Ryanair at Brussels Airport

[Inquirer]

I think that SN must consider introducing those passes on B.FLEX and B.Business flights.. This will generate a handsome regular, pre - paid income..

They have (sort of), it's called a corporate contract.
It's not pre-paid, but the mechanism is roughly the same, and indeed, it results in unbeatable value for money as I have tried to explain here once.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=51768&p=290979#p290979

Maybe indeed, they should open it up also for private persons, who regularly fly on a certain route, under the form of passes? It won't hurt much to do so, I suppose, and competition can't easily match them, because they don't have the same network, frequencies nor partnerships.

[b720]

Exactly, the B.light Pass is excellent, and functions very smoothly. The price per flight, no one can beat specially at short notice. One can pick up the phone, and book for the next day on flights where B.light seats are still available, no matter how high the available fare is.. as Inquirer states, no one can beat their frequencies and network.. besides, when booking the pass one does not even pay those dreaded credit card charges one pays for each flight!! Adds up in every single way..way to go, these are ways they can fight off competition.. they might even introduce them on their N.America and Africa flights!! 3 flights per six months, or 6 flights a year for really competitive prices from and to any point in Europe??

[appel]

Sorry Crosswind but in my personal experience the social life whipe working for ryanair is not bad at all. I know when i can do something with friends or familie a long time in advance. I can even say which exact dates i will be working for the next couple of years as long as nothing chages. (like new base or captain upgrade)
It wont be in every base like this when you work 5-3 iso 5-4 in summer and dont have good connections back home. But the people i know in such bases have their social live where they work.

The flight time are nice and you can plan in advance, this is true and this is one thing wich was great but when you start, Ryanair assigne you a base. In my case I was in BGY so indeed it was nice as there where 3 flight a day to CRL. But what do you do for people who are base somewhere where there is no connection to go home or not daily? Then when you are 1 year in your base you can apply for a transfer. If your initial base is Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Porto, you will got a transfer very easily, but if you are base in BGY, CRL or STN, those base a prison for cabin crew, it very hard to come out of those base because there are very short of cabin crew there.

I agree with you for cabin crew it's a lot harder then for flight crew

[Lysexpat]

Exactly, the B.light Pass is excellent, and functions very smoothly. The price per flight, no one can beat specially at short notice. One can pick up the phone, and book for the next day on flights where B.light seats are still available, no matter how high the available fare is.. as Inquirer states, no one can beat their frequencies and network.. besides, when booking the pass one does not even pay those dreaded credit card charges one pays for each flight!! Adds up in every single way..way to go, these are ways they can fight off competition.. they might even introduce them on their N.America and Africa flights!! 3 flights per six months, or 6 flights a year for really competitive prices from and to any point in Europe??

Way off topic...and not completely true either.
B Pass are RETURN tickets and your stay must include a saturday night. So a lot less flexible than what one would think at first sight. Also the quoted price is for 3 months validity only, so you need to fly six returns in three months and your stay has to include a saturday night. SN introduced their B Pass as a tempory promotion with only 1000 passes available. Months later some are still available so it isn't a big succes.
I am a frequent flyer on a route both SN and Ezy operate and have looked into almost all possible scenarios.
B pass is useless for me as I don't often stay a saturday night.
If you want more frequencies: use SN if you want to travel cheap fly Ezy.

[b720]

off topic, but not way so.. as we are discussing competition from FR.. and comparing with EASY.. whole thing started discussing destinations FR versus Vueling and SN..as for passes, it is 6 per 3 months, or (for a higher price) per 6 months.. Remain the BEST on the market, if (indeed) one spends saturday night.. I think that crossing tickets is an option..Besides they never clarified whether the 1000 passes were sold out, and they extended the formula, or they haven't sold the 1000 yet. One can't really assume..Concerning FR or other LCC, well cheapest fares departing monday 05:55 and returning sunday at 05:55 too!! If you look into more
human hours (that suit most people) prices are not that different from SN.

