12:51 pm by admin.

 Ryanair The Caring Airline

Last week we had the good fortune to travel with Ryan-air to Bristol. What follows is an account of our experience with a bit about Belfast City Airport as well.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to check in so no prob so far. Then to my dismay I discovered that I had a Swiss army knife in my pocket.

I thought I had left it a home, obviously I hadn’t .  So we went to the Ryanair servis desk and asked them if they could keep it and I would collect it on my return, ” We don’t have the facility to do that” the polite lady said.
“OK” I thought I can understand that and on her suggestion I went to the lost property office who had the same answer but did suggest she could give me an envelope so I could post it to myself. Which I did as I thought it was a good idea.

While we were at the Ryan-air desk we showed the polite lady, and she was, we showed her our details which we had on a bit of paper as our printer was broken and she said “Just take it over to the check in it will be OK”.
Over to the check-in we trot,eager to get checked in and up for a cuppa before our flight. There was a young man in front of us who was having a bit of a problem with his baggage. He had brought two very small backpacks, which is contrary to the ‘one piece of hand luggage’ rule so they charged him £20 because of it.
He said he would pay CASH!!!!!!,how outdated. The nice trainee behind the desk told him sorry but they weren’t equipped to handle cash. “It’s all I have” he said, so the nice girl said OK but then charged him, I think it was 3% , making it MORE cash that they weren’t equipped to handle. Well I suppose ‘In for a penny’ lets face it the admin cost of taking cash must be horrendous.

At the same time there was another couple who had made a blunder by bring the wrong photo id and I dont’t know the whole story but they left the desk a cussin’ and a swearin’ ’cause it had just cost them £40.

Oh Oh it was our turn. WE approached the nice girl, who took one look at our details and told us we had to use the manual booking machine. “A machine” I thought, “Oh no”. So we stuck our details and to my surprise if was pretty trouble free. That was unil it came to the bit where it said we had to pay £80.
Linda was at the service desk before I could lift our bags of the floor. The polite lady said to go back the checkin desk it would be ok. We went back and it was ok as we had booked before May 21st. after which time you MUST check in on line or PAY more money.

Well, that was sorted ok so we joined the queue for security and spent the next twenty five mins going up and down the airport in a security snake, conga fashion, before being allowed through.
Coffee calling
No coffee, as the big flashy screen thingy said ‘Go straight to gate 7 for boarding right now Go! Go! no time to loose, hurry, run. We hurried and ran and got to the queue and stood in it for a further 25 mins ffs.

Eventually, we boarded and took our seats, quite comfy actually. The plane was delayed ’cause they had missed their slot but is was only for 10 mins so that was ok.
Up up and away, at last.
“Get me some water please” asked Linda
“Ok luv”
The nice flight attendants came along with the trolly, “One bottle of water and one of those small tubes of Pringles please” I asked “Certainly sir, here you are. That will be £5.20p please.”
 A bottle of Nestle` water, not special water, not water that will cure all ill’s just WATER, that was on sale in the airport for a quid and thats dear, cost £3

Spent a great week-end in Bristol with our family but we had to go home, so off to Bristol Airport.

Ok, so we go to the check-in.
You know whats coming don’t you.
Oh yea, nice girl at the check-in said “£40 please” , “No way I said” , so over to the service desk and the stern lady there said “If you don’t pay £40 you will not be alloed to board”
“But why? I said
“Because according to our records you elected to check in on line” said stern lady
“We didn’t” I said while biting my lip.
I asked to speak to someone else but all she did was call “The Help Line” , some help line all they did was help Ryanair to £40 of our money.

Apparently when we booked although we didn’t tick the box for on line booking, we didn’t tick the the airport box either so it defaults to the more money option. So when we turned up not having booked in on line we had to pay £40.

We paid then went to the desk with our little chitty to prove it. Two girls were in front of us and their case was 1kg overweight and the girl at the desk wanted £15 . So one of the girls took out a few pairs of sandals and a pair of hair thingys and the case was ok then, so no charge.
The same weight got on the plane it’s just that some of it was in her handbag.

We were next, but as we weree about the show the girl our chitty another guy came over a showed his chitty. Any way we got through and as we were walking by the service desk we nothice there 4/5 people waiting for their chittys. I wonder what they had done.

I think I will open a business printing chittys for Ryanair, could be a right little earner.

HAPPY FLYING

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01:42 pm by admin.

Blood, we all need it but apparently not enough is being given. Or is it, because what I heard the other day made me think.

In an office of approx 200 people, give or take, an enterprising member of staff decided to contact everyone to see what response he would get about giving blood. Now given the reluctance a lot of people have about giving blood, a take up of 71 people was a good one.

Not good enough apparently

When he contacted the Blood Donation people and told them he had 71 people wanting to give blood the response he got was surprising to say the least.

Unfortunately they couldn’t send a mobile unit because there was not enough people. Hmm.

Now I don’t know a lot about blood donation but I would have thought that 71 pints of blood would be welcome plus the possibility of setting up a regular visit, but who am I.

Perhaps someone with a bit of knowledge on the subject could help me understand what the problem is. If they do I will publish their response and if the reason is a good one I will apologise.

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