Ryanair Sucks!

I'm over Ryanair.  They suck!  To me, they are the "blue devil".

I'm not being a snob and I've got no problem with discount airlines.  I've flown several of them without any issue.  I just don't like how Ryanair treats their staff or their passengers.  Constant changing luggage requirements, additional visa checks that prevent non-EU citizens from using mobile boarding passes, late flights, uncomfortable seats,...the list goes on and on.  I wasn't happy with them in July when they cost me an extra €100 and almost ruined my birthday trip to the Aran Islands.

Last night, my flight to London Stansted was an hour late leaving Brno Airport.  It then took 45 minutes for my luggage to show up on the baggage carousel.  Then 40 minutes before my flight to Dublin, they announce a two-hour delay.   There went my plan to catch public transport and I needed to spend €40 on a taxi.

It will be a quite a while before I ever get on another Ryanair flight.

I'll stick to British Airways.  And when I have a discount airline option I'll limit myself to Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, Norwegian, FlyBe, Air Baltic, or Easyjet.

Update:  FlyBe ceased operations in 2020.

Aran Islands, Ireland

I had a fantastic birthday this weekend in Ireland!  No thanks to Ryanair.  I was supposed to fly on Friday evening with Ryanair from Brno Airport to London Stansted, followed by a late night flight to Dublin.

On Monday I received an e-mail from Ryanair that my London to Dublin flight was cancelled due to an employee strike.  They offered to refund my flight but they wouldn't do anything about the Brno to Stansted flight since it was still flying.  My only option was to catch an Aer Lingus flight from Prague to Dublin.  It cost me a half-day of vacation and an extra €100 but I managed to get to Dublin on time.

On Saturday morning we had an early morning, almost three-hour, train ride from Heuston Station to Galway and then on to Connemara Airport for our flight to the Aran Islands.

The Aran Islands, Oileáin Árann, are three islands off the west cost of Ireland.  The three islands are about 46 km² (18 square miles) and date back over 350 million years.  The Aran Islands are in the Gaeltacht which means that the 1200 inhabitants speak Irish as their first language.    

The largest, and most western island, is Inishmore, Inis Mór.  From Galway it's a 40-minute ferry ride.

The middle, and second-largest island is Inishmaan, Inis Meáin.  It's a 45-minute ferry ride.  

The smallest island is Inisheer, Inis Oírr.  It's about a 55-minute ferry ride from Galway.

The fastest way to get to Inishmore is an 8-minute flight.  At check-in, each passenger is weighed on a scale which determines where they seat you on the airplane.

Our first stop was a Dún Aonghusa which is a Bronze Age fort that sits on a 100 metre (330 feet) cliff over the Atlantic Ocean.






Teampall Mic Duach is a church dating back to the 7th century.




The Seven Churches, Dísert Bhreacáin, are on the west end of Inishmore.  In spite of the name, there are only two churches still standing.  

The churches date back to the 8th - 13th centuries.

We ended our sightseeing on the island with lunch in Kilronan before getting weighed again and another 8-minute flight back to Galway.

Galway Cathedral

We only had a short amount of time in Galway before we caught the last train back to Dublin.










Galway is definitely on the list of places to explore further.

Again, an awesome birthday weekend!

Oneworld Alliance

There are three major airline alliances that allow members to earn frequent flier status and perks when flying with other airlines in their respective group.  Since Atlanta is home to Delta I was always a SkyTeam member.  Since living in Europe I've earned Miles & More points with the Star Alliance.  But my favourite is Oneworld.

Oneworld is the third-largest alliance and is made up of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and SriLankan Airlines plus 30 affiliated airlines.

Air Berlin was a member until they filed for bankruptcy and will cease operations this month.  It's a pity because they were really good.  Plus whenever I flew with them from Vienna my Oneworld status always qualified me for the priority lane at security.

I wish Aer Lingus would join.  Since 2015 they have been owned by International Airlines Group (IAG) which also owns British Airways and Iberia but it doesn't look like Aer Lingus will join anytime soon.

British Airways is my preferred airline even after May's IT crash.  Every time I fly on one of the Oneworld airlines I get BA Executive Club points.

BA's Bronze, Silver, and Gold status levels equate to the Oneworld Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald premium status levels.  So when you have priority status with one airline it carries over to the other airlines as well.

SkyTeam is the is the second-largest airline alliance and it includes Czech Airlines.  Anytime I fly with one of the Skyteam members I get points on Delta.

