As a general rule of thumb, the earlier you book flights the better the price you will get, however there are always exceptions to the rule. Airlines use the dynamic pricing model, so the fares increase as the plane fills up (not too dissimilar to trains and their advance tickets)
Sometimes some routes undersell, so airlines will cut the prices to entice people to book. This is why you can sometimes pick up a flight a bit cheaper if you're happy to gamble and not book as early as possible.
You'll notice that whenever Ryanair do a headline sale, it is almost always only for travel the following month or 2 months. They rarely, if ever, do sales that cover wide travel dates spanning months in advance. This is because, as above, some routes might be showing more seats left over than anticipated and they need to fill them up where possible. They have an average load factor of about 97% so it does work (plus they generate loads of revenue from their ancillary sales). Very rare that you'll board a Ryanair flight with more than a handful of empty seats (unlike the Etihad, where there are thousands weekly)
If you're ever travelling or looking to travel over peak times (Christmas, Easter, summer school holidays) then booking as early as possible is the way forward, or if your dates are set in stone then again just confirm as early as you can.
The legacy carriers like BA/VA etc will often hold sales at the same time every year (one of BA's sale ends tomorrow I think) so if a sale is coming up and you're, for example, eyeing up a return to New York then I'd always hang on to see what any promotion throws up.
If a double glazing firm advertised a price for a particular sized window, and after you attempted to buy one at the advertised price, they decided to make additional charges for removing the old window, making good, internal cill, external cill, glass, etc etc, they would be battered on Watchdog on the telly.
The difference between Ryanair and the robbing bar stewards who sell plastic and glass is at least Ryanair publish their prices...unlike
What’s black and brown and looks good on a DG salesman? A rotweiler!
If a double glazing firm advertised a price for a particular sized window, and after you attempted to buy one at the advertised price, they decided to make additional charges for removing the old window, making good, internal cill, external cill, glass, etc etc, they would be battered on Watchdog on the telly.
The difference between Ryanair and the robbing bar stewards who sell plastic and glass is at least Ryanair publish their prices...unlike
What’s black and brown and looks good on a DG salesman? A rotweiler!
I was one for about 20 years, that is a DG salesman, not a rottweiler.
As a general rule of thumb, the earlier you book flights the better the price you will get, however there are always exceptions to the rule. Airlines use the dynamic pricing model, so the fares increase as the plane fills up (not too dissimilar to trains and their advance tickets)
Sometimes some routes undersell, so airlines will cut the prices to entice people to book. This is why you can sometimes pick up a flight a bit cheaper if you're happy to gamble and not book as early as possible.
You'll notice that whenever Ryanair do a headline sale, it is almost always only for travel the following month or 2 months. They rarely, if ever, do sales that cover wide travel dates spanning months in advance. This is because, as above, some routes might be showing more seats left over than anticipated and they need to fill them up where possible. They have an average load factor of about 97% so it does work (plus they generate loads of revenue from their ancillary sales). Very rare that you'll board a Ryanair flight with more than a handful of empty seats (unlike the Etihad, where there are thousands weekly)
If you're ever travelling or looking to travel over peak times (Christmas, Easter, summer school holidays) then booking as early as possible is the way forward, or if your dates are set in stone then again just confirm as early as you can.
The legacy carriers like BA/VA etc will often hold sales at the same time every year (one of BA's sale ends tomorrow I think) so if a sale is coming up and you're, for example, eyeing up a return to New York then I'd always hang on to see what any promotion throws up.
I have heard similar explanations a number of times before.
They never seem to stand up to much scrutiny.
My criticism is two fold.
The most recent flights I have booked were advertised at £51 each, yet I paid £175 for two. I would be happier if they advertised at £175 for two. The Ryanair flights were advertised at £88 each, and cost £246 for two. How can they justify charging a fee for allowing you to choose a seat, £40 for a sheet of paper if you have forgotten to print out a boarding pass, or £140 return for two bags?
Secondly, how on earth could you justify a cheaper fare for a half full plane throughout the year, than a full plane in August travelling to and from same destination. The August flight may be more than double the price of the other one.
Ryanair are probably the only thing in the world that is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn.
Incidentally the site that I use for booking flights, searches all airlines and all airports. I must therefore assume that the flights I have just booked either didn't exist in May, or they were priced at more than the Thomas Cooke flights, ie over £500 for the two of them. There is no other explanation.
All low cost carriers (and many flag carriers now) charge for anything above and beyond the ticket price. If Ryanair (or Jet2, Easyjet etc) advertise a flight for £25, then that flight will be £25 if you don't add anything else onto it.
Obviously most people will want to travel with luggage, and want to sit with their companion/s, so unfortunately that always comes with a cost these days.
The August flight is more expensive because it's peak time across most of Europe. They don't need to do a seat sale for that time of year cos they will fill the planes regardless. Why sell a seat for 50 quid when you can shift it for £100 without a problem?
I'm not sure what scrutiny they need to stand up to? This is how it is and how it operates.
Your flights might not have existed in May; airlines add and drop routes pretty frequently, and a lot can change in a few months.
"Ryanair are probably the only thing in the world that is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn."
They are also one of the world's most consistently successful & profitable airlines by any yardstick.
Disclaimer; I LOVE Michael O'Leary.
Its a well known fact that Ryanair hate their customers, and don't like their staff very much either.
Come on £40 for a piece of paper.
Family of 6/£240.
Imagine they might have spent say 3k on six flights, and the supplier feels no obligation on their part, to supply them with the bit of paper that actually gets them on the plane.
What planet are they on?
Their success has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their customer service.
