to fly with Ryan air? Anyone had any experience, good or bad?

[dandycandyjellybean]

prob wrong place but need a quick response. Trying for a cheap holiday and their fees seem very good. I know you have to pay extra for baggage, but are there any other hidden extras? Any advice gratefully received.

Where did I say it was their fault winterofourdiscounttents?

I said I either didn't read the small print, or misinterpretted it.

I was merely advising the OP not to make the same mistake as me.

A mistake which I don't think renders me too stupid to be let out alone BTW

I have flown with RA scores of times and found them to be punctual and efficient but brusque and have even fewer frills than th other no-frills airlines iykwim. I try not to use them because of the very small legroom, esp when flying with DP who is very tall, but I use them where they are handy and / or much cheaper

Nooby Ryan Air has about the youngest fleet of aircraft in the European market if not THE youngest. I'm sorry but clearly you should talk to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. And actually is does not make commerical sense for an airline to compromise safety and the one thing OL has is commerical sense.

commercial!!! but he probably has the other too.

I flew with them last october and it was fine. And i was flying with dc3. Yeah they were strict about the weight of the suitcases but we were prepared for that.
I have more of a problem with Flybe who wanted to charge me 33? to pay for my tickets. For an extra 10? i chose Lufthansa instead and then the 3 of us can have a suitcase each.

"I wouldn't pay for priority boarding tbh, just get to the departure gate super early".

That doesn't always work I'm afraid.

We did this ie. arrived at the airport over an hour before the suggested check-in time. The queues were huge (because, I as I mentioned earlier in the thread, they checked in every RyanAir flight that day through 2 check-in desks) so we joined the queue straight away.
We still managed to check -in well-within the recommended time, queued at the non-priority boarding gate, loads of people behind us so we were by no means at the end of the queue but then, due to the way they sent the buses to the plane we ended up being almost last on to the plane (2 adults and 2 children).

By pure fluke there happened to be 2 lots of 2 seats that we took otherwise we would have been dotted around the plane. The staff were so keen to get everyone sitting and to take off on time that they clearly wouldn't have given a stuff about anyones seating arrangement

Ah see I have only done it where you just walk out to the plane, rather than be bussed.

Also I stood in front of the check-in desk for an hour before it opened.

Gross experience, unpleasant cabin crew, smelly plane, tiny seats. Would rather walk. Proper airlines have great offers too, try them. BMI and BA are good for short haul and you get more legroom and free toilets.

I had the same problem with huge queues for check-in/baggage drop, in fact they weren't even queues, just a huge mass of hundreds of people jammed into the space in front of the check-in desks. They seemed to have a lot of flights departing within a short time-window, and not remotely enough staff to check everyone in.

I arrived at check-in 2 hours 15 mins before my departure time, still had to run to the terminal once I finally got through after queuing for about 2 hours, though need not have bothered as the plane was late departing anyway. They still did the jolly little announcement about 'another Ryanair flight landing on time' when we arrived, despite us being significantly late. Also they left behind a lot of people's luggage and I believe some passengers who never made it through, so arriving on time wouldn't have been a great acheivement anyway .

It wasn't even that cheap either, not when you added up all the extras, I could have flown BA for about the same (though slightly less convenient time) and wish i had really. Don't bother with the food on board, probably no better or worse than most airline food but very expensive (not much change out of £10 for a cup of tea and a tiny, rubbish pastry).

I would ONLY fly Ryanair if it was a last resort!
Their planes are dirty and onboard snacks and drinks are soo expensive.
Flown with them 3 times and each time I have had a bad experience so they are def off my list!

Actually this was the weekend I was unlucky enough to be travelling on - it's probably not that bad all the time but I don't think it's unusual for them to not have enough check-in desks open, I've heard other people say they had similar problems.

I fly ryanair a lot - as it's the only direct route to near where my parents live in France. If I could use any other way, I would (driving is 15 hours and the train nearly the same with 4 changes) - I flew with them yesterday on my own but with my two year old. A trick for parents with small children like I have is to just sit patiently and wait (even if there is a massive queue) and board right at the very end. Civil aviation rules means they cannot allow two year olds to sit alone on a flight and expect another passenger to hold their belt on, stop them climbing etc. So because they won't let you board first with (young) kids, they then HAVE to make other passengers move. It's not at all fair on the other passengers but it's worth doing as a petty minded small victory over ryanair and their ridculous rules and attempts to squeeze cash out of you at every opportunity. I am petty and small minded as you can tell.

generally though, stick to the their rules and return flights are all in for under £20. they also have different rules at different airports so you may need your buggy tagged at check-in and one place (in france for instance) but can just go straight through at stansted.

oh - and i get so very angry and their fanfare thingy. The only reason they arrive early or on time is because they build into their flight schedule extra time. so they forecast 1.45h for a 1h30 flight and then crow about arriving early.
also they GO on and on about being the airline who misplaces the least bags - yes, because most people don't check them in! there's less to bloody lose.

I regularly fly with them and they are great!
read the T&C carefully as they do like to lump on extras where they can But I use them a lot very happily. Never had a problem. I also dont bother with proirty boarding just get to the front :)

re: not enough check-in desks open.

To give you an idea of the amount of people in the check-in desk queues..... the flight we took was departing from Tenerife (South) on a Saturday lunchtime at the end of a very busy February half-term holiday. Our flight, and every other RyanAir flight that was due to depart that morning/afternoon were going through just 2 check-in desks.

Chaos does not cover it.

Ryanair are tossers. They took my gran (90 years old and in a wheelchair) and left her at the wrong gate for three hours, all alone. And her flight left with her luggage onboard, too.

Ryanair said it was my grandmother's own fault for not telling the assistant she was at the wrong gate and refused to reimburse any costs or even apologise. The same thing happened to my friend's gran, at the same airport too! They gave her flowers though, after her son threated to go to the press

I think some people fail to take into account the cost. The old adage, you get what you pay for is certainly true when you fly Ryanair.

I don't know what some people are expecting for their £50-£100 plane ticket? If comfy seats are important to you, if having lots of staff to wait on you hand and foot is a must, if you can't survive a 2-3 hour flight without a "free" drink/snack then fly with someone else.

Ryanair's whole reason d etre is that they are "no frills" and cheap as chips. For me, as long as they get me there in one piece and I'm paying peanuts then I'll happily put up with grumpy staff, a few queues, a small chair and take my own drinks & snacks.

No Frills, does not mean that you have to be rude and unfriendly. Here in the usa we have Southwest Airlines which is the most no frills of all the US airlines, yet are voted the best and friendliest airline year after year.

To be fair, my experience of Ryanair staff has been on a par with BA. And I'm a regular flyer due to my work. I've never had anyone be outright rude to me. Curt/short maybe but never rude.

It's when you don't get what you paid for that people get understandably upset, like being actually able to get on your flight when you arrived on time...

Never ever ever. Worst airline ever, especially if travelling with children.

the woman at the check in desk in girona was rude to me, but that was because dh muddled up the suitcases meaning we were over weight allowance with one bag and under with the other and we asked to swap them over but i blame dh for that not ryanair!

TheSecondComing - I'm sure I saw something in the small print about wearing an unreasonable amount of clothing...

I would rather never ever leave the country than fly on Ryan Air. They reduced my daughter to tears last year as they were incredibly rude to her. This is a tough cookie of a girl too.