I'm sure all my well-informed readers (yes, all 3 of you, bless your hearts) already heard about this and this. How do you feel about it? I'm less than thrilled about it. A ticket already costs enough as it is. Plus you can't get a meal on domestic flights anymore without shelling out your hard earned cash for that either. You only get one beverage service in general on most flights so hopefully that doesn't leave you too parched and if it does, you better bring some sort of needlessly expensive beverage purchased from the shops in the airports because you can't even bring one with you from outside of the airport (convenient for the airport, no?). On airlines such as RyanAir you actually get no free beverage whatsoever - you have to pay for everything with that airline, including luggage pound for pound. The airlines are forcing frugal air travel into extinction. I realize that gas is expensive, and it’s only going to get pricier, but still - from what I've read the airlines are actually seeing profits again these days. That's nice for them. Maybe they are thinking about their future and are just looking for ways to see to it that, despite rising gas prices, they will always be in the green. Good for them but bad for us.
I can't help but wonder if eventually air travel will be so incredibly inconvenient, frustrating and expensive that more and more people will simply choose to stay home.
What do you think?
Showing posts with label airfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airfare. Show all posts
Feb 15, 2008
Jan 17, 2008
High Altitude Connectivity
Have you heard about this? Probably. I'm curious to hear your opinion about it. For the most part, I think it will be great to have the Internet available on flights. I mean, other than watching movies, is there a better way to kill time while stuck in a *relatively uncomfortable* chair? Plus it's a pretty quiet activity for the most part so it's not likely to be much of a bother those around. I suppose the article has a point in that it would be really annoying to be sitting next to some tactless perv that feels it's his (or her) right to browse the latest porn sites. But really, that's a simple solution: the airlines can just block offensive sites like that.
The only part of this article that I'm not thrilled about is the bit about cell phones... There are a lot of loud-cell-phone-talkers out there and a lot of incessant-cell-phone-talkers as well, neither of which do I want to be seated anywhere near on a 3 hour (or more) flight. In fact, after an hour of that I probably wouldn't be able to refrain from reaching over, ripping the cell phone from the person's face and violently flinging it toward the other end of the plane...after I removed the battery of course. This type of behavior would probably quickly escalate into a gruesome fist fight which, no matter the size and strength of the other person, I would undoubtedly win due to my superior speed and intelligence and my fierce left hook.
Ummm...back to my point - I'm down with the Internet on planes but not with the cell phone use. So what do you think? Are you ready to embrace high-altitude connectivity or no? What are the reasons behind your opinion?
On a side note the article didn't mention anything about how much the airlines are going to charge for their passengers to use this service. They charge for everything these days so I cannot believe that it will be free to passengers. (Though I would be ecstatic if this were the case.)
Nov 13, 2007
Ryanair Review
My husband and I flew Ryanair this weekend for the first time. I was curious to see how the experience would turn out because I really didn't know much about the airline, nor did I know anybody who had flown it. All I knew was that they fly all over the place here in Europe and they do it cheaper than any other airline (usually) and that alone makes it a go for me. So I decided to write a bit about my experience and what I thought about the airline just in case anybody wanted more information.
Pros:
1) Unbelievably cheap flights: While this is usually the case, sometimes prices can go up in cost similar to other airlines so be sure to shop around if you think the quote is high.
2) Abundance of destinations from which to choose: You can probably get to most anywhere you might want to go (maybe not the main airport in the city but a smaller one or one a bit further away). For example, say you wanted to jump a spur of the moment flight to Morocco. Well, it just so happens that you can easily get to the city of Fez in that country on Ryanair from several different European cities. Voila!
3) Smaller airports makes for a much more speedy check-in and security process: Since a lot of the Ryanair flights come and go through secondary airports in larger cities and small airports in more out-of-the-way locations, there is less waiting in lines to be done. For example, even if you are flying from one EU country to another you will probably have plenty of time for checking in/security even if you only show up an hour ahead of your flight's departure time and that is a luxury in itself.
Cons:
1) They charge for everything.
You are allowed one carry-on bag per person and it can't weigh more than 22lbs nor can it be over a certain size. If it exceeds the weight/size limit then you are required to check it and that will cost you something like €12 per person. You cannot check more than 3 bags and the combined weight of those 3 bags cannot be more than 33lbs otherwise you must pay €8 per kilo (or €8 per every 2.2 lbs, roughly and this is for one leg of your trip) and that could get expensive fast.
If you check-in online (which means you are not checking bags) then you can waive the check-in fee. But if you need to check bags you are required to check-in at the airport. You also can only check-in online if you have "a valid National Identity Card issued by the government of a European Economic Area (EEA) country" which neither Mr X nor I have. So we, by default, must pay the €6 per person fee (for r/t).
