BA and Ryanair: Number of complaints each airline receives
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at 10:00 by FDOS_UK.
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MrMichaelParticipantI have never flown Ryanair, but glad I got hold of a few shares.
End of the day, the complaints statistic can no doubt be verified.
Is it meaningful?, probably not.
Is it a good marketing tool to beat BA over the head with? ….almost certainly.
Will it make me fly Ryanair?…No.
Will I recommend it to my friends?……oh yes!21 Sep 2015
at 06:27
FDOS_UKParticipantrferguson – 20/09/2015 19:29 BST
Interesting points, 1 & 2.
Airlines with a low cost focus cannot afford delays nor mishandled baggage.
Ryanair has achieved an over 90% ‘on time’ despatch rate so far this year
http://corporate.ryanair.com/about-us/punctuality/
It would be interesting to analyse easyJet and see if their decision to fly to main airports impacts their punctuality record.
As they say at Southwest “wheels up”, because your asset isn’t productive when they are down.
With regard to baggage handling, there is a link to punctuality in that it is a potential source of delay (as well as a cost), so low cost focus airlines like to minimise it. Mishandled baggage is also a cost (couriers etc.)
So there is a very strong driver to be on time and not to lose bags for low cost focus airlines.
By comparison, my son’s suitcase was mishandled at T5 on Thursday morning and delivered by courier mid-afternoon on Sunday and he has already claimed £50 essential items from BA, as he is staying with us and the majority of his stuff is in his flat in Leicester. That has probably wiped quite a bit of the profit margin of his cheap economy class ticket.
Finally, not everyone complains to get Avios – I very clearly directed the CSD on my last but one BA flight to make a note that I did not want Avios.
I would rather sit in a clean seat and I have not (nor do I intend to) book any more flights with BA in the forseeable future, now I live in the regional UK and have lots of options.
This is only my speculation, but I imagine the majority of passengers who are miffed do not claim, as they cannot be bothered.
For the short haul air travel markets, both easyJet and Ryanair individually carry more pax than the whole of the IAG stable, so BA is a good ‘Mr Punch’ with a widely known brand to beat up in their campaigns, but I doubt think Ryanair even regard BA as serious competition (too small in the markets where both are active) and reference to the link above shows that FR are trying to get one up on easyJet, who they do compete with.
As to your point about marketing puffery, I agree; the sad thing is that BA does have some good product ( The World Traveller Plus seat in the 787 is world class IMHO), but too much is overhyped mediocrity. On the other hand, Ryanair has a clear value proposition, basically they get you from A to B on time, in new aircraft and at low prices.
21 Sep 2015
at 07:15
FDOS_UKParticipantTramor01 – 20/09/2015 22:29 BST
It’s very true that there are lies, damned lies and statistics – ‘How to lie with statistics’ by Darryl Huff is a good read.
But with all due respects, company A had ‘x’ complaints per million and company B had ‘y’ complaints per million is not misleading statistics, it is simply a statement of fact.
If one stated that company A had ‘x’ complaints and company B had ‘y’ complaints (without considering the number of pax carried, I’d agree.)
21 Sep 2015
at 07:22
rfergusonParticipantFDOS_UK….
Over the last 18 months my bag has been lost twice – firstly with BA and secondly with Qantas,
The comparison between the two were like chalk and cheese.
BA: Arrived at LHR to stand around the baggage belt for 45 minutes and coming to the conclusion it was not going to arrive lined up at the baggage services desk for around half an hour. Lodged a claim and for the next three days heard absolutely nothing. The online baggage tracing system gave the same message ‘please check back later’. The ‘baggage help line’ somewhere in India was not worthy of the name (we don’t know where your bag is or when or if it will ever arrive). A call to the Gold Line had me fobbed off to the ‘baggae line’ again. It was an awful experience – not so much my bag not being delivered but purely down to the complete lack on information and the palming off. Did I complain? Hell yes.
QF: Landed in MEL at 21:00 where an announcement was made with my name to see the ground staff on disembarkation. A very apologetic member of staff was waiting to inform me my bag had not been loaded and at that stage QF were not aware of whether the bag was in TXL where I was living or LHR where I had transited. She presented me with a preloaded Visa for AU$200 for ‘essentials’ and assured that as a OW Emerald someone would call me to update me the following day. Indeed, midday the next day I received a call from the QF ‘Platinum line’ again apologising for the inconvenience, advising me my bags were at LHR and had been put on a QF flight to SYD and would be with me in MEL by midday the following day. Did I complain? No.
