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community weblog
Ryan Air vs Elon Musk
Okay, so Ryan Air refused to use Elon Musk Starlink service and Elon threw a fit(of course) so now you can get a limited number of cheap tickets with the code idiots.
Fight-o
posted by Higherfasterforwards on Jan 22, 2026 at 1:56 PM
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Ryanair gleefully go all-in when advertising. A few years ago, media rumours circulated that Prince William enjoyed the practice of pegging, which led to #PrinceOfPegging trending. Ryanair picked up on this and, in possibly a kink-shaming manner, briefly ran this advert.
posted by Wordshore at 2:08 PM
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Let them fight.
posted by tclark at 2:16 PM
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Ryan Reynolds needs to do an ad for Ryan Air, preferably as Deadpool or Hannibal King.
posted by SPrintF at 2:18 PM
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if somebody gets free tickets out of this, sick
posted by okayturnip at 2:26 PM
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Metafilter is doing a fine job doing ads for Ryan Air already.
posted by Nelson at 2:28 PM
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Congratulations to RyanAir on picking the only fight I'd root for them in.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:40 PM
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Hey, I just like to see people calling Musk out, okay?
posted by Higherfasterforwards at 2:49 PM
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If there is a way for both sides to lose in this dispute, I'm on board.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:02 PM
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On board on board becauce in that scenario....
posted by clavdivs at 3:10 PM
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Both are horrible pieces of work.
posted by scruss at 3:20 PM
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I love that I'd have to Google to know what this is about and I don't have to!
posted by tiny frying pan at 3:35 PM
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If it results in people who can't afford it getting flights essentially on this guy's dime, I can approve of that. I don't know who the owner of Ryan Air is though (a Ryan of some sort, I suppose), and I gather from this thread that I'm not missing much.
posted by JHarris at 3:52 PM
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The only thing I previously knew about Ryan Air was that Fascinating Aïda's song "Cheap Flights" is widely believed to have been inspired by its surcharge practices.
But if Ryan Air has refused to do business with Eel On Muck and then promptly capitalized on his subsequent hissy fit, I'm happy to put several chalk marks on the "pro" side of my opinion of their airline.
posted by orange swan at 4:36 PM
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a Ryan of some sort, I suppose
Two guys with Ryan as their surname were founders. Now I just think of it as Ireland's airline, although it's not state-owned.
posted by axiom at 4:42 PM
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Ryanair's CEO is well documented as a mean-spirited, anti-worker, climate science denier and this is a little more than a short-lived public spat between two emotionally unevolved billionaires. Happy any time that Musk gets told to f-off but I'd respectfully caution against it inspiring the spending of a single cent more than one might have with that airline.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 5:16 PM
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Would have been more satisfying if the code was spelled "eejits".
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 5:49 PM
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As a note, Elon Musk cannot buy RyanAir (or at least, he would have to buy citizenship in an EU state first.) EU-based airlines are required by law to be majority-owned by EU nationals.
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:13 PM
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I just want Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos to go to Mars and not come back
posted by Narrative_Historian at 8:23 PM
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Elon Musk cannot buy RyanAir (or at least, he would have to buy citizenship in an EU state first.)
Good news for Elon A Spanish deputy European Parliament official of some kind (i'm not clear on his exact position) named Nicolás González Casares has tweeted the words "coming soon" alongside an image of the EU flag with one star replaced by a maple leaf.
posted by Mitheral at 8:58 PM
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Mitheral: well, even if Canada is invited to join, and then decides to join, we're talking about at least a five- to ten-year process, i think?
posted by adrienneleigh at 9:21 PM
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https://darkpatterns.uxp2.com/pattern/ryanair-travel-insurance/
[snip]
Ryanair hides the opt-out for travel insurance inside a drop-down list of countries to choose insurance for.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/23/ryanair-fined-limit-online-travel-agencies-ticket-sales-ota
[snip]
Ryanair has been fined €256m (£223m) by Italy's competition authority for abusing its dominant market position to limit sales of tickets by online travel agents.
posted by aleph at 10:27 PM
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I'd like to offer some jokes for Elon, the King Of Comedy, to use on his Everything App in this latest spat:
- RyanAir? More like LYIN'Air amirite??11
- This RyanAir is a wonderful airline... NOT!!!1111
- knock knock who is there Ryan Ryan who RyanAir SUCKS1111!!!!
- she ryans on my air until I reveal that MOL is in fact the leader of a pedophile trafficking ring
- @grok nude MOL dancing to gangnam style
Notice me senpai!!111!!!!!!!One
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 10:41 PM
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I'm so tired of claude jokes about grok..like get original bro
posted by okayturnip at 12:54 AM
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Another county heard from? When I have to go count sheep in horizontal sleet, I shrug into a 30 y.o. RyanAir all-weather jacket & only my nose gets wet. Jacket was one of many benefits from when my son worked for them [at baggage, batting, driving the shit-truck] fresh out of high-school in the mid 90s. Those early employees got free standby seats [ & 10% seats on affiliates] and share options at flotation. The Boy travelled all over the world for a tuthree years: he knows as much about how airports [dis]function as anybody; & more than, like, designers of airports. One press conference O'Leary boasted about The Boy's mighty airmiles [anonymously] to demonstrate how grrreat RyanAir was to their employees. The next week O'Leary was showing potential investors round the premises and flung open a door to reveal The Boy asleep on a pile of lost luggage catching up on his jetlag. Little was said, nobody was fired.
