Ryanair brings in-flight calling to 20 aircraft, but you'll never use it
By Darren Murph 
posted February 20th 2009 3:34PM
posted February 20th 2009 3:34PM
[Via Gadling, thanks Conrad]
posted February 20th 2009 3:34PM
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Well as your plane is crashing into the Irish sea, you can phone home that you may be a couple minutes late.
Ryan Block has his own airline!!!??? :)
Your family may or may not like that.. Depending on whether or not they foot the bill
Why on earth does anyone want in flight calling? It is one of my pet peeves when people talk on their cells. It's irritating. In fact I'll sock them....
sock them! sock them good and proper!!
Funny, one of my pet peeves is when people assume that only their own comfort and convenience matter.
This applies both to people making long social calls in confined spaces AND people inconveniencing others for their own comfort and not allowing for worthwhile exceptions...
At that price, I hope they supply complimentary lube before they bend you over!!
At least they provide the barrel.
Ew,
Nah, Ryan air will charge you for the lube and then bill you separately for the rollicking; but you'll be happy because you know you got your seat for a penny.
Won't this make the cost of RyanAir phone call the same as the cost of the RyanAir ticket?
Only if you keep it under 5 minutes
Allowing in flight calling is a terrible, terrible idea.
RyanAir is a terrible, terrible airline.
Yeah I don't care...
Good. No one asked you.
Didn't they have in flight calling YEARS ago? I remember these phones in the seats where you slid your credit card through.
...this lets you use your own cell phone.
Has anyone actually flew with ryanair?
Inside its like big yellow buckets with jet turbines on the side, crappy cheap plastic blue seats and a crew who can't speak english very well...
They should be PAYING you to make in flight calls, so you can phone naughty chat lines to take your mind of the horrible plane...
XD
I've flown with them quite a few times. Once you know what to expect, it's not all that bad, especially for the price. Carry your bag on board, bring an iPod or similar for your own entertainment and pack a sandwich.
The crew can't speak English very well? It's an Irish airline... we speak English in Ireland in case you hadn't heard. And judging by your grammar I'd guess they speak better English than you.
That point aside, I agree they're a crap airline. They take the word 'economy' to a new level. This is yet another reason to avoid them. It wouldn't be as bad if they allowed texting but not voice calls.
@Laura The airline may be Irish, but the crew aren't necessarily. I think inflight on my last trip (DUB-HHN and back again) were Irish, Polish, Russian and Spanish.
RyanAir is still flying 737-100s? Damn.
Yep, why else should we pay €2 for a minute to scream 'terrorists'?
Their fleet is exclusively 737-800. I know that at one point, they had so many options and such a huge discount that it was easier for other airlines to buy them new from Ryanair than direct from Boeing. They used to fly 200s, but have retired them all.
That picture is not of an -800. I guess it's just an old pic?
This is not about inflight calling as much as it is about in-flight texting. At 50ct, I will definitely send a few in flight texts.
I don't think they expect to sell much of the $2 - $3 / minute calls...
50 cents is a horrendous price for a text message.
@Sarig
50 cents is well worth it for texing a family member coming to pick you up to say your flight got diverted due to weather and is in a holding pattern till the rain clears, rather than them driving to the airport to find me not there and having to wait 40 min in the car.
So now it's safe to use your phone on an aircraft because your being charged? Yeah that makes sense.
"Please make sure all cell phones and portable electronics are turned off" Guess we wont be hearing that anymore.
The debate between whether phones affect inflight navigation or not is a long one, and one that has never been clearly concluded
But as far as I know, the ryanair planes have an antenna inside the plane which passes the transmissions on to a satellite
So the phone signals actually have somewhere to go, instead of using massive amount of power to find signals
Ryanair actually has little displays above the isle on their new 738s for the cell phone stuff. Just like seat belts, it lights depending on if you can or can't use it.
This is classic Ryanair. Dirt cheap tickets and then outrageous prices for in-flight options. They also screw you with the taxes that are added to their tickets. But still, very cheap overall and the 738 is a nice plane.
Pretty sure the pilot has a way to reach someone on the ground "in case of emergency"
Ryanair aren't actually charging you - they charge your phone company under a roaming agreement and your phone company sets the charges. The rates quoted are "typical rates".
From the article:
Your onboard communications will appear on your usual mobile phone invoice. Your home provider sets the rates. Typical prices are about €0.50 for text messages; between €2.00 and €3.00 per minute to make and receive calls; and between €1.00 and €1.50 for an email session without major file transfer (100 KB). Prepaid is also supported. Switching on your phone and receiving text messages is free.
They are going to make a MINT on in-flight SMS. Seriously, it's going to be like printing money.
Smoking was allowed on planes until airlines realised they could save money by banning it.
Using mobile phones will be banned until airlines realise they can make money by allowing them.
by that logic, there would be paid-entry smoking lounges on every plane
Well the planes probably intercept your cell phone roaming and submits via satalite so they can do what they want.
I can just imagine some school girl running into the bathroom to text her boyfriend back home.
The next month.
Dad; "WTF! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE! YOU"RE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU DIE!
dont forget
Ryanair; lol lol lol lol suckers
Ryanair are great.
Good! If you're going to annoy your fellow passengers you better be willing to pay through the nose for the privilege.
Actually it just means that only folks with company-paid phones will use it ;)
Well whatever about all the stupid anti this, expensive that comments above, I at least was on FR7075 from Hamburg to Dublin yesterday.
Total Onair time - 1 hr 20mins.
The following is my cost:
2 phone calls, approx 2 minutes each.
2 text messages
21 emails - received
4 emails - sent
Lots of internet - including Engadget!
iPhone 3G on O2 Ireland.
Total 10.55 Euro as per my online statement today and nothing missing!
I think thats good value!
I hate Ryanair
J'
The charges are so bad that only o2 in Ireland have reached an agreement with Ryanair - Vodafone, meteor etc aren't on board until prices reach a reasonably sane level...
On a trip to Europe, we used RyanAir. By the time we had added up all the fees from having a suitcase and being late after a railway strike in Paris, we ended up paying about the same as we would have for a normal airline ticket, but we lost about a day's traveling time going to the out-of-the-way airports.
So if they go crash planes into buildings, you can call on the ground to someone to try make them believe you?
One more reason to stay away from Ryanair. Add to agonising discomfort (legroom for dwarves only, a colour scheme that can damage your retinas), predatory 'extras' pricing, jammed airports, non-existent customer service, oafish customers (have no doubt that once this service is introduced on the Ciampino-Stanstead route everybody will be bellowing away on their phones for the whole flight no matter what it costs...) Book far enough in advance and you can travel on a real airline for much the same money. My last two journeys on Ryan were decisive - never again.