Ryanair, Ski Carriage and Poor Stansted Train Times...

This post is going to serve as a 'rant' as much as anything else, but
maybe someone can offer me some words of wisdom.

We're leaving tomorrow on the dream skiing holiday (cheap, lots of
snow, 7 great people) so I don't have much room to complain.
However...:

1) Ryan Air's Baggage and 'large' items policy seems crazy. The limit
is 15kg, with skis, boards and the like costing an extra £15 *each
way*.

I suppose they have to make their money somehow - the return flight to
Salzburg was only £40 (which reminds me, I must visit
futureforests.com and plant a tree to cover the CO2 emissions of this
flight).

Anyway, the pre-booked £30 cost seems to be the same regardless of the
size of the luggage so we're combining my skis and a board in one bag.

2) The downside of the cheap Salzburg flight is that it doesn't land
back at Stansted until 9.15pm. Getting back to Norwich on public
transport at this time wouldn't be a problem in this day and age you
might think, but no.

There are no trains back at this time (circa 10pm) - unless we want to
spend 3 hours going via Liverpool Street and paying £15 extra for the
privilege.

National Express isn't much better - leaving at 1am from Stansted,
costing £25 each for the return trip (too much for us poor students).

So, we're stuck either with a night in the airport, an expensive and
long train journey, ditto bus, or a long walk home.

I'm currently looking into the option of staying in a Guest house over
night and getting the cheaper (more direct) train back in the morning.

Which brings me to my rather drawn out conclusion/request:

If anyone from Norwich is on the Ryan Air flight from Stansted to
Salzburg, leaving tomorrow, coming back Sat 6th March, can we grab a
lift home with you? :-)

A long shot I know!

Jack

PS - It's going to be a great holiday regardless of the UK's crap
public transport system!

In article ,= 20
says...
This post is going to serve as a 'rant' as much as anything else, but
maybe someone can offer me some words of wisdom.

Don't worry about the things you can't change; change the things you=20
worry about.
- (Me, circa 1992)


We're leaving tomorrow on the dream skiing holiday (cheap, lots of
snow, 7 great people) so I don't have much room to complain.

Me too, on Sunday.


1) Ryan Air's Baggage and 'large' items policy seems crazy. The limit
is 15kg, with skis, boards and the like costing an extra =A315 *each
way*.

We flew to Rome in the summer. I needed 10 days' clothing plus a tent,=20
a sleeping bag, and a Thermarest. The only thing I put in 'er indoors'=20
case was a suit, which would have been ruined if I'd stuffed it in to my=20
rucksack.

=20
I suppose they have to make their money somehow - the return flight to
Salzburg was only =A340 (which reminds me, I must visit
futureforests.com and plant a tree to cover the CO2 emissions of this
flight).
=20
Anyway, the pre-booked =A330 cost seems to be the same regardless of the
size of the luggage so we're combining my skis and a board in one bag.
=20
2) The downside of the cheap Salzburg flight is that it doesn't land
back at Stansted until 9.15pm. Getting back to Norwich on public
transport at this time wouldn't be a problem in this day and age you
might think, but no.

Well, you are trying to get to Norwich

If anyone from Norwich is on the Ryan Air flight from Stansted to
Salzburg, leaving tomorrow, coming back Sat 6th March, can we grab a
lift home with you? :-)

Good effort.


PS - It's going to be a great holiday regardless of the UK's crap
public transport system!

Exactly - once you're out there having a great time you'll soon forget=20
about the travel problems. When you (finally) get home and sit there=20
with a Jack or Southern Comfort going over the week's events, you'll=20
have forgotten about the travel altogether.

--=20
Hywel I do not eat quiche
http://kibo.org.uk/
http://kibo.org.uk/mfaq.php

Which brings you to the overall conclusion that Ryanair is a crap airline
who have very little respect for their customers. Having flown with them
several times and having been ****ed about every time I now travel with a
decent company - try Duo out of Birmingham if you want to discover what a
customer focused airline can do...

