RyanAir is seeking compensation from the British government for lossses it attributes to "nonsensical and ineffective" mandated secrity measures - is that applause I hear among the ranks of frequent flyers on Euro budget carriers? http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/0...eut/index.html

The losses to every airline in the US are starting to mount up, for the same reasons.

There continues to be a vigorous grumble of dissent and rebellion on flyertalk.com - - see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=599904 (although, in the interest of accurate and honest disclosure, this is about a TSA incident that occurred in 2003).

For some very thought-provoking writing, follow the link to this week's "Ask the Pilot" column on salon.com

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=599572

Best wishes,

Rex

Remember the time just after 9/11 when the Sec. of Transportation recommended that ALL passengers boarding flighs be wanded?

Leo Mullin, the then-President/CEO/whatever of Delta got on a plane in Atlanta and headed to DC pronto to "protest" that the "flying public woulnd't stand for" this sort of procedure.

Of course, the airlines weren't as resistant when the Government agreed to pay for all this "security."

Sorry, every time I see another "film at 11" of "how we managed to get out onto the tarmac" I am thinking what a joke it all seems to be.

O'Leary would charge his own mother for talkiing to her if he could.

There have been cases where people who booked under the pre-10th August hand luggage rules of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm (which BTW is already lower than the IATA standard) who are now being charged 10GBP for checking in luggage.

How much money is Ryanair making from people asking for refunds from cancelled flights. They don't automatically give refunds and you can only apply for a refund over the phone - at 10p per minute - and the queues can be over an hour long and they are only open 09:00 to 17:45 WEEKDAYS. They don't open at weekends.

So don't shed any tears for Ryanair, if they haven't charged you for something it just means they haven't yet found a way of doing it.

I'm just waiting for "coin in the slot" toilets on their flights - after all (the Ryanair argument goes) not everyone uses the toilet in flight, so why should everyone pay for toilets on planes

Michael O' Leary is quite well known for his customer relations policies.

Here are two quotes attributed to him from Wikipedia:

On refunds "We don't fall over ourselves if they say my granny fell ill. What part of no-refund do you not understand? You are not getting a refund so f*** off.

"The European consumer would crawl naked over broken glass to get low fares.”

Well, this American consumer sure wouldn't. Glad I'll never have to fly Ryanair.

The recent history of airfares in the US indicates that the American consumer will go with the lower fare everytime. It's reflected quite clearly in the cost of a coast-to-coast airfare, expressed in hours to pay for it, at minimum wage - - a figure which has fallen 60-70% in the past thirty years. While the cost of fuel has increased well over 100% (in the same units).

And I have loved the fare and value of every flight ever taken on Ryanair (involves myself, my wife and my family).

AlanRow brings up a lot of interesting points.
I took my mother on a Ryanair trip to Salzburg in May/June. And that will be my last Ryanair flight, fingers crossed. The flight intself wasn't bad, the plane was more comfortable than I thought, but the madhouse at Stansted and the crush at the gate (esp. in Salzburg), those I can do without.

There's no need at all to put up with madhouses when travelling on Ryanair with vulnerable people.

Earlier this year, I broke my arm, and the fusspots at Poggibonsi A+E insisted on putting it in a sling.

The Ryanair people at Pisa, spotting this, insisted I join the "special assistance" pre-boarding group - a select gang of the halt, the elderly, the very young and the pregnant, ushered out to take their seats unhurriedly and safely before the first group of early checkers-in started their fisfights to get the exit row.

O'Leary remains a lying, cheating loudmouth and if he succeeds in getting my taxes to compensate him for his lack of a contingency plan, I'll lose all faith in British justice.

But there are bits of his operation that deserve some praise, and that was one of them.

We had no problem with my elderly mother getting priority boarding in Stansted. In Salzburg, however, it was quite different. The plane boarded 40 minutes late and they changed the gate 4 times (the gates were right next to each other and since all we were doing at the gate was boarding a bus to the plane, it didn't make much sense). We were at the front for the first gate, along with other priority passengers, but with each gate change the crowd grew more, shall we say, assertive and the crush pressed in ever closer. People even pushed over two buggies with toddlers, which led to some tense moments with the deservedly angry parents. Neither Ryanair nor Salzburg airport staff tried to do anything to make things calmer.
Anyway, fingers still crossed that Ryanair isn't in my future travel plans.