Ryanair Cancellations

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Discussion

Perik Omo

Original Poster:

1,883 posts

147 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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I heard this morning that they are cancelling upwards of 50 flights a day, to improve timekeeping they say, but an insider says that staff have been leaving in droves and they are now very short. The other thing is that you won't know if your flight is cancelled until a maximum of 24 hours before but more often with just a few hours notice, this means there is no hope of re-scheduling just in case and the only option is to cancel early and lose your money. It's a bl**dy game of Russian Roulette with your plans.

We have family (family of 5) coming to the UK from NZ and we have paid for them to come to France by Ryanair from Stansted for a couple of days before they fly off back to NZ so there would be zero chance of making alternative arrangements at such short notice so we are faced with booking them to come over by Eurostar to Paris then SNCF to Limoges with a trek across Paris with 3 young children and shed load of luggage, Oh, and we'll obviously lose our money we've already paid for the flights.

Bl**dy bast**rds, grrrrrrrrrrr.....

PBDirector

1,049 posts

129 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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I understand you're excited to see your family, but this is all a bit emotional.

Wait to see if their flight is cancelled, and if it is, spend the train money on a hotel instead.

Cost of train > (chance of cancel x cost of hotel).

Perik Omo

Original Poster:

1,883 posts

147 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
quotequote all
Yes, you are right of course but it just made me mad as hell as a lot of planning has had to take place to make the visit possible in the first place.

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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I guess you feel bad about it as you were too mean to use a proper airline?

I travel a bit for work and vowed never to fly RyanAir - if I can't get there some other way then I ain't going. Maybe it would be fine, but I don't see the point in inviting hassle.

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Sheepshanks said:
I guess you feel bad about it as you were too mean to use a proper airline?
I've used them once when someone else booked the flights this farce has just reinforced that i won't use them again anyway

As a rough quick calculation they are going to disrupt over a 1/3 of a million travellers plans at short notice in the next month or so also means this thread should be in NPE not travel.
Ryanairs twitter feed makes interesting reading at the moment.

Sa Calobra

37,010 posts

210 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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As soon as I read the story this morning I thought money saving exercise as either they are in trouble or profits are tanking.

Makes sense though if staff are leaving. I wouldn't pilot one of their planes.

After this news I'd rather have peace of mind of another carrier. I once had a flight pulled from under my feet and it cost me ££££ in extra transfer costs at the other end and hours pissing about.

Hub

6,413 posts

197 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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It would be very bad PR to cancel so many flights just to improve punctuality,so there must be something else behind it as said.

It isn't new for Ryanair to cancel at short notice, but not on this scale. I've been a victim before - a 5 day short break had to be scrapped because they cancelled the outbound flight with the next 3 days later. It was no longer worth going. That and a few other issues meant that I vowed never again!

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Although sounds like a lot its probably a small % in the scheme, Ive flown ryanair a number of times and aside from running habitually late theres been no issue. Anyway London has 5 airports and a couple more nearby and theres the tunnel - Can alt plans not be made if and when a situation occurs?

PBDirector

1,049 posts

129 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
quotequote all
Perik Omo said:
Yes, you are right of course but it just made me mad as hell as a lot of planning has had to take place to make the visit possible in the first place.
I get it, but I really try to remember that life isn't guaranteed to be smooth sailing and you've just gotta try to make the best of it.

Youve already spent too many brain cycles worrying about something that might not happen. Youre going to see your family soon, why not spend the time looking forward to it, and making sensible contingency plans?

I hope you have a great time with them.

Perik Omo

Original Poster:

1,883 posts

147 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
quotequote all
hairyben said:
Although sounds like a lot its probably a small % in the scheme, Ive flown ryanair a number of times and aside from running habitually late theres been no issue. Anyway London has 5 airports and a couple more nearby and theres the tunnel - Can alt plans not be made if and when a situation occurs?
They will have a hire car that has to dropped at Stansted which adds another complication, the only flights into Limoges are Stansted, East Midlands, Manchester or Flybe from Southampton none of which are feasible given that they have to go to Stansted to drop the pre-paid hire car. Short notice travel changes are really difficult when you have 5 suitcases and three very young children. The only option seems to be to cancel and lose the money and try and book Luton to Bordeaux with easyjet which is 2 and a half hour drive away from us plus they would have to get from Stansted to Luton or try and change the car drop-off to Luton, again incurring extra costs. The train option is Stansted to Liverpool Street, underground to St Pancreas, Eurostar to Paris, across Paris to Gare Austerlitz and train to Limoges all with the little-uns and luggage so can't really see that as feasible.

