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Comment by downrightmike | Hacker News Reader

Or just Ryanair'ing down to Spain

Ryanair hedged their kerosene at an effective price of $60 a barrel, so no problem.

They also seem to be the only airline that isn't cancelling thousands of flights right now. As much as I dislike them, they seem to be well run.

They know how to handle margins of profit and also a way higher scale than most airlines.

I think their big thing was understanding the difference between stated preferences vs revealed ones. They took away beloved perks of flying, and managed to show that people weren't willing to pay what it cost to provide them.

I still remember their proposal for ultra-cheap standing-only tickets (couldn't get that one past regulators). Kinda wonder if it was seriously meant or not.

Not sure about "cost to provide them" but unbundling is their game. Here are some prices (in euros):

Under the seat bag: 0 Reserved seat: 10 10kg checked bag (carry on size): 16 20kg checked bag (full size): 26 A bag being overweight by 1kg: 70

So they get pricey quickly if you're taking any decent amount of luggage. God help you if you don't have accurate scales at home.

Any non-flat rate pricing for baggage is godsent. I've long been annoyed that US airlines will charge the same amount to check a small bag, with a few pieces of lightweight passenger cabin contraband, as to check a giant 50 pound duffel bag.

So long as the airlines rigidly enforce carryon size restrictions. It was bad enough when baggage was free, now you’ve got people slamming steamer trunks in the overhead cabinets just to avoid the fees.

Unless the flight is sufficiently empty, Ryanair staff often walk around the gate and get anyone with a large or heavy-looking bag to put it on a scale.

(They have the scales available before check-in, so it's reasonably fair.)

That’s the game with discount airlines. Not only baggage, but $ to print your boarding slip, $ to pay luggage fees at airport, etc.

If you read the costs closely and can avoid them, they work great. I flew from SFO to Stockholm with Norwegian Airlines for $400 return on a 787. About the same as SFO to JFK.

But it was no frills. No even free water served (you could ask for it) or any meals. If you prepare it’s great. If you don’t it’s pricey.

There was a similar deal for Paris/SFO return for $300, but United Airlines was determined to undercut them, so I got a United Airlines return flight instead for $275. The billing summary was hilarious:

Fare USD $ 1.49 Taxes & Fees USD $ 273.96 Total USD $ 275.45

Standing-only was a marketing stunt. No one could possibly expect it to be allowed by the regulators.

Ryanair repeating this story gets them free advertising reassuring people that they try and minimise costs.

Same. They seem to be one of the few airlines that are well run. Maybe cause the founder is still CEO, I don't know.

I also respect their honesty. They tell you "we get you from A to B the cheapest way", no more. Traditional airlines' ads are all about traveling in luxury, which is extremely dishonest considering 99% of their travelers experience a not-far-from-Ryanair level of comfort.

Michael O'Leary has been CEO since the early 90s but did not found the company.

Ryanair have a long history of very savvy, far sighted planning. Back in 2001 when many airlines cancelled orders for Boeing planes after 9/11, Ryanair signed a long term contract for 155 brand new 737-800s at a huge discount. They've taken out some smart long term options on jet fuel before a well.

When things are really frozen, maybe Ted Cruz can give some tips on last mile airfares to sunny destinations

"Let them eat cake"

cake was not like we have today, it was dough used to line the oven to keep the actual baked good from burning, like how some recopies say to have a pan of water in the oven. In terms of the sentiment, The EU dug the hole on this one, and de-nuking their grid was just plain stupid.

Unfortunately not all of us can afford 3-month Airbnb stays in places like Southern Spain over winter.

WHO says your heating bill will be less?

You still need to heat your home, are you there or not.

If no one will be there you can drain the pipes and leave it unheated over the winter. People typically do this with summer homes.

(I think this thread is silly though: there's no way enough people will move to warm climates for the winter to make a dent in cold-country fuel consumption.)

At least in the UK, the part of the bill that is really increasing is the Standing Charge (a charge just for being connected to the gas network). So even if you turn off your heating your bills are still going to increase.

No, if you live in multiapartment complex. At least in my country there are laws that forbid you as others have to provide extra heating.

> laws that forbid you as others have to provide extra heating

Link?

As far as I know, there's nothing like this in the US, and it's something that I've known broke people to do.

Not as much, though. Leave home and set the thermostat to 50F or so.

I was really surprised about the gas prices in Canaries during my trip in February... What's going on there?

Or heat the house by mining crypt currency. Crypto currency might be the only free and stable currency once China want USA to pay back the loans.

What about CNY? China is world leader, surely its currency should be pretty stable. I, personally, started to invest my tiny savings into CNY.

How do you do that? Directly into currency or in china-traded stocks? Which broker do you use for that?

I go to local bank and buy cash.

The problem with CNY are several fold: defacto peg, difference in price between onshore and offshore cny, strict currency controls make treasury operations challenging for real users of the currency, governmental policy of treating foreign holders different than domestic, etc.

At the end of the day most currency holders want a liberalized currency and CNY is far from that.

I remember some Reddit post asking about CNY and the replies were all “Wait, all the rich Chinese are desperate to get their money out and you want to bring your money in?”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com