A Travel and vacations forum. TravelBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » TravelBanter forum » Travel Regions » Europe
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old May 17th, 2009, 04:54 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air
SMS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 899
Default Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)

John Doe wrote:
wildrose1723 wrote:

wow - that's a bold move for Ryanair. But at the same time should we
be surprised? They are notorious for cutting costs wherever they can


This isn't cutting costs. It is raising fares without raising fares.
Basically allows Ryannair tro advertise 1£ fares that end up to be £100
once you have left the aircraft at destination.

How long before they put a toll booth at the base of airstairs to get
passengers to pay for the cost of moving the airstairs to the aircraft ?


Obviously enough passengers look at the total ticket price and even with
the fees are still finding Ryanair to be a good deal. Their web site
does show all the fees and a total price in addition to the base price
that no one really pays attention to anymore on _any_ airline except
perhaps Southwest. Ryanair is still cheaper, generally by 40% or more,
than an airline like Easyjet for similar routes.

You have to look at the big picture. It's like people complaining about
the annual fee at Costco, stating confidently, 'I'm not stupid enough to
pay to shop at a store,' when in reality the annual fee is lost in the
noise when you consider how much money you save over the course of a
year, and you can often get the entire fee back, and more, with the 2%
rebate for Executive Members.

The real savings for an airline is not when half the passengers don't
need a check-in agent, because you still have so much of the fixed
overhead costs. You have to get _all_ passengers weaned off of expecting
service for things that cost the airline money.

OTOH, sometimes I wonder how well the airline itself evaluates the
payback on these fees. The last two flights I took on Continental, the
departures were delayed by about 30 minutes each time because of the
extra time it takes to load the plane when virtually every passenger has
a carry-on rollerboard suitcase. Eventually the flight attendants have
to gate-check some of the rollerboards, at no cost, because there isn't
room in the overhead bins for all those suitcases. Passengers that board
earlier in the process pay no attention to "put your smaller carry-on
under the seat in front of you," or "don't put your coat in the overhead
bin" and the bins fill up quickly, and the attitude is "hey, if you
didn't nickel and dime us we wouldn't be carrying such a ridiculous
amount of stuff onto the plane in the first place, so you deal with it."
Delaying flights has a ripple effect on the system. Eventually they
start building longer load times into the schedule, and they get less
use of the equipment, and the airport raises fees because they can
handle less airplanes.
  #2  
Old May 17th, 2009, 08:35 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air
John Doe[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 194
Default Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)

SMS wrote:

Obviously enough passengers look at the total ticket price and even with
the fees are still finding Ryanair to be a good deal.


But when you buy the ticket, can the airline really show you the total
price ? At that point in time, it doesn't know how you intend to
check-in, so it cannot charge you the appropriate fee.


The real savings for an airline is not when half the passengers don't
need a check-in agent, because you still have so much of the fixed
overhead costs. You have to get _all_ passengers weaned off of expecting
service for things that cost the airline money.


Charging £10 for web check-in isn't exactly encouragement to avoid
checking in at airport.

They could have jacked the base fee by £10, and then charged £30 for
airport check-in. (instead of charging £10 for web check-in and £40 for
airport check in).

If they really want to save costs, why not eliminate check-in
alltogether and just scan the bar codes on tickets as people board ?



OTOH, sometimes I wonder how well the airline itself evaluates the
payback on these fees. The last two flights I took on Continental, the
departures were delayed by about 30 minutes each time because of the
extra time it takes to load the plane when virtually every passenger has
a carry-on rollerboard suitcase.


Many bonehead decisions are designed to please Wall Street Casino
Analysts instead of actually being smart and generating profits.

Legacy carriers tend to have higher costs per passenger-mile, and they
can't seem to lower those to compete against the new guys on the block.
So they try to delay price increases by removing services that used to
be included in the price of the ticket (meals, luggage etc).

This has the side effect of adding value to their premium cabin products
since those still get luggage allowance, meals etc etc.

  #3  
Old May 18th, 2009, 05:20 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air
John Levine
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 176
Default Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)

Obviously enough passengers look at the total ticket price and even with
the fees are still finding Ryanair to be a good deal.


But when you buy the ticket, can the airline really show you the total
price ? At that point in time, it doesn't know how you intend to
check-in, so it cannot charge you the appropriate fee.


Twelve seconds of research going through the Ryanair ticket buying
process reveals that they ask you when you buy the ticket how much
luggage you'll be checking and how you'll be checking in, and they set
the price accordingly. If you guess wrong and show up without having
checked in or with too much luggage, the price at the airport is
considerably higher.

Ryanair goes out of their way to be the most annoying airline in the
world. Even with all of the add-on fees, they're still really cheap,
e.g., a flight I'm taking from Dublin to Edinburgh next week where the
nominal price was 1 euro turned out actually to cost 25 euros by the
time I added in all the extras. But that's still an incredibly cheap
fare for that route, less than the lowest train+ferry fare for a trip
that takes all day. I wish they'd just quote the real fare and be
done with it, since I doubt anyone is still fooled by their fake
teaser prices any more.

R's,
John
  #4  
Old May 18th, 2009, 10:21 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air
DevilsPGD[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 113
Default Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)

In message SMS
was claimed to have wrote:

You have to look at the big picture. It's like people complaining about
the annual fee at Costco, stating confidently, 'I'm not stupid enough to
pay to shop at a store,' when in reality the annual fee is lost in the
noise when you consider how much money you save over the course of a
year, and you can often get the entire fee back, and more, with the 2%
rebate for Executive Members.


Please, don't try to help these people...

Costco is busy enough already, the last thing we need is people too
stupid to do basic math wandering around Costco.
  #5  
Old May 18th, 2009, 10:39 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air
SMS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 899
Default Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget)

DevilsPGD wrote:

Please, don't try to help these people...

Costco is busy enough already, the last thing we need is people too
stupid to do basic math wandering around Costco.


Did you see the movie "Idiocracy?" Costco is the only store left in 2505
and it's so big that there's a train to take you between departments.

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8zNsUTWsOc"

One of my friends constantly makes snide comments about Costco, until
she needs someone to take her there to buy something like tires, a gas
grill, a TV, or other big ticket item where she just can't bear to pay
the prices at other stores.
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Ryanair scraps check-in desks as it charges passengers £10 to print tickets at home (and a £40 fine if you forget) pig brother Air travel 10 May 26th, 2009 04:56 PM
Check the credit card fine print Kurt Ullman Cruises 60 April 26th, 2009 04:56 PM
Ryanair to abolish check-in desks Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope Europe 269 March 23rd, 2009 04:45 PM
Ryanair to abolish check-in desks The Real Doctor Europe 2 March 4th, 2009 09:38 PM
Ryanair to abolish check-in desks The Stainless Steel Cat Europe 0 February 22nd, 2009 10:58 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:04 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 TravelBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.