Friday, February 11, 2011
Unknown
This email offering fares from the US to Europe got me mildly excited for a minute with visions of Rome until i focused on
the star. I love those stars that sit next to all airline pricing. As I have long complained,
no fare is what it says it is.
So the star* in this fare special means:
- that's $198 each way- and you must buy a round trip ticket
- $198 of course is the cheapest possible fare and is from: NYC to Dublin, Ireland which while definitely part of the European Community is not anywhere near Rome which is in fact $315 each way
- fees, taxes and airport charges up to $245 are extra
- Fares are for mid-week travel -weekend surcharges apply
- The fares quoted are from New York- how many Americans actually live in NYC? Other cities are far higher. For example, St Louis-Rome is $471 each way!
The cheapest fare from St Louis to Rome on a Wednesday is $981.80. The weekend fare ranged from $1200 to $1900.
That's a far cry from $198 and it annoys me.
If our supermarkets operated the same way, they would offer a Bunch of Bananas for 10c*
- that's 10 cents a banana ....a bunch contains six bananas which must be bought together-otherwise each banana singly is $4
- the bananas actually do not contain any banana flesh. Its the banana skin price that starts at 10 cents. A banana inside each banana skin costs an extra 30 cents per banana
- fees, taxes and shop charges are up to 15 cents a banana extra
- the bananas are only on sale at this price between 1am and 4am
- the bananas are only available at this price at one store. The price at every other store will be 20 cents higher per banana
So your 10 cents banana becomes $4.50 for a bunch - only if you buy them at 2am!
Would we tolerate a store selling things this way? NO Why do we let airlines?
- we are talking large sums of money- most of us find it hard to picture $1000 purchases but we can imagine 10 cent purchases,
- airline travel is seen as slightly mysterious and most people do not understand the complexities
- the airline industry has been seen as a soft target for taxes and charges by governments and airports around the world. I am not sure any other industry has the regime of taxes an airline does.
- Airlines have shifted more and more of what was included in their core pricing to "fees" and "charges" They then can advertise the base fare and add the charges and fees later
In the meantime, watch your pricing- no price is what it seems. In this case I would be happier with Lufthansa is they said: Europe from $645....but that price does not grab your attention as much as $198 does it?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Unknown
Ryanair is the discount airline that everyone loves to hate. Overall, they are the 8th largest in the world by total passneger numbers but Ryanair is the largest airline in the world in terms of international passenger numbers carrying 66 million passengers annually. They fly more international passengers than Lufthansa. Staggeringly they carry more international passengers than British Airways and Air France combined. They operate 250 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on over 1,100 routes across Europe.
On my Ranking of my most disliked airlines, Ryanair is Eighth). However, Tripadviser earlier in 2010 declared Ryanair to be the worst for amenities (4th year in a row). Reasons why Ryanair is disliked:
- Ryanair charge very low fares and then add extras like luggage and credit card fees (see my article: Discount Airline Ripoffs). Holiday Which?, said Ryanair is the "worst offender" for charging for optional extras. Check out this very very funny spoof of Ryanair's practices by Fascinating Aida (NB naughty language!).
- Many of the airports they claim to fly to are nowhere near their destinations e.g. "Hamburg Lübeck", Germany is an hour by bus from Hamburg. Their Paris airport is Beauvais-Tillé, 85 km from Paris.
- They have been fined by Advertising Authorities several times
- They have been accused of abandoning passengers at the wrong airports
- Covalence's 2010 annual ranking of the overall ethical performance of multinational corporations put Ryanair at the bottom 12
- Passengers arriving at an airport without a pre-printed online check-in have to pay €40 for their boarding pass to be re-issued
- Customer complaints can only be made via a premium rate phone line, by fax or by post
One passenger (Robert Tyler) who disliked them immensely set up ihateryanair.co.uk in February 2007. The site has acted as a place for passengers to share horror stories. In January 2010, Mr Tyler began accepting ads on the site which earnt him 365 pounds.
Ryanair then took Mr Tyler to a domain name tribunal complaining "that the site took unfair advantage of the Ryanair name for commercial gain." The adjudicator agreed saying: “It cannot be fair to take advantage of the reputation attached to another party’s trade mark in this manner, whether it be good or bad.” and has demanded that the doman naem "ihateryanair.co.uk" be handed over to the airline.
Mr Tyler has simply moved the content to http://www.ihateryanair.org! Check out these other anti Ryanair websites
- http://davefaq.com/Opinions/RyanAir-Sucks/
- http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/
- Ryanair be fair (employee complaints).
How an airline with four websites against them can continue to survive and grow makes you wonder!
