You’ve gotta appreciate a restaurant (and an airline CEO) with a sense of humor…
In this post:
Restaurant adds junk fees to Michael O’Leary’s dinner bill
64-year-old Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is a bit of a legend in the airline industry. He’s one of the most brilliant, outspoken, and unapologetic airline CEOs that you’ll find anywhere.
Fortunately he also appreciates a good joke, because he got a taste of his own medicine while dining out on the night of Friday, March 21, 2025. O’Leary dined at Luvida Restaurant in Navan, Ireland. When he was presented with the bill, there were €37.85 worth of extra charges.
These included an extra leg space fee of €7.95, a priority booth seating fee of €9.95, and a quiet area reservation fee of €19.95. This was in addition to the pinot grigio, battered prawns, mushroom on toast, seabass, and “open main,” that he ordered.
As the restaurant described it in a Facebook post:
Thank you to Michael O’Leary for choosing to dine with us tonight! It was a pleasure to host you. Hope you don’t mind us adding some additional charges to your bill for extra leg space, priority booth seating and quiet area reservation
Obviously this was all a joke, and those extra fees weren’t actually charged. But hey, kudos to the restaurant staff for their humor, and talk about a brilliant publicity stunt, as this is being covered widely in Ireland.
Michael O’Leary is a one-of-a-kind guy
There are lots of very smart airline CEOs out there, though O’Leary takes a different approach than just about everyone else, and you can’t help but respect him for that. He’s proud of Ryanair’s no frills business model, and he has even stated that he would charge for passengers to use the lavatory or introducing standing-only tickets, if regulators would allow it.
For that matter, how many airline CEOs go on record as saying “the customer is nearly always wrong?” Well, O’Leary does. His approach is so rebellious that you can’t help but be fascinated by what he says.
That attitude goes beyond just the CEO. Heck, people intentionally pay to assign the window seat that doesn’t have a window on Ryanair flights, then post a picture of themselves in it, in order to get roasted by Ryanair’s social media team. And my gosh, it works, like the below post, which has been viewed 48 million times in the past several days.
Bottom line
During a night out on Friday, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary was presented with a check that had all kinds of fees, including for extra leg space, priority booth seating, and a quiet area reservation. Talk about a great publicity stunt!
Kudos to the restaurant - that is genius.
Never had a problem with Ryanair and their service is fine for short haul but whenever I use them I always check options to see if their are cheaper options with baggage etc but at least their website is honest in this.
Andrew, this is not a wind up or anything like that, would you be prepared to share more information about your Ryanair experience please?
Please stop linking to Twitter/x posts. Doing so gives support to a white supremacist.
Please elaborate upon your post, the alternative is to be considered as nothing less than a racist yourself “rrapynot”.
Grow up, dude. The whole "white supremacy" schtick is as juvenile as Musk.
'Roasting' is just another way of saying 'being an asshole' tho.
Ryanair soocial media team just use dismissive comments to avoid actual problems customers post about.
@ frrp -- I don't disagree, but honestly, what's the alternative? Most other airlines use bots to provide non-existent customer service on social media, so I'm not sure Ryanair is worse? At least there are humans at Ryanair...
Erm, I hate to tell you this Ben, but the people on social media don't actually resolve complaints and they absolutely do use bots to try and stop people resolving issues. Tell us you have never flown with them without telling us you have never flown with them...
@ vlcnc -- Right, but using bots to not resolve issues puts Ryanair in the same league as full service carriers, no?
No, because they are worse, its the obstruction and cavalier contempt for customers even when they're tryint to exorcise their rights. It's in no way the same and you're really just showing you have no idea what you are talking about.
"Actual problems" usually being customers wanting more than they paid for. Ryanair is openly admitting that experience with them is cheap. Take it or leave it. No one is being misguided.
First, charming post, clever cheeky restaurant staff and it's clearly in the interests of the Ryanair PR staff for O'Leary to demonstrate modicum of a sense of humor. As a CEO he he's a cheap bastard who consistently underdelivers strategically and engages in overly aggressive flamewars with people who have the gall to hold Ryanair accountable. Continues to blow my mind when regular people betray their own class to carry the water for CEOs and...
