Sunday, July 25, 2010

Ryanair

Flying with Ryanair the other week, I discovered at check in that my luggage was 3 kg over the limit (15kg). Rather than pay the excess baggage charges, I chose to suffer the indignity of boarding the plane wearing three tee shirts, two jumpers and a waterproof coat with a trainer in each pocket. A towel draped casually around my neck, trying desperately hard to look like a scarf (It was about 30 degrees C in the airport) completed the image of the suave and sophisticated traveller.

Now I have only admiration for Michael O Leary's business model of paying exactly for what you use and nothing more, but I really feel that he has missed a trick. Why don't airlines weigh each passenger with their luggage and charge a set fee per kilogram. After all, mass is mass (as any science teacher might be able to tell you) and needs fuel to carry it from A to B, no matter whether it is in the hold or attached to the person sat next to me. I'm sure various groups would object, such as the Friends of Fatties and the Stout Supporters Union but they could all be told where to go.

If you are reading this Michael- then go on, I dare you...


14 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

I'm sure various groups would object, such as the Friends of Fatties and the Stout Supporters Union but they could all be told where to go.

I once had to get a helicopter out to an island in Oz with The Ex and another couple. (it was that or a 4 to 5 hour boat ride)

All luggage had to be weighed and then the passengers. As the pilot was flying over water all the way he had to make sure fuel etc. was calculated correctly.

The wife of the other party told the pilot her weight, "That's fine" he said "Now please step on the scales, so I can confirm it"

"Are you calling me a liar....." etc. etc.

Upshot was, she refused to be weighed, pilot refused to take her.

When they eventually arrived by boat I don't think I saw the husband talk to her the entire week.

Almost American said...

We're about to go on a flight - 4 of us and we'll probably only take 3 suitcases as the 2 children can share a suitcase between them. We're very aware that if ONE of the suitcases goes over the allowed weight we will be charged for it, even if the others are underweight. What a silly system! I like your proposal much better!

LOL at Pavlov's Cat's story!

Anonymous said...

We got told our rental costs would go down on our building as we were not using some percentage of the floor space and there could claim a tax break on it (or something like that). I asked if our office workers lost weight whether we could claim on the freed-up area they no longer occupied due to reduced circumference - have yet to get a formal response from HR on that idea.

English Pensioner said...

I'm all for it. On a recent flight I was allocated a seat next to an enormous woman who wanted to lift the arm rest between us. I objected and she made a huge fuss. I insisted that I'd paid for a seat and wanted all of it, she insisted she wanted the arm rest up because otherwise she wouldn't be able to get into her seat!
I got upgraded!

Anonymous said...

Good plan - that's exactly what they used to do in the olden days, but for reasons of weight and balance rather than revenue.

It isn't just mass that matters. Before taking off, any pilot has to calculate both weight (i.e. mg) and BALANCE.

I'd be happy to start up & taxi out in my plane if I was a little bit overweight, given a nice long runway and a projected fuel burn to bring me quickly back within limits, but there is no way I'd risk taking off when out of balance. The aircraft can be uncontrollable in those conditions!

The assumptions airlines make regarding average passenger weight are, I fear, well out of date. O'Leary could probably get away with it on Elfin Safety grounds ;^) .

Ray.

jaljen said...

So the weight on the aircraft remained the same. The items were merely rearranged around the passenger rather than in the hold???

That makes a lot of sense. Not.

Good idea to charge by passenger weight. It would certainly encourage me to lose that excess baggage.

Fee said...

Having got packing light down to a fine art, I haven't used the full baggage allowance in years. I'm also on the small side, so I'd hopefully be in for a bit of a discount.

As you say, mass is mass, and it surely costs less to fly me and my light case than it does to fly a larger passenger with an "on-the-allowance" case.


I still wouldn't fly Ryanair, though. Once was enough.

Dr Rick said...

The exact weight of luggage and passengers can't affect things *that* much, since they don't weigh passengers and if those few kg mattered they'd have to.

Long-haul flights all carry freight. My guess would be that the size of baggage is the issue, as it cuts down on the amount of freight that will fit in the holds, and that they're using weight on the assumption that it'll be roughly proportional to volume. But that is only a guess.

NorthernTeacher said...

Been there, done that, too. When returning from teaching in China one year 'they' wanted an enormous fee for one slightly overweight case. We'd had enough and caused a queue when we unlocked the two cases and rearranged distribution between them. You see, together they weighed within the limit! It was tricky but we did it!

Lilyofthefield said...

I can't remember which low-cost company it was but on the way out they didn;t care that my case was heavier than my husband's because together they were under the limit. On the way back however, the check-in area was full of squatting people and open cases because they'd decided without warning that every case had to be under the limit. Hordes of people all swapping their dirty knickers, tasteless souvenirs and grubby towels from one case to another in public. Me included.

Frequent Flyer said...

Also be alert for the "dodgy" weighing scales scam ! Especially on the return leg of your journey -and if suspicious insist on verification . Sometimes it is quite blatant and therefore easy to spot .

Married to the job said...

I used this airline for the first time, and may I add also the last time the other week. I went away with a group, and when booking in our cases, a friend of mine was 0.2Kg over the limit. So much for a little discretion!?!

Anonymous said...

I've been suggesting this for years. When my luggage and I together weigh less than the person who is using half my seat as well as his own…

Anonymous said...

Yes, tax the fats - sure they pay more anyway through all the extra food they eat and they are uneasy on the eye too. Moreover, the extra weight puts more strain on the engines causing more pollution as they cannot run so efficiently.