Ryanair trades blows with 'idiot blogger'

Hats off this fine morning to Ryanair, which last week traded blows with "idiot blogger" Jason Roe and in the process demonstrated exactly how airlines should deal with bothersome self-loading cargo. The whole thing kicked off when Jason posted details of an apparent glitch which allowed him to get Ryanair tickets for nowt. …

[Chad H.]

Thats one way....

Thats one way not to win customers.

Eventually Ryanair is going to annoy so many people that noone will fly with them anymore... I can only hope Ryanair do everything possible to expidite this process

[Les]

If you would be more intelligent you would be more in English writing

Fascinating that the Ryanair spokesdroid should use the word "idiot" for the person who has the stronger grasp of the English language in that deligtful discourse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone can tell...

that the Ryan Air blogger is a lad from Lagos.

The distinct lack of Punctuation, the missing words from sentences, all hallmarks of one of the boys. I bet the next response would be.

HELLO Jason, we can fix our websites from you for $1000 GBP (great British Pounds). please send via Western Unions to accounts Ours.

Yours General Ryann Air

[Anonymous Coward]

Not critical?

'...unless it is not critical we are not going to sacrifice time to this.'

So they'll only fix the non-critical bugs and leave the critical ones?

[Name]

Oh dear God

I'm not sure I have ever seem such an embarrassingly pathetic load of illiterate drivel in my life. Did these people go to school? Were they taught even the most basic spelling or grammar? How do they get jobs when their level of literacy is somewhere below that of a brain damaged slug? Come to think of it, how do they manage to dress themselves?

Sweet suffering christ, they're thick.

[S]

Yet another reason not to use Ryanair

Jesus, they really do take the p***. Not only did their inital blogger sound like a 10 year old, but the management response was not much better (12 maybe?).

[Steve]

Does the exploit work?

We need to know, we could all be on free flights to Dublin this weekend.

[Jessica Werkz]

Attitoooode to customers

"such big project in a such busy ", "If you would be a serious programmer ", "if you would think it can cause us troubles", "If I would be you" - interesting English language.

Shoot -> Foot. If this gets into the scum press they're gonna look stoopid.

No chance of me ever flying with these thugs now.

[abigsmurf]

But does it work?

I'm guessing the response the 'exploit' garners means that you book a flight that flies to "" at time 00:00 1-1-1970 where you catch a bus to your destination at the lovely airport called "Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"?

[PsyWulf]

@Name

Nownow,chances are he/she/it is in the development section,no need to spell accurately when copy/paste is your bread and butter ^.^

<<Bug in the spell-checker system obviously

[Anonymous Coward]

@Name

To answer all of your questions: one is a "freelance developer", the other works for Ryanair.

[Geeks and Lies]

Ahhh the blogosphere...

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

Reminds me of the good ol' days. Lets be honest here people. The whole thing was a waste of bandwidth that is getting even more precious in these parts

[alan]

That statement...

made my head hurt, what ever else happens that person needs to learn English!

"If you would be a serious programmer"

Thats quality english, that is. Are you sure it was a Ryanair staffer and not a nigerian 419er trying some new scam out??

[Thomas Davie]

Oh dear

"Yes we know our site is buggy and pathetic, bet we're not going to direct any resources to making it work."

I hope they don't apply the same logic to their planes!

[John McNeally]

Come on people...

Has anyone here ever traveled with ryanair ?

Just look at the stuff when they are teaching us how to fasten the belts they, dont seem that happy, or how the ticket lady almost ripped my finger off when she took the ticket so fast that left my hand on air for about 3 seconds, or what about the people that travel there (including me)...

Those poor bastards dont have a chance in life and ended up in ryanair... like me... If i could I would fly emirates my friend :P

[Christopher Slater-Walker]

Illiteracy no bar to advancement

Well experience shows that, in my company at least, a lack of literacy is no bar to advancement to management positions. We regularly suffer the most egregious grammatical and spelling mistakes, as well as all the common ones, and that from people in middle and senior management positions.

So we have had "colleges" for "colleagues," for example. Regular confusion of there/their and your/you're (and even yore!) as well.

I suppose it shows that it's communication rather then perfection that counts (alas!)

[Sinical]

Begs the question

So if they are too busy fixing more serious issues to spend a few minutes sorting out a minor irritation like session jumping, just how buggy is their website?

[amanfromMars]

Rough and Tumble in Tough Times

"Sweet suffering christ, they're thick." ...... By Name Posted Wednesday 25th February 2009 11:07 GMT

I wouldn't know anything about Ryanair being thick, nor would I comment on it even should I know, Name, but flying at the best of times is stressful enough for many, without the added annoyance now of any Tom, Dick or Harry sharing their existence and experiences on a mobile phone in a confined and captive space.

