Ryanair Palma, 2 apples confiscated (extra handluggage), McDonalds & Duty Free allowe

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Grizzly

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We returned last night from Palma with Ryanair.

The flight was delayed at take off because some of the crew had "disappeared". The local Palma ground staff were checking passengers on board. We approached the gate with our one piece of luggage each. Mrs Griz had in her hand a small plastic bag with two apples in it. Unbelievably she was not permitted to carry this bag on board as it was considered a second piece of hand luggage. I was so gobsmacked I never even thought of putting them in my pocket but left them at the boarding desk.

We then proceed down the tunnel to board the plane. Nobody had switched on the lights in the tunnel and it was pretty dark as you could not see where the ramps etc were as we made our way to the plane. We were then stopped from boarding the plane until the staff were located. Eventually a number of the staff came running down the tunnel each carrying their bag of duty free.

When we boarded the plane we had a seat near the front. We saw plenty of people carrying on two items of luggage and lots carrying on board a "Mc Donalds" meal to eat on the plane. The McDonalds restaurant is located just before the boarding area.

So if you are flying from Palma remember that you are allowed bring on board a Mc Donalds meal, smells and all.

This apparently is not considered a second piece of hand luggage but whatever you do don't bring on board the healthy option of two small apples in a plastic bag.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Maybe they shoved the McD's bag into a pocket or into their own bag.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

haha, You have to love Ryan air, with this new Fat Tax they are bringing in it makes sense to let their customers fatten up on bugers and chips.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

The scary thing about 'strictly enforcing' policies like the one-piece-of-hand-baggage-per-person rule is that staff can then exercise a ridiculous level of power over people if they feel like it.

It's completely in the gift of the staff at the gate what is deemed a second piece of luggage. You can't really argue with them because they're the ones in complete control and might deny you boarding if they dig the heels in.

In the OP's case, it seems that the person who denied them their apples was having a little power-trip. We had this once at security in Charles de Gaulle when my wife was relieved of some of her makeup by a particularly surly lstaff member who bluntly told her that 'eet is not peeermitteeeed' when my wife asked her why she was taking items out of her one-litre plastic bag. Complaining was not an option!!

We strongly believe that the makeup went for that staff member's own use... Maybe the gate staff ate the apples as well?
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

I think they're on a power trip as well. My last trip went something like this, I had buckles on my shoes and so beeped, so I'm taken aside to a special shoe machine, meanwhile other half and young kids and buggy and bags and coats belts, watches etc have to be dealt with by my other half alone. After my shoes have been deemed ok the guy decides to go though my make up, I'd brought a medicine /toiletries/make up bag that was see through on one side so he takes everything out of this and puts it in his own special plastic bag, this takes ages as my bottles are tiny and he has large awkward wrists and he insists I focus on him rather than the kids, he confiscates the end of one bottle of fake tan, but as we have now created such mahem and youngest member has done No 1 in her pants he overlooks another bag into which I'd put a full bottle of make up which was over the limit. I had mistakenly packed the same fake tan twice so this exercise just completely defeats the purpose of security. On the return journey (Shannon - home turf) I think I@m smarter and I ask them will I take off my shoes and they say don't bother. Big mistake, I'm taken aside and not allowed to take off my shoes and go back out but have to stand in special machine and then take off shoes and they go through original machine and I'm given the full search as well, it's complete consternation as well as I've just purchased a small bottle of water for the kids before I enter but this is now ignored in the chaos and the guy behind me has a bottle of whiskey to whom they all focus their attention as they try to tell him to go back out and he tries to finish off the bottle of whiskey. I got away with the bottle of water, I've also been able to get though Shannon before with a bag of brown bread mix which if you think about it looks more like bomb making stuff than anything else. Going though airports is now just torture.
 