First, charming post, clever cheeky restaurant staff and it's clearly in the interests of the Ryanair PR staff for O'Leary to demonstrate modicum of a sense of humor. As a CEO he he's a cheap bastard who consistently underdelivers strategically and engages in overly aggressive flamewars with people who have the gall to hold Ryanair accountable. Continues to blow my mind when regular people betray their own class to carry the water for CEOs and plutocrats online.
The claim that "no one is being misguided{sic}" by Ryanair is demonstrably false. Multiple legal rulings across Europe prove otherwise:
1. Spain fined Ryanair €108 million in 2024 for "abusive practices" including misleading information and lack of price transparency.
2. The UK Advertising Standards Authority banned Ryanair's "green" ads in 2020 for misleading environmental claims.
3. The Italian Competition Authority fined Ryanair €850,000 for providing inadequate/misleading information about insurance policies.
4. A Barcelona court ordered Ryanair to immediately stop a "denigrating" campaign that used "false claims to mislead consumers."
5. German courts ordered Ryanair to cease multiple misleading practices, including lack of price transparency.
Rather than "no one being misguided," these rulings demonstrate a pattern of regulatory findings against Ryanair for precisely that - misleading consumers about fees, prices, refund policies, and environmental claims.
The Restaurant ***, one cannot argue with your post. However, there is a most effective way to deal with the likes of the Trumps Fund Raising Team, the BBC and Ryanair …. turn your back on them and hope they will eventually go away.
I like how the bottle of pinot and rest of food is comparatively very reasonable prices. Kind of like Ryanair's business model where the airfare itself is lower before the nickel and diming
"64-year-old Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is a bit of a legend in the airline industry. He’s one of the most brilliant, outspoken, and unapologetic airline CEOs that you’ll find anywhere."
Honestly you really don't have to hand it to or be so nice about someone who is such an awful human being. You really don't. Might as well go and complient Viktor Orbán or Trump.
Orbán Viktor won 3 back to back elections with absolute majority despite hundreds of millions of dollars from the US pumped into the opposition. As President Obama famously said: "elections have consequences".
Nuff said.
Brainwashed people of the democracy led 'free world' is whining against elected leaders.
Hypocrites.
Nuff said.
Er, winning elections with absolute majority isn't the flex you think it is, see North Korea and Russia as examples.
O'Leary is indisputably a ruthless, abrasive asshole, but you can't argue with his results. Ryanair makes a profit for its stockholders, and has done so consistently for more than ten years, other than during the height of the pandemic. Yes, the company nickle-and-dimes its customers, but after forty years of operations their strategy should be no surprise to anyone. They're in business to make money, and you can't argue with the results. Nobody is forced...
O'Leary is indisputably a ruthless, abrasive asshole, but you can't argue with his results. Ryanair makes a profit for its stockholders, and has done so consistently for more than ten years, other than during the height of the pandemic. Yes, the company nickle-and-dimes its customers, but after forty years of operations their strategy should be no surprise to anyone. They're in business to make money, and you can't argue with the results. Nobody is forced work for them or fly with them, and if they do it's abundantly clear what they're getting themselves into.
Western hypocrisy vs dictatorship advocacy.
This website supposedly centered around the air travel is funnier when politics are involved or brought.
Ben is a type of author the audience doesn't deserve.
And AeroB13a, I hope you see this and finally realize that your "Eskimo fanboy" theory is just an imagination.
Or still bragging about flying BA DEN-LHR business every month?
The audience's level in general is way far below from the Ben's, to clarify
I’ve been following this blog for years and have often appreciated the quality and precision of its insights — which is exactly why I find this post disheartening.
There’s nothing clever or funny about Ryanair’s culture of hidden fees, humiliation-as-PR, and open disdain for both customers and employees. When a CEO publicly states that “fear” was the only thing that worked to manage staff — and that’s shared without critical context — it reflects more...
I’ve been following this blog for years and have often appreciated the quality and precision of its insights — which is exactly why I find this post disheartening.
There’s nothing clever or funny about Ryanair’s culture of hidden fees, humiliation-as-PR, and open disdain for both customers and employees. When a CEO publicly states that “fear” was the only thing that worked to manage staff — and that’s shared without critical context — it reflects more than just tone-deafness. It quietly reinforces a model built on cynicism.