It is certainly not customer friendly, no matter how hard the boss would try to spin it as so..... but hey, he suffers the bottom line and is entitled to do whatever he thinks fits the bill to keep the birds in the air and/or the company afloat.

[Pete]

They get my respect.

I far prefer an airline (or any other type of business) that comes out and says what it thinks. Whether about it's customers or it's competition, rather than one which hides behind weasel-words and platitudes: saying insincere things just to smooth the ruffled feathers of someone who thinks they are special and believes it when advertisers tell them they are "worth it".

It's also refreshing to hear them on TV consumer shows, putting up robust responses to whinging proles who want 5-star treatment at 1-star prices. Especially when they have the confidence of knowing that no matter how much they moan, they know that the customers will be back - simply because they can't resist saving a few pennies.

Good on 'em. I just wish more businesses would be straightforward with us.

[Steve]

LOL

Twats!!

[Jimmy Floyd]

@Chad .H

"...Ryanair is going to annoy so many people that noone will fly with them anymore..."

We can but dream, though I suspect they're a little harder to shift than that. Ryanair will probably corner the market in air travel for chavs - and they can keep that.

That said, last summer I flew with BA to Barcelona for less than my mates did with Ryanair. And I arrived in Barcelona, not Reus airport 100km from the city.

[Anonymous Coward]

Could it possibly be...?

that the Ryanair blogger's first language is not actually English, and that their command of English is just strong enough to do a website development job where speaking the Queens English is not a necessity?

[Stef]

language

Everyone assumes that the RyanAir employee was a native English speaker just because he/she responded in English. When I read the employee's responses, it scans like they have English as a second language.

The RyanAir spokesman's response is not at an acceptable level, and he should be forced to fly by RyanAir as punishment (And forced to sit next to some twat who is using their new air-mobile service at £2 a minute because they can't be apart from their mobile phone for a whole 60 minute flight).

[Jessica Werkz]

@PsyWulf

"is in the development section,no need to spell accurately when copy/paste is your bread and butter".

I've worked on projects where bad spelling rules and the chaos and misunderstanding it causes beggars belief.

[Patrick R]

Management leads the way.

"Our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel".

He meant "our staff is cutting down on politeness". At all level apparently.

[Ryan]

Ryanair web programmers as cheap as the air hostesses

Looks as though Ryanair spend as much on their web site development team as they do their no-frills air crew. We will probably see their web development team in the next Ryanair salery top-up lads mag calendar that's made.

Maybe Ryanair should start looking at recruiting staff from Western Europe where the English Language is normal and not seen as a luxuary item.

Paris - TTYN

[Snake Plissken]

@Chad H

"Eventually Ryanair is going to annoy so many people that noone will fly with them anymore..."

To bastardise the old saying "Noone ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the public".

Ryanair seem determined to weed out knowledgeable travellers in any way they can, up to and including downright abuse. They can then fill their planes with those who are too thick to care and too stupid to get off their mobiles for twenty whole seconds and charge them a fortune for things like the seat cushions, the carpet and the air inside the cabin.

[Bo Pedersen]

the thing that made me chuckle though

I know people have mentioned about how bad the grammar is.

but you have got to admit its gets worse, and funnier, the more angry they get.

more of these please, they make the working day go faster :)

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, he probably could get flights for 0.00 but once he got to the airport and paid £40 for luggage and another pile of money in taxes, its hardly a freebie is it? :)

[Pete James]

Nasty little people

Do Rayannair have an AUP? If so, do staff read it? Or do their staff have the brains to realise that behaving in a confrontational manner in public makes them look rude, uncaring and arrogant, pushing people into the arms of their competitors?

Ryannair are in some ways an anti-brand, concerned solely with low prices and if you expect anything else then sod off. But this is very poor. The 'official' reply only leaves you wondering how unpleasant their employees are.

I'd certainly look for alternatives to Ryannair before spending money with them. Low prices aren't everything you know.

[Anonymous Coward]

Modus Operandi: Totally Normal

quoth abigsmurf:

I'm guessing the response the 'exploit' garners means that you book a flight that flies to "" at time 00:00 1-1-1970 where you catch a bus to your destination at the lovely airport called "Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"?

