Ryanair calls customer an idiot, says she deserved to pay 300euro for boarding pass

[Memnoch]

I guess being the CEO of the most popular budget airline in Europe allows you to call your customers idiots eh.

Ryanair boss labels passenger 'stupid' over boarding pass charge Oliver Smith Published: September 6, 2012 - 5:07PM Advertisement Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of European budget carrier Ryanair, has described passengers who forget to print their boarding passes as "idiots". Last month, Suzy McLeod received the backing of more than half a million Facebook users after the airline charged her €300 ($A370) to print out five boarding passes before a flight from Alicante to Bristol. Ms McLeod wrote on the social networking site: "I had previously checked in online but because I hadn't printed out the boarding passes, Ryanair charged me €60 ($A74) per person! Meaning I had to pay €300 for them to print out a piece of paper! Please 'like' if you think that's unfair." More than 500,000 people lent their support. But the Ryanair boss branded her "stupid" for falling foul of the airline's boarding card reissue rules. "We think Mrs McLeod should pay 60 euros for being so stupid," he said. "She wasn't able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn't get to a fax machine so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you. "She wrote to me last week asking for compensation and a gesture of goodwill. To which we have replied, politely but firmly, thank you Mrs McLeod but it was your ****-up." He claimed that 99.98 per cent of Ryanair passengers did print their boarding passes in advance: "To those who don't, we say quite politely: 'B***** off'". Although Ms McLeod, 35, from Newbury, printed boarding passes out for herself, her two children, and her parents, on the outgoing flight from Bristol to Alicante, she says she was unable to print out the boarding passes for her return flight due to the length of her holiday. Ryanair only permits passes to be printed out two weeks in advance of departure, but her trip lasted 15 days. Had Ms McLeod forgotten to print her own boarding passes on the flight from Bristol to Alicante, she would have faced an even greater bill of £300 ($A467). This is because Ryanair uses an exchange rate of £1=€1 when calculating its numerous fees – a policy which, due to the weak euro, means British passengers are charged more. The no-frills airline has been criticised in the past for imposing hefty charges on its passengers. In addition to the £60/€60 fee for reissuing boarding passes, passengers are charged a £6/€6 per person per flight "admin fee" and a £6/€6 "web check-in fee". Ryanair also recently introduced an "EU261 levy" to offset the cost of paying compensation for flight delays and cancellations, and since January it has also charged an "ETS levy" to cover the cost of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, under which airlines are fined for exceeding carbon emissions limits. Ryanair passengers wishing to check in a single bag, meanwhile, are charged between £15/€15 and £40/€40 per person per flight, depending on the time of year, their destination, and the weight of their luggage. Carriage of sports or musical equipment costs £50/€50. - The Telegraph, London This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-...906-25gg1.html

So was Suzy McLeod an idiot for not printing out her boarding pass and hence deserve to be gouged at the airport? Or is Ryanair truly being unfair in throwing customer service out the window in order to give ALL passengers as low a price as possible, as long as they follow their strict rules?

[Ziroc]

I'd boycott those pricks... With that 'unique' customer service, they won't last long. Word of mouth and Internet crushes dreams.

Also looks like there is greed in the fine print... Greed is the downfall of any corporation.... Customers should be treated with respect...

[Firestormalpha]

With customer service like that who needs competitors? I could tolerate the unwavering enforcement of fees, but the attitude is way over the edge.

[Memnoch]

Yes, RyanAir CEO Michael O'Leary is not your typical sensitive new age bloke. He's actually pretty brutal with customers and treats them like dirt for the most part, because he thinks as long as they continue to be cheap people will continue to use the service no matter how they are treated. In this economy most of us can't afford to be pampered in business or first class all the time.


RyanAir CEO Michael O'Leary

It brings about an interesting question though. How much will we as customers endure for a cheap deal/affordability? Ryanair has often been caught up in bad publicity for all these cost cutting measures (some actual, some proposed), some of which border on the ridiculous. Eg:

- save costs by only having one pilot and eliminating a co-pilot
- generate revenue from "optional extras", such as: a) charging to go to the toilet (not yet implemented but planned); b) charging for checked luggage (now every US domestic airline is doing it); c) charging to print boarding passes (60 euro per pass); d) charging 100 euro to check bags in at airport instead of fast bag drop beforehand; e) charging for food (now every US domestic airline is doing it)
- generate revenue by proposing that passengers fly "standing up" but restrained by seat belts, to increase space
- increased prices by 1 pound because it was forced by a European court to provide wheelchairs for disabled passengers. RyanAir argued that airports should bear the cost instead
- increased prices by 2 pounds because it was forced by civil aviation authorities to provide meals and accommodation for passengers stranded where it was RyanAir's fault

Basically RyanAir operates on a very simple business model - cheap cheap cheap. They pick small airports well outside major cities to keep landing fees low and offer very low fares. But in this case you get what you pay for, and you are treated like you are a cheapskate - rudely and adversarially.

They nickel and dime you for every little thing and pass every cost increase to the customer. Their argument is they have to do this to keep prices low, and that customers don't care how they are treated as long as they get to fly cheap. In other words - the ultimate cattle class. If you don't want to be charged a boarding pass fee, then print your boarding pass beforehand. If you don't want to pay for food, then don't eat. If you don't want to pay the checked bag fee, then don't check bags in. Etc.

Thoughts on this? Is this business model sustainable in the long term? Or are they building a scenario where people will only go to them as long as they are a) cheap and b) deliver their promise ie not have constantly delayed flights etc. Because one thing that seems to be missing here is customer loyalty.