are pretty much standard on all airlines in one way or another, some may just be more strict about enforcing the rules than others.

I've never had/seen anyone have a problem with baggage, and only heard of it happening to a friend once. In the airports I fly to, the staff are generally far too few/harrassed to bother checking.

Late check-in, however, is another matter.

I've wintessed the baggage scam many times; 100% at UK airports. The staff get bonuses if they collect certain number of baggage tickets.

Putting aside the question of whether Ryanair's practices are predatory or not... you seem well prepared. Print a spare copy of your boarding passes if you think you might misplace them. Get to the gate early to ensure that you get overhead storage space and a good seat - consider paying the extra fee for priority boarding. Bring an empty bottle to fill in the terminal after passing security if you dislike paying for refreshments.

You seem covered yes, apart from your point 4:
"Arriving at the gate too late (due to item 3 or any other reason): purchase of a new trip"
They actually have this:
"Missed Departure Fee - only available at less than 40 mins before and up to 1 hour after flight departure time." ($159-$170, found on their list of extra charges here), it is so expensive that it is often not worth it, but it does exist.


And for the hand luggage size, I have seen them charge people, but let them board with the luggage after they have paid, so this shouldn't make you miss your flight, and it has been a fast process (less than a minute).

And you can print your boarding passes out up to 2 weeks before the flight, I also always carry 2 copies just in case.

How is turning up with too many bags / too heavy bags / too big bags a "scam"?

It becomes a scam if reasonable leeway is not allowed. For example 10 kg means < 10.5 kg. If the airline means to cut it off at exactly 10 kg they should use the proper number of significant figures in the terms: 10.0000 kg or whatever. Stating the limit as 10 kg implies rounding to the nearest kg.

Similarly for the time requirements. State "precisely 20 minutes" or "20 minutes to the second" if that's what it is. Just saying 20 minutes implies rounding to the nearest minute.

Luggage size is also a bit vague. Is the size the bag itself, or the bag plus its wheels? Different carriers treat this differently in my experience, but RyanAir's terms don't clarify which meaning they intend. To find out I had to search FlyerTalk.

In the US, when one party writes a contract any gray area is supposed to be construed to the benefit of the other party. It seems to me that RyanAir's enforcement policy does not match the most customer-favorable interpretation of its written rules. The opposite seems to be closer to the truth. I am surprised that European law would treat customers more harshly than US law, but then again I've seen in France that the customer is always wrong.

MAXIMUM generally means the uppermost limit. So if Ryanair have a 10kg MAXIMUM, then thats what it is.

Oh, they do have plenty leeway. You can carry any weight you like BELOW their Maximum 10kg.

Nearly everyone, bar 3 or4 on each flight manage this. Thats about 98%. I certainly wouldn't want to show myself up as one of the 2% dafties that cant count or follow simple instructions

You must not have taken a lab course. Significant digits are crucial in the sciences. Maybe not so much in law school.

I get the feeling that the only significant digit to RyanAir is the middle one. :p

Not a scientist or lawyer, but to me 10.5 Kg is half Kilogram over limit when 10 Kg is stated as maximum allowable @:-)

Just MHO.

EmailKid

How exact is a numeric requirement in a commercial context? It's mostly a matter of convention. Here are some examples:

A real estate agent describes a 392 square meter house as 400 square meters. Is that close enough to correct? For most people, yes. But I know someone who filed a lawsuit over a similarly small misstatement. Perhaps that person would be at home working for RyanAir.

A speed camera tickets you for driving 56 mph in a 55 mph zone. Reasonable? Most people would say not. A judge would probably uphold the ticket, but that decision would not be popular. People are accustomed to some leeway on speed.

You offer a car for sale on the Internet saying it has 120,000 miles. It actually has 120,384 miles. Have you committed fraud?

It's always a question of reasonableness. Is the departure from the stated number reasonably small or not? RyanAir does not appear to conform with customer expectations of reasonable enforcement of its limits.

Scientists use either significant digits or stated tolerances to define how much error is acceptable. Lawyers apparently don't.

I think I'll bring a tape measure to check RyanAir's sizing box and make sure it's the proper size. Turnabout is fair play. @:-)