In defence of RyanAir, they are upfront end honest about this and you know what you're getting with them. Whether you think it's a good deal is a subjective matter you can decide for yourself, but I do think it's a fair deal.

That said, I would have used my discretion as a RyanAir employee here: the heavy fee is to encourage people to not "lazy out", which is clearly not what happened here.

Restaurants, just screw them if they demand apps. No restaurant is that good, and across the board the apps make the ordering experience much worse.

I can call Dominos and say "I'd like a large pepperoni pizza for carryout," give them my name, and be done before the app finishes loading and showing all its promo/coupon deals.

So yes, do business with companies that still have some vague notion of what customer service is. I have stopped expecting businesses to exceed my expectations (used to be the norm for most) but it's nice when it happens and they will definitely get my business again.

Last time I used them, mass-cancellations from 1cm of snow combined with the next alternative flights being a week later, meant that I had to get home via a combination of ferry and train.

From Stansted to Berlin.

(I'm glad work was understanding).

If you happen to be disabled, and cannot use a mobile app (most do a woeful job with accessibility and even if they don't, some people just cannot use the devices), threaten an ADA lawsuit.

Try not to start conversations in the negative. You’ll get a lot farther.

So we're stuck in this death spiral where only companies that find ways to exploit us and the ecosystems survive, and even tho we know this, we can only patronize companies that exploit us and the ecosystems because the ones that don't are a luxury/lifestyle signaling tool for the affluent.

I don't see any way out. The current civilization paradigm will crash and burn and only then something different will emerge.