21 Sep 2015
at 07:45
MartynSinclairParticipantHow strange to base a advertising campaign on who has the least number of complaints.
21 Sep 2015
at 08:15
FDOS_UKParticipantMartyn
It makes sense if you (as a perceived low end brand) can demonstrate you get less complaints than a high end company, it suggests you are better value for money (a variant of ‘knocking copy’.)
Edited to add:
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/knocking-copy
It’s also in line with the mood music O’Leary has been putting out in recent years, e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EezOOC-8NFk
At least FR has had the decency to avoid comparing hull losses in recent years!
21 Sep 2015
at 08:25
Marlow1971ParticipantThis argument will run and run. In essence, Ryanair does what it says on the tin pretty well. It doesn’t offer much but does it well.
BA fail too often to live up to the expectations they set and, consequently, trigger dissatisfaction more often.
Catering on short haul is just awful – they’d be so much better just bringing a trolley through like Ryanair and charging you for what you’d like!
The condition of some BA planes is appalling and Ryanair have a modern fleet they maintain well. As someone above says – a league table of hull losses by incident could be problematic!
21 Sep 2015
at 14:48
FDOS_UKParticipantMarlow1971 – 21/09/2015 15:48 BST
I agree completely with your comment that “In essence, Ryanair does what it says on the tin pretty well. It doesn’t offer much but does it well.”
As much as they are not my favourite airline, their business model is clear, simple (from a customer viewpoint), aligned and executed consistently, thus the lower levels of complaints per million.
In effect, the company has trained it’s customers to know what to expect, then it delivers the expectation.
21 Sep 2015
at 15:12
canuckladParticipantWhen things run tickety boo at FRyanscare , its actually an OK experience. And I’ll go further , couple of flights ago , I’d have to say the cabin crew were excellent. Engaging, humorous and made the flight memorable for all the right reasons. But generally it’s JUST OK ….
Hence no reason to complain…….In many ways BA set themselves up for a fall, with all this “we fly to serve” malarkey…as the saying goes, live by the sword………
And as referguson points out about BA’s top 3 reasons for complaints, doesn’t correlate with FR’s operation and business model….
1. Delays ——FR pad out so much time , sometimes you arrive before you took off : )
2. Baggage handling—-very little goes in the hold and more importantly its point to point
3. IFE.—-self-explanatory21 Sep 2015
at 15:38
FDOS_UKParticipantcanucklad – 21/09/2015 16:38 BST
I agree with much of your post, but:
1. Delays ——FR pad out so much time , sometimes you arrive before you took off : )
BA could do the same – but LHR adds the ‘padding’ by inefficient operations due to being at 98% capacity – it’s BA choice to operate from there
2. Baggage handling—-very little goes in the hold and more importantly its point to point – for a reason
Agreed, but when BA messes up …. e.g my son waiting from Thurs AM to Sun PM to receive a bag that flew for 151 miles 🙂 That’s a justified complaint
3. IFE.—-self-explanatory
But BA doesn’t provide IFE on most short haul flights – so that’s the same
The fact is that Ryanair (love them or hate them) has a much clearer business strategy than BA and it works much better on a sustained basis (if you look at the two company results over the last 20 years.)
21 Sep 2015
at 16:47
NTarrantParticipantThere is another reason why FR complaints are lower than BA and that is due to the type of customer they cater for. Whilst there are a number of business travellers using FR, the majority are those that would probably not have afforded to fly or not afforded to fly as often.
In this group their expectations are lower and they are unlikely to complain in an official capacity.
Good to see you back on form FDOS, no longer in Malta did I see you mention in another thread?
21 Sep 2015
at 20:49
AisleSeatTravellerParticipantyet another BA bashing forum (some never tire of this ‘sport’)
wouldn’t fly Ryanair if they paid me (they’d charge an arrangement fee for that payment), fortunately only limited opportunity (and use EasyJet when needed)
don’t fly BA, that’s a price decision (they are generally more expensive than the gulf airline between Singapore and Europe but not as expensive as SQ)
22 Sep 2015
at 00:58 -
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