Last week word got out that Ryanair, which is a large discount airline in Europe, was going to have seats available for
less than $15 each way for flights to the US. Fifteen dollars! It was said to have been approved by Ryanair’s board, but would take several years before available. The airline would make up the cost of these super cheap seats through fees and premium seats.
I’m always skeptical about discount airline offers. On this particular future offer I was trying to imagine how uncomfortable the seats would be at that price, and was trying to decide if I would be willing to buy a ticket at that ridiculous price after knowing what I would probably be in for.
Later in the week something bizarre happened. Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary announced the offer was a miscommunication and would not be offered. For me the most suspicious thing about all this is the time it took for the company to announce it was a miscommunication. The CEO said being closed on St. Patty’s day plus a couple of days of traveling allowed this story to go unnoticed by those who would have caught the ‘miscommunication’. In an age where communication is unlike it’s ever been before I find it hard to believe this was simply a miscommunication that wasn’t realized for a few days. It just doesn’t add up. This Ryanair CEO is the same guy that said his airlines would start to charge £1 for using the toilet on a flight. He has had other wild proposals in the past as well. Therefore, with everything I have before me I have come to the conclution that this was a publicity stunt. What do you think?
Then there was another story that caught my eye this week that I wanted to share. Airline passenger uses 
laptop to catch seat neighbor reading his messages . The YouTube video the passenger made of his neighbor watching his laptop screen is pretty hilarious at times. I understand that a bright laptop screen in a dimmed cabin can be hard not to look at, but this neighbor should probably stick to looking out the window more often. However, the passenger that made the YouTube should consider using a laptop screen filter if he wasn’t using one already. On a post I did last year about staying productive on a flight I address using a privacy screen, and provide a link to some that you can consider purchasing.
Readers, what’s your take on the Ryanair miscommunication? What’s your take on the nosey passenger?
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I’d avoid Ryanair like the plague no matter what price you get tickets for.
Bad for passengers (flying from out-of-the-way airports, fees upon fees, cancelling flight routes without notifying passengers who’d already paid for the tickets and booked the hotels at their destination.) It’s just not worth it.
It’s a beautiful publicity stunt!
Publicity doesn’t need to be in the traditional forms like the ads we see on TV, on billboards, in magazines, on the Internet, or hear on the radio.
What you really want is people to talk about you. And that “miscommunication” is exactly what it did. People were genuinely talking about those 15 $ flights. If some people in North America didn’t know about Ryanair, well now they now!
Brilliant!