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Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Can we not stick with the OP here and compare apples with, er, apples??:D:D:D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

So the tunnell lights weren't on? Maybe this is the Palma ground staff responsibility and not the Ryanair's staff responsibility. But we now know that The Palma ground staff who should have turned on the lights in the tunnell leading to the plane were instead confiscating two apples in a small plastic bag from a passenger. And the Ryanair staff who might have noticed that the tunnell lights were switched off were busy purchasing their duty free.
But what I want to know was it a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder that is allowed on board but what if you have an apple pie?
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

I'm flying to London this weekend with Ryanair and this post is making me both laugh and nervous!!!
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Going through Dublin last en route to France with one piece of hand luggage each, both OH and I had mini umbrellas (hardly six inches long) in our luggage.
Both umbrellas had to be taken out and opened up as if it was raining. Then dropped on the table beside us if we wished to recover them. A bit over the top I thought
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

We are both non smokers but purchased two hundred ciggies for someone who is. When we arrived home from Spain recently we were taking out the ciggies from our hand luggage and out popped a gas cigarette lighter that we didn't know was there. It was given as a gift in the Tabac shop where we purchased the cigarettes and put in the bag alongside the cigarettes. The x ray machine reader never picked this up.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

I think the airport staff get free McDonalds and so ignore the passengers with bags of food purchased there.

Of course it could be that hot food from McD gets smelly and is more difficult to deal with if you confisicate it by the 'sack' load. Or that the staff prefer apples to burgers. Alternatively it could be that confiscating recently purchased hot food puts a lot of passengers in a bad mood and the OP with her apples was an easier target.

Anyone able to explain why in Shannon airport you get plastic knives and forks, with soldiers thrown in for good measure, but in Dublin airport (and elsewhere) you get proper knives and forks?
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Bronte said:
Anyone able to explain why in Shannon airport you get plastic knives and forks, with soldiers thrown in for good measure, but in Dublin airport (and elsewhere) you get proper knives and forks?
Click to expand...

What I is more interesting on a long haul flights you get metal knives and forks, but they change to plastic ones for the meals when over European air space :)
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

I can't remember which flight but I once got a real fork and a plastic knife.

My examples at Dublin and Shannon are both after you go though baggage control.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

When I flew Ryanair recently a mid-age American man who had bought a duty free bottle of whisky in a box was told he had to get it into his absolutely full bag, or could not take it on the Ryanair flight. There was no way he could. Fortunately his sister returned to see what the hold up was, and was allowed to prop it halfway in and out of her bag. It's not just nonsense, it is anti-tourist behaviour.
There were travellers allowed to take their bags on board if they could squish and somehow manoever them into the size frame, but one poor French girl could not, no matter how hard she tried, though it was literally one cm oversized. The plane left without her.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Ryanair will soon carry 70 million passengers a year. They are capturing a greater share of the market.

If they want to drive down costs, increase profits by changing the habits of a travelling public by restrictions on baggage, new check in procedures and still more people choose to fly with them then you can't argue with the business model.

The golden age of travel was set in a previous era. There are many who remember it and this memory creates a lot of huffing and puffing from some about issues such as service, baggage etc.

Consider our children have grown up with Ryanair, this is their experience of air travel and warts and all this has become their expectation and I guess they are comfortable with it.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

God help us if if Aer lingus go under, we are doomed I tell ya doomed...
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

We travelled as a group with Ryanair recently. On the return journey one of our group who was ahead of me in the queue was given a boarding pass with my name on it! I was given an identical boarding card. So 1 person on the flight was given a pass that had not his name ....some security.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Just back from Malaga - On the way out after you handed in your boarding card there were 2 Ryan Air girls standing each side of a door way that we had to pass through, they made everyone who had anything in their hand i.e hand bags or magazine put them into their cases. On the way back there was a Ryan Air man walking up and down the Q and any bag that looked wide or fat had to be fitted into the gague. I had a bottle of water and I just put it into my pocket they seem to be really enforcing the "one bag" rule.
 
Re: Ryanair - Two apples - Mc Donalds and Duty Free.

Yet having paid "Priority Boarding" on a recent flight there was no queue for those who had paid the extra price nor was priority called first at the boarding gate. Rules for some no rules for others.
 
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