This isn’t satire. It’s not a witty take. It’s an example of how easily we begin to tolerate — or even celebrate — systems that dehumanize, as long as they’re packaged as bold or efficient.
Many of us care deeply about aviation. But that doesn’t mean we have to embrace everything done in its name. Especially not this.
@ Redwood -- Hey, I appreciate you reading, and I respect your take, and even agree with many of the points you make. Let me share why my takeaway on O'Leary is a little different, though.
First of all, any discussion of Ryanair needs to acknowledge the company's role in making air travel in Europe so much more affordable. Arguably Ryanair is one of the most disruptive airlines we've seen anywhere in the world,...
@ Redwood -- Hey, I appreciate you reading, and I respect your take, and even agree with many of the points you make. Let me share why my takeaway on O'Leary is a little different, though.
First of all, any discussion of Ryanair needs to acknowledge the company's role in making air travel in Europe so much more affordable. Arguably Ryanair is one of the most disruptive airlines we've seen anywhere in the world, and in particular, I can't imagine what the European aviation landscape would look like without the airline. Ryanair has truly made travel in Europe affordable.
I have lots of issues with Ryanair's labor relations. I'm not familiar with O'Leary admitting that "fear" is the only way to manage staff, but it's possible I missed something, because that's not cool.
Does Ryanair use all kinds of labor arbitrage opportunities? Yes. Do I think they go too far? Yes. But I'm not sure he's doing anything terribly different than what almost any other airline CEO in Europe would do, given the chance. I also take issues with Lufthansa Group constantly creating new subsidiaries in order to lower labor costs at the expense of existing employees, and the way that British Airways unilaterally renegotiated flight attendant labor contracts during the pandemic. It's all wrong, if you ask me.
However, personally I don't have an issue with the carrier's fee structure, or the humor it uses online. Honestly, look at customer support from other airlines. It's mostly automated bots pretending to care, with little actual customer resolution. Is the airline having fun with customers any worse, especially since that's what people interacting with the airline are looking for?
Anyway, I respect your take, and I'm not in the camp of thinking that O'Leary or Ryanair are perfect. However, I think O'Leary has done a lot of good for making air travel affordable for hundreds of millions of people.
Hey Ben, when did you last fly Ryanair? Might give you a better perspective.
A better perspective on what? Nothing Ben has said is wrong and he has addressed the ruthless labour relations in the last post above. Most people who have flown Ryanair have thoughts on the airline and O'Leary but they keep flying don't they?
Trev, not quite correct Sir.
Some of the thinking peoples of the world have never even contemplated stepping onboard a Ryanair aircraft. As for the CEO creature, **** please fill in the blanks as you see fit.
**** fill in the blank as BA LHR DEN
Skytrax should give this alter ego a 5 starsehole.
First issues with people never stepping on a BA plane.
Now he has issues with people stepping on a FR plane.
Trev is correct. Everyone loves free bags, unlimited leg room, cheap tickets and curse every airline who can't do it, including BA.
Ironically, this alter ego probably whine about weather in UK all the time but still stays there.
@ Jack -- Yeah, it has been a very long time. But as Trevor points out, I'm not sure I understand what that has to do with the points I made? You don't have to fly Ryanair often to know that the airline has lowered airfares across Europe, and is an important counterbalance to the major network carriers.
As a loyal reader, this rubbed me the wrong way. Lauding an abusive CEO for making base fares lower and making his shareholders $$$, without the passenger perspective, seems particularly misplaced on this blog. He has also created a race to the bottom in European flying that has made the experience worse for everyone. I see no discussion of Ryanair’s crummy loyalty program, which I thought was the sort of thing your blog focused on....
As a loyal reader, this rubbed me the wrong way. Lauding an abusive CEO for making base fares lower and making his shareholders $$$, without the passenger perspective, seems particularly misplaced on this blog. He has also created a race to the bottom in European flying that has made the experience worse for everyone. I see no discussion of Ryanair’s crummy loyalty program, which I thought was the sort of thing your blog focused on. I feel like you got played by O’Leary’s PR team.
The point is you have to fly them to know how degrading and goddamn nasty they are. If you only flown them once and it went away all ok because you were lucky (no pun intended), you will have no idea. So yes it does absolutely matter Ben and I can't believe you're just try to shy away from the fact you are celebrating frankly genuenly awful person, that is bad for customers and bad...
