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Ryanair Throws Huge Hissy Fit In Response To BBC Expose

October 15, 2009 at 2:08 PM | by | Comments (0)

Ryanair is in a very public, very heated, very crazy delicious feud with the BBC. The low cost carrier has taken exception to a BBC Panorama expose unpacking the airline's complex nickle and dime strategy for extracting airline fees. In response, Ryanair's the-customer-is-always-wrong CEO Michael O'Leary has blasted the program and unveiled a 1.1 million seat giveaway.

We were surprised Ryanair reacted so negatively to a discussion of their opaque fees. Usually they're so much more confident. Just a few weeks ago they were blustering about how their customers were free to explore other options if they had problems with the airline.

This is a company that's made a business model of brazenly abusing passengers, the implicit justification being that any alienated customers could always be replaced by other bargain seekers. "You'll take our abuse because you value your wallet more than your self-esteem" is practically the company's sneering motto.

You can't hold contests where passengers demeaningly compete to impose the most absurd fees on each other, watch gleefully as it turns vicious and humiliating, and then act like Bambi's mom when someone makes a point of highlighting those fees. Then you just look like a smirking bully with a bloody nose. Listen to this:

Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary has come out with all guns blazing following yesterday's BBC Panorama programme about the Irish low-cost carrier. Unveiling details of a 1.1 million seat giveaway – 100,000 for every "false or misleading claim" made by Panorama – the airline boss said the BBC had "no case, no facts and no clue." Its broadcast, which featured an impromptu interview with Mr O'Leary in a Dublin car-park, effectively alleged that the carrier dupes customers with hidden charges... Dubbed 'Why Hate Ryanair?,' the show was widely billed as an exposé on the no-frills airline.

Just for the record, of course it's true that Ryanair has tons of hidden fees and of course those fees often add up to more than what you'd pay on a larger airline. Of course it is; they just can't see the forest for the trees and understand that they rip passengers off.

[Photo: Leo Johannes / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· Ryanair hits back at BBC with free seat giveaway [Cheapflights.co.uk]
· Ryanair [Jaunted]
· Airline Fees [Jaunted]

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