AndStilliRise

2,295 posts

115 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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I hate Ryanair. Closed the flight while I was in the queue for check-in. Never again.

Sa Calobra

37,010 posts

210 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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My Aunt swore by them to use for flights to he holiday home but then she's in no rush and loves the game. For anyone who has limited holidays and likes reliability there are many competitors out there. Buy cheap buy twice.

HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Never had an issue with them, go with your eyes open read the t's @ c's etc.

However if I was in the OP's position I would be seething and it may change my mind about them.

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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It would be interesting to know if their company maintenance policy https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/ryanair-plane-f...
Is as good as their company leave and customer service policy both of which seem to leave a lot desired.

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
quotequote all
Perik Omo said:
They will have a hire car that has to dropped at Stansted which adds another complication, the only flights into Limoges are Stansted, East Midlands, Manchester or Flybe from Southampton none of which are feasible given that they have to go to Stansted to drop the pre-paid hire car. Short notice travel changes are really difficult when you have 5 suitcases and three very young children. The only option seems to be to cancel and lose the money and try and book Luton to Bordeaux with easyjet which is 2 and a half hour drive away from us plus they would have to get from Stansted to Luton or try and change the car drop-off to Luton, again incurring extra costs. The train option is Stansted to Liverpool Street, underground to St Pancreas, Eurostar to Paris, across Paris to Gare Austerlitz and train to Limoges all with the little-uns and luggage so can't really see that as feasible.
Sorry I hadn't actually read the story and appreciated the seriousness of it - hope it doesnt affect you.

Sounds bad though - seriously you dont hack off this many people with all the media knock on unless you've got problems?

tr7v8

7,186 posts

227 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Sheepshanks said:
I guess you feel bad about it as you were too mean to use a proper airline?

I travel a bit for work and vowed never to fly RyanAir - if I can't get there some other way then I ain't going. Maybe it would be fine, but I don't see the point in inviting hassle.
This is my position. I have done multi legs with another airline to avoid Ryanair.

sc0tt

18,032 posts

200 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Have they cancelled the flight?

Perik Omo

Original Poster:

1,883 posts

147 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
quotequote all
It's not for another 2 weeks yet but it's the uncertainty and short notice of cancellation that is the problem, a short notice cancellation is just not any good given the circumstances, if the notification was longer then we would maybe have time to make alternative arrangements (none of which would be ideal).

Jaguar steve

9,232 posts

209 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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AndStilliRise said:
I hate Ryanair. Closed the flight while I was in the queue for check-in. Never again.
I love Ryanair. They've enabled a whole world of several flights a year and lots of cheap holidays and short breaks for us. All you have to do is read the rules, play the game their way and if it goes tits up - which it could with any carrier at anytime then just live with it.

Just don't ever buy one of their Breakfast Baps, no matter how hungry you are vomit


anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 16th September 2017
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Jaguar steve said:
AndStilliRise said:
I hate Ryanair. Closed the flight while I was in the queue for check-in. Never again.
I love Ryanair. They've enabled a whole world of several flights a year and lots of cheap holidays and short breaks for us. All you have to do is read the rules, play the game their way and if it goes tits up - which it could with any carrier at anytime then just live with it.

Just don't ever buy one of their Breakfast Baps, no matter how hungry you are vomit
They're crap. Airline of last resort.

Apparently they're cancelling 40-50 flight per day for 6 weeks 'to get punctuality up from 80 (what it is) to 90% (target) and to clear a backlog of staff leave

Unbelievably disgraceful. For one, flights that have been scheduled, taken bookings and are cancelled should be recorded as indefinitely late, imo, further lowering their punctuality statistic, not improving it. What a meaningless statistic that can now be seen to be.

Next, according to the BBC's Simon Calder anyone who has their flight cancelled should be offered an alternative, with another airline if necessary and are entitled to compensation. I do hope it costs Ryanair an awful lot.

Apparently they made over £1B profit last year so it's hardly that they're in cash trouble. Just another arrogant demonstration of their attitude towards their customers.

As I said, the airline of last resort.