The point is you have to fly them to know how degrading and goddamn nasty they are. If you only flown them once and it went away all ok because you were lucky (no pun intended), you will have no idea. So yes it does absolutely matter Ben and I can't believe you're just try to shy away from the fact you are celebrating frankly genuenly awful person, that is bad for customers and bad for those working in aviation - he and Ryanair quite literally spurned the race to the bottom. Obviously this doesn't effect you, so you can pontificate at leisure like this from the abstract - but it really doesn't make you look good at all.
@Ben - W/ all due respect, EU air transport deregulation in 1992 was arguably the most significant factor in making European air travel less expensive. O'Leary and Ryanair were more opportunistic beneficiaries of this regulatory change rather than its primary creators.
Agreed on you labor relations point - it is a problem area w/ other euro airline CEOs.
Also agree that humor is subjective and that other airlines are indifferent. Personally I'm not sure I...
@Ben - W/ all due respect, EU air transport deregulation in 1992 was arguably the most significant factor in making European air travel less expensive. O'Leary and Ryanair were more opportunistic beneficiaries of this regulatory change rather than its primary creators.
Agreed on you labor relations point - it is a problem area w/ other euro airline CEOs.
Also agree that humor is subjective and that other airlines are indifferent. Personally I'm not sure I prefer hostility dressed as humor to indifference. Ryanair's "humor" goes far beyond automated customer service, involving systematic consumer deception that multiple European courts have found legally problematic.
Not to be too repetitive, but O'Leary capitalized on the EU's 1992 deregulation, which was the true catalyst for democratizing European air travel, while other low-cost carriers have shown it's possible to compete without as many repeated legal violations as Ryanair.
I flew Ryanair last summer. Ben is spot on. Was I happy with the flight? No. Will I book them again? No - I gave them a try after many years and decided it's not for me. But there's nothing fundamentaly wrong with Ryanair. It's a cheap airline that delivers cheap experience. It's crap, but it lets you fly without breaking bank.
Man oh man... Redwood and Jack, go get some fresh air. It will all be okay.
Talk about hyperbole...
I usually take one RyanAir flight per year, and it's always for the same reason - they were the only one operating a very specific point-to-point route. I travel with a carry on and know what to expect, so there are no crazy fees or anything else. All of my flights have been more...
Man oh man... Redwood and Jack, go get some fresh air. It will all be okay.
Talk about hyperbole...
I usually take one RyanAir flight per year, and it's always for the same reason - they were the only one operating a very specific point-to-point route. I travel with a carry on and know what to expect, so there are no crazy fees or anything else. All of my flights have been more or less on time. The flights are incredibly cheap and efficient. Are they pleasant, no, but for what I'm paying and given how short the flights are, I really don't care about that. Give me a break with the "dehumanizing" talk.
The issue isn't whether Ryanair met your expectations on a once-a-year, no-frills point-to-point flight. That’s the minimum a functioning airline is supposed to do.
The discussion here is about something entirely different: the systemic degradation of standards — not just in service, but in labor relations, communication, and how the aviation industry now markets cynicism as charm.
Dismissing those concerns as “hyperbole” reveals a limited understanding of what’s actually at stake. It’s not about your...
The issue isn't whether Ryanair met your expectations on a once-a-year, no-frills point-to-point flight. That’s the minimum a functioning airline is supposed to do.
The discussion here is about something entirely different: the systemic degradation of standards — not just in service, but in labor relations, communication, and how the aviation industry now markets cynicism as charm.
Dismissing those concerns as “hyperbole” reveals a limited understanding of what’s actually at stake. It’s not about your comfort with a €20 fare to Girona; it’s about what this model legitimizes when it's celebrated uncritically.
If that doesn’t concern you, that’s your prerogative. But reducing thoughtful critique to exaggerated drama is both lazy and beside the point.
I'm sorry, but I disagree. Their model exists, it's separate, and it works for what it is. They have their lane, and the full service airlines have their own. If you don't like it, don't fly with them. That's the beauty of the market - there are options. I will agree with you that overall standards and service culture have dipped, but there are plenty of airlines that still offer great service and perks/amenities that...