All low cost carriers (and many flag carriers now) charge for anything above and beyond the ticket price. If Ryanair (or Jet2, Easyjet etc) advertise a flight for £25, then that flight will be £25 if you don't add anything else onto it.
Obviously most people will want to travel with luggage, and want to sit with their companion/s, so unfortunately that always comes with a cost these days.
I don't think you can argue with this. So why wouldn't they offer a price that applies to the majority, rather than the minority, and perhaps offer a discount to the minority, who are on their own and dont care where they sit, or anyone that wants to travel without bags. Why have a pricing policy biased towards the minority?
The August flight is more expensive because it's peak time across most of Europe. They don't need to do a seat sale for that time of year cos they will fill the planes regardless. Why sell a seat for 50 quid when you can shift it for £100 without a problem?
This is similar to utility companies saying that they are going to double or treble gas and electricity prices in the Winter, when people need more heating and lighting, but keep them the same in the Summer when people don't need them so much.
I'm not sure what scrutiny they need to stand up to? This is how it is and how it operates.
Your flights might not have existed in May; airlines add and drop routes pretty frequently, and a lot can change in a few months.
So what you mean is that they have a pricing policy that frequently changes, and therefore cant really be a pricing policy, and is what they call in scientific circles, pot luck.
I was merely pointing out that your explanation of the pricing policy doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
You can argue that booking in advance means a cost saving, and my return flight bears that out as the same flight has increased in price by £70, since I booked in May.
However the outward flight is now a third of the cost that it was in May.
So outbound it was better to book late, but the return was better booked early.
Despite what you think, it's much more straightforward to offer a base price for the flight, then people can add on any additional extras they decide they need during the booking process.
Otherwise they'd have to advertise flights at a certain pricepoint, with little *** next to the figure to indicate that the price might be X amount lower without baggage, or Y amount lower without a pre-booked seat. Would get way too confusing.
It's no secret that airlines have been charging for things like luggage and seats for about 15 years now, unless you've been living under a rock.
It's also hardly shocking stuff that flights are more expensive during peak travel times like the school summer holidays. Again, it's been like this for years.
Whilst there can be an element of random pricing at other travel times, peak time travel will generally start expensive and get more expensive the closer to departure. Other times feel free to gamble on the price, but the best advice as a general rule is to book as early as you can.
Feel free to dismiss all that but it's the industry I work in so for once I kinda know what I'm talking about.
"Ryanair are probably the only thing in the world that is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn."
They are also one of the world's most consistently successful & profitable airlines by any yardstick.
Disclaimer; I LOVE Michael O'Leary.
Ryanair: the truth about the airline's customer services department
Caroline Green looks like a City broker. Dressed in a cream bouclé jacket, she is expensively coiffed and wears immaculate make‑up; she would blend in seamlessly among the Square Mile’s professionals. Instead, she has what may be considered one of the world’s worst jobs: she is Ryanair’s head of customer services. She works in the much-berated low-cost airline’s new offices on the edge of Swords retail park, outside Dublin. With its slide (a notice at the top, dictated by the truculent CEO, Michael O’Leary, says “not suitable for pregnant women [...] or gobsh‑‑‑‑” ), primary colours and play equipment, the office feels like a mix between a kindergarten and an on-the-cheap version of Google HQ. Michael O’Leary is normally found on the first floor in a large glass office, with his PR team along the corridor. The big boss isn’t in the day I visit: he’s on holiday (the Algarve, staff think). The past year has seen Ryanair attempt a Damascene conversion when it comes to customer care. It has introduced family-friendly services such as milk-warming and fully allocated seating and now allows a second small cabin bag. The penny had dropped: low fares were not enough to keep people coming back when passengers felt treated like cattle.
Caroline has been at Ryanair for 17 years, saying that working for the airline “is like an addiction”. Her team of representatives sits on the third floor, but Ryanair also outsources to call centres in Debrecen, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania. In total, there 200 full-time customer services employees. Does Michael O’Leary’s notorious tongue make her job more difficult? He was once quoted as saying: “People say the customer is always right, but you know what – they’re not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so.” Caroline claims to ignore such comments, and that Kenny Jacobs, the chief marketing officer, now tends to speak on the company’s behalf. “Michael says things that don’t apply to the business,” she says. “He’ll say in his own way for himself and it’s not the way that the business is run.
Michael O'Leary in quotes 2009: "One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future." 2013: "We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily p‑‑‑ people off."
Clodagh Rochford, a customer services manager, deals with the big stuff, including refunds based on medical issues. Death certificates are needed if passengers are hoping for a refund in the case of a bereavement. I ask if this clause was introduced after the case in which a doctor whose family died in a fire was charged €188 (£150) to change his flight – Ryanair later refunded him in full. Clodagh says they deal with requests for refunds on a case-by-case basis and often have an office discussion before deciding whether to grant one. She insists that complaints have dropped significantly since Christmas 2013
I then sit with Amy Malone, a reservations supervisor, as she replies to some of the thousands of messages sent via the website. One man emails to say he has seen the price of his flight decrease since he booked, and is asking if he can be refunded the difference. The answer is a firm no.
Found among the horse pictures covering the office walls, Richard McEneaney, who trains cabin crew, is unremittingly smiley. I tell him that people think Ryanair crews are moody and are just being told to sell, sell, sell. Has their training changed to make them nicer? He thinks the reforms mean customers are calmer at boarding. “That makes the job a lot easier for our crew and also for our ground staff, because they were the ones that were implementing our policy. Some of them possibly didn’t agree with it but understood operationally what the point was.”
