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| RYANAIR CRAMS THEM IN AT STANSTED |
UPDATE 4TH SEPT 2018: Michael O'Leary was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 this morning. He claims that (wait for it - I love a good conspiracy theory) the shareholders of the companies that own UK airports are sabotaging services at Ryanair's main UK hub Stansted Airport.
How? by restricting service staff numbers TO EMBARRASS Ryanair. Our sorry tale below was not due to poor staffing by the airport owners but was a deliberate policy by Michael O'Leary. He cynically oversells Ryanair flights, then as soon as passengers pass through the Gate sufficient to fill his planes - he shuts the Gate. In our case, our friends were the last to get through - we were the first to be stopped. It ruined our holiday - cost us over £1,500 and - guess what, O'Leary will not compensate us; or anyone else.
So, my advice is avoid Stansted Airport, avoid Ryanair, avoid the arrogant cynical crook O'Leary and rejoice when Ryanair goes bust - to be replaced by decent firms who treat their staff, pilots and customers with decency, honesty and goodwill. Fare ye Well Mr O'Leary.
*****
28 Sept 2017. Another 1,800 flights cancelled. This seems due to more action by aircrews. Maybe they are fed-up of being treated with contempt by billionaire Michael O'Leary. He denigrates their skills, hi-jacks their free-time and abuses their sense of responsibility. If he was in the business of tarmacking drives - would he corral ignorant, uneducated workers into caravan parks on zero-hour, zero-pay, zero-hope, zero-life contracts? It's time to consign 1980's Predatory-Monetarism, Exploitation and Greed-is-Good crap to the dustbin of failed economic history. Is RYANAIR finished?
How? by restricting service staff numbers TO EMBARRASS Ryanair. Our sorry tale below was not due to poor staffing by the airport owners but was a deliberate policy by Michael O'Leary. He cynically oversells Ryanair flights, then as soon as passengers pass through the Gate sufficient to fill his planes - he shuts the Gate. In our case, our friends were the last to get through - we were the first to be stopped. It ruined our holiday - cost us over £1,500 and - guess what, O'Leary will not compensate us; or anyone else.
So, my advice is avoid Stansted Airport, avoid Ryanair, avoid the arrogant cynical crook O'Leary and rejoice when Ryanair goes bust - to be replaced by decent firms who treat their staff, pilots and customers with decency, honesty and goodwill. Fare ye Well Mr O'Leary.
*****
28 Sept 2017. Another 1,800 flights cancelled. This seems due to more action by aircrews. Maybe they are fed-up of being treated with contempt by billionaire Michael O'Leary. He denigrates their skills, hi-jacks their free-time and abuses their sense of responsibility. If he was in the business of tarmacking drives - would he corral ignorant, uneducated workers into caravan parks on zero-hour, zero-pay, zero-hope, zero-life contracts? It's time to consign 1980's Predatory-Monetarism, Exploitation and Greed-is-Good crap to the dustbin of failed economic history. Is RYANAIR finished?
21 SEPT 2017
STOP PRESS:
I have read in the past 15 months, since RYANAIR ruined our holiday by closing the gate on our flight, that they habitually overbook passengers by 10% to 20%. They close the gate when all the seats are full - leaving the rest stranded. In our case, our friends went through the gate, we were stopped - even though the flight (a monopoly route to Perugia from Stansted) then sat on the tarmac for 3 hours. We had stayed the previous night at the Stansted Hotel to make sure of catching the flight. In all, our costs were over £1,500 - plus a ruined holiday rest and great aggravation. Say - £20,000 worth of Ryanair contempt for us as passengers and of contempt for all the ground staff at Stansted who have to administer this cynical policy.
The contempt also applies to supposed "compensation and refunds" - which Ryan Air resists paying with all its guile, cunning and muscle. They are the supreme crooked con-men and bully-boys of the industry.
So, I am greatly pleased that the aircrews are striking back - because they too are treated with utter contempt by Ryan Air. I hope it breaks-up the company before this corporate canker spreads to other airlines and ruins the industry; which depends on goodwill between passengers, staff and owners. Ryan Air's planes and schedules should be given to efficient, honest, friendly operators. "Budget" shouldn't mean "Bent". Call in the liquidators.
Guardian: Ryanair customers face the threat of a fresh wave of flight cancellations as the airline’s pilots prepare to reject an offer of a cash bonus if they give up days off.
The Guardian has obtained a draft letter signed by Ryanair pilots from across Europe, rejecting the offer and warning they will now “work to rule” - refusing to work beyond their basic contractual obligations. Ryanair had told pilots earlier this week that if they declined the £12,000 payment more flights might have to be scrapped.