Andy


"Jack Guest`" wrote in message
m...
This post is going to serve as a 'rant' as much as anything else, but
maybe someone can offer me some words of wisdom.

We're leaving tomorrow on the dream skiing holiday (cheap, lots of
snow, 7 great people) so I don't have much room to complain.
However...:

1) Ryan Air's Baggage and 'large' items policy seems crazy. The limit
is 15kg, with skis, boards and the like costing an extra £15 *each
way*.

I suppose they have to make their money somehow - the return flight to
Salzburg was only £40 (which reminds me, I must visit
futureforests.com and plant a tree to cover the CO2 emissions of this
flight).

Anyway, the pre-booked £30 cost seems to be the same regardless of the
size of the luggage so we're combining my skis and a board in one bag.

2) The downside of the cheap Salzburg flight is that it doesn't land
back at Stansted until 9.15pm. Getting back to Norwich on public
transport at this time wouldn't be a problem in this day and age you
might think, but no.

There are no trains back at this time (circa 10pm) - unless we want to
spend 3 hours going via Liverpool Street and paying £15 extra for the
privilege.

National Express isn't much better - leaving at 1am from Stansted,
costing £25 each for the return trip (too much for us poor students).

So, we're stuck either with a night in the airport, an expensive and
long train journey, ditto bus, or a long walk home.

I'm currently looking into the option of staying in a Guest house over
night and getting the cheaper (more direct) train back in the morning.

Which brings me to my rather drawn out conclusion/request:

If anyone from Norwich is on the Ryan Air flight from Stansted to
Salzburg, leaving tomorrow, coming back Sat 6th March, can we grab a
lift home with you? :-)

A long shot I know!

Jack

PS - It's going to be a great holiday regardless of the UK's crap
public transport system!

"Jack Guest`" wrote
1) Ryan Air's Baggage and 'large' items policy seems crazy. The limit
is 15kg, with skis, boards and the like costing an extra £15 *each
way*.

If you are really lucky, after having paid the £15 supplement, you will be
asked to sign a waiver absolving them from all responsibility for damage in
transit. This happened to me coming back from the Pyrenees at Biarritz.
The response from Ryanair to my complaint that it wasn't on to ask for a
waiver that they don't mention anywhere in their conditions of carriage was
a slightly politer paraphrase of f*** off.

Nick

"Nick Thomas" wrote in message
...

"Jack Guest`" wrote
1) Ryan Air's Baggage and 'large' items policy seems crazy. The limit
is 15kg, with skis, boards and the like costing an extra £15 *each
way*.

If you are really lucky, after having paid the £15 supplement, you will be
asked to sign a waiver absolving them from all responsibility for damage
in
transit. This happened to me coming back from the Pyrenees at Biarritz.
The response from Ryanair to my complaint that it wasn't on to ask for a
waiver that they don't mention anywhere in their conditions of carriage
was
a slightly politer paraphrase of f*** off.


That's a bit much - if they take your money to carry the item they should
carry some reponsibility for said item's well being! If they don't like the
way something is packed then they should just refuse to carry it unless you
sign a waiver.

I.

Jack Guest` wrote:

snip rant

This is precisely why I looked at Ryan and the other cheapos, and opted
for British Airways.

Booked far enough in advance, it's only about ten or fifteen quid a head
more expensive. Seriously. No ****ing about with extra charges for skis.
The flights leave at a sane hour and go to sane destinations.

To travel Ryan we'd have had to go from Stansted - 100 miles north of
where we live. OK, if you live close to Stansted, then it makes sense.

If we wanted to go Easyjet, the flights all left at about 6am and
returned at similarly inconvenient hours.

BA - flight out left Gatwick at 0930. Return flight left France at
12.10. Nice.

The Bus Stop Airlines are cheap and they're cheap for a reason. They
work fine until something goes wrong. Me, I'd rather pay a few extra
quid for the service.

--
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