And is it true that ground staff get a bonus for spotting cabin luggage that might be over the 10kg limit, and charging customers for it? No, comes the swift reply. Caroline explains: “They’re looking at a flight now, if it’s booked. We’ve got 189 seats, if there’s more than about 140 on it, the crew are told to go and have a look and see if there are any bags that might be put into the hold, free of charge, because it’s really preventing a problem happening. The last thing we want from a punctuality and a service perspective is that you get all these people on board and then suddenly there’s no room.”
So who would apply for a job with Ryanair? One of Michael O’Leary’s most infamous lines is: “Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy b‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ who need a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it.” How do you train staff when the view from the top is so negative? Richard replies diplomatically. “I think a lot of staff need encouragement, and that’s where training comes in.” I put it to Ryanair’s head of communications, Robin Kiely, that in the past the company’s PR strategy went something like this: Michael O’Leary says something outrageous (Robin laughs when I ask if his boss has been media-trained: “What do you think?”) The press report outrage. Sales of Ryanair tickets rise, as do profits. But something stopped working. Was it the profit warning in September 2013 that prompted the customer service and marketing revolution? Did attempts ramp up after easyJet’s announcement last November of a 50 per cent rise in full-year profits? “No, but easyJet were way ahead of us in lots of ways,” Robin admits. He explains that the company’s strategy is now to be seen as cheap and savvy, not cheap and tacky.
All of which goes some way to explaining why the CEO’s costume cupboard is now staying firmly locked. Robin shows me its contents: leprechaun bloomers, a selection of wigs and a Twitter bird onesie. Michael O’Leary traditionally donned them for photo calls. But no more. “New Ryanair” is attempting to be sophisticated.
48 reasons why you don't hear much from Michael O'Leary anymore
The outspoken chief executive of Ryanair has remained largely out of the spotlight since the airline began its new "customer-friendly" overhaul. Here are a few reminders why:
On refunds: "You're not getting a refund so **** off."
On overweight passengers: "Nobody wants to sit beside a really fat ****** on board. We have been frankly astonished at the number of customers who don't only want to tax fat people but torture them."
On turbulence: "If drink sales are falling off we get the pilots to engineer a bit of turbulence. That usually spikes up the drink sales."
On transatlantic flights: "Ryanair will never fly the Atlantic route because one cannot get there in a Boeing 737, unless one has a very strong tail wind or passengers who can swim the last hour of the flight."
On the airline industry: "There's a lot of big egos in this industry. Most chief executives got into this business because they want to travel for a living. Not me, I want to work."
On European expansion: "Germans will crawl *******-naked over broken glass to get low fares."
On charging passengers to use the loo: "One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future. If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet I would carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver."
On upright seating: "I'd love to operate aircraft where we take out the back ten rows and put in hand rails. We'd say if you want to stand, it's five euros. People say 'Oh but the people standing may get killed if there's a crash'. Well, with respect, the people sitting down might get killed as well"
On the in-flight experience: "Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastion of sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong. We already bombard you with as many in-flight announcements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who looks like sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things."
On low fares: "I don't see why in 10 years' time you wouldn't fly people for free. Why don't airports pay us for delivering the passengers to their shops?"
If you can't find a low fare on Ryanair: "You're a moron."
On customer service: "People say the customer is always right, but you know what - they're not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so."
On closing Ryanair's check-in desks: "This isn't the end of civilization as we know it."
On apologies: "Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service? Absolutely not."
On refunds: "We don't want to hear your sob stories. What part of 'no refund' don't you understand?"
On Ryanair's image: "One of the weaknesses of the company now is it is a bit cheap and cheerful and overly nasty, and that reflects my personality."
On pilot's wages: "People ask how we can have such low fares. I tell them our pilots work for nothing."
On his popularity: "I don't give a ***** if no-one likes me. I am not a cloud bunny, I am not an aerosexual. I don't like aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who populate the airline industry."
On Ryanair's pilots: "If this is such a Siberian salt mine and I am such an ogre, then why are they still working for the airline? If any of our fellas aren't happy with the current arrangement then they're free to go elsewhere. Godspeed to them."
On Aer Lingus's pilots: "Overpaid, underworked peacocks"
On cost-cutting: "We use our own biros and I tell the staff not to buy them, just pick them up from hotels, legal offices, wherever. That's what I do. Recently I did an interview and I was sitting there with a hotel pen I'd nicked from somewhere. I was asked why and I said: 'We at Ryanair have a policy of stealing hotel pens. We won't pay for Bic biros as part of our obsession with low costs."
On employees: "MBA students come out with: "My staff is my most important asset." Bull****. Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy ******* who needs a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it."
On how to keep employees motivated and happy: "Fear."
On beginning a press conference to announce the annual results: “I’m here with Howard Miller and Michael Cawley, our two deputy chief executives. But they’re presently making love in the gentleman’s toilets, such is their excitement at today’s results.”
On ordering aircraft from Boeing: “The message to Boeing today is: ‘You keep building them, we’ll keep buying them’, and together both of us will kick the **** out of Airbus in Europe. We love Boeing. **** the French.”
On not ordering more aircraft from Boeing: “Boeing had their chance. Eventually you lose interest, dealing with a bunch of idiots who can’t make a decision. They are a bunch of numpties out in Seattle.”
On Ryanair in the 1990s: “Ryanair will never make money. It will always lose money. It’s an airline. Forget it.”
On Ryanair in the 2000s: “We expect our profits to grow by 20 to 25 per cent. That’s not just good, that’s practically obscene in an industry in which few people make money. This isn’t an airline, it’s a drug baron’s business.”