If you want to have "priority boarding" (which you do if you are with 2+ people and want to have a chance at sitting together) then you must also pay another €6 per person (for r/t). Priority boarding is nice but also slightly pointless sometimes as about half the people boarding the plane also want to be in the first group to board so they just crowd up in line and it's a free-for-all run for the seats once they are allowed on (literally, people running, cutting-in and shoving). Then they allow the rest of the passengers to board. I would say that priority boarding is pointless unless you really want to sit together or you really MUST have an aisle or window seat. But it is expensive.
If you book online with a credit card you are charged a credit card fee of €12.
If you want something to eat, even some water, it will cost you anywhere from €2 and up.
On a side note... I read a page in the in-flight magazine where they were shamelessly promoting themselves, something all companies do. They state that their rate of lost luggage is less than 1% which is leaps and bounds ahead of their competitors. I found this to be a bit of an unfair comparison for two reasons: 1- A good number of the people on any given flight simply aren't checking their bags. 2 - They don't do flight connections. You fly from one location to the next and that's it. You're not boarding a flight that starts in Frankfurt and then changes planes in Barcelona before reaching the final destination of Malta. So of course they can make their baggage handling look fantastic compared to everyone else.
Back to the point of my review...
All in all, I would say that if you are looking for a quick weekend trip (thus no checking of bags) Ryanair is fabulous, but if you are going for longer then you might want to shop around with other airlines. I would (and already plan to) use Ryanair again but if I found a comparable price on a more traditional airline I would take that in a second over Ryanair.
Pros:
1) Unbelievably cheap flights: While this is usually the case, sometimes prices can go up in cost similar to other airlines so be sure to shop around if you think the quote is high.
2) Abundance of destinations from which to choose: You can probably get to most anywhere you might want to go (maybe not the main airport in the city but a smaller one or one a bit further away). For example, say you wanted to jump a spur of the moment flight to Morocco. Well, it just so happens that you can easily get to the city of Fez in that country on Ryanair from several different European cities. Voila!
3) Smaller airports makes for a much more speedy check-in and security process: Since a lot of the Ryanair flights come and go through secondary airports in larger cities and small airports in more out-of-the-way locations, there is less waiting in lines to be done. For example, even if you are flying from one EU country to another you will probably have plenty of time for checking in/security even if you only show up an hour ahead of your flight's departure time and that is a luxury in itself.
Cons:
1) They charge for everything.
You are allowed one carry-on bag per person and it can't weigh more than 22lbs nor can it be over a certain size. If it exceeds the weight/size limit then you are required to check it and that will cost you something like €12 per person. You cannot check more than 3 bags and the combined weight of those 3 bags cannot be more than 33lbs otherwise you must pay €8 per kilo (or €8 per every 2.2 lbs, roughly and this is for one leg of your trip) and that could get expensive fast.
If you check-in online (which means you are not checking bags) then you can waive the check-in fee. But if you need to check bags you are required to check-in at the airport. You also can only check-in online if you have "a valid National Identity Card issued by the government of a European Economic Area (EEA) country" which neither Mr X nor I have. So we, by default, must pay the €6 per person fee (for r/t).
If you want to have "priority boarding" (which you do if you are with 2+ people and want to have a chance at sitting together) then you must also pay another €6 per person (for r/t). Priority boarding is nice but also slightly pointless sometimes as about half the people boarding the plane also want to be in the first group to board so they just crowd up in line and it's a free-for-all run for the seats once they are allowed on (literally, people running, cutting-in and shoving). Then they allow the rest of the passengers to board. I would say that priority boarding is pointless unless you really want to sit together or you really MUST have an aisle or window seat. But it is expensive.
If you book online with a credit card you are charged a credit card fee of €12.
If you want something to eat, even some water, it will cost you anywhere from €2 and up.
~~~
On a side note... I read a page in the in-flight magazine where they were shamelessly promoting themselves, something all companies do. They state that their rate of lost luggage is less than 1% which is leaps and bounds ahead of their competitors. I found this to be a bit of an unfair comparison for two reasons: 1- A good number of the people on any given flight simply aren't checking their bags. 2 - They don't do flight connections. You fly from one location to the next and that's it. You're not boarding a flight that starts in Frankfurt and then changes planes in Barcelona before reaching the final destination of Malta. So of course they can make their baggage handling look fantastic compared to everyone else.
Back to the point of my review...
All in all, I would say that if you are looking for a quick weekend trip (thus no checking of bags) Ryanair is fabulous, but if you are going for longer then you might want to shop around with other airlines. I would (and already plan to) use Ryanair again but if I found a comparable price on a more traditional airline I would take that in a second over Ryanair.
