Mobissimo

Not our quote. Someone who wasn't very happy with Ryanair's increasingly frustrating policies meant to keep costs down. On one hand you might argue these policies are meant to keep costs down, but really is letting families board first such a cost issue? And the baggage policy just seems dumb. Anyway, read the rant and decide. From Upgrade: Travel Better:

Reading about Ryanair’s new forthcoming in-flight gambling, its latest wheeze to screw more money out of its poor, unsuspecting passengers (while ignoring what they really want from an airline) after my latest experience I have decided never to fly with them again, and would urge everyone to do likewise.

From 1st November they have introduced two new rules, both of which send a clear signal that they do not want children on board:

1) no longer is any priority given to passengers with children when boarding the plane. A Ryanair official explained to me that if a family is consequently split up, they will then ask other passengers to move. For an airline which does not preallocate seats, and originates from Ireland, where families are larger than many other European countries, this change does not make any sense. I also do not see why anyone would agree to moving, having just “battled” to get his or her seat, with hand luggage stored overhead etc.

2) having already introduced a £5 charge per suitcase, each item of luggage for the hold is now limited to a maximum 15kg in weight. Passengers cannot “share” the allowance, i.e., 30kg between 2 people, nor can you pay “per 15 kg” e.g. pay the same for one 30kg case as two 15kg cases. Any hard case will weigh at least 5kg on its own; putting a soft case in the hold will simply guarantee all the contents are destroyed; and since you are now severely restricted in what you can take on board, the only option for the average family is to use at least 3 cases, which will be virtually impossible for any single car to handle along with 5 passengers, other than estates or people carriers. Not to mention how a family with kids is supposed to “handle” at least 3 large cases (= two trolleys) in and out of busy airports, God forbid they try to use public transport as well!! Our two suitcases for one week’s visit weighed 12kg and 25kg, so we were charged £55 excess (£5.50 per kg) even though there was four of us travelling! Again, this makes no sense, since I do not mind paying double for one suitcase if it is heavy, because it is more convenient than splitting it between two suitcases. But to get charged £55 for a total of 42kg between 4 people, plus only one piece of hand luggage, is just outrageous. Their only suggestion was for us to purchase a new suitcase in the airport, then repack our bags and come back…. yeh, right… with two young kids and the huge queues through Security, we would have missed the flight altogether!

All these rules from Ryanair are the same… making everything more complicated in the hope to catch people out and get them to pay more, while seemingly offering cheap tickets. It is bad enough that they charge you £3.50 per ticket just for the privilege of paying by debit card (credit card is even more) as though anyone is going to pay any other way via the Internet??

It is a waste of time complaining because they just do not care… even the Ryanair staff at Stansted told us how outrageous it all was, so even they are not listened to.

On top of all that, we were queuing at the check-in for nearly an hour, probably because many people like us were also having to pay excess charges which all takes extra time to administer. And then another half an hour through Security meant we had no time to buy any drinks for the kids for the plane, so had to pay the extortionate Ryanair prices.

And it could have been even worse… there was a group of about 30 very angry Italians who had been queuing in good time at the check-in counter for another Ryanair flight, only to be refused check-in and thus miss their flight because Ryanair had run out of time to check them all in!

It all reminds me of how BA was run a few years ago, when they decided to ignore economy class and focus all their efforts and attention to business class travel. Unfortunately for BA, they forgot that many business class passengers use economy when cashing in their air miles, particularly when travelling on holiday with the family. Consequently I know of many business colleagues, who like myself, refused to fly BA for a long time after. Fortunately for BA, they got rid of their chairman and this absurd strategy, and thus I am pleased to say it is once again a pleasure to fly with them.

Ryanair: the airline for the extremely poor (not having any personal possessions to take with them) or for the very lonely (no offspring).

Why not just be honest and admit what we all now know: there is no longer any such thing as a “cheap” airline ticket, Mr O’Leary?

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We've covered this story before, now the offer has been formalized.

ATLANTA - US Airways Group Inc. will pitch its $8.6 billion unsolicited offer for Delta Air Lines Inc. in a meeting this week with Delta and the committee representing the unsecured creditors in Delta's bankruptcy case, a lawyer for the committee said Tuesday.

The lawyer, Daniel Golden, said in a telephone interview that the committee's advisers will be present at the meeting in New York, along with US Airways officials and Delta senior executives.

Not sure how this one will play out, but stay tuned, we'll have the latest news here on MobiBlog.

The Airbus A380 and EADS, the holding company for the project have been foundering lately, however, the global testing, i.e. long range flying under different conditions is underway and looks successful.

TOULOUSE, FRANCE -- The Airbus A380 started a global circumnavigation Saturday that will take in the South and North Poles on the last of a series of test flights before it applies for its air safety certificate.

The plane, which is being tested under commercial conditions, is seeking to gain its airworthiness certificate by mid-December from European and U.S. aviation safety authorities.

It flies from Toulouse, France, where it is assembled, to Johannesburg, Sydney and Vancouver before returning to France.

The superjumbo left the southwestern city for South Africa at 9:15 p.m. (2015 Greenwich Mean Time) and is expected back in Toulouse on Thursday between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. (1130 and 1200 GMT).

The delays of the launch of the A380 have cost the company billions and have allowed competitor Boeing to scoop up precious contracts.  Is the Airbus project a microcosm of why the EU won't work?  The reasons are many, but perhaps the ambitious project was better suited for a wholly private company.

If you're looking for something different on your next trip to Berlin, consider staying at the Arte Luise Kunsthotel, an art themed hotel in Berlin where each room has been decorated by a different German artist:

All rooms were decorated by a renown artist, whereby the entire room was included in the concept. Thus, every room is an original, and all rooms are only united by the high artistic standards with which the concepts have been carried out. Sculptures in the lobby and philosophy in the stairwell accompany guests en route.

BEIJING -- China has acknowledged the practice of "transplant tourism," in which the organs of executed prisoners are sold to foreigners, and says it wants to regulate the sale of kidneys, livers and other body parts.
"Most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners," Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said at a summit for transplant doctors in Guangzhou this week, state newspapers reported.
The practice had been repeatedly denied by the government.
A ministry spokesman also said that "wealthier people, including foreign patients" could jump waiting lists because they were willing to pay more.

Going rates for kidneys is $40,000 and livers $60,000. Via The Washington Times.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A court in Germany rejected a man's compensation claim against an airline after a cabin crew ordered him off a plane because other passengers were offended by his smell, authorities said Thursday.

An appeals court in the western city of Duesseldorf upheld an earlier ruling that British Airways (BA) had acted within its rights by removing the man from the aircraft after a female passenger sitting next to him complained about his smell.

"The stewardess took him to one side and asked him if he could put on a fresh shirt, but they were all in the hold," a court spokesman said. "So then he was asked to leave the plane -- about two minutes before take off."

BA said other passengers were upset by the smell, he added.