Ryanair gets a pat on the back . . .

READERS' FORUM:Have your say

We hope Ryanair communications department is sitting down as we might have a shock in store. The airline has featured on these pages on quite a few occasions and not always for good reasons. Well, Luke Cassidy contacted us to highlight a positive experience he had when dealing with Ryanair’s customer service agents.

“When recently travelling in Spain myself and my partner’s flight from Madrid to Dublin with the airline was cancelled due to the French air traffic control strike,” he writes. Ryanair informed the couple of the cancellation and gave them the option of taking the flight on a different day or paying for an alternative flight to a different location.

“As both of us had to return for work commitments, we chose to fly from Valladolid (where we were at the time) to Stansted and then on from there to Dublin. A quick search on the website revealed the Stansted-Dublin flight was the more expensive of the two so we chose that as our replacement flight. However as we now had to take two flights our checked baggage would cost us double – €30 as opposed to the original €15.”

They rang the Ryanair reservations number provided to complain and following a lengthy discussion were told that the head office in Dublin would have to sort out the issue and would phone them back.

Much to our delight (and shock) the reservations agent returned the call and informed us that while we would have to pay the €30 baggage fee, Ryanair would cover the cost of both flights.” Cassidy goes on to say that they managed to get a refund on train tickets to Madrid so the cost of returning to Dublin worked out €20 cheaper than originally planned and they arrived home two hours earlier than the original scheduled time.

“Their tag of ‘Europe’s Favourite Airline’ is often debated but on this occasion they lived up to their name.”

. . . and another happy Ryanair story

And that’s not the end of the Ryanair love-in this week. Before a recent Ryanair flight from the Spanish city of Murcia to Dublin, Tony Baker approached the Ryanair desk seeking help.

“I was immediately given wheelchair assistance to the aircraft. My wife’s and my hand-luggage was carried aboard, and we were escorted to two reserved seats,” he writes. “On arrival at Dublin we were taken by minibus to passport control, having been offered wheelchair assistance to outside the terminal if required.

“On discovering in the baggage hall that our hold-all had been badly torn we reported it to the Ryanair desk. After a very brief inspection we were given a virtually new replacement with a five-year guarantee. Credit where credit is due.”

Sterling prices at Tesco

For some time, Tesco in Nutgrove Shopping Centre on Dublin’s southside has been displaying clothing prices in sterling in very large type with a euro price in much smaller type underneath, writes Eileen Horgan. “Example is two jumpers for £10 pounds. Underneath is €11.50. While the prices may be equivalent, it seems the intention is to fool people into thinking they are getting a bargain. Many don’t realise the scam until they arrive at checkout and see the price on their docket (if they notice at all). This smacks of sharp practice. Is it legal to display prices in a currency other than euro?”

A couple of things strike us about this e-mail. Firstly, the fact that the sterling and euro prices are now broadly in line is to be welcomed as for many years we have been dealing with readers’ complaints about the inexplicable differences between euro and sterling prices on the same ticket. And to answer the question, it is perfectly legal to display prices in currencies other than the one which is used in this State and as long as the euro amount is displayed prominently – it does not have to be bigger than any other currency – a retailer is in full compliance with legislation.