On corporate life: “The meek may inherit the earth, but they will not have it for long.”
On consultants: “I believe hiring consultants is an abdication by management of their responsibilities. If the consultant is so good at managing change, then why not hire him to run the company and do it himself? Every idiot who gets fired in the industry shows up as a consultant somewhere. I would shoot any consultant who came through my door.”
On environmentalists: “We want to annoy the ******* whenever we can. The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them. These headbangers want to make air travel the preserve of the rich. They are luddites marching us back to the 18th century. If preserving the environment means stopping poor people flying so the rich can fly, then screw it.”
On Guardian readers: “The chattering **** classes, or what I call the liberal Guardian readers, they’re all buying SUVs to drive around London. I smile at these loons who drive their SUVs down to Sainsbury’s and buy kiwi fruit from New Zealand. They’re flown in from New Zealand for Christ sakes. They’re the equivalent of environmental nuclear bombs!”
On protesters: “The Swampies of this world are climbing up trees to protest about airlines and airports. They should all get a job and get a ******* life.”
On air marshals: “Air marshals are a complete waste of time. I can’t think of anything that would reduce security more than having a guy on board with a gun.”
On a bomb scare in Scotland: “The police force were outstanding in their field. But all they did was stand in their field. They kept passengers on board while they played with a suspect package for two and three quarter hours. Extraordinary.”
On free speech: "I upset a lot of people because I tell them what I think. I'm disrespectful towards what is perceived to be authority. Like, I think the Prime Minister of Ireland is a gob*****."
On politics: "I think the most influential person in Europe in the last 20 to 30 years has been Margaret Thatcher, who has left a lasting legacy that has driven us towards lower taxes and greater efficiency. Without her we'd all be living in some French **** unemployed republic."
On the European Commission: "They are ******* Kim Il-Jungs (sic) in the Commission.
You cannot have civil servants trying to design rules that make everything a level playing field. That's called North ******* Korea, and everybody is starving there. The EU are pursuing some form of communist ******* Valhalla."
On EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes's approval of an Alitalia/Air One merger: "She''ll be rolling over like a poodle having her tummy tickled and rubber-stamping the thing."
On British Airways: "BA have got waterfalls in their head office. The first thing I'd do if I were in charge of BA is turn off the waterfalls. The only time we have waterfalls in the Ryanair office is when the toilet leaks."
On the British Airways/Iberia merger: "It reminds me of two drunks leaning on each other."
On Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet: "Those of us who sell the lowest fares just get on with it, and those who do not, write whingeing letters to newspapers."
On intelligence: "easyJet are not the brightest sandwiches in the picnic basket."
On Southwest Airlines: "We went to look at Southwest Airlines in the US. It was like the road to Damascus. This was the way to make Ryanair work. I met with Herb Kelleher. I passed out about midnight, and when I woke up again at about 3am Kelleher was still there, the *******, pouring himself another bourbon. I thought I'd pick his brains and come away with the Holy Grail. The next day I couldn't remember a thing."
On Alitalia: "I would not want it if it were given to me as a present."
To the boss of regional airline Aer Arann: "**** off back to Connemara where you come from!"
On offering advice to other airlines' bosses: "They can **** off and do their own work"
Despite what you think, it's much more straightforward to offer a base price for the flight, then people can add on any additional extras they decide they need during the booking process.
We will not agree on this point. Throughout my life many companies have been heavily criticised for doing this. Where low prices are advertised, but are not applicable to the majority. You yourself said that the majority will take luggage, and choose seats.
Otherwise they'd have to advertise flights at a certain pricepoint, with little *** next to the figure to indicate that the price might be X amount lower without baggage, or Y amount lower without a pre-booked seat. Would get way too confusing.
I will take your word for the fact that discounting is more confusing than adding stuff on. Even though it would seem exactly the same to me. Yet quoting the price that applies to the majority would seem more honest to me. I see charging for seat selection as idiotic, when surely for them to know where they are they have to allocate seats immediately they take a booking. The charges for bags in my easyjet flight represents 60% of the flight cost which would seem excessive. The above Ryanair article points to the fact that on a full plane they will often be forced to offer hold baggage for free due to lack of space, and to avoid delays. If I had already paid £140 for something offered to other passengers for free, I would not be amused. You will never persuade me that £40 for a piece of paper could ever represent good value for money, or is anything other than an absolute con.
It's no secret that airlines have been charging for things like luggage and seats for about 15 years now, unless you've been living under a rock.
Just because it is not a secret doesn't mean that it is justifiable, or good. Before they started doing this, they didn't, and managed to survive.
It's also hardly shocking stuff that flights are more expensive during peak travel times like the school summer holidays. Again, it's been like this for years.
Again just because it has happened for years, doesn't mean that it is fair, or good. Ripping off people with kids or grandkids is not necessarily popular. What could be the justification for increasing prices substantially from one day to the next, just because a school holiday has started. Airlines seem intent on ripping people off at every opportunity.
Whilst there can be an element of random pricing at other travel times, peak time travel will generally start expensive and get more expensive the closer to departure. Other times feel free to gamble on the price, but the best advice as a general rule is to book as early as you can.
Which I did and ended up paying £323 more than I needed to for 2 flights.
Feel free to dismiss all that but it's the industry I work in so for once I kinda know what I'm talking about.
I am not sure which airline you work for, but you haven't convinced me. I am basing my opinions on working in the holiday industry for over 20 years. I have booked many flights during the course of my work, most of which have been short notice. I have also booked my holiday flights in advance. During the whole of this period no real pricing policy has been evident.