Star Alliance is the largest of the three groups.

I earn Miles & More points any time I fly with one of the 28 airline members.

Update:  As of 5 December 2018, Fiji Airways has become the first Oneworld Connect partner.  Hmmm...I've never been to Fiji before.

Update:  As of 1 April 2021, Alaska Airlines has joined Oneworld.  Alaska serves +120 destinations across the USA, Mexico, Canada, and Costa Rica.  Its hubs are Anchorage, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland.

Alaska Airlines Route Map

My Bag Arrived

Hallelujah!!  My suitcase was finally delivered to me in Dublin.  What a mess!

So when my bag didn't arrive in Ireland with me I was given a case number and an 800-number.  I was also able to check the status on line.  Of course, the online status was always "tracing".  In the initial report on Sunday morning, I told the guy that it was a black Samsonite hard case bag.  What he typed in to the system was a black soft case bag (no brand).  On Monday I informed the agent on the phone of the discrepancy and he said he would update it.  He was also going to add my e-mail address to the ticket. 

On Tuesday I spoke to another agent.  Gave the same information and she said that she would update it.  She said the bag might show up on Wednesday by 6 PM.

On Wednesday morning, the status still said "tracing".  And the online description was still not updated nor was my e-mail address there.  I got so annoyed that I took to Twitter and tagged #britishairways and #aerlingus about how I was still missing my bag and how bad the customer service had been.

Within 15 minutes, Aer Lingus sent me an apology message via Twitter.  I messaged back about the run around I had been given.  Twenty minutes later, I received another message assuring me that they had now finally updated the ticket.  At least I finally felt listened to.

My bag arrived a couple of hours ago.  I'm so happy to have my stuff.  I was supposed to work in the Dublin office this week but that didn't happen because I had no clothes.  Tomorrow will be a busy day because I need to squeeze five days of face-to-face meetings in to a single day.

On the bright side...I won't have as much laundry to do when I get back to Brno on Sunday.

Update:  Due to the delay, I received €400 from British Airways.  It took a couple of weeks but I finally received the deposit.  Since I travel so much I keep travel insurance with Allianz.  They gave me 5000 Kč (~€195) for the baggage delay.  This claim just paid for this year's travel insurance.

British Airways IT Crash

All BA flights cancelled

So yesterday started off fine.  I took the big yellow bus to Vienna Airport.  I was supposed to fly on BA from Vienna to London Heathrow at 14:10 and then on to Dublin.  I should have arrived in Dublin at 19:00.

That's not how it turned out.  By 14:30, we still hadn't boarded the plane.  Eventually, we were told that the flight would be delayed until around 15:30.  Everyone was given a €10 food voucher.  We were then told that the flight was cancelled.  Something about an IT glitch.  We had to go to the airport service desk to sort things out.

I had already gone through security and passed immigration since the UK and Ireland are outside of Schengen.  So I had to get stamped back in to Austria in order to go to the service desk.  The queue was kind of long when I arrived but it didn't take long for it to get even longer.

After a few hours, I finally made it up to the desk.  The solution was I would be put on an Austrian Airlines flight to Venice, Italy.  Then an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin with a 00:30 arrival time.  I was told that my previously checked in bag would be transferred to Austrian and get checked through to Dublin.  The flight to Venice would leave in 35 minutes so I had to rush to get through security again.

Rebooked on Austrian Airlines

In Venice, the gate agent asked me about my baggage.  I explained what had happened and that was the end of it.  Or so I naively thought.


I finally made it to Dublin early Sunday morning.  My bag didn't and there was no one at the Aer Lingus baggage desk.

Staff didn't show up for over 1,5 hours

It took over 1,5 hours before anyone bothered to show up at the baggage desk.  Let's just say that I wasn't a happy camper at 2 AM.

I gave a lost luggage description.  The guy told me that he doubts the bag ever even left Vienna.  He gave me a claim number and a customer service number but the office would be closed until Monday morning.

I finally made it to bed around 3 AM Sunday morning.  I only had my laptop and a baseball cap in my carry on bag so I don't have a change of clothes or toiletries.  Fortunately I'm not in a hotel this trip so I can borrow clothes and my host gave me a spare toothbrush.

Let's hope that I receive my bag soon.  As it is, I had to work from home today because I don't have any work clothes for the office.  Looks like I'll be working from home tomorrow too.

Here's a video about the IT crash that I found on YouTube.

 

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