[Crosswind]

I agree with you for cabin crew it's a lot harder then for flight crew

So true. Quality of life for most of the cabin attendants working at Ryanair is just a shame. All in all, it's a matter of choice, or philosophy : craps jobs for everybody, all over the world, like Ryanair promotes or a better and decent life for everybody ?

[Sean_DM]

I have a stable roster, good vacation arrangements, drive my own car and life in my own house. I would call that "a good quality life." How did I manage? I adopted to the style, don't let myself get stressed out, managed to promote ... I admit its not for everyone, but there are also a lot of people who enjoy it.

Thanks

[crew1990]

A new Sean! What happend with the las one?

Well anyway, I agree with you Sean but don t forget that you have the chance to be based in your country. When it the case you can definitely have have a good familial and social life, beter than in any of our Belgian airline because as you say you have a stable roster with the same kind of shift, no night stop, no night flight so yes indeed it s great. But from the moment you don t luve where your social life is it s another think because of the reason I state above. You will say that in every airline it s the same, this is true but the difference is that in the other airlines you decide your base. In Ryanair they choose your base and inform you once you paid your deposit, if you don t agree with your base choice they simply keep the deposit and byebye.

[teddybAIR]

How are you tipically based? Can you give a top 3 in terms of preference?

[Sean_DM]

Hmm .. True, but that changed a while ago. Bases are distributed 1 month before the training course starts, so plenty of time to decide if you take it or not. I was also based abroad for 3 years, it's a question of whether or not someone is willing to sit it out.

Teddybair, initially you will be given a base where you are operationally required, after 6 months you can apply for a transfer and then it is a waiting game.

[teddybAIR]

thx for the answer sean. are you based in belgium then?

[crew1990]

Regarding crewdock, the intranet of the Ryanair crew, it still one year, I just checked it right now

[cnc]

first time i noticed but do all FR 737's have stairs? waste of weight if you ask me but it makes sense why they always load in the rear holds now

[Sean_DM]

thx for the answer sean. are you based in belgium then?

Based in belgium yes

[teddybAIR]

first time i noticed but do all FR 737's have stairs? waste of weight if you ask me but it makes sense why they always load in the rear holds now

You can be quite confident that they have made the risk/reward analysis on the stairs. The principle contra argument indeed seems to be the weight, but that disadvantage is probably more then outweighed by the pro's:

> less dependent on ground equipment
> cash savings on ground equipment
> faster turnarounds

I'm guessing the stairs are crucial in achieving a 25' turnaround and the 25' turnaround is quite critical to Ryanairs business model.

[teddybAIR]

thx for the answer sean. are you based in belgium then?

Based in belgium yes

Lucky you! Although you did have your fare share of flying abroad apparently. Hope for you that you can fly out of BRU once in a while

[cnc]

> less dependent on ground equipment
> cash savings on ground equipment
> faster turnarounds

I'm guessing the stairs are crucial in achieving a 25' turnaround and the 25' turnaround is quite critical to Ryanairs business model.

i can cope with the first one but for "cash savings on ground equipment" i have yet to see the first handling agent to charge more or less depending on using stairs
same for the faster turnarounds. i don't see how it would speed up rotations, pax can't walk out before ground staff is there and the doors are closed before the external power or GPU is disconnected and in most cases pushback has to be done

[SNam]

first time i noticed but do all FR 737's have stairs? waste of weight if you ask me but it makes sense why they always load in the rear holds now

On the contrary, Ryanair standard loading is as much as possible in hold 2 (forward hold).

But there is not too much luggage to be loaded in the holds.

[cnc]

first time i noticed but do all FR 737's have stairs? waste of weight if you ask me but it makes sense why they always load in the rear holds now

On the contrary, Ryanair standard loading is as much as possible in hold 2 (forward hold).

But there is not too much luggage to be loaded in the holds.

really? the trim must be horrible then.
only reason to put bags in front on a 738 is to make sure it doesn't tip

[SNam]

It is not horrible at all, a bit nose heavy but not that much. Passengers are divided automatically across the cabin to achieve a more or less ideal situation. Never had trim problems with the load sheet (it's manual).