Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[nirvana]

I was pretty ambivalent to Ryanair because with 2 hour flights, I am just happy with getting there.

Punctuality isn't still excellent, it might have been excellent a few months ago, right now it is shit.  I am now arriving 5 hours late if the plane I had to fight for arrives "on time".  I had several months relying on those plastic trains you despise and never had it this bad.  I still feel like I am playing roulette with it, as there are still a few weeks left to get re-cancelled.   Sure many others have had it worse.

I don't believe he has a problem with his rostering team, he appears to have a treating his staff poorly problem.   

Prices going to have to be quite a bit lower for me to gamble on this shower again.  Sure you'd feel the same if you were in the same position. 

Glad he has made so much momey he can afford to pay compensation, looks like zero chance I see any of it.

Hope you are well. 

Reading 'When to rob a bank' , a series of rehashed blogs from Levitt & Dubner  -interesting one called 'What Captain Sullenberger meant to say (but was too polite to do so'. Interesting take on low cost carriers imo

"I am sure it is comforting to know that you saved 15 percent by scouring the internet for the cheapest fare. Isn't it great to know that you have the newest, least experienced, exhausted, starving, young cockpit crew that the airline could find"

They go on to explain 'starving' and how it relates to cost cutting by the carriers

[BigAdz]

Current thoughts on one of your heroes Michael O Leary, please Tikay?

Showing his true colours methinks, and handling this whole thing very badly.

Don't really know where to begin with that one Adzy. I could write War & peace, but I doubt I'd ever convince the haters, & anyway, I love the guy, & love is blind, right?

It's a serious mess up of course, no doubt about it. The rostering Team made a right pigs ear of everything, but, quite correctly, Michael immediately stepped up to the plate, & took full responsibility. In fact I rather liked his tone - "yup, we messed up", a refreshing change from the normal Corporate pith.

If we look a little wider at the Business, first quarter profits for FY 2018 were close to €400 million. That's for a quarter, admittedly a seasonally busy quarter, & one in which the date of Easter compared favourably YoY. 

Here's the numbers;

https://investor.ryanair.com/results/q1-results-fy18/

Their flights are, on average, 96% full. Every airline on earth envies that. Punctuality remains excellent.

It's a cock-up, but these things happen, & they'll weather the storm for sure. 

There's a delicious irony that so many, especially in the Media, claim to hate Ryanair, & yet they carry more passengers in their sector than any other airline. If everyone hates them, where are all these pax coming from? And now, folks are having to fly with ordinary airlines & pay 50% more, & they are complaining about that.

So, in short, my Michael love remains undimmed. I've got him right up there with Arsene Wenger actually.

Anyway, on less contentious matters, how is your health these days? You seem to have recovered well from what I can see, though Marky told me you can be exceedingly grumpy at times. As if.

Did Kracked Kings ever get back up & running? Think Marky told me it got hacked & the hackers stole all the Content & demanded a ransom or whatever. What a pain hackers are.   

Health as good as it can be for a near on 50 year old, overweight with diabetes and someonelses kidney.

Five year anniversary next month of my transplant, and grateful for every extra day it has given me.

Have even been playing 36 holes in a day several times over the last few weeks, as competition fixture blockage has taken place. However on Thursday, I did manage to win my Clubs premier Knockout comp, one, it was pointed out, I last won 27 years ago!! That made me feel really great and really old in the same moment!


As for O'Leary, I am with Doobs and Nirvana here. You clearly arent taking into account the people this is affecting on a daily basis, and the bad feeling it leaves.

That said, BA treat its passengers like shit, I am delayed so often and put in the wrong prebooked seat more times than I can remember, but I guess being few flights off the Gold Card keeps me prepared to take it up the bum!

Must be the British stiff upper lip....and back, if you fly Ryanair.....

[Rod Paradise]

The big thing O'Leary is now realizing is if you treat people like shite when you're winning, they'll make you suffer when you start losing.

Karma.