I think it fair to say that the majority of the public will consider advertising a price of a product which bears no relation to the final price is less honest than advertising a price that is the full amount that you are likely to pay.
More Recent Ripping Off.
RIP OFF Ryanair TRIPLE their prices after Thomas Cook collapse as ‘greedy’ airlines and travel firms are STILL ripping off customers
AIRLINES and travel firms are STILL ripping off Thomas Cook customers as prices have now tripled. Holidaymakers looking to rebook their holidays after having theirs cancelled have been left furious by the steep cost since the tour operator collapsed.
Yesterday, customers claimed that prices had already doubled when thousands of Brits had their flights and holidays with Thomas Cook cancelled. Prices have continued to increase since then with some holidays and flights now triple the price.
Pat Lawrence, 44, had his eyes on a week in Turkey with online travel agent OnTheBeach for his wife and 19-year-old daughter, but was stunned when the price rocketed from £1,500 to £44,000.
Danielle Quinnin, 26, whose quote for Disney World trip through Virgin Holidays leapt from £3,000 to £22,000 after Thomas Cook went bust.
Gaz Tottey was shocked to find £24.99 Ryanair flights to Gran Canaria had leapt in price, costing £82.99, while one man found his £3,700 honeymoon with First Choice had increased to over £10,000 since.
Colin Jelf, who feared Thomas Cook would go under, booked four back-up flights from Gatwick to Orlando with British Airways. They cost him £437 each on Sunday but yesterday he found the same tickets priced at £1,978 each. Colin, 49, of Maidstone, Kent, said: "It’s really bad form."
David Kirkwood posted screenshots online appearing to show a Jet2.com Cyprus holiday’s cost had risen by £1,500 yesterday.
A £442 Jet2 return flight from Manchester to Tenerife soared to £808.
The First Choice and TUI website also went down briefly, being customers claimed they were charged thousands of pounds more when they were back up.
Matthew Comer wrote: "You’re website goes into ‘cleaning mode’ and when it’s back up? £1000pp more. Horrible."
Twitter user Lynsey found her Ryanair flights had jumped from £240 in the morning to £700 that evening. Dale Cross added: "Wake up to the news that Thomas cook have gone under, jump on @jet2tweets website to book replacement flights and shock the prices have hiked up massively, f**k you Jet2." April found flights that were £200 yesterday had jumped to £800, calling airlines "greedy gits". Mandy tweeted: "@jet2tweets should be ashamed of yourselves..... same holiday I was looking at last week is now a price difference of bout £600 ever since Thomas cook announced news of going bust..... shocking."
Airlines under pressure to ditch rip-off ‘no show’ clause Which? calls for ban on return flights being cancelled when passengers miss their outbound journey
Comments
Well done-enjoy the money
Airlines use the dynamic pricing model, so the fares increase as the plane fills up (not too dissimilar to trains and their advance tickets)
Sometimes some routes undersell, so airlines will cut the prices to entice people to book. This is why you can sometimes pick up a flight a bit cheaper if you're happy to gamble and not book as early as possible.
You'll notice that whenever Ryanair do a headline sale, it is almost always only for travel the following month or 2 months. They rarely, if ever, do sales that cover wide travel dates spanning months in advance.
This is because, as above, some routes might be showing more seats left over than anticipated and they need to fill them up where possible. They have an average load factor of about 97% so it does work (plus they generate loads of revenue from their ancillary sales). Very rare that you'll board a Ryanair flight with more than a handful of empty seats (unlike the Etihad, where there are thousands weekly)
If you're ever travelling or looking to travel over peak times (Christmas, Easter, summer school holidays) then booking as early as possible is the way forward, or if your dates are set in stone then again just confirm as early as you can.
The legacy carriers like BA/VA etc will often hold sales at the same time every year (one of BA's sale ends tomorrow I think) so if a sale is coming up and you're, for example, eyeing up a return to New York then I'd always hang on to see what any promotion throws up.
If a double glazing firm advertised a price for a particular sized window, and after you attempted to buy one at the advertised price, they decided to make additional charges for removing the old window, making good, internal cill, external cill, glass, etc etc, they would be battered on Watchdog on the telly.
The difference between Ryanair and the robbing bar stewards who sell plastic and glass is at least Ryanair publish their prices...unlike
What’s black and brown and looks good on a DG salesman? A rotweiler!
What’s black and brown and looks good on a DG salesman? A rotweiler!
I was one for about 20 years, that is a DG salesman, not a rottweiler.
They never seem to stand up to much scrutiny.
My criticism is two fold.
The most recent flights I have booked were advertised at £51 each, yet I paid £175 for two. I would be happier if they advertised at £175 for two. The Ryanair flights were advertised at £88 each, and cost £246 for two.
How can they justify charging a fee for allowing you to choose a seat, £40 for a sheet of paper if you have forgotten to print out a boarding pass, or £140 return for two bags?
Secondly, how on earth could you justify a cheaper fare for a half full plane throughout the year, than a full plane in August travelling to and from same destination. The August flight may be more than double the price of the other one.
Ryanair are probably the only thing in the world that is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn.
Incidentally the site that I use for booking flights, searches all airlines and all airports. I must therefore assume that the flights I have just booked either didn't exist in May, or they were priced at more than the Thomas Cooke flights, ie over £500 for the two of them.
There is no other explanation.
Obviously most people will want to travel with luggage, and want to sit with their companion/s, so unfortunately that always comes with a cost these days.
The August flight is more expensive because it's peak time across most of Europe. They don't need to do a seat sale for that time of year cos they will fill the planes regardless. Why sell a seat for 50 quid when you can shift it for £100 without a problem?
