Don’t Ryanair want customers?
Ryanair have now decided that people have to check in online and print out their boarding passes themselves, even if travelling with checked luggage
Here’s what they say about it themselves:
If you do not check-in online you will be required to pay the relevant fee to re-issue your boarding card at the airport (Euro 40/GBP 40).Passengers travelling with checked luggage will be required to present their online boarding pass and checked baggage at the airport bag drop desk at least 2 hour prior to departure (bag drop desks will close strictly 40 minutes prior to scheduled flight departure).
I can immediately spot one problem with this:
People might be on holiday in a place without a printer. It is possible to check in up to two weeks in advance, but if you’re away for two weeks and a weekend, you have to find a computer and a printer while away.
I also think a £40 fine for not printing it is somewhat steep. (Perhaps there would be a business opportunity for providing internet and printer access in the airport for distraught travellers?)
There’s also another serious problem that my mum experienced while travelling back to Denmark yesterday:
In the “old” days, the people at the check-in desk would have a look at your hand luggage and tell you to check some of it in if it was too big.
But now that’s not possible any more, so to prevent people from abusing the hand luggage allowance, Ryanair now check hand luggage sizes in the boarding area.
But that’s ridiculous, because it’s too late to check it in! If your bag is too big, your options are to leave it behind or to stay behind with it. You can’t pay them to put it into the hold, and it’s too late to go back and check it in.
I predict this change will cause some severely annoyed customers to vow never to fly with Ryanair again. Is it really worth it?
Markets
Phyllis has already ranted about this, but our recent trip back to Denmark for a long weekend brought back to me how much I miss proper markets.
In the UK, so-called farmers’ markets seem to be an excuse for farmers to make more money, but with no real benefits for the consumers.
On the continent, however, although some vendors are farmers, lots of others are just people who buy stuff from whole-sale markets and sell them on.
The biggest benefit is for the consumers, who get more choice and lower prices.
Just look at this beautiful selection of peppers and chilis from Bazar Vest in Århus in Denmark.
Isn’t that just much more attractive than what you’d find in Asda or Tesco or in your local farmers’ market?
Center Parcs
We’ve just come back from three full days in Center Parcs (Friday noon–Monday noon).
It’s basically hundreds of wooden cottages inside a forest, with lots of activities for kids and adults. Most of them cost money, except for the subtropical water complex.
The kids loved it – they now want to go there for all their holidays (although I think Marcel will change his mind in about five years’ time – like Legoland, it’s devoid of young people between 15 and 35).
Marcel and Charlotte did archery, “Olympics” and quadbike, and Phyllis and I went for the serail treatment (which was really nice).
The only annoying thing that happened was when we all went for a birthday meal (Léon is 3 years old today) in the Chinese restaurant. We ordered the set menu in advance, and they told us that kids under 3 were free, which made us very happy because we were bringing three (Léon, Gordon and Anna). However, it turned out that they were planning to just give them empty plates for free and we were then “allowed” to share our food with them. Since when has it been free not to pay for nothing?!? Fortunately, the manager eventually gave in, but watch out if you’re planning to visit the Center Parcs restaurants!
Oxygen for babies
There was a story today about a Ryanair flight which lost cabin pressure as a result of which oxygen masks were released.
Fairly standard stuff that doesn’t worry me overly.
However, it made me wonder what to do about babies under two. You see, you can’t book individual seats for them, they have to sit on your lap.
So what do you do if you need oxygen and you only get one mask for your baby and yourself?
I asked in the comments section in the article I linked to above, and somebody relied:
It depends from aircraft to aircraft but all aircraft have 4 masks on certain rows, and therefore on a full flight passengers with babies should be checked into a row which has 4 masks. If in doubt check with check-in staff who should be adequately trained to know the aircraft configuration and also with cabin crew. It is a part of basic safety training that you know which rows have 4 masks, but again I can’t give a general comment on this as every single aircraft type I have operated on has differed in this respect.
However, a different person followed up:
However we flew on a Ryan air 737 over the weekend with our small baby and asked to sit in a row with 4 oxygen masks. The cabin crew didn’t seem to know what we were talking about!
So what do you do if the crew can’t help you and you can’t find a seat with an empty seat next to it?
Suitcase on wheels
Kiddie suitcase on wheels
While we were waiting for our suitcases in Stansted two days ago, two kids walked past me sitting on pink suitcases.
This looks like a great idea! Suddenly carrying their own luggage becomes a game for kids…
Only problem I can see is to keep them away from slopes in all disguises, or your kids might suddenly travel a bit faster than is advisable at that age.
I Danmark
Så er det blevet tid til den årlige tur til Danmark for hele familien.
Anna, Phyllis og mig var naturligvis i Danmark i begyndelsen af april, men Léon, Charlotte og Marcel har ikke været der i nu et år.
Vi er der fra fredag 1/8 til lørdag 16/8 (begge dage inkl.).
Vi regner med være det meste af tiden hos mine forældre i Sdr. Vissing.
Sagen er den, at hvor man kan leje en bil med fem sæder til en rimelig pris, koster en med syv sæder det dobbelte, så vi vil prøve, om vi kan klare os med offentlig transport og nogle taxature.
Men der er jo også god plads i præstegården, hvis nogen skulle få lyst til at komme forbi.
Pirosmani
Phyllis and I spent the weekend in Paris with Anna.
Close to our hotel, on the Rue Boutebrie, we found a wonderful Georgian restaurant, called Pirosmani (named after the painter, of course).
I had lobio and xink’ali, and Phyllis had ajapsandali and kharcho, but Anna liked the ajapsandali best.
აჯაფსანდალი ajapsandali (recipe here) is diced aubergine that has been cooked till it’s very tender with tomato and lots of herbs, and she just loved it.
Why aren’t there any Georgian restaurants in Glasgow? My lobio was just great, and if Pirosmani had been here instead, I’d definitely go there often.
It’s a long trip to get an ice-cream
Phyllis and I thought it was a bit unfair on the kids to do DIY for three days in a row, so Phyllis suggested that we should go for an ice-cream at Nardini’s in Largs.
Sure, it’s a long trip, but she claimed the ice-cream was worth it. (She says it was the first place she ever had a non-vanilla ice-cream in her life.)
However, when we got there, we found out it was closed (see the photo). We later met Joyce (with Steve, Karen and Andrew) who said it closed years ago, so Phyllis must not have been to Largs for longer than she thought.
Today we had our ice-cream at a different Nardini’s near the ferry terminal, and it was absolutely lovely!
All hope is not lost for trying the original Nardini ice-cream, though – according to this article, it is due to open later this summer under new ownership (but with the original recipes).