'Spending a penny' on Ryanair may cost you

[Aontan 0]

'Spending a penny' on Ryanair may cost you

Friday, 27 February 2009 12:22

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has said the budget airline might start charging passengers for using the toilet while flying.

Mr O'Leary told BBC television: 'One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future'.

He said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash.

'I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound', he said.

Mr O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage.

Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all check-in desks at airports and have passengers check in online instead.

'We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel,' Mr O'Leary said.

However, Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara later said in a statement: 'Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and while this has been discussed internally there are no immediate plans to introduce it.'

Story from RTÉ News:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0227/ryanair.html

quote>

[Duke87 1,070]

Now taking bets on how long it will be until someone employs an alternative way of relieving themselves on the plane, or finds a way to circumvent the pay system (like preventing the door from closing all the way).

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[D2629 3]

I can understand a shopkeeper not wanting their toilets used as an easy, nicer alternative to public facilities. But when someone has paid you money for a flight, I think it is reasonable for them to expect not to be charged for using a toilet. It would also be illegal for them to serve food or drinks on flights from the UK (I don't know about other countries), which is where they get their most business. And if they can't serve food, and passengers can't go to the toilet without paying, I think people will begin to choose other airlines.

[JanYpe 17]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa It is just wrong to charge people for normal bodily functions. I know it is common in Europe, and even many US stores/restaurants (you have to buy something to use the bathroom), but it is a very asinine mentality.

Barbarossaquote>

I agree it's a strange policy to introduce on a plane full of paying customers, but why is it asinine elsewhere? Keeping a bathroom clean involves a cost, how is it wrong to expect some of that to be covered by the users? A bathroom where you are charged a very minor fee is preferable to no bathroom at all.

[saltandsauce 0]

i hope this means the end of ryanair since it's a crap airline

thank you for selecting ryanair you have chosen unwisley

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: D2629 I can understand a shopkeeper not wanting their toilets used as an easy, nicer alternative to public facilities. But when someone has paid you money for a flight, I think it is reasonable for them to expect not to be charged for using a toilet. It would also be illegal for them to serve food or drinks on flights from the UK (I don't know about other countries), which is where they get their most business. And if they can't serve food, and passengers can't go to the toilet without paying, I think people will begin to choose other airlines.quote>

Point is you may well not have paid them for the flights. Sometimes you only pay the airport operators and the state the fees for using the airports, other times the airline has actually paid a part of that cost (of course, someone will always be paying full price).

And yes, you are served food on board flights originating in the UK. Some you pay for, some you don't. And people won't go to other airlines just because they aren't served some dry sandwiches or have to pay for the toilet. Most European flights are less than two hours unless you're going from the one extreme to another, and most people would still consider a GBP 1 ticket for a London Prestwick - Frankfurt Hahn a bargain. You can eat at home, and pee for free at the airports.

And if I ever take a Ryanair flight, I think it's reasonable to pay to use the toilet. I just don't hope I'll ever have to take a Ryanair flight. But I don't get why Mike thinks that people would carry cash on board (in Ireland yes, in Scandinavia you'll do quite fine without cash unless you'll have to relieve yourself), I thought they preferred as little cash as possible.

[hamsterTK 93]

I think the ugly truth about pay toilets and places keeping their restrooms locked has everything to do with keeping the homeless and vandals out. This is why you only see them in downtown areas, not in suburbs or highway rest stops.

This is of course unfair and the only solution is to have truly public restrooms located somewhere in the vicinity.

[panthersimcity4 162]

Pfft, charging for toilets. Europeans complain about our healthcare system - but they have to pay to use the potty!

heh, jk, but seriously paying to use the toilet is mean.

[Danlikebooks 6]

Ah, memories of the Paris airport. One dollar to use the toilet and I didn't have one... I hope they clean their plant pots frequently

[Jezus53 18]

I have a simple solution. Loose the mentality of having to lower airfare and tack on the cost to the ticket price. Adding a dollar or two the price is less discouraging than inconveniencing them with the need to have to carry cash to use the toilet. He obviously doesn't understand human psychology. Humans would rather pay more once, than many times for less. Not saying that there aren't people smart enough to understand that sometimes paying more often for less is cheaper, but most people are not smart enough or don't care enough to think it through.

[belfastuniguy 18]

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4 Pfft, charging for toilets. Europeans complain about our healthcare system - but they have to pay to use the potty!

heh, jk, but seriously paying to use the toilet is mean.quote>

We complain for a reason.....its unfair, crap and elitist. Not all Europeans pay to use the toliet, I have never had to.