I'm not sure what scrutiny they need to stand up to? This is how it is and how it operates.
Your flights might not have existed in May; airlines add and drop routes pretty frequently, and a lot can change in a few months.
"Ryanair are probably the only thing in the world that is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn."
They are also one of the world's most consistently successful & profitable airlines by any yardstick.
Disclaimer; I LOVE Michael O'Leary.
Come on £40 for a piece of paper.
Family of 6/£240.
Imagine they might have spent say 3k on six flights, and the supplier feels no obligation on their part, to supply them with the bit of paper that actually gets them on the plane.
What planet are they on?
Their success has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their customer service.
Their success is because more people use them. They moan & groan, but they still use them. That's how good they are.
Average capacity 97% says it all.
I was merely pointing out that your explanation of the pricing policy doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
You can argue that booking in advance means a cost saving, and my return flight bears that out as the same flight has increased in price by £70, since I booked in May.
However the outward flight is now a third of the cost that it was in May.
So outbound it was better to book late, but the return was better booked early.
https://www.airtravelgenius.com/easyjet-vs-ryanair/
Otherwise they'd have to advertise flights at a certain pricepoint, with little *** next to the figure to indicate that the price might be X amount lower without baggage, or Y amount lower without a pre-booked seat. Would get way too confusing.
It's no secret that airlines have been charging for things like luggage and seats for about 15 years now, unless you've been living under a rock.
It's also hardly shocking stuff that flights are more expensive during peak travel times like the school summer holidays. Again, it's been like this for years.
Whilst there can be an element of random pricing at other travel times, peak time travel will generally start expensive and get more expensive the closer to departure.
Other times feel free to gamble on the price, but the best advice as a general rule is to book as early as you can.
Feel free to dismiss all that but it's the industry I work in so for once I kinda know what I'm talking about.
Ryanair: the truth about the airline's customer services department
Caroline Green looks like a City broker. Dressed in a cream bouclé jacket, she is expensively coiffed and wears immaculate make‑up; she would blend in seamlessly among the Square Mile’s professionals. Instead, she has what may be considered one of the world’s worst jobs: she is Ryanair’s head of customer services.
She works in the much-berated low-cost airline’s new offices on the edge of Swords retail park, outside Dublin. With its slide (a notice at the top, dictated by the truculent CEO, Michael O’Leary, says “not suitable for pregnant women [...] or gobsh‑‑‑‑” ), primary colours and play equipment, the office feels like a mix between a kindergarten and an on-the-cheap version of Google HQ. Michael O’Leary is normally found on the first floor in a large glass office, with his PR team along the corridor. The big boss isn’t in the day I visit: he’s on holiday (the Algarve, staff think).
The past year has seen Ryanair attempt a Damascene conversion when it comes to customer care. It has introduced family-friendly services such as milk-warming and fully allocated seating and now allows a second small cabin bag. The penny had dropped: low fares were not enough to keep people coming back when passengers felt treated like cattle.
Caroline has been at Ryanair for 17 years, saying that working for the airline “is like an addiction”. Her team of representatives sits on the third floor, but Ryanair also outsources to call centres in Debrecen, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania. In total, there 200 full-time customer services employees.
Does Michael O’Leary’s notorious tongue make her job more difficult? He was once quoted as saying: “People say the customer is always right, but you know what – they’re not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so.” Caroline claims to ignore such comments, and that Kenny Jacobs, the chief marketing officer, now tends to speak on the company’s behalf.
“Michael says things that don’t apply to the business,” she says. “He’ll say in his own way for himself and it’s not the way that the business is run.
Michael O'Leary in quotes
2009: "One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future."
2013: "We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily p‑‑‑ people off."
Clodagh Rochford, a customer services manager, deals with the big stuff, including refunds based on medical issues. Death certificates are needed if passengers are hoping for a refund in the case of a bereavement. I ask if this clause was introduced after the case in which a doctor whose family died in a fire was charged €188 (£150) to change his flight – Ryanair later refunded him in full. Clodagh says they deal with requests for refunds on a case-by-case basis and often have an office discussion before deciding whether to grant one. She insists that complaints have dropped significantly since Christmas 2013
I then sit with Amy Malone, a reservations supervisor, as she replies to some of the thousands of messages sent via the website. One man emails to say he has seen the price of his flight decrease since he booked, and is asking if he can be refunded the difference. The answer is a firm no.
Found among the horse pictures covering the office walls, Richard McEneaney, who trains cabin crew, is unremittingly smiley. I tell him that people think Ryanair crews are moody and are just being told to sell, sell, sell. Has their training changed to make them nicer? He thinks the reforms mean customers are calmer at boarding. “That makes the job a lot easier for our crew and also for our ground staff, because they were the ones that were implementing our policy. Some of them possibly didn’t agree with it but understood operationally what the point was.”
And is it true that ground staff get a bonus for spotting cabin luggage that might be over the 10kg limit, and charging customers for it? No, comes the swift reply. Caroline explains: “They’re looking at a flight now, if it’s booked. We’ve got 189 seats, if there’s more than about 140 on it, the crew are told to go and have a look and see if there are any bags that might be put into the hold, free of charge, because it’s really preventing a problem happening. The last thing we want from a punctuality and a service perspective is that you get all these people on board and then suddenly there’s no room.”
So who would apply for a job with Ryanair? One of Michael O’Leary’s most infamous lines is: “Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy b‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ who need a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it.” How do you train staff when the view from the top is so negative? Richard replies diplomatically. “I think a lot of staff need encouragement, and that’s where training comes in.”