[DaveShoelace]

Seen this new documentary on the Beeb? Fascinating stuff, figured it would be up your street.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00klf6j

Click to see full-size image.

Dr Alice Roberts travels the globe to discover the incredible story of how humans left Africa to colonise the world.

[doubleup]

That said, BA treat its passengers like shit, I am delayed so often and put in the wrong prebooked seat more times than I can remember, but I guess being few flights off the Gold Card keeps me prepared to take it up the bum!

I don't fly anything like as much as I used to but I was impressed with BA last time I flew with them.  My flight from Vienna to Heathrow was delayed meaning there was a chance that I would miss boarding my flight to Glasgow due to changing terminals.  When I got off in LHR a BA rep met me and gave me a bright orange priority pass which got me to the front of the bus queue, the front of the immigration queue and a fast lane in baggage check.

[TightEnd]

scary one

Air France plane engine fails over Atlantic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41454712

[tikay]

scary one

Air France plane engine fails over Atlantic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41454712

Thanks Tighty.

Nasty one, that.

Our aircraft buffs may be interested in the PPRUNE thread, here;


http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/600170-af66-cdg-lax-diverts-uncontained-engine-failure-over-atlantic.html


Pretty scare looking out of the window & seeing this, I'd imagine;

Click to see full-size image.

[hhyftrftdr]

I think BA have really gone down the toilet the last 2/3 years. Was recently up to Silver on their loyalty scheme but will generally try to avoid flying with them. Went to Vegas with AA this year and thought they were comfortably better than BA.

Ryanair have really fucked this situation up. But as long as they can weather the short term storm, they will probably be fine and most of this will be forgotten this time next year. I've flown with them more times than I care to remember, and other than a 10 hour delay from Manchester to Brussels last year (of which I got 250EUR compo without fuss), I've never really had any issues with them. I have 2 trips next month with them, and they have survived the cancellation cull, so I'm reasonably content to keep using them, because where else can I get a return to Nuremberg for £20? Pretty fickle I know

I see Monarch are really struggling, their future looks bleak. Thought they were one of the better LCCs so its a shame to see them potentially going under.

[tikay]

Excited.

[tikay]

Woo hoo

[hhyftrftdr]

I think BA have really gone down the toilet the last 2/3 years. Was recently up to Silver on their loyalty scheme but will generally try to avoid flying with them. Went to Vegas with AA this year and thought they were comfortably better than BA.

Ryanair have really fucked this situation up. But as long as they can weather the short term storm, they will probably be fine and most of this will be forgotten this time next year. I've flown with them more times than I care to remember, and other than a 10 hour delay from Manchester to Brussels last year (of which I got 250EUR compo without fuss), I've never really had any issues with them. I have 2 trips next month with them, and they have survived the cancellation cull, so I'm reasonably content to keep using them, because where else can I get a return to Nuremberg for £20? Pretty fickle I know

I see Monarch are really struggling, their future looks bleak. Thought they were one of the better LCCs so its a shame to see them potentially going under.

Well I've got lucky....

I go to Malaga for a long weekend a week on Thursday. I completely forgot the outbound flight is/was with Monarch. So whilst all their troubles had been bubbling under for weeks, I was away with the fairies and oblivious to the fact that I would be affected should the worst happen.

Obv the worst did happen and was confirmed this morning, and I was still not putting 2 and 2 together....then it dawned on me as I was lying in bed, ''shit, I'm supposed to be flying with them in under 2 weeks''. Cue a mad dash to load up the laptop and try and source an alternative flight that wouldn't break the bank.....

And who saves the day? Ryanair! Newcastle to Malaga, 12th October, 09.30 departure, £26. You absolute beauties. All other flights from Leeds/Manchester were at least treble that and landing stupidly late, but that flight has saved my bacon. Train from York to Newcastle that morning for £6.50, and what could've been a (comparative) disaster, has been solved for the princely sum of £33. I feel like I've got very lucky Looks like its gonna be tough to get the Monarch flight refunded but it was only £51 so its all gravy.