The no-frills carrier is scrambling to cope with a public relations disaster after it announced plans to cancel up to 50 flights a day until 31 October, citing a “mess-up” in how it schedules time off for pilots. The move has affected 315,000 customers.
Day 22 - Still no response. I will continue this after Referendum Thursday - If UK Dictator for Life, Boris, and his familiar Gove allow it.
Day 11 - Still no response. Still hiding from their customers. But try this telephone number for Howard Millar, Deputy Chief Executive & Chief Financial Officer 00 353 1 945 1212. They have to do business with the outside world so some of their phones must be answered.
Irritatingly, I read that "billionaire" CEO
Michael O'Leary is a strong REMAIN advocate in the Brexit debate, as am I, so I
can't berate him for that. But are his or Ryanair's billions offshore?
LIVE CHAT sent me another webpage to claim a refund. That also cut off in the middle of filling it in. I did speak to someone on a help line in North Korea or somewhere like that. She said Google Chrome cannot handle Ryanair pages and I should install Firefox. Call me cynical but I don't believe she is right - re-configuring my computer to match Ryanair's technology is a route to madness.
Phones and website forms all cut off after 10 minutes
or so. The staff and executives at Ryanair seem to be hiding from their
customers. Companies quickly collapse after they avoid their customers. ( DOING
A RATNER. Gerald Ratner wiped £500M off his jewelry chain (H Samuel etc) overnight, by insulting
the taste of his customers. )
Operations Director, Michael Hickey's email is
hickeym@ryanair.com . I will find the others. They have got my-Irish up. I
may have to visit Dublin. Watch this space.
******
8 June 2016 - DAY 10.
3 Hrs wasted trying to contact:
https://refundclaims.ryanair.com/
RYANAIR WEBSITE for refunds cuts off at SUBMIT, says
"cannot process".
These contact numbers all link to the same ansaphone
"Too busy to take calls"
0871 246 0000
0843 504 7252
00-353 1812 1212
0870 100 0013
6th June 2016.
Despite having Boarding Cards, we had to queue with baggage at Ryanair's so-called Check-in-Desks, for 1.5 hours at 5.30 in the morning, for a 7.30 am flight, costing £617.54, with hundreds of other rudely herded, angry and ignored Ryanair paying customers, in the chaos of Stansted Airport UK, RYANAIR's main UK hub.
We had taken the precaution of staying the previous night at an airport hotel - so as not to miss our flight. Our friends just made it through, 2 minutes ahead of us; then Ryanair slammed down the gates and split up our party.
Ryanair demanded we pay again for the same flight the next morning, and threatened to again make us queue for 2 or 3 hours at their Check-In desks with no guarantee of catching that flight either. We eventually went back home and missed our pre-paid vacation. Our journey is insured via Ryanair by INTANA travel insurance - so I have just claimed £6,111 in costs and compensation. I'll let you know if they pay-out, or if the insurance company simply adds insult to injury.
TO: MICHAEL HICKEY - Chief Operations Officer - RYANAIR
6th June 2016. Still no response from the contemptuous executive morons at Ryanair, who despise their customers. If these elusive Directors can't run a Check-In desk, or answer complaints, can we trust them to run an airline.
All Executives
- Michael O'Leary Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director.
- Michael Hickey Chief Operating Officer.
- Neil Sorahan Chief Financial Officer.
- John Hurley Chief Technology Officer.
- David O'Brien Chief Commercial Officer.
- Greg O'Gorman Director-Ancillary Revenue.
- Derek Thaddeus Quinn Director-Engineering Division.
Bag information: In economy, prices vary by itinerary. More Ryanair bag information
Founded: 1985, Republic of Ireland
DO THEY PAY TAX? As the OECD, UN and national tax-collectors worldwide investigate the Panama Papers and earlier data published about tax-haven schemers and dodgers,the UK tax collectors, HMRC, are following France's example, where France is claiming one billion Euro in taxes from Google on the grounds that Google have a commercial taxable presence in France, so likewise HMRC are challenging major offshore companies and raising "protective assessments" on the same grounds as France-v-Google, namely that a substantial UK base means, in law, that the company must pay tax on its UK profits.
Ryanair, claiming to be tax-based in Dublin, pays no UK tax on its £730 million annual profit, earned from 12.6 million customer flights per month, 116 M a year. It reserves Euro 516.4 M for tax in its 2015 Balance Sheet, but if Stansted, with 1.89 M passengers per month, is classified as a UK taxable presence now and in earlier years - will the tax bill rise?
