It seems now that Ryanair may considering pay toilets on their planes.
[www.google.com]

You get what you pay for....

@SMSDHubbard: Can they land their planes in the water? If so that would be appealing.

On an unrelated note: Irish I had a beer.

If this is how they react when someone thinks they found a bug on their web site it must be impossible to resolve any problems you have when you actually fly with them.

Why not simply explain the situation to the customer, i.e. why he is not getting the result he expects or if there is a genuine issue refer it to IT.

Harrumph away if you must, though.

If you're not in that seat, someone else will be. To put it simply: They don't care. They don't have to.

They are dirt cheap, BTW, and while they're no-frills, most flights within Europe are so short that it really doesn't matter much. There are a few companies that compete (EasyJet and BMIBaby are two I've used in the past), but RyanAir's one of the best known.

@LetMeGetTheManager: That story makes me think of Scooby Doo. Hilarious.

Certainly does. I've heard people whine and whine about how terrible it is that Ryanair doesn't allocate seats and makes it first-come-first-served (according to how early you checked in, anyway), instead. Seriously, on the size of plane they use, it's hardly the nightmarish free-for-all that people make it out to be.

Meh. Wouldn't stop me from flying with them. Their prices are so good, they could call me an idiot to my face and I wouldn't care. Sure, it's not very fun playing musical chairs for a seat, but a 99 pence fare sure makes up for it!

They're definitely not too hot on the customer service, or the giving a shit about their customers, though. Then again, which airline is? Ryanair's take on it seems to be "you get what you pay for, now go away and stop bothering us". Lost luggage? Tough shit, we're a budget airline, what do you expect? (They've never lost my luggage, but friends have had a response pretty much along those lines when it's happened to them).

I did write a letter of complaint (and I never do that) to them once, years ago, after being screamed at by some evil check-in woman who took an instant dislike to me and my mother (story too tedious to relate, but seriously, the woman was psychotic)... I got a response in the mail basically telling me to go fuck myself.

If bloggers would really choose a different airline because its spokesperson called a blogger an idiot, then all of those bloggers are idiots for spending more money or inconveniencing themselves over something so trivial.

@hi:

CC has competition. RyanAir does have much in the way of competition, well there is BA ..... at.... hmmmm .... 2 to 50 times the price.

@Hyman Decent: The country that nearly starved to death whilst being surrounded by fish-filled waters?

I think they'll be okay.

@varro: I was going to make a comment here but I would be accused of being anti-Irish rather than merely practical.

@Eyebrows McGee: HAHA.. I remember that. The one with that airport guy who was also the car rental guy. I forgot all about that, but that actor cracks me up.

@Chongo: Right? I know I shouldn't, but I actually kind of love this.

@WBrink:

YOU'D BLOODY WELL TAKE YER FANCY PANTS OPINIONS AND STICK 'EM UP YER ARSE YA GRIMY GOOBER.

Ryan Air Customer Service Escalation Department

RyanAir has a MAJOR appealing factor. They're cheap.

Also I don't think "post-modernist" means what you think it means: [en.wikipedia.org]

@philmin: Why should it be any more appropriate to insult Roe over the next guy, when he found this error in the midst of buying tickets? It's not like he was poking around the site for something to expose, he's a customer the same as anyone else. That he chose to talk about a web-related issue as a web-designer on his personal blog has no bearing on the matter whatsoever.

Ideally they should have just kept their mouths shut altogether, as they've taken something ultimately trivial and given their PR a kick in the nuts over it. However, the appropriate thing to have done in the absense of self-control would have been to thank the blogger in question for exposing those bugs, reassure readers that said bugs in no way interfere in Ryanair's ability to do business properly, and then leave it at that. Even if the blogger was dead-wrong, they could have corrected him in a far less irresponsible manner.

Ryanair's employees handled this whole thing in the worst possible way, and there's no excusing that.

Yeah, I went there.

You had me up until the part about the size and condition of your genitals.

@Reid Antonacchio: Tell that to Circuit City.

"spoketwat"?

I'm not even sure how to comment on that phrase other that that it's making me re-think what kind of a site this is supposed to be about, if this is the type of language being used to describe a human being.

And people wonder why the world is the way it is.

@philmin: I don't see why you can't, man. If there's more to the story, I think we ought to know.

That said, I don't know why people insist on questioning what bloggers choose to write about. The guy is a web-designer, so I can see how this would be relevant to him, even if it doesn't seem particularly news-worthy to us. He's not writing for the NY Times after all, it's just his personal blog. ;)

Wow, his balls are both massive and numerous!