Even after the Great SIPTU strike of 1998, RyanAir/O'Leary authorized and paid for The Boy's PPD course in Flight Dispatch. But promotion for any of the 39 striking baggage-handlers was off the table and The Boy upstakes to work for British Airways Heathrow Logistics and start the 9 years process of putting himself through Open University to get a B.Eng. - paid for by cashing in his RyanAir shares.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:17 AM
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I realise we are living in the age of "the worst person you ever knew made a good point" but just so nobody thinks Michael O'Leary is a great guy or some kind of underdog Irish hero because they have no context:
His default position is abusive. There are Irish politicians who refuse to meet with him because he is so abusive. He has fought for the right to reduce pilot numbers and over-roster pilots. He famously hates his passengers. Last year he called for pay freezes for teachers. He is a climate change denier because it curtails airport expansions.
This is a case of one terrible person hating another terrible person and winning at PR because he's better at being a terrible person.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:48 AM
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St. Kitts and Nevis offers a leading Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) program requiring a minimum US$250,000 donation or $325,000-$600,000 in real estate for, generally, 4-6 month processing.
Borders are for poor people.
You are close to a millionaire than Musk. Let that sink in...
posted by techSupp0rt at 8:19 AM
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Plus you know, Ryanair is hell to fly. Cattle car planes (zero seat padding), flight-long sales pitch including their own scratch cards, and for years they purposely set hand luggage limits just different enough from other airlines that "Ryanair compatible hand luggage" was its own category. And good luck when your flight is cancelled, they famously have no one on the ground plus the stupid chat disconnects you. The only reason they ever pay out anything is EU regulations force them to, but it takes months when other EU airlines have a "bigger voucher or file for statutory monetary compensation" link in your mailbox before the announcement finishes.
My best experience with Ryanair was when they cancelled my return flight two weeks in advance and it was the only Ryanair flight between those two airports on that day. I booked KLM on Ryanair's dime and stocked up on Gouda en route.
(In conclusion: like that time Musk and Zuckerberg almost fought.)
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:41 PM
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I don't have a problem with the flights. You know exactly what you're paying for, and have a reasonable chance of getting it.
I'm a Ryanair frequent flyer. Literally my only superpower is packing for an entire week in one free Ryanair carry-on sized bag. I absolutely refuse to pay more to check a bag then I did for my seat, so I use this superpower liberally. As a result I have been able to fly all over Europe, often for less than €100 round trip. This is not an opportunity afforded by other airlines flying from Ireland.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:02 PM
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I have often wondered (typically whilst in the airport) if any company is hated by their customers more than Ryanair. I've heard that broadband companies in America are really bad ? But I take a trip to the UK from Ireland and back every couple of months and they wind me up every time.
There was a story (that I 100% believe) that Ryanair was noting down the credit card number of anyone who requested a refund for a cancelled flight and then denying any new booking from that card (assuming you could ever get a refund in the first place). The booking website is full of dark patterns to try to swindle you out of extra cash, the staff are actively incentivised to hornswoggle you for your bags being the wrong size (and also differently sized to every other airline) and for fecks sake stop boarding us before the plane has even arrived - we got boarded into a windowless stairwell with no internet connectivity last time and then when they changed the gate they had locked the door at the top so we were stuck there for another 10 minutes before someone let us out. Ryanair isn't even that cheap - if you're choosing anything other than bog-standard fly-with-no-bag then you can get it for the same price elsewhere. If the website offered a special price of €100 where you got to punch Michael O'Leary I amongst many others would be sorely tempted.
Unfortunately, my only alternative is Aer Lingus which for the routes I do, their planes are old, break down often (they're safe but bits tend to break regularly and at least with Ryanair their planes are from this centuray) and bought second-hand from Eddie Stobart. I still choose Aer Lingus half the time just because Ryanair is so awful.
posted by BigCalm at 3:23 PM
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techSupp0rt: "Borders are for poor people."
Yes, hence the thing i said in the comment you are replying to: "(or at least, he would have to buy citizenship in an EU state first.)"
posted by adrienneleigh at 4:27 PM
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I understand. My comment was meant to complement it with a dollar-figure... to show how "inexpensive" it was even for a regular millionaire.
posted by techSupp0rt at 8:48 AM
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Didn't see this mentioned:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/ryanair-ceo-talks-free-sex-on-flights-20080627-gdsjuh.html
[snip]
European budget carrier Ryanair has taken its cheeky reputation to new levels, with chief executive officer Michael O'Leary suggesting business class passengers would receive free oral sex on flights.
O'Leary made the saucy remarks during a press conference in Germany about Ryanair's Trans-Atlantic flights.
...O'Leary remarked that "in economy it will be very cheap fares, say 10 Euros, and in business class it will be bed and blowjobs".
posted by aleph at 10:59 AM
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