Different Tactics, Different Results

Last week, I was returning from Las Palmas and flew with Ryanair again, despite having said three years ago that I would never do so in my life. The experience is worth sharing on this blog. As everyone knows, Ryanair does not allocate seats at check-in, so the boarding pass merely allows access to the aircraft. At the boarding gate, it is clear that all passengers, aware of this fact, rush to queue at the assigned gate from almost an hour beforehand in order to be among the first to board and thereby secure a good seat (if any seat on Ryanair can be considered good). Before heading to the end of the long queue to wait for boarding time, I went to the Starbucks located right next to the gate. There, I ordered a hot chocolate and a pastry. Knowing that I was travelling with Ryanair, the assistant asked me at the till whether I wanted a bottle of water for the journey. It seemed like a good idea, so I said yes. At exactly the right moment, the assistant offered me a product she knew would be difficult to refuse. I do not know whether she did it of her own accord or on instructions from above, but the tactic worked and she managed to increase a sale of no more than €4.00 by a further €1.50. Not bad: upselling in its purest form. Getting back to the point, after 40 minutes of waiting and the manual inspection of hand-luggage dimensions, during which I saw more than one person regretting having to check baggage that, throughout their lives, they had been able to take on board as hand luggage with any airline, I entered the aircraft. Up to that point, there were no more surprises: the routine checks, the scramble of passengers looking for a free seat—in short, exactly what one would expect. What I did not know was what would happen after take-off. From that moment until almost the flight's arrival in Barcelona, the cabin crew put on a veritable parade of products for sale. They started with smokeless cigarettes, followed by the food and drinks trolley, then fragrances and gift items, and even tickets to enter some sort of draw. In reality, it was all highly intrusive and annoying, as well as inefficient. I do not believe that having all passengers strapped into a seat with a safety belt gives them the right to bother them by offering products they do not even need. I will leave it there for everyone to draw their own conclusions or reflect on the kind of marketing we do and how we use our relationship with customers.