Ryanair in 2015

[airazurxtror]

Ryanair today (25 Aug) launched Ryanair Car Hire and announced a new partnership with CarTrawler, a leading travel-technology platform and online aggregator of car rental services, allowing Ryanair customers to book the widest range of cars at the best prices on the Ryanair.com website.
Ryanair Car Hire will go live on the Ryanair.com website from Tuesday, 1st September 2015.

- See more at: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines_press_r ... artrawler/

The move comes after Hertz discontinued its car hire arrangement with Ryanair last month in a dispute over the airline's ticket selling arrangements using third party agents. Up to that point, Ryanair only sold tickets direct to customers. Hertz is believed to have viewed it as a breach of contract. Ryanair said it would issue proceedings against Hertz claiming it was in breach of contract.

[sean1982]

Phara de Aguirre, news anchor woman of Flemish tv VRT, has slammed Ryanair on social media for the way their so called customer service replied to a lost luggage complaint. Or actually: did not reply at all.

On 15th July 2015, Phara de Aguirre flew Rome-Brussels with Ryanair. When boarding in Rome, she was not allowed to take her hand baggage onboard because of lack of space. Nothing wrong with that. So her hand luggage became cargo hold luggage. Upon arrival in Brussels, the hand luggage didn’t show up on the luggage belt: it was missing, gone.

Phara de Aguirre: “Swissport Brussels Airport tried three times to find my case, without result though. I also filed a complaint on Ryanair’s website, and I’ve done that already three times now since the case went missing. Not one reply from Ryanair so far. It’s also impossible to phone the airline and to find out if they have found it”, de Aguirre said.

Els Crauwels, a friend of Phara de Aguirre and a researcher at the Antwerpen University, flew to Mallorca on 17th July. “No luggage upon arrival”, she said. Els Crauwels also said that it’s impossible to phone Ryanair for such matters. However, Crauwels has received conformation from Ryanair meanwhile that the luggage is now regarded as “lost indeed”, and they’ve asked her bank account number. "They also asked for proof of my purchases, which I don’t have anymore so I’m curious what they will offer.”

The newspaper Het Nieuwsblad contacted Ryanair, who refused to comment “on personal files”. Ryanair stated that all is done to find the missing cases, and that the chance that someone looses luggage with Ryanair is 20 times less then the worldwide average. (Remark passenger: that remark doesn't really help these two passengers. And actually it's also quite normal because Ryanair doesn’t accept transfer passengers, because many FR-passengers don't fly with luggage at all given the very high luggage surcharges, and because Ryanair mostly flies to/from airports where they are about the sole operator).

Flemish newspapers Het Nieuwsblad / De Standaard asked Test-Aankoop (Test-Achats) what to do now. TA says that lost luggage means a maximum indemnity of 1.150 €. “Airlines often ask for proof of purchase of goods, which isn’t obvious off course. However, most of the bigger airlines will propose a fair deal”, TA said.

Phara de Aguirre and Els Crauwels told Het Nieuwsblad that they will start a civil court case against Ryanair when they are not refunded in full.

http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20150819_01824516

Rofl .. A civil court case? they will get the legal amount, that will be a quick ruling

(And if you see how bags get handled at BRU, every morning I can find at least 5 bags lying around on the apron (and before passenger jumps from joy, not beloning to FR passengers, cause I always check them) :/ CRL has a lot lower lost baggages)

[KriVa]

Before the discussion even sets off, let's get something straight here: Play the game, not the man.
If you can't do so, there's no place for you in this topic, or even on this forum.
Since the luggage was lost on a Ryanair flight, the post itself belongs in the Ryanair topic.
If you think this subject deserves a topic all of its own, feel free to open one, and we'll be glad to move the posts in question over there.

Off-topic, provocative remarks have been removed.

[sean1982]

No, it actually doesnt deserve a post or a topic at all! A lost bag is so trivial (or shall we open 1000 topics for every daily lost bag in BRU?) and you know damn well that the only reason why he posted it is to provoke. And yes Thomas, you're the one who allows these pointless discussions to carry on (but usually only deleting the pro-FR posts. Funny aint it?)

[KriVa]

No, it actually doesnt deserve a post or a topic at all! A lost bag is so trivial (or shall we open 1000 topics for every daily lost bag in BRU?)

The reason the post is here, is not because of a lost bag, but because of the handler/airline's lack of communication towards the owner of said bag. If everything would have been handled correctly, the post wouldn't even have made it to the forums, because there would have been no news to discuss.

