[transtraxman]

“Stevescoots”: Thanks for the video. It really sums up the Ryanair experience.

There are two reasons for travelling low cost
(a) price – some people are on a low budget so scrimp on costs – this is not exactly what the business traveller on an expense account is looking for.
(b) convenience – point to point can be the way to travel to the out-of-the-way country cottage in the south of France (or wherever). To these places the likes of BA, Air France (or whoever) do not fly so the best option can be a low cost airline.

I have flown Ryanair, Easyjet and Vueling recently and Ryanair is by far the worst. Easyjet tries to offer a better product but as “DisgustedofSwieqi” mentioned Vueling offers travellers the opportunity to pay to leave the middle seat free. Vueling also gives you the opportunity to to to reserve your seat. This is an excellent idea which reduces the crush at the barriers.
Yes, there are crushes at the barriers but since we are civilised we do not actually push. We all jockey for position and close our eyes and turn our heads away to pretend we are not queue jumping. With a reserved seat this does not happen. The problem is the cabin luggage which is frequently oversized, and people take on board more than the permitted one bag. This means we are fighting to find lockers to store bags and coats.

When it comes to the crunch you get what you pay for. That is why BA and other legacy carriers should advertise agressively to show what is included in their flights and what they do not charge for. Charging for food on euro-flights might not be the thin end of the wedge – Iberia has done it for years. Thus I do not think we are turning BA into GOfly2.

Remember the journey cost is not terminal to terminal. It is door to door. If you live in Brighton it is ridiculous to travel to Stansted to save GBP20 on a flight when/if there is a perfectly good alternative from Gatwick (or even Heathrow).

PS “Disgusted” please do not be so touchy and “VK do not be so pompous – both of you provide good information as do most others – keep cool.
I should mention to “Daytripper” that he is only looking at his personal needs. This forum is to share experiences. Everything is relevant but not necessarily to everybody.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

transtrax man

Agree with all you say and woudl like to add two more points

1) reason C for flying loco is when they are the only one on the route, such as Malta to Madrid in the winter season

2) Go was a decent airline, IMHO. Allocated seats, too.

[NTarrant]

Transtraxman makes a very good point about journey cost being terminal to terminal. Here on the south coast some 50 miles to the west of Brighton friends of my parents once made the mistake of thinking they were getting a good deal by saving £20.00 on a flight to AGP by flying from STN rather than LGW. Result was a £260 taxi ride as opposed to a £85.

Personally I have no desire to travel Ryanair or Easyjet and avoid Flybe as well. But as I said before if the BoB is to upgrade your catering option from drinks and a biscuit to a sandwich thats fine.

[pixelmeister]

Um… has anyone on here actually looked at what the Amadeus system is doing now ? That’s the booking system used by a large proportion of airlines in Europe and a significant number around the world.

A couple of years ago they showcased functionality that allowed travel agents / booking offices to break down the cost of flying into a number of component charges. So you would see the cost of the base ticket and be able to select whether you had checked baggage, wanted an inflight meal, specified seat, etc. each of which could have a charge associated – very much like the booking engines on LoCos. The killer benefit was that you could price compare operators. The snag for full service airlines was that they would show a single cost (that of the ticket) with all other items (well almost all) showing as no cost. At first sight the agent would see that before you start specifying requirements, the full service carriers were looking expensive. Of course by the time you add in the ‘frills’ the situation may be very different.

How does this relate to the rumour on this thread ? Well, if true I’d suggest that BA might be putting a toe in the water to demonstrate what the punter can expect to pay if you strip out the bits that come as standard. Shorthaul is a tough market and there is no doubt that LoCos have made inroads. LGW provides competition with EZY being based there. I’d suggest that it could be part of a strategy to maintain or increase share on the shorthaul economy business at a time when customers in that segment are becoming increasingly price conscious.

[NTarrant]

I think the target market have been price conscious for many years, it sounds like more of a case of regaining lost ground.

The problem for BA is that ordinary folk, that is those that don’t travel other than holidays usually think that BA costs more than FR and EZY.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

“The problem for BA is that ordinary folk, that is those that don’t travel other than holidays usually think that BA costs more than FR and EZY.”

Depending on when you buy, the problem for BA is it may well be true.

e.g. MAD/LON/MAD outbound 1/9/11 Early morning, return 8/9/11 mid PM (date randonly selected well ahead)

easyJet 88€ plus 24€ for bags = 112€

BA 188€, at similar times

76€ is quite a difference to someone looking to economise. If you can manage with hand luggage, then even better.

I won’t try to quote Ryanair, as there are too many hidden extras to bother with.

[craigwatson]

Hmm, you seem to have missed some points disgusted.

I just did the same booking on Easy, and they charge £6 per sector booking charge that you didnt mention.

I did the same booking, same dates on Ryan Air,
fare £109 and thats including 1 bag. only other fee is a £6 per sector booking fee just like easy, so.. taking exchange rate into it, they are pretty much exactly the same.

Not sure where this “too many hidden extras to bother with” comes from, its all exactly the same with easy as with ryanair.

For myself if I was travelling from london I would probably pay the extra for a full service carrier, but as I live up north, the loco’s are almost always better as they are point to point

Just came back from venice from Leeds on FR and the fare was £21 pp return, including the tax, booking fee and all charges(hand luggage only). for a 2 hour direct flight it was perfectly acceptable and the price even more so.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

craig

I believe the £6 from U2 is a credit card fee, so I didn’t count that as BA charges a fee too, I believe. But if I am wrong, then apologies.

WRT to Ryanair, did you count their boarding pass charges and their 15kg bag limit (should really pay the upgrade charge to 20kg for a fair comparison)?

[craigwatson]

yes i did include the boarding pass fee, and with 20kgs, the total is 129, so slightly more, but still well less than BA.

My only point was on the majority of routes there is little to choose between the loco’s ( although a big difference is you can get some amazing deals on FR, which you will never get on easy. )

The booking fee is 6 as well from FR, but there are free payment methods as well. The added extras are all the same on the loco’s

[craigwatson]

http://www.bookryanair.com/skysales/FRSelect.aspx

and select 14 may out 17may back, unreal prices

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

“although a big difference is you can get some amazing deals on FR, which you will never get on easy”

Agreed.

[vscxfan]

I agree witrh BinMan62:

Economics 101 (a course failed or avoided by BA management):

1) Marginal cost to pax of free (bundled with fare) sandwich = unknown
2) Marginal utility of same = significant
3) Marginal cost to pax of BOB sandwich = €3 + lost goodwil toward BA
4) Marginal utility of same as perceived by former BA fan = under €3.

Of course this only matters if fare/schedule/route are comparable.

[CallMeIshmael]

Punctuality should also be a factor, however with the main players’ propping up the lower rankings of the punctuality table there appears to be no competitive advantage to be gained from it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8400362/Jet2.com-named-Britains-least-punctual-major-airline.html

[Tim2soza]

http://www.thrombyair.com

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