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Comment by pm215 | Hacker News Reader

I see that this article says they were already giving 1.50 euro bonuses for this; on the other hand this other article from just a few months back says they "categorically denied" paying commissions for oversized bag detection:

https://www.dublinlive.ie/lifestyle/travel/ryanair-set-recor...

O'Leary is on record as saying that this kind of "bad publicity" story is actually good for the business, because it builds up the Ryanair image that the base price of the tickets is extremely low and keeps them in the minds of potential customers. So I'm always a bit sceptical about how much this kind of story is real vs just a successful attempt to get their brand all across the news for a day...

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At peak season every year, O’Leary says something crazy like they are going to charge for the bathroom, or charge fat people extra, or get rid of arm rests, or have standing room only. The tabloids run the story and include a generous amount of quotes from O’Leary about how great Ryanair is. It’s very, very obvious advertising. The tabloids go along with it because it makes people angry, which drives traffic.

I worked for that fecker. He would do anything to get himself (and therefore Ryanair) into the media.

One of the weirdest ones was him pretending to be a plane along our open plan hallway. Still don't understand what that was about.

(But yeah, i'm pretty sure it's Ryanair policy to say stupid crap to get free advertising).

As someone who is forced to use Ryanair to move around Europe because they priced out any other competition with their unfair, dark pattern-y, and borderline deceitful tactics, I can't wait for them to be regulated into a much more reasonable market position. Easyjet, while being problematic in many ways, is not even remotely as bold and arrogant as Ryanair in this regard. Also, there is an element of fundamental need in booking flights last minute (visiting a sick family member abroad, for example): getting a Ryanair ticket in these conditions means paying an incredible amount of money for a subpar service. They thrive on this.

Personal Experience: last minute ticket from Italy to Germany, major airports, bought the morning for the evening with Ryanair with no luggage: 569€.

Have you compared with other carriers? While it is a lot, if it was cheaper than anything else, it's just the market doing things the market does, i.e. forced buyers paying through the roof.

They are in other ways, like canceling morning flights if not enough passangers are on the flight, like it happened to me from Germany to Switzerland, and by quoting technical failure, usually EasyJet gets away with having to refund a few ones, while those willing to way almost a full day get the evening flight instead, and one less day.

What about Eurowings now offering booking of headspace, so that you can guarantee to have the hand lugagge close to your seat?

If anything, I see other airliners getting the same tatics, and I guess we should all be happy they still care about maintenance.

I've probably flown on 200 Ryanair flights and think the service is great. They get you from A to B cheap and mostly on time. If you adjust your expectations that they're a bus you'll have a better time. In response to your last paragraph. Their ability to set prices as they see fit has allowed them to offer mostly very cheap prices. Regulate this and say goodbye to those prices.

I think what he means is the same issue I have. I also fly a lot in Europe and the only choice I have is Ryanair. I don't have a problem that Ryanair exists, rather having an issue, that they cut out every other carrier. I would be happy to pay a higher price for better service, reliability and the most: more space on the seat. The problem is not Ryanair directly, the problem is the lack of choice.

are there airports that only serve ryanair? or do you just fly unpopular routes that noone else thinks is worth serving?

Not the airport itself, but the route.

Ryanair often uses different model than traditional airlines. That is not hub and spoke, but instead same plane flying one city to next. Often with handful of hubs that are more connected. This means they also serve "unpopular" cities as part. Where the ground fees can be lot cheaper. And due to how cheap their pricing is there is what could be called organic demand. Just because you can fly to new place for cheap people will.

Yes.

Ryanair has been flying to regional airports near me for the last nearly 30 years.

But a different airport every few years.

What is happening is well documented by the local press who smell a story.

What Ryanair does is approach a small regional airport and offer to fly to it if the landing fees are low enough or even non-existent. And they often try and bundle sharing advertising etc.

Of course this is not great business for the airport. They feel they have to accept something, as it is better than nothing, but it’s not great.

Of course Ryanair doesn’t renew when the contracts are up etc - it has already lined up the next airport.

And the shared marketing? That’s often the banners you see at airports advertising other Ryanair destinations. And the Ryanair marketing budget is insider funny money but the airport contribution is real money …

I've never bought a bus ticket and then been told that the bus is overbooked and that I have to get off the bus.

Ryanair doesn’t overbook. That’s mainly an American thing. It does happen elsewhere, but it’s nowhere near as common.

Yes they do. It quite literally happened to me, which is why I wrote that comment.

I had to wait at the gate in the hopes there would be a no show. I wasn't the only one waiting, either. There were two of us. "Good news", they told us after everyone else had boarded. "We have seats for both of you."

They hand-wrote me a ticket and I walked onto the plane, only to find that the seat they'd assigned me was already taken. I stood in the aisle for about 10 minutes, clutching my bags, the only person still standing, until a flight attendant came and told me there wasn't actually a seat for me and that I needed to leave the plane.

When this has happened before, people assumed it was overbooking but it was actually a plane change.

I would have loved if they had an actual excuse for me, such as a plane change. All they could tell me was that I was late to check in, so they couldn't guarantee a seat for me on the flight.

> As someone who is forced to use Ryanair to move around Europe because they priced out any other competition... I can't wait for them to be regulated

Careful what you wish for. I am forced to fly Austrian because on my routes there is nothing else and it's more expensive, always late, in case the flight is cancelled they manage to lose half the rebooking emails etc. And somehow it rubs me the wrong way there is no apology when they lost my baggage or cancelled (already way late) flights.

Nobody is forcing you to buy Ryanair tickets.

O'Leary has form for this sort of ragebaiting - recall the non-stories about standing "seats" and paying to use the toilet.

Both of those were April Fools jokes, to be fair.

That isn’t true.

Ryanair plan for standing-only plane tickets foiled by regulator, 28th February:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/feb/28/ryanair-sta...

Ryanair toilet charge is no joke, insists O'Leary, 5th March:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/mar/05/ryanair-toi...

For the same reason, every year there is a news Ryanair is considering standing room in their planes. This is absolutely against regulation, and they do not consider such thing, but it is good for publicity: they strive to offer the lowest prices.

it also means that they don't have to pay for advertising space and The Guardian can run their stupid BS quotes as headlines to drive clicks. The newspaper gets more hits and Ryanair gets free brainspace in readers

My first take is that this could lead to the Cobra effect [1] -- employees would want customers to take oversized bags up so they could earn this payment.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

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