jUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE

[new salt]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Ryanair-Low-Cost-Airline-May-Allow-Passenger-To-Stand-Up-For-Cheaper-Fare/Article/200907115330054?lpos=Business_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15330054_Ryanair:_Low_Cost_Airline_May_Allow_Passenger_To_Stand_Up_For_Cheaper_Fare

[operafan]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Ryanair-Low-Cost-Airline-May-Allow-Passenger-To-Stand-Up-For-Cheaper-Fare/Article/200907115330054?lpos=Business_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15330054_Ryanair:_Low_Cost_Airline_May_Allow_Passenger_To_Stand_Up_For_Cheaper_Fare

 

Maybe they'll pay US to fly if we velcro ourselves to the wing...........

[paul929207]

Ican't see how this is anything but a publicity stunt. How could the fly the standees for free and make more money?

[Atomica]

Ryanair's full of crap ideas - sooner or later, one of their publicity stunts will get them into trouble.

[Twickenham]

Ican't see how this is anything but a publicity stunt. How could the fly the standees for free and make more money?

 

It's all in the way you define 'free'. The base airfare might be zero, but to that you have to add taxes, fees for checked bags, using the toilet... :rolleyes:.

[paul929207]

It's all in the way you define 'free'. The base airfare might be zero, but to that you have to add taxes, fees for checked bags, using the toilet... :rolleyes:.

Sorry, no checkebags (see previous crazy Ryanair idea thread).

[G'ma]

Next, they'll be issuing rubber bands and everyone can pedal to generate enough energy to run things.........

[greatam]

I have to laugh at two glaring items in the article.

 

RyanAir is using Spring Airlines as an example and Spring asked today for government approval. Sorry, can't post the link due to the proprietary source I got it from as there are no links allowed from the email. I am sure it will be released to the general public soon. But if this turns into a disaster with injuries, loss of life or someone trampled when the plane hits turbulence, you will never hear about it. The Chinese have little regard for life and they think nothing of cramming 300 people on a bus/train/vehicle made for 100 with no regard for safety.

 

 

And having Boeing remove the seats??? That is already done by AS on routes to the far north. They have movable partitions that can accommodate seats OR cargo. More people-move the partition back and put in the seats (which clip in in about 5 minutes). More cargo-the reverse. Would be pretty easy to clip in "bar stools" instead of seats.

 

Just another publicity stunt.

[FlyerTalker]

For a visual, check out THIS BLOG POST. (via Upgrade Travel Better)

[Globaliser]

The Chinese have little regard for life and they think nothing of cramming 300 people on a bus/train/vehicle made for 100 with no regard for safety.

I agree that Michael O'Liary's idea is another publicity stunt. And part of me thinks why not, when the idiotic media lap it up like this?

 

But I have to take issue with this statement, at least as it applies to the airline industry in China. If there is a major air accident in China, yes you will hear about it. Yes, the Chinese are sensitive about it. And yes, they have cleaned up their safety act dramatically since the low point in the 1990s.

 

Things aren't perfect, by any means. I would still like much more transparency. For example, a couple of years back when MU scraped a tail departing LHR and simply continued to PVG, I didn't expect to hear any more - and we didn't. But things are much better than they were, due to a concerted effort by the government to get things back into shape.

[Globaliser]

For a visual, check out THIS BLOG POST. (via Upgrade Travel Better)

I like this prescient sentence:-

My only disappointment is that Ryanair isn’t the one proposing this.

Maybe the Mouth read that sentence and realised that he'd missed a trick.

[Gardyloo]

http://www.skyhighairlines.com/main.asp

[FlyerTalker]

Nice to see that the Sky High Airlines site is still up. Alaska did that in combo with a TV and print ad campaign a few years back. Glad that such creativity didn't get lost in the black hole of electrons past.

[greatam]

But I have to take issue with this statement, at least as it applies to the airline industry in China. If there is a major air accident in China, yes you will hear about it. Yes, the Chinese are sensitive about it. And yes, they have cleaned up their safety act dramatically since the low point in the 1990s.

 

While the Chinese have "cleaned up" their act when they have business dealings outside China, I have seen few changes inside China. In fact, other than the short period leading up to and including the Olympics last year, IMHO, it has gotten worse. More people are coming in from the country for work in the cities. More crowded trains, buses, roads and internal plane flights. I have nothing bad to say about Chinese airlines and international flights. And service is generally very good on internal Chinese airline flights.

 

But the Chinese "cover up" or turn a blind eye to a lot of stuff. I have seen it repeatedly in my own business. One big reason we will not handle Chinese food exports without USDA certs anymore. Sure, it is costing me a lot of business. But I would rather know that my neighbors and friends are eating healthy food than cause someone's death or severe illness or kill someone's pets.

 

If there was a turbulence incident with standing passengers, there may be a blurb about "possible injuries" and that is all you would hear. State run media would hush it up immediately. Safety, be it airline, vehicle, industrial or mining or anything else is rarely a concern to the Chinese UNLESS it impacts their interaction with the rest of the world.

[fbgd]

http://www.skyhighairlines.com/main.asp

 

That site has been a favourite of mine since I first saw it; the friendmaker flights, challenge seating, random gate change workout :D

 

My only disappointment was when they got rid of the chicken that calculated the fares (thanks to someone throwing chicken feed into a calculator - the numbers that got hit as the chicken pecked for food were your airfare whether it be $0.37 or $274,625 :D)

[Gardyloo]

That site has been a favourite of mine since I first saw it; the friendmaker flights, challenge seating, random gate change workout :D

 

My only disappointment was when they got rid of the chicken that calculated the fares (thanks to someone throwing chicken feed into a calculator - the numbers that got hit as the chicken pecked for food were your airfare whether it be $0.37 or $274,625 :D)

The chicken is still there; you have to use IE with the most current generation of Adobe Flash loaded. I use Firefox and it stubbornly refuses to load the poul-u-lator.

[FlyerTalker]

For the Firefox users out there...(like myself), there is an add-on called "IE Tab", that allows you to switch, on the fly, to using the embedded IE engine within Firefox. Excellent when you come to an IE only site - one click and you are all set, with no need to actually start/run IE. Give it a try -- the chicken works in Firefox with IE Tab.

[ger_77]

My, doesn't that look like a comfortable way to fly! I'll continue to pay for a seat, even one with disappearing leg room. The guy's a flake. . . just mho.

 

Smooth Sailing! :):):)

[Garyorient]

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1018137&highlight=

[keltic]

It´s this week O´Leary joke. Free publicity. Why do media still think these are serious plans?. They never learn.

[Taxguy77]

This reminds me of George Carlin's very early routines: Get on the plane. I don't want to get ON the plane, I want to ride INSIDE.

Also, aren't ALL flights nonstop? I've never seen a stop sign above 20,000 ft.