Toilet charge on Ryanair?

[gbphipps]

Apparently Ryanair is considering making the loo pay as you "go". You would have to pay a pound to enter.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=63417699.blog&csp=Travel

[keltic]

I thought it was true, but I am starting to think that it was a joke

[Globaliser]

It was said by the Mouth as a joke. Any publicity is good publicity, as far as he and his airline are concerned. If you look at the interview concerned and see the context in which he said it, you will see that he doesn't mean it. In reality, Ryanair would not (and probably could not) do this.

[coxswain]

Wouldn't fly with them !!

 

 

 

 

 

jj.....

[Missus Makkem]

this is now being denied by Ryanair,but in the future who knows.....bring out the incontience pads:eek:

[justfoxie]

It would seriously not surprise me if they tried this.

[Stevesan]

Pay a pound to spend a penny?

That's inflation plus!!! :p

 

A pay toilet at 35,000 feet? Have correct change?

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press

Feb. 27, 2009, 10:38PM

 

 

DUBLIN — When nature calls at 30,000 feet, is $1.40 a wee price to pay? Or could it force passengers without correct change into a whole new kind of holding pattern?

The head of budget European airline Ryanair unleashed a flood of indignation and potty humor Friday when he suggested that future passengers might be obliged to insert a British pound coin for access to the lavatory to get some in-flight relief.

Airline chief Michael O’Leary suggested that installing pay toilets would lower ticket costs and make flying, somehow, easier for all.

Not even his own aides seemed to be sure if he was serious or pursuing his penchant for making brazen declarations to get free publicity for Ryanair.

“One thing we have looked at in the past, and are looking at again, is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might have to actually spend a pound to ‘spend a penny’ in future,” O’Leary said, using a British euphemism for going to the bathroom.

When asked on BBC Television what would happen if a customer really had to go but didn’t have correct change, O’Leary dismissed the scenario as implausible.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in history” who has gone aboard a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound, he said. He cited the British currency even though Ireland and most of Europe uses e uros.

O’Leary spokesman Stephen McNamara said his boss often spoke tongue in cheek — but he then defended the idea of in-flight pay toilets as part of a logical trend.

[Globaliser]

Not even his own aides seemed to be sure if he was serious or pursuing his penchant for making brazen declarations to get free publicity for Ryanair.

ROTFL!

 

Much as I detest the man and his outfit, I think that it would be absolutely hilarious to be a fly on the wall in FR's head office. There must be an atmosphere of "OMG, what is he going to do next?"

 

A bit like that military personnel appraisal thing that comes round on the email every so often: "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity."

[handfordr]

Well it clearly had the desired effect, acres of free publicity for Ryanair in the media and forums such as this - on the basis that all publicity is good publicity.

 

Last week the media grabbing retort was 'Nobody needs more than the 10kg hand luggage limit for a two week holiday - we will keep raising checked in baggage fees until only 25% of our passengers bring hold luggage on their journeys'

[sustyse]

It's only a P**s take!:)

[Alsacienne]

O'Sneary has no respect for anyone. Ryanair is my last choice airline.

[goldencup]

I recently flew to Dublin for 1p each way. At that price I wouldn't have objected to paying to use the toilet!

[English_in_Spain]

I recently flew to Dublin for 1p each way. At that price I wouldn't have objected to paying to use the toilet!

 

But what was the final bottom line cost.

 

We have just been looking at flights from Alicante to UK. Have looked at Ryaniar, EasyJet and Monarch.

 

Although Ryanair is showing a flight cost of €0, by the time you add on all the extras it was actually the most expensive of the three.

 

You have to pay for checked luggage. The trouble is with the current restrictions on what you can take in hand luggage, we nearly always have to have checked luggage. They charge for checking in, taxes etc which makes the whole thing ridiculous.

 

I want to see the EU directive enforced that all airlines must advertise their total fare. That they all quote on the same basis.

 

If we have to pay to use the toilet on board I will just soil the seat I am in and let them cope with that problem - lol.

[Globaliser]

O'Sneary has no respect for anyone. Ryanair is my last choice airline.

A more interesting story last week, which has gained less publicity, underlines this.

