The Ryanair Website Down Issue.

Firstly I am not being an apologist for FR or MOL.

The issue of taking the website down seems to have irked a lot of people. It has to be remembered that FR is a bus company. It is not a fancy airline.

I always felt that Southwest did an excellent job of lowering expectations and then raising them with the delivery. FR doesn’t bother about raising the expectations after lowering them. Its delivery is what it is. HOWEVER unlike LCCs (including WN) it consistently has lower fares than its competitors. Sure there is more than anecdotal evidence that FR charges higher prices in certain instances than its direct competition. However all things considered, they offer lower fares. So that makes it a” what you see is what you” get arrangement between the customer and the airline. Rather than being subtle about it, they just tell you upfront. I can point to innumerable times when I have been confronted with legacy airlines who have the exact same policies and do the exact same things as FR however WITHOUT telling you first.

Bottom line, FR did a good job in getting the word out. The people who will be impacted need to be ready for the outage. If they are not then its Caveat Emptor. Plain and Simple.

Cheers