Heard the one about the guy who spots a pretty stewardess in an airline lounge. Not sure which airline she works for, he bounces some airline slogans off her by way of a chat up.
'Love to fly and it shows?' he asks her. She ignores him - OK, not Delta.
'Something special in the air?' Ignored again - not Singapore. He tries Thai Airways:
'Smooth as silk?' at which point she turns on him and says: 'Why don't you F*** off'
'Ah,' he says, 'Ryanair.'
I reflected on this last week when I did a return trip on Ryanair - for the first time and expecting the worst after all the dreadful things I've heard about them. So it was a pleasant shock to be treated with efficiency and courtesy by friendly staff at every stage of the journey, to sit in comfortable, modern seats with bags of leg room, and to land early into the bargain.
But the British media being what they are, Ryanair wouldn't get a fraction of the coverage it gets if the secret slipped out that it's really a good airline. So it's fascinating to see how they maintain a grunge image - an excellent example being chief executive Michael O'Leary's recent claim that he was looking at a plan to carry standing-only passengers.
Someone believed him.