I put it to Ryanair’s head of communications, Robin Kiely, that in the past the company’s PR strategy went something like this: Michael O’Leary says something outrageous (Robin laughs when I ask if his boss has been media-trained: “What do you think?”) The press report outrage. Sales of Ryanair tickets rise, as do profits. But something stopped working.
Was it the profit warning in September 2013 that prompted the customer service and marketing revolution? Did attempts ramp up after easyJet’s announcement last November of a 50 per cent rise in full-year profits? “No, but easyJet were way ahead of us in lots of ways,” Robin admits. He explains that the company’s strategy is now to be seen as cheap and savvy, not cheap and tacky.
All of which goes some way to explaining why the CEO’s costume cupboard is now staying firmly locked. Robin shows me its contents: leprechaun bloomers, a selection of wigs and a Twitter bird onesie. Michael O’Leary traditionally donned them for photo calls. But no more. “New Ryanair” is attempting to be sophisticated.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/ryanair/Ryanair-the-truth-about-the-airlines-customer-services-department/
The outspoken chief executive of Ryanair has remained largely out of the spotlight since the airline began its new "customer-friendly" overhaul. Here are a few reminders why:
On refunds: "You're not getting a refund so **** off."
On overweight passengers: "Nobody wants to sit beside a really fat ****** on board. We have been frankly astonished at the number of customers who don't only want to tax fat people but torture them."
On turbulence: "If drink sales are falling off we get the pilots to engineer a bit of turbulence. That usually spikes up the drink sales."
On transatlantic flights: "Ryanair will never fly the Atlantic route because one cannot get there in a Boeing 737, unless one has a very strong tail wind or passengers who can swim the last hour of the flight."
On the airline industry: "There's a lot of big egos in this industry. Most chief executives got into this business because they want to travel for a living. Not me, I want to work."
On European expansion: "Germans will crawl *******-naked over broken glass to get low fares."
On charging passengers to use the loo: "One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future. If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet I would carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver."
On upright seating: "I'd love to operate aircraft where we take out the back ten rows and put in hand rails. We'd say if you want to stand, it's five euros. People say 'Oh but the people standing may get killed if there's a crash'. Well, with respect, the people sitting down might get killed as well"
On the in-flight experience: "Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastion of sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong. We already bombard you with as many in-flight announcements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who looks like sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things."
On low fares: "I don't see why in 10 years' time you wouldn't fly people for free. Why don't airports pay us for delivering the passengers to their shops?"
If you can't find a low fare on Ryanair: "You're a moron."
On customer service: "People say the customer is always right, but you know what - they're not. Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so."
On closing Ryanair's check-in desks: "This isn't the end of civilization as we know it."
On apologies: "Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service? Absolutely not."
On refunds: "We don't want to hear your sob stories. What part of 'no refund' don't you understand?"
On Ryanair's image: "One of the weaknesses of the company now is it is a bit cheap and cheerful and overly nasty, and that reflects my personality."
On pilot's wages: "People ask how we can have such low fares. I tell them our pilots work for nothing."
On his popularity: "I don't give a ***** if no-one likes me. I am not a cloud bunny, I am not an aerosexual. I don't like aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who populate the airline industry."
On Ryanair's pilots: "If this is such a Siberian salt mine and I am such an ogre, then why are they still working for the airline? If any of our fellas aren't happy with the current arrangement then they're free to go elsewhere. Godspeed to them."
On Aer Lingus's pilots: "Overpaid, underworked peacocks"
On cost-cutting: "We use our own biros and I tell the staff not to buy them, just pick them up from hotels, legal offices, wherever. That's what I do. Recently I did an interview and I was sitting there with a hotel pen I'd nicked from somewhere. I was asked why and I said: 'We at Ryanair have a policy of stealing hotel pens. We won't pay for Bic biros as part of our obsession with low costs."
On employees: "MBA students come out with: "My staff is my most important asset." Bull****. Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy ******* who needs a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it."
On how to keep employees motivated and happy: "Fear."
On beginning a press conference to announce the annual results: “I’m here with Howard Miller and Michael Cawley, our two deputy chief executives. But they’re presently making love in the gentleman’s toilets, such is their excitement at today’s results.”
On ordering aircraft from Boeing: “The message to Boeing today is: ‘You keep building them, we’ll keep buying them’, and together both of us will kick the **** out of Airbus in Europe. We love Boeing. **** the French.”
On not ordering more aircraft from Boeing: “Boeing had their chance. Eventually you lose interest, dealing with a bunch of idiots who can’t make a decision. They are a bunch of numpties out in Seattle.”
On Ryanair in the 1990s: “Ryanair will never make money. It will always lose money. It’s an airline. Forget it.”
On Ryanair in the 2000s: “We expect our profits to grow by 20 to 25 per cent. That’s not just good, that’s practically obscene in an industry in which few people make money. This isn’t an airline, it’s a drug baron’s business.”
On corporate life: “The meek may inherit the earth, but they will not have it for long.”
On consultants: “I believe hiring consultants is an abdication by management of their responsibilities. If the consultant is so good at managing change, then why not hire him to run the company and do it himself? Every idiot who gets fired in the industry shows up as a consultant somewhere. I would shoot any consultant who came through my door.”
On environmentalists: “We want to annoy the ******* whenever we can. The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them. These headbangers want to make air travel the preserve of the rich. They are luddites marching us back to the 18th century. If preserving the environment means stopping poor people flying so the rich can fly, then screw it.”
