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I flew to Bosnia for the Easter break. Before I’d even had the joy of getting to the airport, I’d already been passively-aggressively and metaphorically spat on by Ryanair.

EasyJet, who I was coming back with with, allowed me to check into my return flight one month ahead of departure, so I already had the boarding pass to return before I could even could check in 24-hours ahead of my outbound Ryainair flight. They won’t even let you print the boarding pass any more, which, as a technology-concious traveller, I would prefer to do in case my phone dies or there’s any other worst case scenario. Don’t get me started on the older clientele that they are inconveniencing with this policy. I have an old phone, but I don’t want to buy a new phone yet because it still works fine and does everything I need, except have the capability to download Ryanair’s incompatible app, which has only become a need because the airline are forcing me to have it on pain of not being able to fly at all. I also don’t want extra apps. I now had to take a not-as-old second phone, purely for the purpose of having a Ryanair boarding pass. I didn’t use this additional device otherwise, and it was just an extra item to carry around. This makes no sense at all, and already my holiday and enjoyment were being impacted.

According nine.com.uk, Ryanair will issue paper boarding passes free of charge at the airport if there are issues, however, many people don’t trust them. I certainly wouldn’t chance something as important as making my flight on trying to get a paper pass, plus I would have to lie, which isn’t something I particularly want to do, and, coming from England, I have Brexit measures to contend with that increasingly take up time at the airport. I can’t risk wasting time queuing for something that might not materialise. But go ahead, try and get your paper passes and let me know how you get on.

Ryanair’s booking process was no friendlier. Having declined to pay extra money for a seat, which I resent doing and makes no sense for me to do as a solo traveller, I was told that I could avoid having the dreaded middle seat if I paid an extra £3. I knew what was coming, I’d get said dreaded middle seat and – SURPRISE – I did! But there is another twist here – in the end there were only two of us in my row! Ryanair’s automated system tried bullying me into parting with extra cash to avoid a situation that was never going to materialise anyway.

It doesn’t make things any better that Ryanair’s baggage allowance is tiny, and I’m not letting EasyJet off the hook here either because their included baggage allowance is only 5cm more generous than Ryanair’s. I have been navigating the constantly shrinking world of the budget airline baggage allowance for years, and I purposely packed even less than normal to avoid baggage charges. It didn’t matter. I was stopped at Stansted and made to put my squashy bag into Ryanair’s new-look baggage gauge, which is now vertical and has a gap in the bottom. With such a gap, my bag was unable to sit flush because it doesn’t have a solid frame. For being over by an inch, I was charged an additional £60. There is no worse way to sour your travel experience than to be ripped off just to keep your own belongings, and with minutes between catching your flight or not, there is no way to clearly think and decide which items you can part with that would result in the overall loss costing any less. An American girl was also stung, and her bag wasn’t huge either. As I knew that I had no other option, I offered to take some of her additional items, which one staff member said was fine, and another said was not allowed. The poor girl was still ripping up packaging and rummaging through her belongings when I descended towards the tunnel. At the bottom of the one-way escalator, I couldn’t find my walking pole. The lingering after-effects of major surgery mean that walking can sometimes be uncomfortable or challenging for me. I started to panic, if I had lost this, what else had I also lost that I needed? I couldn’t take it any more and I burst into tears. My pole ended up being packed inside my bag, but during the moment of stress at the boarding gate I had no clear head and I was vulnerable to losing essential items during the chaos.

Why would Ryanair introduce hostile policies and practices to make an already stressful event such as getting through an airport even more horrible than it needs to be?

Budget airlines used to be generous. EasyJet, the Daddy of budgets, used to let you squeeze in as much as you can carry – in fact, it was their selling point. We all know that a bag of 55cm x 40cm x 23cm can fit in the overhead locker, and it’s highly unreasonable to expect travellers to fly without the bare minimum for their trip. I purchased a specific bag (a Rick Steves backdoor bag if you are interested – they are great) to fit these dimensions back in 2011, and when the allowance is lower I pack less to match it. I shouldn’t have to compromise. There is no sensible reason to reduce the carry on allowance for travellers, no reason other than to profit from customers, with airlines in America alone generating $7.27 billion dollars from checked-in baggage fees according to the American Buraeu of Transportation Statistics.

Ryanair staff are paid €2.50 for every oversized bag that they stop, and the bonus cap that they used to have has been removed to encourage staff to penalise even more customers. CEO Michael O’Leary was quoted in the Guardian as saying “I make absolutely no apology for it whatsoever.”. Ryanair are not known for being nice, and have played up to their mean image. According to Travis Hoechlon, CEO of RizeUp Media:

“...mocking complaining passengers on social media reinforces the notion that luxury expectations are ridiculous in paying twenty dollars for a flight. The manipulation lowers the expectation so the arrival at a safe destination feels like a victory.”

I am not expecting luxury when I fly, and I wouldn’t bother upgrading for a few hours of my life. I am just expecting to be treated decently.

It’s not just an issue of baggage fees. Even if greed is capitalised, even if O’Leary takes a hard line on his unreasonable rules, there should be no reason to be passive-aggressive towards customers and make the experience negative and do unnecessarily unkind things such as threatening to dump me in the middle seat if I don’t pay. O’Leary, as the very visible head of the company, sets the tone for the airline’s poor attitude, and in turn, Ryanair’s hostile attitude breeds behaviour that nurtures hostile customer attitudes. This creates a cycle – why should ground staff (in my experience the cabin crew bare a lesser brunt from this issue) have sympathy for grumpy or upset customers or cut them any slack?

My experience boarding a Ryanair plane at Stansted didn’t only affect me in the moment, it weighed on my mind throughout my entire trip. I was cautious buying souvenirs, which restricted my enjoyment of the unique shops and markets that my destinations had to offer. During my final 24-hours in Split, I was a ball of anxiety, folding and squashing and squeezing, trying to make my belongings as small as they could be. It affected my sleep and I couldn’t relax, absolutely not wanting to go through this again.

I wasn’t chilled, but Split Airport was. No one working for the airport or Easyjet gave me any bother and I had a smooth flight home. I have never ever been so relived to sit on a plane. Easyjet even allocated me an aisle seat without any hostility or threats.

Dr. Nicole Anders, a licensed clinical psychologist working for a top Las Vegas Hospital, as well as the non profit organisation Trauma Recovery Yoga, says that “there’s a long-term risk [for Ryanair]. Repeated negative emotional experiences can erode trust and brand loyalty. Customers may comply in the moment but disengage over time, becoming less forgiving and more vocal about dissatisfaction. In a competitive market, emotional experience is no longer optional—it’s a key driver of retention.”

It’s at this point I’ll mention that I unfortunately have another flight booked with Ryanair this summer, from Stansted again, and after everything you have read, you are right to wonder why. The destination I am going to doesn’t have many suitable flight connections, and I booked the flight prior to my recent trip – otherwise I would have made a different choice (if a different choice was possible). It’s safe to say that I’ll be upping my packing game this time and refusing to let the bastards win.

Ryanair, feel free to get in touch at contactme@louisaguiseauthor.com and respond to my article.

What are your airline experiences? Comment below.

Passive-aggressive marketing

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