Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle

Subject: Forced musician to buy seats for fiddles
From: Mark Ross
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 05:38 PM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1299616/Ryanair-makes-musicians-buy-seats-VIOLINS.html

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Tootler
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 05:50 PM

The message is simple:

Don't travel with Ryanair.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: michaelr
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 07:09 PM

Those were hardly "fiddles". It begs the question, If you own a violin that valuable, why fly RyanAir?

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 07:17 PM

Apparently because the charity for which they were playing a benefit was paying their travel expenses as part of their contract. It's too bad for the charity, but anyone who travels with an instrument, esp. one worth so much, has to be a bit naive, at the least, to not check into such arrangements ahead of time, esp. when flying on a "budget" airline as noted in the article.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 07:30 PM

I don't think it's because it's a budget airline. It's because it's a budget airline run in a very personal way by a very nasty man.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: IvanB
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 07:41 PM

Well, the article says the charity had been told the violins would be exempt from the size requirement at the time they arranged for the tickets.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 07:55 PM

Why couldn't three violins fit on one seat?

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:12 PM

That was going to be my question too: Why not three violins in one? Even if you had to use your own extra straps?

On the other hand, the whole thing sucks. As long as an item is slim enough - which a violin certainly is - the item could be four feet long and still fit overhead.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:13 PM

Why couldn't three violins fit on one seat?

Because it's a budget airline run in a very personal way by a very nasty man - and employees daren't step out of line by exercising common sense or common decency.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:51 PM

I had never heard of Ryanair. British airline?

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Simon G
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 09:52 PM

Ryanair is largest airline in the British Isles, third largest in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Its Irish and has been largely responsible for driving the cost of air travel in Europe to levels unheard of the North American side of the Atlantic.

They have done this by exploring every avenue to reduce cost and in the process removed pretty much all the perks of air travel. Some see this as nasty, but those perks were widely used to justify high prices by bloated national carrier, some of whom are still hanging on by their finger nails - British Airways included.

People love the pricing, but then expect the perks. I don't understand this attitudes; if you fly Ryanair then you play by their rules, after all that is what has resulted in the low cost pricing.

Whenever I fly with an instrument I print out the airlines rules and take them with me to the check in and never expect more than what is in the rules.

Typically prices climb as the flight date approaches, if they had bought 2 seats each initially it would have been much cheaper than flying on say British Airways, on the day though the extra seat prices are much higher.

Simon

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: GUEST,Meggly
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 05:56 AM

Simon G, you're nearly right. They are just extracting some of the 'perks' that other air-lines bundle into their prices. Therefore if you can travel without checking in baggage then you can save yourself a pretty penny (and the rest; £30 for one case the last time I looked).

However, when an airline (Ryanair) start charging you for checking in, either on-line or at the airport, then they have lost the argument. You cannot fly without checking in, therefore this is NOT an unbundled perk. It is a cynical attempt to make their flight prices seem lower than everyone elses. People are free to fall for it or not as they wish.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Howard Jones
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 08:33 AM

Every airline has limitations on the size, and in some cases the weight, of hand luggage. It's not simply a question of whether or not it will fit into the overhead locker. Many airlines are fairly relaxed about enforcing these limits, unless the plane is very full, but anyone who flies regularly knows that they cannot be relied on to always do this.

Ryanair is notorious for rigidly enforcing its terms and conditions - it's the price you pay for their very cheap fares.

However if there was misrepresentation when the tickets were booked (and if this can be proved) then that would be a different matter.

This is bad publicity for Ryanair but O'Leary never seems to be too bothered by that.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 02:19 PM

Let us keep in mind that this article appeared in the Daily Mail - not the most respected paper in the world.

Before getting too upset, take a few grains of salt.

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: JemmaGurney
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 04:03 AM

I'm flying Ryanair tomorrow to france (off taking le morris anglaise to a french dance festival). I booked online, and it was fairly obvious in that process that musical instruments (and sports equipment) have to be booked in at an extra cost if going in hand luggage. There was a big button that said "add musical instruments or sports equipment" - so it wasn't like it was hidden in the terms and conditions or anything. For our flight, that was £40 - admittedly nearly as expensive as our tickets (£62 each inc baggage) - but not where near the £1000+ quoted in the paper...

As it goes, we have sent the instruments with those traveling by car (along with the sticks...:)

Jemma

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 09:20 AM

"Every airline has limitations on the size, and in some cases the weight, of hand luggage. It's not simply a question of whether or not it will fit into the overhead locker."

It's all part of the Safety Calculations that check the max weight of the plane and to ensure that sufficient fuel is on board. Past experience has shown that cutting corners on this kills people - even for 'cheap' airlines - well, actually most especially for airlines trying to cut costs ... :-)

Weight estimations hadn't changed for decades, then one day a plane fell from the sky - they revised those estimations when they found US passengers were on average 20 Kg heavier than the old estimates said - as well as the luggage allowance was also now way out.

Changes were made on those estimates, and things are enforced more strictly than they used to be - also most especially for smaller planes, where the chances of rapidly exceeding the safety limits can be higher...

Subject: RE: Forced musicians to buy seat for fiddle
From: Morris-ey
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 10:06 AM

The boss of RyanAir has said on many, many occasions, not least to the saints of consumer rights the BBC Watchdog programme, that if people don't like his pricing structure or his service - fly with some other carrier - he does not care.