That made me LOL at work!

I'm glad I don't work for that company, though.

Looks like the bilious leprechauns at RA have been celebrating St. Patty's a few weeks early...

Although there are a lot of horror stories about Ryanair, I definately appreciate them supporting the snarky but accurate comments of their employees.

Reminds me of when I worked at a snowboard shop and angered a patron by telling him we didn't sell "fruit booters." He asked to see the manager (who was also the owner) of the shop who also told him we didn't sell "fruit booters." Ahh...customer service nostalgia...

@DeloresPompeii: are you kidding? if I EVER have the opportunity to take a flight from RyanAir, I will!

What a great company. finally someone has the balls to stand up to idiot bloggers!

Ryanair's going right on the list of businesses I will never patronize, right next to Wal-Mart.

But yeah, it seems like this was really a non-story to begin with. The author really should have at least tried to complete a sale before posting. Lesson learned, hopefully.

The two responses from Trans Air (were they from the same person?) seemed like they were posted by, to put it delicately, someone who also was not completely thinking things through.

Sounds more like a Monty Python sketch to me.

I did. Although not on a computer.

I was like, "THERE WAS TOTALLY A HOME IMPROVEMENT EPISODE WHERE THIS HAPPENED AND I WILL NEVER MOCK THAT SHOW AGAIN!"

The whole experience went on in this vein. It wasn't BAD, exactly, just ... verrrrrrrry low-budget and bizarre. A slapstick comedy waiting to happen.

@alexawesome:

I think I seperate bloggers from "civilians". Say a random customer in the airport made a bogus claim about AirRyan. It would still be totally inappropriate for AirRyan to insult them or be public about it at all.

This guy Roe, however, is totally willing to publicly post information about air ryan... when it turns out to be misleading, he might have to take flack for that, and I think thats OK.

They also charge almost $15 per checked in bag.

So from a pure "fare" standpoint, the outbound flight WOULD be free. Am I an idiot, a liar, or just confused here?

I'm booking another flight with them for a one way flight from Bristol to Dublin - right now the cost is going to be less than $60 total for two people. Can't beat that :).

For as cheap as RyanAir's flights are, I'd let a flight attendant sit on my lap and loudly berate the size and condition of my genitals for the duration of the trip. And I'd probably get a good laff about it.

@hi: Hardly they've been around for a long time, and they are cheap they couldn't care less what people think because they will stay busy.

@Cyberxion101:

Can I post a link here? I was following up on further reporting of the story. Its up to our own judgment of whether or not the blogger claimed to be able to purchase a free ticket. Realistically though, a bug that shows something weird on a site isnt a story, a bug that gives a free ticket is.

Apparently, blogger Roe made a very slight modification and added that note after this story blew up in Ireland.

@alexawesome: I'm getting sick of insincere apologies. I wish people (or companies) wouldn't backpedal. If the employee and the spokesperson think he's a dateless idiot, fine. I can choose to fly with them or not.

I'd make a comment about them obviously net being aware of the old customer service axiom that for ever person that calls to report an issue, there are nine more that didn't bother and just stopped using your service. It is generally accecpted that each first-line customer will tell approx eight people about their experince, each of them will tell another four, and those four will tell another two each. That means that for every person who complains about something, there is an average of 640 people who will know the result by word-of-mouth only.

I guess Ryanair doesn't want that one customer that will try and get the problem fixed.

Anyway, that notwithstanding, I still think RyanAir have to be the biggest bunch of morons ever to answer criticism like that. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THEY REPLY TO THIS COMMENT!

I'm not your buddy, friend!

@philmin:

CLARIFICATION: I did not claim to complete the booking process for a free flight. I found a bug that showed a 0.00 price listed beside flights. Orders could not go past the passenger details page. See the less than constructive comments left by Ryanair staff below.

That was there when I read his site shortly after the story went up.

Oh the mess you hath dug RyanAir. I see 2 more stories about you in the future: The first will be your public apology, and the second will be RyanAir going out of business. So sad.

Ryanair should not be calling anybody an idiot or lunatic, regardless.

However, the blogger should have retracted the story or put up a more accurate "explanation", considering his original claim was in fact totally bogus.

when i woke up this morning i did not expect to watch another man play with his balls for four mins

that is sweet. if i lived in the uk I would buy a flight