Ryanair is already in dispute with the UK tax authorities about a sham "self-employed" scheme for its UK based pilots:
LETTERBOX COMPANY AVOIDS UK TAXES
"HMRC is conducting its own investigation, and has "issued 'protective assessments' for £47m relating to British income tax and national insurance contributions between 2010 and 2013," according to The Times. HMRC told Brookfield that it failed to believe that pilots "had any genuine right of substitution", meaning it was not possible for Brookfield to appoint a substitute pilot with an airline and pay for that pilot. The non-ministerial department that is responsible for the collection of taxes said that Brookfield should have paid PAYE tax and National Insurance on the pilots' payments"
WHY I AM PISSED-OFF - MY COMPLAINT AS AN ABUSED RYANAIR CUSTOMER:
6th June 2016.
We queued at their so-called Check-in-Desks, for 1.5 hours at 5.30 in the morning, for a 7.30 am flight, costing £617.54, - with hundreds of other rudely herded then ignored Ryanair paying customers, in the chaos of Ryanair's area at Stansted Airport UK, RYANAIR's main UK hub. We had taken the precaution of staying the previous night at an airport hotel - so as not to miss our flight. Our friends, 2 minutes ahead of us - just made the plane after sprinting hundreds of yards along corridors. We were stopped - as they closed the gate at 07.00. The plane actually took-off at 10.15 am - nearly 3 hours late and 3 hours 15 minutes after we were barred.
************
TO: MICHAEL HICKEY - Chief Operations Officer - RYANAIR
6th June 2016. Still no response from the contemptuous executive morons at Ryanair, who despise, bully and abuse their customers. If these elusive Directors can't run a Check-In desk, or answer complaints, can we trust them to run an airline.
2 Jun 2016,
Dear Mr Hickey,
Is Ryan Air going to acknowledge
my complaint? We should now, today, be enjoying our holiday; not back home
chasing reluctant executives who are avoiding their customers.
I am an old fashioned professional
man in my 70s. Can you imagine what aggravation it takes to drive me to
peppering my emails with bad language?
Is this complaint one for the
Twittersphere?
Cordially
Noel Hodson
******
To Mr Michael Hickey
Chief Operations Officer
Ryan Air
30 May 2016.
Dear Mr Hickey,
GET YOUR BLOODY ACT TOGETHER! WHO
THE HELL IS IN CHARGE? WHERE ARE THE F|******G RYAN AIR AIRPORT MANAGERS?
In our 70’s, we travelled to
Stansted last night and stayed at the Radisson Blu Hotel, to catch your 7.30 am
flight to Perugia this morning. We queued at your check-in desk for 1.5 hours,
to be told that our bags were not paid for and to go to your Yellow machines;
which after much confusion, during which the single Ryan Air employee allegedly
helping us disappeared, the machine told us the flight was closed at 7.00 am. Your staff
told us that we had irrevocably missed the flight. Our two friends we were
travelling with had gone ahead. So I sprinted to the security area to find them
– but failed and had to come back out. Which I was allowed to do. Had I been a
terrorist, I could have left a bomb in the mass of people in the security zone.
Ryan Air ought to have 2 or 3 times the number of check-in desks to cope with
such passenger numbers – or aren’t you aware of how many have to be processed
to get on your flights?
Last year we arrived 3.5 hours
before take off and still had to run along corridors for hundreds of yards to
get the plane. Do you enjoy pushing your paying customers to the brink of
collapse?
In the event, our friends, Michael
& Carol, are still stuck on the tarmac, at 10 am for a 7.30 am take-off. If
you had a manager who can read and write at check-in, we could have been
politely dealt with and easily caught the plane.
As it was a v. short
holiday, there isn’t time to re-route. And in any case we are exhausted by the
needless hassle. Your operation is a bloody shambles. There should be a
giant sign over the check-in desks “If you haven’t paid baggage fees – you
cannot check in here – Go to the baffling, stupid unmanned yellow machines” .
There should be 5 or six people checking the queues for such mistakes. The
check-in staff should be authorised to take money on the spot. Can we please
have our money back! And will you pay for The Radisson! And for our car hire in
Perugia and our prepaid hotel expenses in Gubbio.
Please send me Michael O’Leary’s
private address, so we can call and vent our feelings.
Our next trip to our favourite
Gubbio hotel will be via Florence – so Stansted and Perugia airports and Ryan
Air will lose the business. Get your bloody act together ! Its not difficult to
count the passengers and divide by the open desks. Its called long-division.
Noel & Pauline Hodson, Oxford
