Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Dingdell]

The entry level Phantom costs about £250,000, but if you want a few bells & whistles, it comes to nearer £300,000.

just like bloody Ryanair!

Exactly. The best things in life often cost a little more......

I could write some lovely stories about Ryanair, & my hero Michael O'Leary, but I fancy the readership would not muchly agree, & it might just kick off. Shame, really, he's a quite remarkable man, & it is a really incredibly successful business, whether you & I like his business methods or not.

Anyway, it is 2012 now, & Michael, & Ryanair have adopted a new Client-friendly approach.

Click to see full-size image.

I am on my high horse now - this image in airbrushed - lovely to look at granted but it's not real....

[Simon Galloway]

I am on my high horse now - this image in airbrushed - lovely to look at granted but it's not real....

Has to be... perfect fuselage that.

[AndrewT]

That black bollard she's sitting on doesn't look too comfortable.

[gatso]

Cheese Is Most Stolen Food Item, Says Report

who'd have though it?

Really? If we can get that validated by gatters (I think he'll reject it) that'd be an amazing stat.

Is most of it stolen in Chesire, or is it a nationwide Kraft?

I've franchised out most of the work this year but I'll get my cheese bullshit correspondent onto it

good to see channing make good use of his betting bullshit franchise earlier when he called bullshit on your boots story

[Royal Flush]

lolz at all the ryanair haters.

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

My point is they get me there fast, i can get off the plan even faster and it costs an absolute bowl. I honestly see no reason to complain.

The only odd thing was i decided to come back a day early (well someones QQ decided i should) and so went to the airport to change flights, it was cheaper to buy a new ticket than change flight, doesn't seem to make much sense...

[nirvana]

Ryanair's way of doing things has its place but I do think their approach is ulitmately unsustainable. Prob won't worry shareholders since, despite notional tips of the hat to the long term, it is all about today.

You only have to look at charts of Top 50 companies etc over a period of time to see this.

Southwest Airlines were the pioneers of the no-frills approach and thanks to a culture developed by Herb Kelleher (who I've had the pleasure to meet ..name drop, yah) they are still, in general, able to deliver the minimum A to B, with a panache and customer centric (buzzword alert) approach that ensures a high degree of loyalty.

Personally & fortunately, I've only had to travel with Ryanair once.

I think it was very much of the zeitgeist to employ all kinds of customer related people in the period 1990-2006, Customer Satisfaction, later Customer Experience, later Social Media types etc - especially in organisations with large public facing teams. Customer 'Care' teams never go away as such, they just get re-named or different disciplines provide the service but it would also be understandable if a lot of business that went crazy for this stuff in better times, are trimming back a bit now. Especially as the web has made so much of any good service we receive a self-service thing.

Very unlikely that many public facing companies in a competitive environment would seriously consider emulating the worse elements of Ryanair's model without being as brilliant at the best parts, and most companies aren't as good at the best parts so need to compensate elsewhere.

[MANTIS01]

I'm not the best flyer in the world. If the plane takes off and lands without problem I don't much care about the bit inbetween.

[Karabiner]

I reckon the odious Mr Worrel-Thompson missed a trick when not citing his hatred of all things Tesco as his defence.

[EvilPie]

lolz at all the ryanair haters.

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

My point is they get me there fast, i can get off the plan even faster and it costs an absolute bowl. I honestly see no reason to complain.

The only odd thing was i decided to come back a day early (well someones QQ decided i should) and so went to the airport to change flights, it was cheaper to buy a new ticket than change flight, doesn't seem to make much sense...

How did you manage to reserve a seat? I didn't think they allowed that?

Ryanair air the nuts imo apart from the seat reservation policy (which maybe I'm going to find out has changed).

It makes no sense that they won't try to squeeze a bit extra out of the punters by charging £10 to reserve a seat and £20 to reserve a leg room seat.

They'd get an extra £40 out of me every time.

[Royal Flush]

lolz at all the ryanair haters.

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

My point is they get me there fast, i can get off the plan even faster and it costs an absolute bowl. I honestly see no reason to complain.

The only odd thing was i decided to come back a day early (well someones QQ decided i should) and so went to the airport to change flights, it was cheaper to buy a new ticket than change flight, doesn't seem to make much sense...

How did you manage to reserve a seat? I didn't think they allowed that?

Ryanair air the nuts imo apart from the seat reservation policy (which maybe I'm going to find out has changed).

It makes no sense that they won't try to squeeze a bit extra out of the punters by charging £10 to reserve a seat and £20 to reserve a leg room seat.

They'd get an extra £40 out of me every time.

£10 now to choose your seat each flight

[EvilPie]

lolz at all the ryanair haters.

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

My point is they get me there fast, i can get off the plan even faster and it costs an absolute bowl. I honestly see no reason to complain.

The only odd thing was i decided to come back a day early (well someones QQ decided i should) and so went to the airport to change flights, it was cheaper to buy a new ticket than change flight, doesn't seem to make much sense...

How did you manage to reserve a seat? I didn't think they allowed that?

Ryanair air the nuts imo apart from the seat reservation policy (which maybe I'm going to find out has changed).

It makes no sense that they won't try to squeeze a bit extra out of the punters by charging £10 to reserve a seat and £20 to reserve a leg room seat.

They'd get an extra £40 out of me every time.

£10 now to choose your seat each flight

Amazing. Ryanair are finally perfect.

[henrik777]

lolz at all the ryanair haters.

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

My point is they get me there fast, i can get off the plan even faster and it costs an absolute bowl. I honestly see no reason to complain.

The only odd thing was i decided to come back a day early (well someones QQ decided i should) and so went to the airport to change flights, it was cheaper to buy a new ticket than change flight, doesn't seem to make much sense...

Probably cheaper for them to do something they do all the time (sell tickets) rather than do something not too often (make changes). It would also produce less scope for error and take less staff to do so.

Sandy

[Bad Beat]

 I don't think Worrall-Thompson was a very professional shoplifter. I think they go for batteries, razors and booze still.

 One Vic reg told me a story about how he was doing a bit of pre-Christmas shoplifting in a Waitrose in an area of London far from his house a couple of years ago. He was busy lurking, trying to avoid the store detective when Dianne (a lovely lady who is a reg in the PLO), noticed him and screamed out:

  "Oh HELLO xxxxxx, happy Christmas and what brings you to Chelsea?"

  "Actually...", our man replied, "I'm here to do a bit of pre-Christmas shoplifting, so if you could tone it down a bit and leave us alone that'd be good".

 "Oh xxxx, you're so BOHEMIAN" Dianne bellowed.

 

[Bad Beat]

 I was reminded of a guy at our school who was quite popular.

 At the time of the 1979 General Election our school had a mock General Election and this fella won in a landslide standing as the "Cheese and Wine Party."

[doubleup]

I flew to Dublin and back for £75 i reserved seat 1C meaning i was out of the airport at both ends in an insanely fast time. I doubt anybody could do it faster given how keen Ryanair are to turn the a/c around.

You were going to their nut best destination, not the moon