It is a well-known fact that shutting large numbers of people in a metal tube which moves at great speed 30,000 feet above ground can create a certain amount of discomfort, and occasionally lead to tempers flaring up. But even rage has extremes. Take, for example, the Ryanair passenger who became so enraged when he was told he could not claim a scratchcard prize on his flight that he ate his winning ticket.
Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline that operates throughout Europe, sells scratchcards as well as duty-free on their flights. The man in question was flying from Krakow in Poland to the East Midlands in the UK when he won 10,000 euros (£8,765 or $13,620) on a scratchcard he had purchased on board. For some reason, he got it in his head that the crew should be taking his winning scratchcard from him and handing over 10,000 euros in cash - then and there.
When the crew explained that they didn't have the necessary cash on the aircraft and therefore he had to wait until they landed to claim his prize, he got so frustrated he decided to eat his ticket instead.
Since the prize will now go unclaimed, the money will be donated to charity. Ryanair have asked the public to choose from a list of five charities by voting here. Voting will be open until 5th March.
God only knows what was going through the man's mind at the time, or why he thought eating his ticket would made him feel better! As far as I can work out, this incident has created an awful lot of free publicity for Ryanair and will in time make a group of charity bosses very happy indeed. As for the rest of us, I guess it's left us wondering if the world's going to pot, or as Karen put it, to hell in handbasket!
For those of you wondering how the title of this post matches the text, "there's nowt as queer as folk" is a British expression meaning "there's nothing as strange as some people". The ticket-munching incident proves that there's a great deal of wisdom in that statement.
8 comments:
Mind boggling. What happened to good old patience?
It seems that patience is a quality in short supply!
Hahaha ! if stupidity would win a medal he would get the golden one ! What surprises me was the generosity of Ryan air, they are usually rather stingy. They wanted to make the access to toilets in the airplanes payable and people over a certain weight should pay more per kg ! You can imagine the protests, so far nothing has changed !
I've got to believe that he was either a) short on intelligence, or b) short on sanity. Either way, I'll bet he's regretting that little snack now!
Ryan air is responsible for much of my European travels, and I agree with Gattina. I'm shocked at their generosity.
@ Gattina & Karen: One wonders if it was a question of too much stupidity or simply too much anger. It definitely makes you wonder about human nature.
I bet the poor guy's gutted.
As for Ryanair's "generosity", put it this way: 10,000 euros doesn't buy you a lot of publicity, and it certainly doesn't get your name mentioned in every newspaper and then some!
Karen, are you still planning your trip to Greece this summer? I know I promised you some pointers, am I too late?
Hi Tinsie! March has arrived and maybe this awful winter will be gone...
But it won't get you rid of weird people... ;)
Anyhow, I'm not sure Ryanair gets nice publicity with the incident... ;)
Meanwhile, Blogtrotter 2 is still in Haiti, now at Malfini Beach. Hope you enjoy and have a great week!!
Tinsie--Greece trip is summer 2012, for our 10th anniversary. I haven't done a thing yet, so your advice is appreciated!
@ Trotter: Ryanair gets fantastic publicity out of this: their name in every paper, plus they come across as the good guys. As PR exercises go, it's definitely a successful one.
@ Karen: Thank God, there's plenty of time yet!
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