Many readers will remember back to last summer when Ryanair single-handedly - if you read some elements of the trade press - upset the travel industry with its expose of supposed screen scrapers.
Now the people who engaged their brain before the industry's natural emotion that says Ryanair is evil personified, quickly realised that the carrier was being its usual clever self.
Heaps of self-serving PR, as always (and quite rightly, as that is what PR is all about!!), and simply protecting its position in an increasingly tightening consumer marketplace.
But because this was all driven by Ryanair, rather than a trade-leaning airline, all hell broke loose.
So fast forward another six months or so and Ryanair and Costa Cruises sign a distribution agreement whereby Costa products can be bought via the Ryanair website.
This is the same kind of deal which saw Isango appear on Ryanair, Viator on easyJet, but surprise-surprise saw none of the outpouring of agent-led grief such has been seen on Travelmole, for example [needs registration], this week.
Now agents and other intermediaries will say they have been treated poorly by Ryanair over the years, simply because the carrier has refused to work with them.
Is that being treated poorly? Or is that a stubborn company like Ryanair is just sticking to its strategy of being a direct-sale company?
Hummmmm...
Ryanair may not have the best reputation in the world for customer experience - but equally it has never claimed to be the world's favourite airline, have the best seats, serve the best food, etc.
The Costa deal is certainly an interesting one, but to be so outraged at Ryanair for simply signing a distribution deal is misguided.
Agents might also be cross with Costa for getting into bed with Ryanair, but spreading distribution into as many channels as possible is - especially in these difficult economic times - also entirely understandable.
While I am no fan of Ryanair's product, I do applaud their approach. We will give you a seat (not your bags, or your tea, or your golf clubs) but a seat for €X and take you to Y.
One of the reasons that they can deliver on their promise is the design of their distribution channel- direct to you w/ a cc surcharge.
Agencies have been pinched for years by even the legacy carriers with long standing relationships. In some cases agencies have been made to suffer with poor technology and access to a carriers full product range in view of the new trend toward "unbundling" the fare.
Ultimately, however, there are places where culturally people still want to use a travel agent. Legacy carriers need to remember that. As for Ryanair and agents : they never promised you a thing - and they tell you no lies.
If you are interested in the issue of "fare-unbundling" visit us at http://tinyurl.com/faresunbundled for a look at how airlines view this from a technology point of view.
Kevin -
have you read "Who moved my cheese"?
Bye
Daniele
flybe did a deal with a cruise agency a couple of years back but that can't have gone well for at least one of the parties because it's dissapeared now.
Also noticed the Ryanair website has had a bit of a makeover. It's whiter than before and the yellow is a lot less flourescent.
In terms of customer experience the fact remains that Ryanair has by far the cheapest seats on the widest choice of routes. Yes the service is not up to the standard of even the other budget carriers but if you're on a two hour flight to Spain, does it really matter when you've only paid a tenner?!