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Comment by malermeister | Hacker News Reader

That is some incredibly unprofessional tone for an official press release.

Anyone who's ever had the misfortune of flying with Ryanair can't be too surprised though.

Hate to defend RyanAir, but I prefer unprofessional to corporate doublespeak.

RyanAir advertisements are often misleading (tickets often end up costing a multiple of the advertised price), so I'm not going to believe anything they say.

> (tickets often end up costing a multiple of the advertised price),

Are you adding a lot of optional extras to your purchase?

I haven't bought a RyanAir ticket in a long time, so details are fuzzy, but as far as I recall they make you pay not just for checked luggage but even for hand luggage (who flies without any bag at all??) and if I remember correctly they even charge extra if you want to sit next to your family members. It's ridiculous.

You have a point, but there's not using doublespeak and then there's just being an abrasive asshole. O'Leary is the latter.

Can you qualify that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O%27Leary_(businessman...

socially, he's a complete joke.

Here's a few examples, I'm sure you could find more:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0228/23628-ryanair/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jun/24/theairli... https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/war-in-irish-skies-a...

https://www.azquotes.com/author/46597-Michael_O_Leary

Ryanair is actually a totally solid airline. They're among the most timely in Europe, if you pay them a few bucks you get an exit row and a meal. Honestly they're among the best of the low-costs (and every domestic flight in Europe counts as low-cost).

They’re really not, unless all you care about is punctuality:

- mediocre app with plenty of bugs

- almost always buses/walks instead of jetbridges

- furthest and uncomfortable gates

- inexperienced and unprofessional cabin crew

- non existent customer service

- hostile web design, dark UX patterns

- baggage fees which seem to go up €10 each year

- inexperienced pilots and bumpy landings

- force you to stand in hot hallways before the plane has even landed (“gate closed”!)

- random policy changes towards baggage

- extremely inflexible terms and conditions. Default is no changes no refunds ever

That’s just what I can remember off the top of my head.

A lot of the above makes them actively hostile towards the elderly and disabled.

I guess my response would be: most airline apps are garbage. Any airline risks ending up at a remote stand (just had 3 legs on Lufthansa at Frankfurt on A320s that all ended up at or departed from remote stands).

Yes, the gates are far away and unpleasant, but I mean, some airline would get them no matter what - Ryanair is just passing on the savings of doing so.

Most airlines have huge baggage fees that are basically just as high. Fees on for instance BA are in my experience just straight up higher on top of higher base fares.

And yeah, inflexible T&C are where they make their money.

If you compare a given flight, and add up the fees, you'll pay a lot more to a full-service carrier and get basically the exact same - but less timely.

I guess what I'm saying is if I'm flying 2-3 hours, on the same Recaro slimline domestic seat with 17.x" width and 31" pitch - no matter the airline - I just want to be off the plane, on schedule. And if I can pay $15 for an exit row, I'm pretty chill.

> If you compare a given flight, and add up the fees, you'll pay a lot more to a full-service carrier and get basically the exact same - but less timely.

Not necessarily true. Actually quite often not true

I fly 120-150,000 miles per year, across a mix of low-cost and full-service carriers, in the US, Europe and Asia.

Most European carriers even charge seat selection fees in long-haul business class unless you have status.

> I fly 120-150,000 miles per year, across a mix of low-cost and full-service carriers, in the US, Europe and Asia.

Well done. And I bet you have all your frequent flyer tags dangling from your backpack

No sir! I'm no DYKWIA. However, I do know something about airlines.

Don't use their apps then, learn to navigate the dark patterns on the web, not that bad.

Horrible, they make you walk or they transport you with a bus? OMG, savages.

Just sleep or listen to music on that 1-3hr flight, why deal with the crew?

Sorry, but you made me laugh at bumpy landings :)

You might have been unlucky with specific airports.

I have no stake in defending them, but I expect the same as a crappy train/bus ride for the price which is about the same.

Well, that's what you get for those prices right? If you want fancier service many airlines are happy to take your money, usually many times more.

Everyone pretends every flight is €40 return

A fair few people pay €100-400 with all the addons/last minute.

If I’m paying €200+ I have higher expectations than the things I listed

Add false advertising when claiming where you gonna land. Airports often hundred kilometres away from destination.

Most timely is partly because they inflate the regular time. a 1:10 ryanair flight would be 0:55 on a normal carrier.

Is that really bad, though? To me that says passengers value predictability, and traditional carriers could be well served by increasing their block time to do so.

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