-

This is perfectly normal behaviour for Ryanair. They couldn't find their arse with both hands, a map and GPS voice guidance. Frankly after my last experience with them I feel lucky that they remembered to fill the plane up before we left. I'd far rather fly Sleazyjet. At least that way I have the in-flight entertainment of playing Booze Cruiser Bingo. Ryanair passengers always seem to have had their spirits broken. It's a bit like sitting in the A&E waiting room on a Saturday night. Nobody there is having a good day.

[g e]

I now give Ryanair 3 weeks

Till they're hacked to bits

Twats

[Anonymous Coward]

Semi-literate bullies

We've always known it - this proves it.

As others have said, this is a huge bullet in the foot - let's hope they carry on like this until no-one will fly with them any more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately I can afford a better class of airline

otherwise I'd have to stop using them.

Regardless of the wisdom of Jason Roe's comments, insulting somebody who is a current or potential customer is pretty stupid.

Stephen McNamara is clearly not fit to hold the job of spokesman. If it was my airline, I'd send him for some "Customer Relations re-education". Or maybe I'd just sack the incompetent twat.

[Bucky]

Driving down the cost of air travel...

...by employing overseas agency staff with little grasp of the English language.

Their cabin crew also seem to have an inability to smile or be polite - but that's just my experience.

The last time I flew with them, I vowed it'd be just that. They're all a miserable bunch of people. Hardly surprising given the wages, and pressure they can be under to do everything they need to so quickly.

OTOH last time I flew with EasyJet they were all having a laugh with each other, and the passengers and it made the flight much more enjoyable. Gotta be worth the extra fiver!

[Anonymous Coward]

Time spent bringing down prices...

and involving themselves in nasty diatribes.

No Paris time around. I'm too tired

[Mike]

Offshore

That style of english has a distinct hint of offhore developer..... and no, I don't mean that they are from Ireland ;->

an alien because they'll be offshore aliens obviously..

[Forget It]

Thebest a man can ...

Last year I nearly got arrested by Ryan Air staff because having been treated like cattle I dared to make a mooing sound!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ryanair sucks

Misleading advertising and fantasy low-cost tickets, middle-of-nowhere airport coverage (nicely subsidised by the dimwitted local taxpayers), pay extra for everything (even the security at Liverpool airport, not that it's optional), spend even more time and money travelling to and from the airport than on the aircraft (although with the wallet-dipping in the booking process and at the airport, they're aiming to redress that particular balance), get treated like livestock with ticketing right until you actually board and then it really is like life on the farm as the punters try to grab their choice of seats. Nicholas Cage's character in Con Air almost had a better time of it.

And from what I've heard, I wouldn't trust Ryanair to fly across the Atlantic given mentions of various cost-cutting strategies they've already employed. And it certainly wouldn't surprise me at all to see a huge financial scandal around Ryanair's business, ultimately, even against the usual backdrop of subsidies and hand-outs in the aviation sector.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ryanair definition of free

Yes you can travel for free, now if you will just pay for your bags, all the taxes we didn't mention at first, the charge for sitting with your partner and the credit card charge per person on each leg of the journey. Oh and of course you will have a short bus journey from the destination airport to the country you actually want to visit.

If you have any problem with this please contact our chairman who will tell you to piss off.

[Chris Martin]

Free Flights, what about the landing...

I thought most of there flights were free, it just costs £50 to Checking, and if you want to take anything more that a passport and a toothbrush on your travels that will be another £50 please....

[Chris Weston]

Dearie me

I've never flown with them, and given their attention to detail and recruitment policies, I think I'll keep it that way.

[Jessica Werkz]

Happy company

I get the impression the staff at Ryanair are always angry and specially with customers. Why is this ? (I've never flown with them)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They get my respect.

"Good on 'em. I just wish more businesses would be straightforward with us."

Like Ryanair is the paragon of honesty. If you really believe that Ryanair are "straightforward with us", whether or not that involves reading the small print on every single communication with them just to check whether they've sneaked something nasty in, then you're as bad as a punter for whom the concept of a "false economy" will forever remain a mystery.

Ryanair is probably the most outrageous example of its kind with a string of false advertising rulings against it in a number of countries. One wonders whether more scrutiny might be applied to the company's operations, but then one also wonders what kinds of incentives might be available in the Republic of Ireland for the regulators to look the other way.

[TeeCee]

Hey, don't diss RyanAir

Without them, all the chavscum would be on the nice aeroplanes with the rest of us and we'd have to put up with the racket from the cheap seats disturbing us at the pointy end.

[Stef]

@Pete

"I far prefer an airline (or any other type of business) that comes out and says what it thinks. Whether about it's customers or it's competition, rather than one which hides behind weasel-words and platitudes"

Yeah, it worked out well for Ratner didn't it? ;)

[al]

Is this AYB of the 21st century ?