I'm sorry, but I disagree. Their model exists, it's separate, and it works for what it is. They have their lane, and the full service airlines have their own. If you don't like it, don't fly with them. That's the beauty of the market - there are options. I will agree with you that overall standards and service culture have dipped, but there are plenty of airlines that still offer great service and perks/amenities that travelers even just a few decades ago could never have imagined. Nobody is glamorizing RyanAir, and it's okay to laugh at things that make you uncomfortable, which is why I felt your initial remarks were exaggerated. I do think, based on that and your response, that you do have a generally pessimistic view of things and that is where we differ.
@pstm91 - You didn’t understand the point, at all.
I’ve flown Ryanair once. It was efficient, uneventful, and exactly as advertised. But that’s not the issue — and it never was.
This isn’t about whether the product “works.” It’s about how a business model built on cynicism and erosion of standards gets culturally excused, even admired, under the guise of affordability or efficiency.
Your own experience — occasional, underwhelming — isn’t the point either. And...
@pstm91 - You didn’t understand the point, at all.
I’ve flown Ryanair once. It was efficient, uneventful, and exactly as advertised. But that’s not the issue — and it never was.
This isn’t about whether the product “works.” It’s about how a business model built on cynicism and erosion of standards gets culturally excused, even admired, under the guise of affordability or efficiency.
Your own experience — occasional, underwhelming — isn’t the point either. And bringing it up as if it were somehow relevant only confirms you’re not engaging with the actual argument.
Reducing a structural critique to someone’s personality is a common way to avoid engaging with the argument. It says nothing about me — but quite a lot about you.
Jack, I've been living in Ireland for several years and have flown Ryanair quite a few times. Frankly, they're great to travel with, as long as you know what their deal is. They've opened up a lot of travel opportunities that simply would not have been possible for me if only full-service airlines existed. Last year, my favorite artist had a tour date in London but not one in Dublin. I was able to fly...
Jack, I've been living in Ireland for several years and have flown Ryanair quite a few times. Frankly, they're great to travel with, as long as you know what their deal is. They've opened up a lot of travel opportunities that simply would not have been possible for me if only full-service airlines existed. Last year, my favorite artist had a tour date in London but not one in Dublin. I was able to fly out there and back for 30 Euro or something with just a backpack full of clothes for my weekend there. Just last week, my mom came to visit me and was connecting through Heathrow on the way to Dublin. I was able to grab a cheap Ryanair flight out to London to meet her there and spend an overnight sharing the experience of her first visit to Europe in 40+ years for 20 EUR. For fares that BA or Aer Lingus charge none of these things would have been realistic. For the times I have more substantial travel for work or anything else, of which there are a few instances a year, I travel on the network carriers because their product better fits what I need on those trips. However, I've always been very pleased, even impressed, any time I fly Ryanair. Are the seats comfortable? Not particularly, but it's never a problem on an hour or two flight and frankly, It was not as bad as I would have expected. Honestly, I've had more claustrophobic flights on United because the seats in front can recline into my space. Second, I've never had to deal with a delay with them, whereas I've had multiple with BA the few times I've flown them. People may like to criticize them for their substandard passenger experience (although in economy, with checked bag fees and no free meals anymore on full-service airlines I don't even feel it's materially different) but that's exactly the point of their existence. They're a bus service for the skies. And it would be silly to disparage a city bus because they don't offer as good an experience as a taxi. I also don't know what people are going on about when they say hidden fees. They're very clearly communicated, multiple times, before a trip and their disparaging of customers on social media (of which, to be clear, I'm no big fan), is generally in response to people who ignore the rules that are laid out or the core of their product offering, or are perfectly aware of them but still want to skirt them and are upset when they weren't able to.
Thanks for the exchange, Ben. I hear your points but I remain convinced that the way we frame and talk about these business models matters just as much as their outcomes.
Efficiency doesn't excuse everything, and not everything disruptive deserves admiration. That’s all I meant to highlight.
Well said! Couldn't have said it better - Ben you have pretty nice guy image, but it does make me wonder when you celebrate someone so vile as this.
Wow great job Ben.
You just baited several brainwashed hypocrite snowflakes in one post.
And you didn't even have to involve Delta.
Lucky for O'Leary
They for got to add €5 for the paper bill.
Could have paid in the restaurant app to save.