 

A Dublin-based web designer, Jason Roe, noticed a glitch on Ryanair's website and blogged this: "As I was booking flights to Cork, I noticed something a bit strange. When I went to change my flight times, all of the prices on the flights had changed to "Total Cost of Flight 0.00'." But other bloggers pointed out that the Ryanair site did not allow users to complete a £0.00 transaction, with bloggers finding an 'error' message occuring, or being sent back to a search page.

 

The astonishing thing is that six hours later, a Ryanair staff member posted: "You’re an idiot and a liar!! fact is! you’ve opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it!"

 

The news report continues:-

Roe defended his posting, saying: "I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight." And he later clarified that he did not claim to have completed the booking process.

 

But that didn't stop Ryanair Staff continuing a vitriolic attack on Roe: "If you would work in your pathetic life on a such big project in a such busy environment with so little resources, you would know that the most important is to have usual user behavior scenarios working rather than spending time on improbable and harmless things.

 

And Ryanair Staff continued: "Even you did not discover anything major you are still trying to benefit from this. If I would be you I would think of consequences this can have."

Well, I suppose there are nutcases in every company.

 

But the truly gobsmacking thing is what happened when Ryanair was confronted with this. The newspaper says this:-

And today Ryanair confirmed to Times Online that it was a staff member responsible for the posts - but in typical Ryanair bullish fashion, a spokesman refused to apologise:

 

"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.

 

"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."

I am glad that I have not yet planned or booked any trip on which it would have made any sense to use Ryanair. I have so far been spared the dilemma of whether I would refuse to do business with the company simply because of its attitude towards the rest of the world.

[keltic]

I don´t like or dislike Ryanair, but being the only operator in my hometown, there´s either Ryanair or Ryanair for international services and better alternatives compared to Iberia.

 

I wouldn´t use the term "having to pay for the extra costs". Except taxes, all charges are not mandatory. You have the option of travelling with hand luggage, using some cards are free of charge and you can denied paying the insurace and the "priority boarding". So in our case (Spain) while sometimes other operator might be cheaper in certain circunstances, if we compare to Iberia Ryanair is unbeatable in the 90% per cent of the occasions.

 

So people keep on booking if the options are limited. Should I had an option I would probably would choose then. I have to admit that I have never had any major problem, and even paying for my luggage it means huge reductions compared to Iberia.

 

I am also aware that when having a problem, the customer service on FR is simply non existent, caothic or unbearable. So everything depends on where one lives and what airlines on can choose from.

[bschne1909]

We are taking Ryanair from the UK to Venice this spring. The fare totals less than $70 each. That is a pretty good price. I can put up with a little inconvenience at that price. I do wish they would make it a bit easier to find out the bottom line since I know that at times their $0 fare can be more expensive than Easyjet because of the extras.

[kenish]

Pay a pound to spend a penny?

 

This tagline was in several articles....if I understand English slang, "spend a penny" means taking a p**s. :)

[Globaliser]

We are taking Ryanair from the UK to Venice this spring. The fare totals less than $70 each. That is a pretty good price.

Not when you can fly from the UK to Venice non-stop on British Airways on a cheaper fare (£46 = $65) that includes a piece of baggage, on-board refreshments, allocated seats (ie no running race to the aircraft) etc etc.

[6rugrats]

Not when you can fly from the UK to Venice non-stop on British Airways on a cheaper fare (£46 = $65) that includes a piece of baggage, on-board refreshments, allocated seats (ie no running race to the aircraft) etc etc.

 

Globaliser, is that a pretty average fare? Just starting some planning for a possible trip next spring (2010) and trying to pick a starting point in Europe. Seems, on average, it's much easier to get award tickets to LHR and use that as a jump off point for other cities.

 

I am aware no one can predict prices so far out, but it's all I have to use for comparison!

[Globaliser]

At the moment, that £46 fare seems to be available most days at least from the beginning of April onwards (haven't look for earlier than that). It's only available from Gatwick, as far as I can see, and obviously on busier days it may only be available on one flight (or even not at all, on the busier days). The lowest fare for the flights from Heathrow is significantly higher - about £108 one-way, it seems.