Nah.. but funny nonetheless.

Was this Jason guy able to purchase a ticket ? Not really. So, I would say that his rambling wasn't really blog-worthy [or reply-worthy.] But this whole thing was definitely article-worthy! cheers! :)

Paris, coz AHBABTU.

[Anonymous Coward]

White knuckle ride

I don't like Ryanair. Nothing more or less to say than that.

I just wanted to post a picture of Paris - because we know her flaps are fully functional whereas we just hope Ryanair's planes' flaps work when we buy one of their tickets for tuppence ha'penny...

[Linbox]

Love 'em

Disclaimer: I don't work for them. I fly a lot. I use a mix of airlines.

1) Their chairman is bloody funny and only wears rugby shirts. He doesn't mince words and says what he thinks.

2) If you get yourself a Visa Electron card, you don't pay credit card fees.

3) They are surprisingly punctual. I've flown with them maybe 10+ times and every flight has arrived on time or early.

4) You expect the staff to be surly, but they're OK. Better than the snotty fuckers BA employ.

5) Quite a few of their airports are in the middle of nowhere (Paris/Milan to name but two), but quite a few are well located (Belfast/Dublin/Berlin/Pisa).

6) Despite the "hidden" costs, which all default to "yes please, I would like you insurance" - a tactic that should only confuse the clueless - they are still cheap I booked 3 seats to Belfast last Aug for £76 TOTAL. The next cheapest was BMI at £120/each. Daytrip to Pisa for me + wife in Oct = £0.04p including ALL costs. Five tickets to Berlin in Dec, 10p.

For all those people on here who claim they'd rather pay £200 for a flight that includes a "free" bacon roll, cup of coffee and an allocated seat instead of crappy Ryanair and their £25 tickets - can I point you in the direction of my E-Bay auction for a mink-lined mouse mat and diamond-studded USB cable....

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeay Ryanair!

Flown with them...never again, or at least never with my family...Ryanair's crew were fine, it was the ******* other passengers who were loud, rude and generally obnoxious. The worst were the "pilgrims" going to Santiago proudly displaying their religion but refusing to move to another seat to let a father sit with his toddler daughter.

I spoke with some of the cabin crew during that flight...apart from the pressure they're under to sell lottery tickets etc, they said that they've now seen some real dregs of society.

Whether you like Ryanair's marketing or O Leachery or not, you have to admire them finding their market niche so well.

As for remote airports, well I can strongly recommend the area around Hahn for a weekend break. There are some lovely hotels in the nearby villages. Tampere in Finland is quite a nice city, Santiago is fantastic. In fact, instead of heading to the closest (for some meanings of close) city, stay around the area in whcih the local Ryanair airport is... ..

However, as I said, NEVER with the family again...alone I might do it...might....*if* they are *significantly* cheaper....and I can see no other reasonable choice....

Of course, if someone exploits a bug in their booking system, good luck to them on arrival --- the crew might have radioed ahead..."Hello Security, this pax we have, Mr.XYZ, acting strangely he his...might need a damned good tazering and one of those cheaper flights to...what's that place in Cuba again?"

Paris....do I need a reason?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's MY policy

... never to deal with alleged air carriers such as Ryanair.

I'll NEVER fly with this bunch of cowboys again. Did once - worst experience.

More time spent trying to sell you substandard food at overinflated prices than actually making sure the aircraft is safe.

Mind you, they do keep the riffraff off the good airlines so that's got to be a plus.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err, no

>you would know that the most important is to have usual user behavior scenarios working rather than spending time on improbable and harmless things.

Whilst not normally stooping to the level of using Americanisms I can think of nothing that would suitably convey what this dimwit needs which is, and I may be mistaken in it's correct usage, a cluebrick, abd a fucking big one.

[Seán]

Such bullshit

Anyone who uses Ryanair does so because they are the cheapest. If you find fake corporate "Have a nice day" politesse to be a rewarding experience then your opinion clearly counts for nothing and noone ever asks you for it anyway.

If you were being paid by Ryanair just how happy and content would you be? When you fly Ryanair the very misery of the staff is an indication that your ticket is the cheapest possible price, subsidised by the human misery of the Ryanair employees. That extra euro you saved is contributing to a divorce two ulcers and five calls to the Samaritans.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Thebest a man can ...

I am currently in tears of laughter at the thought of a whole queue of people making "moooo" sounds as they were ordered around by the bastards at Ryanair. More people should do this...

