Airlines Behaving Badly I

Via Upgrade: Travel Better, a report that Dr. Evil, umm, Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, has devised yet another dastardly scheme aimed at either world domination or just general jerkishness, it's sometimes hard to tell which. Apparently they want to eliminate those annoying check-in desks and the people who staff them and want pay and benefits, so they have instituted a 40 pound fee ($62) if you want to interact with a human being.

Not content with that, Darth O'Leary has come with a new and even more evil scheme, where he is now charging people who do his bidding by avoiding the check-in counter and printing out their tickets at home, a 5 pound fee ( $7.75) to use their own printer. It's really ingenious, in a dastardly Snidely Whiplash kind of way. Basically, he's made it impossible to avoid paying an extra fee to ride on his airline as far as I can see. Because you need a boarding pass to get on the plane. It'll cost you a lot if you wait till you get to the airport and use a kiosk of ticket counter to print it out. It'll cost less, but still cost you, to print it out at home using your own computer and your own printer.

If there were ever an opportunity for me to fly the unfriendly skies of Ryanair I think I would rather plunge a rusty fork repeatedly into my leg, before succumbing to the low, low prices.