Sep 10, 2007
The Decline of Good Customer Service
As most of you know, I'm headed overseas early next month. So naturally I bought airline tickets to get me there. I used a search engine to find the cheapest ones available just like most people would do. Unfortunately for me, airfare.com had the cheapest tickets for what I wanted.
When I bought the tickets the website informed me that due to the highly discounted nature of this fare they would have to issue paper tickets and that would cost me an extra $15 to process and get those delivered to me. The website stated that I would receive these tickets via FedEx shortly. So I waited. And waited. I sent an email inquiry to the customer service address I had for them (I detest confrontation). Of course I received no response so I gritted my teeth this morning and called the help line. The help line is poorly set up, no direction other than "please enter the extension for the person you are trying to reach." Pressing '0' gets you nowhere, so in a desperate attempt to get a person I just punched in '111'. Ta-da! The phone rang. After being on hold for a bit I finally got a human being on the phone with me. His voice relayed the idea that he hated his job and I had probably called just to make his life more difficult. After explaining to him that I still had not received my paper tickets even 2 weeks after the purchase he informed me that they had changed the status of my tickets to 'electronic' rather than paper. I asked if that meant that, without a doubt, when I got to the counter to check in for my flight I would not have to have any paper tickets? He said of course in a way that insinuated that a. I was an idiot and b. that I was boring him. So I asked why airfare.com didn't send me a notice of this change? His response? "Uh.... they were going to send out an email about it." After I got off the phone I sent an email to them again, this time also requesting reimbursement of my $15 along with an email confirmation of the change to my tickets. I will call and email every damn day until I get my $15 back AND my email confirmation. I will also be calling the airlines directly to confirm that I am indeed booked on their flights and that I DO NOT need a paper ticket.
This brings me to my question: Whatever happened to good customer service?
Now this isn't just airfare.com that prompts this question. I have had poor customer service from GE, Best Buy, KB Home, Aveda, 3-Day Blinds, Lowes, Home Depot, my student loan company CFS Loans, Wells Fargo, ADP, Brinks, Orkin, Ryder, Jiffy Lube,etc. And those are only the ones I can think of right off-hand. Please feel free to include your own "don't use this company" words of warning in the comments. Unfortunately that may mean that there are very few companies that exist from which people have received good customer service. Neiman Marcus is one with whom I have had good interaction. That's all I can think of at the moment.
Here is an article I read regarding this issue recently.
I wonder if this poor service trend is simply due to lack of respect of other people. Lack of empathy? Lack of pride in one's work? Laziness? What do you think causes it?
When I bought the tickets the website informed me that due to the highly discounted nature of this fare they would have to issue paper tickets and that would cost me an extra $15 to process and get those delivered to me. The website stated that I would receive these tickets via FedEx shortly. So I waited. And waited. I sent an email inquiry to the customer service address I had for them (I detest confrontation). Of course I received no response so I gritted my teeth this morning and called the help line. The help line is poorly set up, no direction other than "please enter the extension for the person you are trying to reach." Pressing '0' gets you nowhere, so in a desperate attempt to get a person I just punched in '111'. Ta-da! The phone rang. After being on hold for a bit I finally got a human being on the phone with me. His voice relayed the idea that he hated his job and I had probably called just to make his life more difficult. After explaining to him that I still had not received my paper tickets even 2 weeks after the purchase he informed me that they had changed the status of my tickets to 'electronic' rather than paper. I asked if that meant that, without a doubt, when I got to the counter to check in for my flight I would not have to have any paper tickets? He said of course in a way that insinuated that a. I was an idiot and b. that I was boring him. So I asked why airfare.com didn't send me a notice of this change? His response? "Uh.... they were going to send out an email about it." After I got off the phone I sent an email to them again, this time also requesting reimbursement of my $15 along with an email confirmation of the change to my tickets. I will call and email every damn day until I get my $15 back AND my email confirmation. I will also be calling the airlines directly to confirm that I am indeed booked on their flights and that I DO NOT need a paper ticket.
This brings me to my question: Whatever happened to good customer service?
Now this isn't just airfare.com that prompts this question. I have had poor customer service from GE, Best Buy, KB Home, Aveda, 3-Day Blinds, Lowes, Home Depot, my student loan company CFS Loans, Wells Fargo, ADP, Brinks, Orkin, Ryder, Jiffy Lube,etc. And those are only the ones I can think of right off-hand. Please feel free to include your own "don't use this company" words of warning in the comments. Unfortunately that may mean that there are very few companies that exist from which people have received good customer service. Neiman Marcus is one with whom I have had good interaction. That's all I can think of at the moment.
Here is an article I read regarding this issue recently.
I wonder if this poor service trend is simply due to lack of respect of other people. Lack of empathy? Lack of pride in one's work? Laziness? What do you think causes it?
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