Caio Reis sent a message to Michael OLeary that said:
Dear Mr. O'Leary
My name is Caio Reis, booking reference J58PTX, passenger of flight OE51 - PUY-TXL on August 19th 2018, 20:50.
I would like to register a formal complaint regarding a member of your staff, captain ALEXANDER KIESCHE.
You might need to review the professionalism and customer skills of your members, including pilots/co-pilots, if they also deal with people.
We arrived to the boarding gate at about 19:00, being one of the first ones to arrive.
The young lady at the gate then tagged our small carry-on suitcases and when we queried about the reason for that, she said it was only for "control" and that the suitcases would NOT need to be dropped.
Upon arrival to the aircraft, a member of ground operations approached us saying that we would have to check our bags. We informed that we had received a different information from the young lady at the gate and as per the booking confirmation and policies of Ryanair, 1 (ONE) carry-on bag would be allowed per passenger.
We then peacefully asked the ground staff for the reason for that and his response was: "because they want it like that".
We found that response quite improper and against the policy stated on the confirmation, which clearly states 1 ONE carry-on bag allowed per passenger. Then we started asking for a proper answer to our question.
At that moment, we were approached by the flight captain ALEXANDER KIESCHE who started screaming at us, claiming that he was the captain and it was his decision.
We would have to choose between boarding without our suitcases or staying in Pula.
In the meantime, all other passengers (including ones that arrived much after) were boarding the plane WITH their one suitcase each.
We once again asked only for a reason for all of that and his response was that "we were not being nice, otherwise, they would let us in with the bags".
Moreover, Mr. Kiesche accused me of smelling like alcohol - which I certainly did not, as I drove to the airport and certainly did not consume any alcoholic beverage - and it could be his decision to stop us from boarding the plane.
Clearly he used that dirty game to show off his "power" of stopping us from boarding the plane, if he wanted to.
Eventually we had no choice other than to drop the bags (which contained valuable items to us) and I informed Mr. Kiesche that, as a captain, he would take responsibility for our suitcases. His response was: "if you manage to find me after".
Now I ask you:
⺠What sort of professional behavior is that?
⺠Why does Ryanair implies procedures that are not to be followed? Long ago you allowed 1 carry-on per person, then you changed your policy to 1 carry-on + 1 small bag, then you changed back to 1 carry-on per person. Now, not even that you can follow precisely, as per the regulations.
⺠Why no one could provide us with a proper answer and a reason of us being refrained from carrying our suitcases when everyone else was carrying theirs?
⺠How can a so-called captain behave in such childish unprofessional manner, accusing customers of smelling alcohol without any concrete proof and responding to procedural questions with "you're not being nice enough"?
My main point is that as a paying customer, I deserve to be treated with respect and have my questions answered by your company representatives with clarity and professionalism.
I would have no problems whatsoever to have my suitcase dropped, as long as I was informed about it in advance, the reason was made clear to me and apologies would have been offered due to the inconvenience with the flight being full, overweighted or something similar.
To sum up, after aircraft doors closed, basically ALL luggage compartments on the plane were full of free space, which would fit many other bags, including ours.
I would NEVER expect such behavior and such response from so-called professionals of a company.
I hope to receive an outcome for this situation and I want to believe Ryanair still considers their customers with respect.
Attentively,
Caio Reis