Or just do what I've done and refuse to ever fly with them again.

[William Wallace]

Not doing badly, though

According to The Times, Ryanair is now the world's largest international carrier.

[Chris Cooke]

Driving DOWN the cost of air travel?

Payment Handling Fee - Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight - £4.75

Airport Check-In Fee - Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight - £4.75 or £9.50

Hold Bag – Per bag/ Per One Way Flight - £9.50 or £19

Second or third bags, each - £19

Excess Baggage Fee - Per Kilo £14

Flight Change Fees - Per Passenger/ Per One Way Flight - £24 or £52

Name Change Fee - Per Passenger - £95 or £142.50

etc...

[Anonymous Coward]

Scumbag Airways

Run by a blagger for chavs with more hidden costs than an MS SLA. I consider Michael O'deary to be one of those nasty little aggressive (business?) men who should be forced to sample their own crappy products and services for all eternity. I'd rather swim the channel and walk rather than fly Bullshit Air.

[Jessica Werkz]

@William Wallace

Make that 'the world's largest chav carrier", and they're welcome to each other.

[Andus McCoatover]

Ryanair are so dumb...

...that they still tell you to "raise your seat to the upright position" on approach.

Twats haven't realised the cheapskates fit seats that DON'T RECLINE!!!

(We need a 'twat' icon. I've used the closest I can find.)

[James Condron]

@Les

Bloody idiot commenters can't even use English now.

"If you would be a serious programmer" Is perfectly correct English, albeit slightly archaic. Look it up.

[Anonymous Coward]

RyanAir IT

for a place that uses Silversh*te to be accused of sloppy IT and bad decisions ...

[Rich]

Giz a job

I so want a job there. I'd love to be able to just call customers out as wankers, particularly the sort of pedantic twats that spend their time seeking niggles and security holes in websites.

If I could give Ryan a tip, they could put some code in the site that detects Firefox/Macs/Linux and throws up a message:

"F..k off. Our passengers don't want to fly with sad geeks like you. Stay at home and play on your computer, or get IE6 like a normal chav".

That should get them a bit more publicity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on guys!

It's a no-frills airline for goodness sake! You want politeness and, err, proper grammar? That's an extra service... it'll cost you, innit.

[Chris Malme]

I only wish...

... that I hadn't already sworn off of doing any business with Ryanair, so I could say that because of this, I would no longer ever do business with Ryanair.

[Adam White]

RE: Is this AYB of the 21st century ?

Surely you've realised al, that EVERY experience is blog-worthy?

[Jodo Kast]

Wow, interesting.

Companies have a long way to go before they fully embrace the internet.

I'd give them another 10 years. For now, they're still blocking employees from visiting Facebook to keep tabs on someone who is chronically ill. They still block, because they are thinking that they are doing some good.

Perhaps they believe censorship works so well for China, let's do it! After all, that's how most companies behave... like dictatorships, and you do not question the dear leader. And for crying out loud, don't mention that the books are cooked.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Is this AYB of the 21st century ?

@Adam White

Apologies - yes sir, I'd forgotten about the new disease -blogomania: unless you blog how many times you picked your nose while writing the previous blog; you ain't doin justice to blogudience.

Paris again; coz AHBASBTU!

[Anonymous Coward]

Grammar Police

Seem to be out in force today. Better take a brolly to deflect all that spite and invective. Probably be some spittle involved.

Seriously sheeple the Ryan Air web devel was perfectly understandable. What is it with the English, after bastardising are own language we are going to talk down at someone else trying to master it.

Oh the view must be so nice from up there.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Linbox

HTF do you avoid taxes etc to get tickets for 4p? I regularly compare the prices of Easyjet and Ryanair for the barcelona - stansted route. For a typical booking (i.e. two people with enough clothes for a week) by the time you've added in Ryanair's much higher credit card fees, checkin fees, baggage fees, and the extra travel costs on the ground, any remaining cost advantage is eroded by the extra travelling time.

[Tom Simnett]

@Ryan

Ryan Air air hostesses don't have frills? I'm disappointed :(

[D Midi]

Idiot bloggers...idiot safety regulations for 'improbable things'

....and airplanes are not perfect...sometimes they fall out of the sky when trying to drive airfares lower.

I've only flown Ryanair once, and I can't imagine doing so again in the future with such an unprofessional attitude amongst staff. There must be unimaginable pressure to cause such venting, and that can't bode well for 'idiot' things like maintenance and Airworthiness Directives that only deal with 'improbable' things.

Seems HR at Ryanair has a policy of highering [sic] people with IQs to match their airfares.