A lost bag is so trivial (or shall we open 1000 topics for every daily lost bag in BRU?) and you know damn well that the only reason why he posted it is to provoke.

That would be your opinion. The post handles about Ryanair, so it does indeed belong in the Ryanair topic.

And yes Thomas, you're the one who allows these pointless discussions to carry on (but usually only deleting the pro-FR posts. Funny aint it?)

I'm afraid you only see what you want to see. I don't delete posts or parts of posts based on the message they convey. I delete posts based on the useful content they have, and their adherence to the forum rules.
If you have any more comments, I'm eagerly awaiting a private message from you.

If not, I trust you know the mantra by now: Off-topic posts will be deleted.

[Inquirer]

Interesting reading.
Not so much the event itself, but the subsequent poor handling of it, especially since it's a reputated BV which subsequently decided to go public with her frustration after a pretty long time only.
I would have guessed that in this day and age, large companies would immediately go into a "PR damage control mode" whenever something happens to a public customer which may develop into a news story?
It's a well known fact Proximus for instance has a team of account managers handing issues with only such people and other companies do the same, both in Belgium as well as abroad.
Its almost a must in the era of Facebook, twitter and the other social media platforms.
Seems at ryanair they clearly haven't fully entered the era of social media and all that goes with it, or alternatively -being a foreign company- they don't know our country and its local VIPs well enough to successfully handle these events and thus keep them out of the spotlight and avoid the negative publicity from it.

[sean1982]

I dont do private comments. People have the right to witness all.

As for the bag. Bag is lost, airline is contacted by pax or bag handeler directly, airline directs pax to bag handeler, bag handeler tries to find bag, bag isnt found, bag handeler refers pax to airline for lost bag claim, airline investigates and pays pax legal industry wide amount (no matter how many Armani suits are in there unless they where declared beforehand), end of story.

Miss Phara will have to wait like "jefke van achter den hoek" for this process to complete. With my grand-mother and KLM it took 5 months. Really aviation forum worthy news

[Inquirer]

I wonder, why wasn't this cabin bag handed back to her right the steps of the plane upon arrival in BRU?
I know several other airlines do this at BRU and in this case it would potentially avoid the problem of the very bad luggage handling at BRU which Sean highlighted. Especially hand luggage may be fragile and get damaged more quickly than other types of luggage?

[airazurxtror]

Not so much the event itself, but the subsequent poor handling of it, especially since it's a reputated BV which subsequently decided to go public with her frustration after a pretty long time only.
I would have guessed that in this day and age, large companies would immediately go into a "PR damage control mode" whenever something happens to a public customer which may develop into a news story?

I am sorry to disappoint you : a VRT Anchor woman is perhaps known in Flanders but is totally unknown in the two other regions of the country not to speak of foreign countries - the Ryanair public relation department has most probably never heard of her.
And the story has not made it in the press at large, not even in the Belgian french speaking newspapers.

[sn26567]

And yes Thomas, you're the one who allows these pointless discussions to carry on (but usually only deleting the pro-FR posts. Funny aint it?)

Criticism of moderators is not allowed in this forum (neither in any other forum I know).

Since this post has been answered by the relevant moderator, it will not be deleted, but next one will be without warning.

[Passenger]

I am sorry to disappoint you : a VRT Anchor woman is perhaps known in Flanders but is totally unknown in the two other regions of the country not to speak of foreign countries - the Ryanair public relation department has most probably never heard of her. And the story has not made it in the press at large, not even in the Belgian french speaking newspapers.

I agree that the 77.000 German speaking Belgians (= Belgian region number 3) probably never heard of hear, but I can assure you that the 6 million Flemish people (above, let's say, 5 years of age) do know who Phara De Aguirre is.

And the story has not made it in the press at large, not even in the Belgian french speaking newspapers.

Well, it sure has in the north of this country. Just google "Phara Ryanair"...

[sn26567]

A civil court case? they will get the legal amount, that will be a quick ruling

I fully agree with you (Montreal Convention 1999: up to 1000 SDRs or equivalent in local currency - in the EU 1,220 € - except in case of special declaration at the latest at check-in and by paying a supplementary fee).

[epsilon]

I wonder, why wasn't this cabin bag handed back to her right the steps of the plane upon arrival in BRU?
I know several other airlines do this at BRU and in this case it would potentially avoid the problem of the very bad luggage handling at BRU which Sean highlighted. Especially hand luggage may be fragile and get damaged more quickly than other types of luggage?

