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Lost Backpack Story - Budget Airlines“Where the hell is my rucksack?” My voice echoed around the empty airport. My two friends smiled nervously, but it was clear to all that the humour of the situation was fading fast; everybody else had collected their luggage and had boarded the last coach to Verona which was due to leave in a matter of minutes. Our Ryanair flight had been delayed. It was late. It was dark. It was hot. And we were tired. I was just about to make another desperate attempt to lighten the atmosphere with some lame, sarcastic comment, when the baggage carousel suddenly stopped. The fluorescent lights of Verona Breschia airport flickered out one by one, and it was then that I really began to panic. With a strange combination of English, Italian and improvised sign language, I attempted to explain to a flustered Italian woman who looked as if she was more than ready to go home, that my rucksack had not arrived. “Ok, ok, what colour?” she said. (I think.) “Blue, and, erm…green…” I stammered. “Ok, ok, call this number tomorrow. G ood bye, good bye, goodbye…” she said, thrusting a yellow slip of paper in to my hand and bundling us out of the glass doors of the airport. Before I had time to think, the bus started its engine and we had to sprint to catch it before it left altogether. As I sat on the scratchy coach seat, squashed up against an obese, perspiring dandruff-sufferer, I wondered what country my rucksack was in, whether it had even left Stansted, and whether I would ever see it again. Also, I wondered whether we had a bed for the night – our flight had been so late that the youth hostel we were booked in to would definitely be all closed up. As we jolted through the humid night I began to wonder whether it was actually worth flying with a low-cost airline after all… Ryanair is certainly not the only airline that has problems. All airlines lose luggage from time to time. All airlines have delayed flights sometimes. But increasingly, it seems that low-cost no-frills airlines are cutting corners to save money. Obviously, in order to provide cheap flights, some corners have to be cut; low-cost airlines fly to cheap, small airports to save money. They do not provide complimentary meals during their flights, they do not allocate seats, they sell most of their tickets over the internet and not through expensive travel agents, and they tend to concentrate on short haul, single-leg journeys. Now, don't get me wrong. I am more than happy to book my seat online, forego a meal of tasteless mush in a plastic tray, and endure an hour-long coach journey if it means that I can fly to my destination for next to nothing. In that respect, no-frills airlines are fantastic – they provide flights that are so cheap even a poor little poverty-stricken student like me can afford to fly abroad. Brussels for £9.99? Yes please. Perpignan for £5.00? Thank you very much. Stockholm for £14.00? Brilliant. If it wasn't for cheap airlines, then I probably wouldn't have got much further than Worcestershire this summer. BUT, just because tickets for flights are cheap does not mean that no-frills airlines should cut back on staff numbers to the extent that the service they provide is unacceptable. Obviously an aeroplane from any airline has to turn around and get ready to fly again as quickly as possible after landing at an airport, because if it misses its allocated flight slot, then it faces delays and the companies involved lose money. It is my personal opinion that Ryanair, (and probably some other low-cost airlines if the internet discussion boards that I have studied are anything to go by) do not employ enough members of staff to do this turn-around effectively. I suspect that this is how my bag, and the thousands of others that went astray this summer, got lost. When my bag did not arrive in Italy , it was very annoying. It was a hassle having to spend money on boring things like soap, a bag, and knickers. It was irritating having to borrow things from my friends all the time, and no doubt they got tired of it too. It was infuriating not having the guide books that I'd bought, or the camera films, or the sun cream, or ANYTHING! But what was more trouble than any of this was trying to talk to a human being at Ryanair to report my lost bag. British Airways have 90 people in their customer-service department. Easyjet only have 30. Ryanair carried 365,000 passengers over August Bank Holiday Weekend alone, and thousands more over the entire summer. And how many customer-service staff do they employ? 5. Yes, that's right. 5 little people to deal with thousands of queries and complaints. My poor sister spent 10 hours “on hold” waiting to talk to a human being and even then she only got through to an answer machine. My parents wrote letters to the Baggage Claims Department and did not receive replies for weeks. Ryanair is a massively profitable company – surely they can afford to provide the necessary staff for their customers? Eventually, my bag was sent back to my house in England . We don't know which country it went to, or if it even left Stansted. I couldn't claim on insurance because my bag had been returned, and Ryanair offered me no compensation. After a few bitter letters, I was offered £15.00. In fact, in the end, they sent me £45.00 by accident, with a letter saying that their apologies went out to “all three people involved” (no doubt one of those 5 poor, over-worked customer-service department people made a slip-up) so that was nice, but I felt that I deserved that amount anyway. I was still out of pocket because of their mistake. Lots of no-frills airlines do not give much in the way of compensation, and perhaps this is what you must expect when you pay 40 quid for a flight – but once again, Ryanair seems to be the main culprit and other no-frills airlines seem a bit better. Buzz, for example, offers passengers emergency funds when a bag is lost - £25.00 for every 24 hour period that they are without their baggage. You can't say fairer than that. Ryanair offer nothing until you are back in England – and even then it's only £15.00. I was lucky that I was travelling with friends who I could borrow clothes and toiletries from or I'd have really been in trouble. No doubt I will fly no-frills again, because I have no choice until I am earning proper money. To sum up, I think that low-cost airlines are a very good idea – they make travel affordable, and I am grateful to them for that. But I will certainly think twice before flying Ryanair again because the whole experience was such a nightmare and could easily have spoilt my holiday completely. If they employed more staff then their service would be better and they wouldn't risk losing customers. In the long run, it will cost them more if they don't employ more airport and customer service staff because people will turn to other, better, cheap airlines instead. The competition is hot, and Ryanair are not doing themselves any favours at the moment. We shall see.
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