For those planning a budget airline flight this Easter weekend, take some advice from Melinda Stevens, editor of Condé Nast Traveller. Stevens, who also happens to be the aunt of model of the moment Cara Delevingne, decided to slum it for a change by taking her family to Brindisi on Ryanair.
Her editor’s letter in the May issue of the smart travel magazine makes traumatic reading. Stevens seemed unprepared for snaking queues, disappearing luggage, and customer service where a smile costs extra.
“Crikey, Stansted is a long way away,” is one of her milder observations. Then there’s the 45-minute wait to get to the front of the queue, “a giant tentacled centipede with a million mutated legs”, perilously close to take-off time. Her husband Marcus, after doing battle with the machines that dispense tickets for luggage, returns: “His run-in with the machines has been beyond platonic, and ... both his palms have blood pouring from them.”
Despite paying £2,000 for tickets, the Stevens clan admitted defeat and took a taxi back home.
Ryanair, which is headed by bullish chief executive Michael O’Leary, is used to complaints. “We have yet to receive a letter so we can’t comment on the specifics of this case,” a chirpy representative said when the Londoner called, “but if Ms Stevens were to address her grievances to us then we would happily see what we can do to rectify the problem.”
Presumably flight vouchers won’t be accepted.
