Safe and Secure

I have no time to develop this and I don’t have the expertise to manufacture or source luggage of any sort.  I must admit that I’ve acquired a lot in my life (baggage too!) and nothing is suitable.

Consider Ryanair’s rules for carry-on baggage :-

1. Cases must be smaller than 55 cm. x 40 cm. x 20 cm.
2. The weight limit is 10 kilo.
3. You are only allowed one bag.  And that includes handbags and duty-free.

The interesting point is that if you are taking a laptop, as I am on my trip next week, then it is unlikely that you will fill the case, as you’ll get to the 10 kilo limit first.  So in fact, it is not the size of the case that is the problem, but the allowed weight.  On this point note that EasyJet has the same size limit, but none for weight.

So why is it a business opportunity?  There would appear to be no case that fits this specification, with the additional one of the case being as light as possible and that means no wheels and as few straps and heavy bits as possible.  My son has a slightly smaller Paul Smith backpack case, which weights in at just over a kilo.  In other words, you could have a payload of nearly nine kilos.

If I take into account that this laptop weighs 2.7 kilo, with 0.5 kilo for the power supply and 0.2 kilo for the real mouse, I need to lose all of the weight I can get.  Surely, I should get an extra weight limit for being lighter than the average traveller.

So all you designers out there.  Design a lightweight case, that is as big as possible, that has a stiff back to give some protection to a laptop and can be easily carried, either as a backpack or over the shoulder.  Don’t bother with wheels.

So get designing!

I was actually browsing The Times website as I do most mornings, when I came across this article entitled Twenty Reasons Not To Fly Ryanair.

I fly Ryanairas an airline of last resort and I’m doing that next week, as I’m going to see an investment opportunity and then take a train for a much-needed holiday.  I’ll have to be at Stansted at some ungodly hour, but that isn’t a problem for me, as my friendly neighboughhood chauffeur has already been booked.  The flight incidentally was actually listed on the web site at £3.99 and I paid £48.26. 

Put your own words about that here!

We have the Euro elections next week.  I want a no-hidden-extras law.

I’m actually travelling hand-baggage only, so how will I manage being away for nearly two weeks? 

It’s easy, I’m just taking three bikinis, one pair of trousers, two cotton skirts, half a dozen t-shirts, assorted bras and as small a number of personal things as I can manage.  But my man is flying down to where we’re starting our holiday a few days later with baggage in the hold on a much more accommodating airline.

I was playing around with my case last night and could actually do the two weeks on EasyJet, as they have a much higher cabin baggage limit.

I think that in times like these, Ryanair had better watch out, as I don’t believe they can carry on as they do, without losing customers prepared to pay a few pounds more for convenience, service and a lot less hassle. Or actually do their sums and find out that their £3.99 is more expensive than someone  else’s £49.99.

I’ve just spent a night in Holland, getting back late last night into Gatwick.  I stayed with an old friend and client and I also did a bit of shopping.  Strangely, with the pound at a very low level to the euro, I’d have thought prices were higher, but they didn’t seem to be.

But one point about the flight. 

I just had a small carry-on bag containing my bits and pieces, so I arrived at the gate towards the end of the boarding process and walked onto the plane last.  This meant I only got an aisle seat and would get off first, but for such a short flight at night, do you really want to look out of the window?  In fact the woman who had that seat in my row was fast asleep.  And snoring too!

So why do people pay extra to easyJet for speedy boarding?

Is it one of those things, where you actually are conned into paying more for worse service?

To be fair though to the airline, it was a well-organised flight in a clean airline and I fly them a lot.  So no complaints at all.

Out of curiosity, I looked at typical weekend holidays on LastMinute.com. I could get three nights in Venice in a new five star hotel in an old flour mill for £1,000. Or in a really good one for £1,400.

But I put together my own package with easyJet and booking an even better hotel somewhere else for £850.

Who needs an agent in the middle, when you have the Internet?

I’ve always been sceptical of this, but easyJet offered me the chance of offsetting the carbon dioxide that the flight will produce.  Their philosophy which involves investment in UN sponsored projects is described on their web site.

They feature a hydro-electric power station in Ecuador.

That’s OK in my book. Especially as Ecuador is such a lovely country with such good people. In common with many other places, they’ve had some crap leaders.

British Airways has been fined an awful lot of money for colluding with others on fuel surcharges. 

That’s correct. 

In fact, I’d go further and argue that if you agree and pay a particular price for a service, then no-one should be able to charge you extra.  Do I go to Waitrose and after the bill has been added, do they add an extra few pounds because they feel like it?  Of course they don’t.

But perhaps more importantly, Ryanair and Easyjet to name two, don’t charge anything for the increase in fuel prices.  They must have a better business model. Or better accountants.

But I also wonder about some other airlines in Europe, who are basically bust and just supported by their governments.  I’ll name no names, but anybody who reads a decent newspaper knows the culprits. Interestingly, some of them use old, fuel-inefficient airliners, unlike Ryanair and Easyjet, who have some of the most modern airliners in Europe.

Let’s have a fair playing field. 

And with tax on aviation fuel, so that the airlines compete on a fair basis with the railways.

Ryanair’s database probably contains almost as many names as the database for the Inland Revenue.  They virtually have no call centre and everybody deals very happily with them over the Internet. (I could also add lots of other companies like EasyJet, the banks and Lloyds Bank Registrars.)

Do we ever hear of any problems with Ryanair’s computer system?

Now why can’t the Inland Revenue, VAT and Tax Credits be run on a similar sort of system, that is as reliable and efficient?  Obviously, for those that didn’t have computers, local offices or say the CABs could be used for people to enter the data.

Is it because that to get it to run efficiently, you actually need to reduce the staff to a minimum, so that the computer can take most of the decisions?

And no-one has the stomach for such a fight.

I would.  But then I’m a hard bitch, who knows the pain that being a single parent on not-enough money can bring.