There are 6 of us going, and you know the other 5 well (grumps, palace, lmfao, Pat and Hendo lad), I'm glad, and I'm sure they are too, that they don't miss out on my company that weekend

[4KSuited]

I wonder how much of the £51 outlay was profit for the now extinct Monarch Airlines? I imagine the fuel costs alone would take a large bite, let alone the costs of the flight deck, cabin crew and all the Landside checkin & security and departure gate fixed overheads. Oh yes, and the small matter of airport departure taxes.

The 5th biggest airline in the country has paid the price, so there's one less choice for all the bargain basement price hunters out there. Good thing Ryanair are still operating, and complying with CAA regulations when forced to. And they can do the same round trip for £33, so it turns out that those bastards at Monarch were ripping people off so good riddance to them. Anyway, I'm alright, Jack.

[AndrewT]

I've just had a week in Greece flying with Ryanair. I've always hated them with a passion but it was 'er indoors that booked it and she has always said they're great.

Flying with Ryanair means leaving from the shitty Terminal 1 in Dublin, including the standard part of any Ryanair journey - the long, long, long walk to the gate that is furthest away. We walk out to the plane and queue up by the stairs only to have to wait there standing out on the tarmac for over 10 mins as the plane wasn't ready for boarding yet. Presumably this was done as it meant Ryanair ticked some 'got everyone out of the gate by X time' box on some form.

Landing in Athens of course meant a gate that seemed to be somewhere in Albania judging from the length of time it took to walk to collect the luggage.

Coming back we were held in a tiny room before boarding for the best part of an hour, that had seats for about 20% of the passengers. To top it all off, on the plane one of the toilets was broken and the ones that were open had no toilet roll or running water.

On the plus side, my GF is now an O'Leary-hater so hopefully my days staring at the yellow back of a plastic chair are over.

[tonytats]

I've just had a week in Greece flying with Ryanair. I've always hated them with a passion but it was 'er indoors that booked it and she has always said they're great.

Flying with Ryanair means leaving from the shitty Terminal 1 in Dublin, including the standard part of any Ryanair journey - the long, long, long walk to the gate that is furthest away. We walk out to the plane and queue up by the stairs only to have to wait there standing out on the tarmac for over 10 mins as the plane wasn't ready for boarding yet. Presumably this was done as it meant Ryanair ticked some 'got everyone out of the gate by X time' box on some form.

Landing in Athens of course meant a gate that seemed to be somewhere in Albania judging from the length of time it took to walk to collect the luggage.

Coming back we were held in a tiny room before boarding for the best part of an hour, that had seats for about 20% of the passengers. To top it all off, on the plane one of the toilets was broken and the ones that were open had no toilet roll or running water.

On the plus side, my GF is now an O'Leary-hater so hopefully my days staring at the yellow back of a plastic chair are over.

But at least it only cost £25

[The Camel]

I've just had a week in Greece flying with Ryanair. I've always hated them with a passion but it was 'er indoors that booked it and she has always said they're great.

Flying with Ryanair means leaving from the shitty Terminal 1 in Dublin, including the standard part of any Ryanair journey - the long, long, long walk to the gate that is furthest away. We walk out to the plane and queue up by the stairs only to have to wait there standing out on the tarmac for over 10 mins as the plane wasn't ready for boarding yet. Presumably this was done as it meant Ryanair ticked some 'got everyone out of the gate by X time' box on some form.

Landing in Athens of course meant a gate that seemed to be somewhere in Albania judging from the length of time it took to walk to collect the luggage.

Coming back we were held in a tiny room before boarding for the best part of an hour, that had seats for about 20% of the passengers. To top it all off, on the plane one of the toilets was broken and the ones that were open had no toilet roll or running water.

On the plus side, my GF is now an O'Leary-hater so hopefully my days staring at the yellow back of a plastic chair are over.

Clearly an "I've got a girlfriend" brag post