Tag: Ryanair

Hello, this is car fifty-five; we’re in a truck

One of my all time favorite movies is Blues Brothers. Growing up, I watched this movie over a hundred times, and still, to this day, whenever play the movie again, I can instantly quote many of the lines from it. It was for this reason, that when I told the people that I was traveling with that I was in ” a truck”, I was instantly reminded of one of my favorite moments from that movie. I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation we found ourselves in. I was making my way to our airplane for a recent trip to Prague and I found myself in “a truck”. I even texted this fact to my friends I was traveling with, and was instantly reminded of this line.

To be clear, my wife recently had surgery on her ankle which means that she has to walk around on crutches for awhile. She is doing great, but she is just getting to the point of being weight bearing on it, and that means that she tires out pretty easily. This does not work well when traveling to Europe where everywhere you go, it is best to just walk there or take public transportation. We decided to bring a wheelchair with us to get around town with more ease, but getting that on to a plane is not always the easiest, especially when the company you are flying with is RyanAir.

To be fair, RyanAir was very respectful and accommodating. I usually do not have many nice things to say about the company, but in this case, I do. We had to gate check the wheelchair which we thought meant giving the wheelchair to the people at the gate, and then getting it back when we got off the plane, but this was not the case. Instead, we were pulled from the line, taken to one of those trucks that they use to load food on to a plane, and got to ride on that in order to get on the plane.

We got to skip a lot of the headache that we usually experienced with flying RyanAir and moved through many of the security measure quickly at the airport. Still, it was a little excessive. We just needed to wheelchair put on the plane, so we could get it back when we got to our destination. We did not need a whole group of people dedicated to getting us on and off the plane. Still, there are other people out there that do need this kind of service, and it is nice to know that it is out there. It just shows that traveling does not have to be just for those who can easily get around. Everybody can get out there and see the world, so take that chance while you still can.

Until next time, keep exploring and experiencing life’s little pleasures.

Ryanair Hates You

I know that Ryanair is a budget airline, and I should not expect a lot when I board one of their planes. I also know that it is fairly inexpensive to fly and they have done an amazing job over their years in the air of creating a program that allows them to make as much money as possible while carting people all over Europe, and to other places nearby. I further know that many people have already made their complaints about this company, and there is not a lot that I can say about it that will add new insight as to who they are, but after recent experiences with them, I feel like I should at least try.

There are many things that I can forgive about them. The fact that they pack as many possible into their planes as possible without giving much leg room to people who might be taller than the average person is forgivable. I get it. The more people you can get on a plane, the more money you can make it. So the goal is to get as many people on that plane that will allow you to fly without them revolting mid-flight, and though uncomfortable, I do believe that Ryanair has found that balance.

I can also forgive the fact that they charge extra money for carry on luggage. It is a typical ploy used by the airlines to make a little extra, and considering that Ryanair charges so little money for their trips, I can see them using this method to make up that money somewhere.

I can even understand why they did away with food and beverage service unless you pay for it. The flights they have are generally short enough that you really do not need to eat or have a drink on them, and if you did not plan well enough that you do, it is your own fault that you are now subjected to their own prices. Most of their flights are within the continent of Europe anyways, so there are methods of getting where you need to go that might take a little longer, but are a lot more enjoyable.

The reason that I think that Ryanair hates is you is because of the little things that they do that goes out of their way to make your trip uncomfortable. You are not allowed to pick your own seat which I am okay with. But when you book your flight with a fellow passenger at the same time, and you have the same last names, and you show up at the airport to pick up your tickets together, you would think that the smallest thing that they could do would have you sit next to each other. But Ryanair would rather have one of you sit in the front of the plane, while the other person gets a seat in the back. There are a lot of people that this happens to, so negotiations start to take place as people move spots so they can sit next to people that they are traveling with. It makes no sense, and actually delays the airline’s ability to leave on time. I have no idea why they do it.

They also do not give you a little pouch on the seat in front of you to place something like a water or a book into. Even trash you might collect during the flight will end up on the floor so the aisle eventually looks like a forgotten street next to a city dump. Placing one of these things on each seat can not cost so much that they cannot do it. It is a simple curtesy that every airline should do, but Ryanair goes out of its way not to do this. The only explanation for doing this is that they hate you and they want to constantly remind you of this fact.

They also treat their passengers like a herd of cattle. I get that there is a process for getting on to a plane so the company can do it in an orderly and efficient manner, but the way that Ryanair completes this task does not seem to follow this sense of logic. Sometimes a good twenty minutes before you need to board the plane, Ryanair collected everybody in a holding station that subjects them to whatever weather might be outside at that time. If it is during the fall or the spring, this isn’t that bad, but when you have to endure the heat of European summers, or the cold of the Scandinavian winters, this seems a little cruel. It also seems a little pointless. They have people sitting in this holding cell for a good twenty to thirty minutes at times as the plane we are going to board is still being unloaded. They can wait until they are ready to load, and there is no really reason for them to treat people like livestock unless that is what they think of us.

Now that I am a few days after flying Ryanair, I contemplate whether hatred is too strong of a word for the way that Ryanair feels about all of their customers. I got where I was supposed to go, and back home again. It wasn’t comfortable, but I lived. Is this all I should expect from a budget airline? Or should I hope for something a little more? Maybe a little bit of love, and a little less hate. I don’t mean that they have to care about me, but I would hope that they would at least think about me before I got on their next flight.