“Coffee, tea, or, — hey, get the hell off the plane!”
Nearly an entire cabin of passengers on a Ryanair flight revolted over the weekend. The incident caused a three hour delay for all passengers, even the non-trouble makers. Nearly 100 passengers deemed by the airline to have caused the trouble, were forced off the plane and must now book their own flights home. They will also incur lodging charges. Some will not be allowed back on Ryanair — those who disobeyed the cabin crew.
I guess paying customers are pretty much “extra baggage” to Ryanair. And God forbid anyone should question the cabin crew! This must be punished!
The donnybrook started when a passenger (or a few) was charged at the gate for a carry-on bag that was too large. It would be interesting to know why and how nearly the entire passenger group got involved, but at the end of the day, Ryanair will get a black eye because of this incident, and it really doesn’t matter if they are technically right. Their own press release is mostly unapologetic and puts the blame squarely on the backs of the trouble-making passengers — and the Spanish police.
Hey Ryanair, there’s this thing called “tone” — look into it.
I’ve had my own challenges with bargain airlines, and for the same basic reason as the Ryanair revolt, they treat you like a cow, not like a human being. There are times when this makes people very angry.
Ryanair is, in many respects, a smart company. They keep their costs down in lots of brilliant ways, and, they raise revenue by charging extra, for ANYTHING beyond the ticket. This is Not Wrong, but the way they do it Is Wrong. I found a website that lists all the Ryanair “gotcha’s,” see here. What makes people, paying customers angry isn’t the extra charges. It’s the sneaky-Pete, Eff-you attitude that really brings bile to the back of the throat. Can you believe a 150 Euro charge for spelling your name wrong? That’s just taking advantage, and people resent it.
I’ve written before about how the airline industry is ripe for real creative solutions, and breakthrough innovation. Credit to Ryanair and EasyJet for getting the business model right. However, they’ve missed the cultural/relationship model by a long way, and this will — is — comimg back to haunt them.
Customer revolts, along with political revolts, are trending upwards. Guaranteed, we will see more of this. Woe to those companies, organizations, or governments that treat people like cattle. Business is about give and take, perception of value, and respect between customer and supplier. Keep up the disrespect and you will not only lose business — you’ll go out of business.
Prediction: the first airline that gets the flying experience right — both bargain prices and a bit of respect (are you listening Virgin, United, Southwest?) and maybe a dash of fun, are going to make a pile of money.
7 responses to “Consumer Revolts – Future Trend”
Hey Gregg, good article. I was just talking about this with a friend. My guess is most people would rather go back to paying a slightly higher price for all those “luxuries” already included, like a suitcase, a beverage, a snack, the use of the lavatory (wasn’t it Ryanair that wanted to charge to go to the toilet?). They could still charge for extra baggage, full meals and alcoholic drinks.Why don’t businesses get that the customer feels abused by extra costs that should be standard anyway? I predict that your prediction is on the money.
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Open revolt across cultures is only a matter of time, as long as the common folk are forced increasingly to carry the burden of making the wealthy elite wealthier. (I exclude here profit with merit and in proportion to the value one creates, but not at the expense of honestly acknowledging the obvious, rampant pilferage.) To coin a term, they are “opulating” with us and we are f***ed. If you look at the protest in Egypt, they are about the same issues that are festering in the US and the Western World. Can we be far behind? “Power to the People” is not an empty slogan. There is, as they say, strength in numbers … or, as the boisterous bard Jim Morrison asserted, “They’ve got the guns, but we’ve got the numbers.”
You’re right on, here. I’ve sworn off the budget-airlines for this very reason. I had enough awful experiences where keeping my temper in check was a tremendous challenge, (and I haven’t always succeeded at that). But I had a similar experience with USAir recently, where I made a mistake on the return date when reserving a ticket, and three days later (though 3-weeks before the flight) I discovered my error and called to ask if they could change it. Yes, with a $200 fee. I pleaded and explained, but their *rule* was no changes after 48 hours w/o fee. I can kind of understand this, rules make things clear and too many exceptions make it harder for employees. But what burned me the most was how callous and uncaring the agent was. A little empathy and “Gee I really wish I could help you, what a frustrating mistake!” would have made a difference in how I feel about the airline – my “loyalty” factor. It seems like a no-brainer, but apparently it’s not.
I’ll still use them on occasion, holding my nose and a very small bag the whole way. Your point about attitude is a real key in my view, people can be nice, polite, and helpful, even when enforcing rules.
You talk about the Loyalty factor, I think these airlines have written it off entirely. They know people fly them because they are cheap, and I think they assume there is no such thing as loyalty when price is the prime consideration. I think they’re wrong. I’ll pay a bit more for a better experience, and if one of these airlines was a tad kinder, I’d try to use them over the others.
Thanks for your comment Maggie.
I think Southwest Airlines clearly IS an airline that gets it. There are reasonable limits to what you can do with a low airfare business model, but I’ve ALWAYS found Southwest’s people friendly and helpful. They don’t charge for changes in ticketing (except for airfare differences) and they don’t charge for first and second checked bags. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a company whose stock symbol is “LUV.”
I’ve had good experiences with Southwest as well. They do Humor, and really use it as a competitive advantage. Thanks for your salient comment!