On Guardian readers: “The chattering **** classes, or what I call the liberal Guardian readers, they’re all buying SUVs to drive around London. I smile at these loons who drive their SUVs down to Sainsbury’s and buy kiwi fruit from New Zealand. They’re flown in from New Zealand for Christ sakes. They’re the equivalent of environmental nuclear bombs!”
On protesters: “The Swampies of this world are climbing up trees to protest about airlines and airports. They should all get a job and get a ******* life.”
On air marshals: “Air marshals are a complete waste of time. I can’t think of anything that would reduce security more than having a guy on board with a gun.”
On a bomb scare in Scotland: “The police force were outstanding in their field. But all they did was stand in their field. They kept passengers on board while they played with a suspect package for two and three quarter hours. Extraordinary.”
On free speech: "I upset a lot of people because I tell them what I think. I'm disrespectful towards what is perceived to be authority. Like, I think the Prime Minister of Ireland is a gob*****."
On politics: "I think the most influential person in Europe in the last 20 to 30 years has been Margaret Thatcher, who has left a lasting legacy that has driven us towards lower taxes and greater efficiency. Without her we'd all be living in some French **** unemployed republic."
On the European Commission: "They are ******* Kim Il-Jungs (sic) in the Commission.
You cannot have civil servants trying to design rules that make everything a level playing field. That's called North ******* Korea, and everybody is starving there. The EU are pursuing some form of communist ******* Valhalla."
On EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes's approval of an Alitalia/Air One merger: "She''ll be rolling over like a poodle having her tummy tickled and rubber-stamping the thing."
On British Airways: "BA have got waterfalls in their head office. The first thing I'd do if I were in charge of BA is turn off the waterfalls. The only time we have waterfalls in the Ryanair office is when the toilet leaks."
On the British Airways/Iberia merger: "It reminds me of two drunks leaning on each other."
On Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet: "Those of us who sell the lowest fares just get on with it, and those who do not, write whingeing letters to newspapers."
On intelligence: "easyJet are not the brightest sandwiches in the picnic basket."
On Southwest Airlines: "We went to look at Southwest Airlines in the US. It was like the road to Damascus. This was the way to make Ryanair work. I met with Herb Kelleher. I passed out about midnight, and when I woke up again at about 3am Kelleher was still there, the *******, pouring himself another bourbon. I thought I'd pick his brains and come away with the Holy Grail. The next day I couldn't remember a thing."
On Alitalia: "I would not want it if it were given to me as a present."
To the boss of regional airline Aer Arann: "**** off back to Connemara where you come from!"
On offering advice to other airlines' bosses: "They can **** off and do their own work"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/Michael-OLearys-most-memorable-quotes/
I am basing my opinions on working in the holiday industry for over 20 years. I have booked many flights during the course of my work, most of which have been short notice. I have also booked my holiday flights in advance.
During the whole of this period no real pricing policy has been evident.
I think it fair to say that the majority of the public will consider advertising a price of a product which bears no relation to the final price is less honest than advertising a price that is the full amount that you are likely to pay.
More Recent Ripping Off.
RIP OFF Ryanair TRIPLE their prices after Thomas Cook collapse as ‘greedy’ airlines and travel firms are STILL ripping off customers
AIRLINES and travel firms are STILL ripping off Thomas Cook customers as prices have now tripled.
Holidaymakers looking to rebook their holidays after having theirs cancelled have been left furious by the steep cost since the tour operator collapsed.
Yesterday, customers claimed that prices had already doubled when thousands of Brits had their flights and holidays with Thomas Cook cancelled.
Prices have continued to increase since then with some holidays and flights now triple the price.
Pat Lawrence, 44, had his eyes on a week in Turkey with online travel agent OnTheBeach for his wife and 19-year-old daughter, but was stunned when the price rocketed from £1,500 to £44,000.
Danielle Quinnin, 26, whose quote for Disney World trip through Virgin Holidays leapt from £3,000 to £22,000 after Thomas Cook went bust.
Gaz Tottey was shocked to find £24.99 Ryanair flights to Gran Canaria had leapt in price, costing £82.99, while one man found his £3,700 honeymoon with First Choice had increased to over £10,000 since.
Colin Jelf, who feared Thomas Cook would go under, booked four back-up flights from Gatwick to Orlando with British Airways.
They cost him £437 each on Sunday but yesterday he found the same tickets priced at £1,978 each.
Colin, 49, of Maidstone, Kent, said: "It’s really bad form."
David Kirkwood posted screenshots online appearing to show a Jet2.com Cyprus holiday’s cost had risen by £1,500 yesterday.
A £442 Jet2 return flight from Manchester to Tenerife soared to £808.
The First Choice and TUI website also went down briefly, being customers claimed they were charged thousands of pounds more when they were back up.
Matthew Comer wrote: "You’re website goes into ‘cleaning mode’ and when it’s back up? £1000pp more. Horrible."
Twitter user Lynsey found her Ryanair flights had jumped from £240 in the morning to £700 that evening.
Dale Cross added: "Wake up to the news that Thomas cook have gone under, jump on @jet2tweets website to book replacement flights and shock the prices have hiked up massively, f**k you Jet2."
April found flights that were £200 yesterday had jumped to £800, calling airlines "greedy gits".
Mandy tweeted: "@jet2tweets should be ashamed of yourselves..... same holiday I was looking at last week is now a price difference of bout £600 ever since Thomas cook announced news of going bust..... shocking."
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/9992365/ryanair-thomas-cook-airlines-price-hike-triple/
There are plenty more on the link.
The general public seem clear, and united, in their views.
I rest my case your honour.
Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/06/airlines-under-pressure-to-ditch-rip-off-no-show-clauses/ - Which?