As for Ryanair....no thanks, I never have and never will fly with them, horrendously third world and an utterly rubbish airline. When I fly, no matter the distance I like to fly with a degree of comfort and style.

[ManagerJosh 0]

Originally posted by: belfastuniguy

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4 Pfft, charging for toilets. Europeans complain about our healthcare system - but they have to pay to use the potty!

heh, jk, but seriously paying to use the toilet is mean.quote>

We complain for a reason.....its unfair, crap and elitist. Not all Europeans pay to use the toliet, I have never had to.

As for Ryanair....no thanks, I never have and never will fly with them, horrendously third world and an utterly rubbish airline. When I fly, no matter the distance I like to fly with a degree of comfort and style.

quote>

Or at least be treated human...and not like cattle.

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: ManagerJosh

Originally posted by: belfastuniguy

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4 Pfft, charging for toilets. Europeans complain about our healthcare system - but they have to pay to use the potty!

heh, jk, but seriously paying to use the toilet is mean.quote>

We complain for a reason.....its unfair, crap and elitist. Not all Europeans pay to use the toliet, I have never had to.

As for Ryanair....no thanks, I never have and never will fly with them, horrendously third world and an utterly rubbish airline. When I fly, no matter the distance I like to fly with a degree of comfort and style.

quote>

Or at least be treated human...and not like cattle.quote>

 

Amen!

[Yoman3 5]

What exactly happens if someone gets on the flight without money? Continental Airlines flight 1970 anyone?

[Aontan 0]

O'Leary confirms Ryanair's intent to charge flyers for use of toilets

PAUL CULLEN

Fri, Mar 06, 2009

RYANAIR SAYS it is serious about plans to charge passengers for using the toilet on its aircraft.

“It’s going to happen,” chief executive Michael O’Leary told journalists yesterday about the proposal, which garnered huge publicity worldwide when he threw it out as a vague possibility last week.

Mr O’Leary said aircraft manufacturers had told him there were technical and safety issues about using a coin-operated system on toilet doors, so the proposal now was that passengers would swipe a credit card to gain entry.

He said that if the airline was prevented from charging passengers on the way in to the toilet, it would impose the charge when they were on the way out. It would also impose soiling charges where appropriate.

© 2009 The Irish Times

quote>

'Soiling charges.'

[belfastuniguy 18]

O'Leary talks so much crap honestly. I wonder just how expensive it will be to install a card swipe device and the associated software and terminal readers on all his aircraft. He really doesn't live in reality does he.

[your_adress_here 11]

Just add an extra dollar to the plane ticket for the use of the toilet.

[Aontan 0]

Charging for toilets PR stunt, says Ryanair boss

RONAN McGREEVY

Sat, Mar 07, 2009

RYANAIR CHIEF executive Michael O’Leary has come clean and admitted that his proposals to charge passengers to use the toilet on aircraft was just a cheap publicity stunt.

Despite telling reporters on Thursday that “it’s going to happen”, Mr O’Leary told a tourism conference yesterday that it was technically impossible and legally difficult.

Mr O’Leary joked it was a “new visionary strategy and a wonderful idea” but also conceded that it could be construed as “taking the piss”. He told the conference, organised by city tourist bodies around Europe, that Ryanair had bought Boeing aircraft in recent years, but the doors were not suitable for charging customers to use the toilet.

“Boeing can put people on the moon, design fighter aircraft and smart bombs, but they can’t design a bloody mechanism to go on doors that will accept coins,” he admitted. Mr O’Leary also confessed that it would not be possible because some “bureaucrat in Brussels” had decreed that establishments where food and drink is served have to provide toilets free of charge.

“It is not likely to happen, but it makes for interesting and very cheap PR,” he told the audience at the Grand Hotel in Malahide, Co Dublin.

© 2009 The Irish Times

quote>

So it was pretty much a PR stunt... 

Typical Ryanair.

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: MikeBoeing can put people on the moon, design fighter aircraft and smart bombs, but they can’t design a bloody mechanism to go on doors that will accept coins.

quote>

If he just could take a look outside his low-cost-bubble, I'm sure Lufthansa Teknik would help him with that problem. And convincing the Eurocrats that they don't really sell food shouldn't be too hard either (or just brand it as an airborne convenience store or kiosk instead).

And I'd rather have to spend that quid if that meant I could relax onboard.