Several reasons i assume, efficiency being the main one. Sorting out yellow tags coming from the hold from bags with normal tags. Bringing them to the steps, having passengers stand/wait on the apron for their bag to be brought over possibly delaying boarding for the next sector. And standing around on a busy apron also is not the safest place to be.

Makes sense to just put everything on the belt, and yes sometimes a bag gets lost, it happens.

[sn26567]

Ryanair claims that passengers waive their rights when they click to agree with terms and conditions, reducing the time to 2 years instead of 6 years by European law. The Judge ruled that the European law prevails. Ryanair filed an appeal.

Ryanair to appeal delay claims ruling

Ryanair is to appeal a court ruling over flight delay compensation claims, which could benefit millions of passengers.

Ryanair has been arguing that by accepting the airline’s Terms and Conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agree they only have two years to make a claim.

"We note this ruling which reverses Lower Court orders that a two-year time limit for claims is reasonable,” the airline said in a statement.

“Since we believe a six-year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.”

http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/24 ... ims-ruling

[Passenger]

Ryanair claims that passengers waive their rights when they click to agree with terms and conditions, reducing the time to 2 years instead of 6 years by European law. The Judge ruled that the European law prevails. Ryanair filed an appeal.

Ryanair to appeal delay claims ruling
Ryanair is to appeal a court ruling over flight delay compensation claims, which could benefit millions of passengers. Ryanair has been arguing that by accepting the airline’s Terms and Conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agree they only have two years to make a claim. "We note this ruling which reverses Lower Court orders that a two-year time limit for claims is reasonable,” the airline said in a statement.
“Since we believe a six-year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.”
http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/24 ... ims-ruling

It will be a very quick ruling: Article 15 of EU Rule 261/2004 forbits the above Ryanair practice:

Article 15 - Exclusion of waiver

1. Obligations vis-à-vis passengers pursuant to this Regulation may not be limited or waived, notably by a derogation or restrictive clause in the contract of carriage.

2. If, nevertheless, such a derogation or restrictive clause is applied in respect of a passenger, or if the passenger is not correctly informed of his rights and for that reason has accepted compensation which is inferior to that provided for in this Regulation, the passenger shall still be entitled to take the necessary proceedings before the competent courts or bodies in order to obtain additional compensation.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ ... 32004R0261

[airazurxtror]

As for me, I find it right and comforting that every Ryanair customer - celebrity or not - is treated in the same manner.
The "BV" pay the same price as the "not BV", why should they be privileged ?
At Ryanair, they are not - and if some newspapers make it known to the public, it's a good thing for Ryanair.

[sn26567]

The "BV" pay the same price as the "not BV", why should they be privileged ?

Are you sure that Phara did not pay for a business package, allowing her to sit in the front of the aircraft?

[epsilon]

The "BV" pay the same price as the "not BV", why should they be privileged ?

Are you sure that Phara did not pay for a business package, allowing her to sit in the front of the aircraft?

Yes. Because otherwise her bag would have been on board (one of the advantages of Plus, no bag offloads)

[sean1982]

Ryanair claims that passengers waive their rights when they click to agree with terms and conditions, reducing the time to 2 years instead of 6 years by European law. The Judge ruled that the European law prevails. Ryanair filed an appeal.

Ryanair to appeal delay claims ruling
Ryanair is to appeal a court ruling over flight delay compensation claims, which could benefit millions of passengers. Ryanair has been arguing that by accepting the airline’s Terms and Conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agree they only have two years to make a claim. "We note this ruling which reverses Lower Court orders that a two-year time limit for claims is reasonable,” the airline said in a statement.
“Since we believe a six-year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.”
http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/24 ... ims-ruling

It will be a very quick ruling: Article 15 of EU Rule 261/2004 forbits the above Ryanair practice:

Article 15 - Exclusion of waiver

1. Obligations vis-à-vis passengers pursuant to this Regulation may not be limited or waived, notably by a derogation or restrictive clause in the contract of carriage.

2. If, nevertheless, such a derogation or restrictive clause is applied in respect of a passenger, or if the passenger is not correctly informed of his rights and for that reason has accepted compensation which is inferior to that provided for in this Regulation, the passenger shall still be entitled to take the necessary proceedings before the competent courts or bodies in order to obtain additional compensation.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ ... 32004R0261

Great, hopefully all non complying airlines will be forced to pay back all damages

[airazurxtror]

Are you sure that Phara did not pay for a business package, allowing her to sit in the front of the aircraft?

Anybody, BV or not, can buy a businesss package, which is at the same price for every customer. No free upgrading for the privileged, as far as I know.

Off-topic remark deleted.