Ryanair's capacity to antagonise is as remarkable as its love of publicity. Small wonder the two came together so beautifully in the "we'll-turn-passengers-away at-check-in" story taken up by the media at the weekend.
The first thing to be aware of is that this is the silly season, so even stories that are not of the "Freddie Star ate my UFO" variety can take up more column inches than they might otherwise deserve.
However, the facts here appear straightforward. Ryanair insists it can, will and has cancelled passengers' bookings made through screen-scraping websites - including sites the BBC identified as "internet travel agents".
This could affect up to 1,000 passengers a day across Europe - Ryanair admits that. We can guess how those affected feel about it. If I was among them I certainly would not conclude that next time a direct booking with Ryanair was the way to go.
Strangely, on Tuesday a Ryanair spokeswoman told me no passenger had, in fact, been turned back from check in. However, the following day a different spokeswoman refused to confirm this, insisting only: "Cancellations have been made. Cancellations have been made."
Anyway, agents expressed outrage and ABTA reacted by writing to the Office of Fair Trading.
God knows Ryanair is fair game for a bashing. Chief executive Michael O'Leary makes no secret of his contempt for agents - why shouldn't the feeling be mutual? And no one cracks more heads than the Irish carrier. Poor Harry Bush at the Civil Aviation Authority could launch more libel cases than George Galloway if he had a mind to. The CAA should employ lawyers to trawl through the transcripts of O'Leary press conferences and Ryanair releases.
ABTA will have written to the OFT more in hope than expectation, of course. There is no cause to expect a dynamic intervention from the OFT unless collusion is involved.
The source of the story was Ryanair itself, with a press release on August 5 announcing it would cancel all bookings made through screen-scraping websites from the following Monday (August 11). Screen scraping allows price comparison sites to do what they do, which is not a problem for Ryanair so long as the sites don't then sell the Ryanair seat they have highlighted.
Ryanair argues it is within its rights - and, fair play to the airline, it has given plenty of warning of the crackdown. Its denunciations of screen scrapers have become almost as routine as those directed at Harry Bush.
However, at least one specialist travel lawyer, Stephen Mason, believes a passenger turned away at check in because Ryanair has cancelled their booking would have a good case for compensation under the European Commission's regulations on denied boarding.
These protect passengers from being denied access to a flight so long as they have a valid ticket, are at the airport in time for the flight and there are no safety reasons for excluding them.
The crucial question here is whether the passengers in question have a valid ticket.
Ryanair's terms and conditions for use of its website make clear that only tickets booked on and issued by that website are valid. The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) and, I suspect, the CAA believe this would lead a court to rule in Ryanair's favour.
Mason thinks not. He suggests Ryanair is perfectly entitled to refuse new bookings through screen-scraping sites, but should honour existing bookings.
He points out: "Ryanair has been perfectly happy to accept bookings for years from some well-known and reputable companies, and happy to accept payment from company credit cards."
In other words, the airline has systematically ignored its own terms and conditions.
"The law is clear," says Mason. "Where you have a set of terms, but persistently waive these terms, they cease to have effect. Ryanair waived its right to rely on these terms and conditions."
However, as Simon Evans of the AUC points out: "You won't get anywhere by banging your fist on a Ryanair desk. It would take a court case to get anywhere, and it might not work."
So who is prepared to go to court?
Incidentally, I counted 33 separate press releases from Ryanair in July. Could the OFT, CAA, SOMEBODY do something about that?