Ryanair and the Internet Big Divide

I have the sneaky feeling that Internet is the new Big Divide. You are either In or Out, and it is better for you to be In, otherwise you’ll be in trouble.

Last Saturday, a friend of mine was in a great need of getting on a flight to Italy on the very same day, so he came to me because I have a computer and an Internet connection (silly me, specifying this, don’t you think? A computer without Internet connection is like a restaurant without a kitchen!) Anyway, we checked some flights and the only option, due to the flights timetable, was a British Airways flight or a Ryanair one.

British Airways flight was at 19:50 from London Gatwick at approximately £280 return or £127 one way. Not too bad, in my opinion, considering that it was a last minute booking.

Ryanair flight was at the same time, but from Stansted. The problem with Ryanair was that, because the flight was departing on the same day, you could not find out how much it cost, but you had to enquire by calling the company’s Reservation Centre.

Ryanair is a company where no chance of making an easy buck is left untaken. In fact, by booking over the phone you are not getting the website’s fares (i.e. you pay more), you are paying for the phone call (10p a minute) and also paying an extra fee (£10) for making the booking over the phone.

And even if you try to book online and you are having trouble, you can call their Internet Support for £1 per minute!

Ryanair’s tactic is to charge you for either not having an Internet connection, or when you are really desperate to get a flight (or both). In fact, if British Airways can make a booking on its website for a flight departing in less than 24 hours, why not Ryanair?

Anyway, the Reservation Centre’s number did not work because the office was closed on a Saturday or Sunday… so how can you make a booking? You can’t, I guess.

My friend was stuck then. Well, almost. He could go for the British Airways option or try his luck at the airport with Ryanair.

I tried to steer him towards the British Airways-Internet-booking-you-know-how-much-you-spend option but he decided instead for the airport-Ryanair-try-your- luck scenario instead, because of these three basic reasons:

1) Previous experience of having bought tickets at the airport with Ryanair (well, 10 years ago)

2) The long-standing belief that Ryanair must be cheaper than British Airways

3) Human beings are more trustworthy than the Internet.

Previous experience in a volatile world such as the travel industry (and many other industries) in this time and age is not always your best advisor, because things change, drastically and rapidly.

Ryanair was cheaper for many years, that’s true (I used it regularly to fly between London and Venice Treviso), but in the last three years or so hideous hidden fees and non-existing customer service has really become a annoyance too high to endure in my opinion, for saving what at the end? No more than £30-50 if you are lucky.

As for human contact, well, company like Ryanair don’t give you any. A booking made through a person cost the company much more than the same booking made online, and they charge you for it.

In fact, my friend ended up paying more for his flight than what it would have cost him with British Airways on the web, and the process was not hassle-free.

Ryanair is a typical example of a company that charge you as much as they possibly can when you don’t have the technology, or when you need them more than they need you.

FIFA double standards

Brazil has recently won the Confederation Cup in South Africa, as many of you may be aware.

Not as many of you, though, are aware that Brazil has received condemnation from FIFA (Federation International Football Association) and is facing possible disciplinary action because their players, after the victory in the final, have gathered together in the pitch and prayed to God (the Christian one in case you were wondering), thanking him for the victory.

FIFA has stated that politics or religion have no place in modern day sport, and therefore the Brazilians were very naughty in collectively celebrating in a religious way their victory. FIFA has explained that individuals can celebrate their religion on the pitch but not the team as a whole, or the majority of it.

OK then, so FIFA decides to ban collective religious celebration in order to make all religions live happily ever after. What a good idea you may think: no Brazilian players celebrating the Christian God, no Burmese players thanking Buddha, no Muslims celebrating… oops, actually, not really, there are, as always, exceptions.

In fact, a couple of days before the naughty Brazilians celebration, another team, after winning a match, have collectively celebrated in a religious way.

The team was Egypt, and the whole team (or the majority of it) started to pray, kneeling towards Mecca.

FIFA did not issue a statement, not a word of condemnation, nothing of the kind. Is it maybe because, as always, there is one standard for one religion and a different standard for another one?

To be honest, I found out this news only by reading the Italian papers online. I then checked the British ones, and the news was rather difficult to get. Actually, I couldn't get the news at all on some of the sites.

Is it maybe because the real censorship is in the UK (rather than Italy?), thanks to the liberal media championed by BBC and the Guardian, always condemning some religion or some ideologies and turning a blind eye when some other religions, or some other ideologies are concerned?

Next World Cup I would like a Muslim team to win the tournament, and then I hope to see the players celebrating the victory by praying, kneeling towards Mecca and then... I want to hear the sound of silence coming from FIFA.

How to run a Call Centre

Call centres can be irritating sometimes.

Some time ago, I had to call a tour operator (name withheld in accordance to Data Protection Act) to advise one of the agents of a possible strike happening in France and affecting one of their clients booked with us.

A task that was supposed to be rather simple, turned out to be almost a Mission Impossible one, considering that I was transferred six times between departments, dealing with seven agents, explaining the same story seven times, listening to the “I am sorry but you have come through to the wrong department, let me transfer you…” too many bloody times!

One of the sufferings I had to endure was actually rather amusing. The agent I spoke to on one occasion, explained to me I had to call the Customer Department because my request was for a trip that had not taken place yet.

You can imagine my reaction (AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH) when the recorded message instead was something like… "the department deals with trips already taken. Go away if you have not taken the trip yet. Here I go again I thought, and I did go, again and again.

Always look on the bright side of life, as John Cleese taught us, and so, from the dreadful experience, I have drawn the following conclusions on how to run a call centre:

1. If you have a computer, use it

When I called, I gave the agent the reference number and the name of the person who made the booking. Computers were invented mostly to be chatting away on Facebook I admit, but also to allow agents to quickly get the details of the enquiry, store information in the booking system and, if you could not deal with it yourself, pass the information to the relevant agent.

But for some reasons, even with the reference, the agents couldn’t understand what I was talking about.

2. Listen to the customers, they are human after all

Most of the agents I had to deal with behaved like yes/no robots on steroids. One of them was bombarding me with questions like: Are you an agent? Is it before or after the trip? It is about a train or a space-ship? Have you called before? The thing is, if you say yes, when you should have said no, or your enquiry does not fit with any of the pre-stated questions, then you are… yes, you guessed right… transferred to another clueless agent.

3. There is no point in creating departments that nobody in your organisation does actually know what they are doing!

When I finally spoke to an agent who could successfully understand my enquiry, take my details and pass the information to the clients (YUPPYYEEE), I asked what I should do next time I have a similar enquiry.

She said to call and ask for the Accommodation Support Department.

Blimey! Three magic words that would have saved me fifteen minutes and spared me to repeat the reason of my call seven times… If only I (and the five agents who had transferred me too) knew that!