for thinking Ryanair is not that cheap?....

[reallyyummymummy]

Just got back from holiday with DCs. I flew with Ryanair and thought I would sum up my expenses.

The flights cost £400; they deliberately keep you in a queue so you have to pay for their shitty food in the plane which cost £50. I paid for priority boarding which I did not use because it took so long to get DCs to gate therefore £30; cost of checking in baggage for 3 people £70. Also, they fly from a really awkward airport which I would not normally use - the cost of travel was also quite sizeable.

I heard people moaning and I always thought how bad can it be? But it was really bad. The flight was stressful (trying to get DCs to aeroplane in time) and I ended up feeling sorry for the air staff (after speaking to them discovered that they had to buy their own uniforms).

I have never felt so fleeced in all my life.

[RugBugs]

Only ever flown with them Liverpool to Dublin which hardly counts as a flight, it was fine.
We've got flights to Belgium next week for £20 each(!), a 6.25am flight with a teething 2yr old should be interesting.
It's actually cheaper now DD is 2, the infant fare is high compared to similar airlines (we've also taken advantage of their 'infant items' checked baggage for £10 each way).

[Trills]

YABU if you just assume "Ryanair is cheap" and book it without looking at other companies.

You knew how much you were paying for priority boarding and luggage at the time of booking, I don't see why you are complaining about that.

[mercibucket]

i wont give my money to the twit who runs ryanair, so we fly easyjet usually, even if sometimes its a few quid more. i dont know how anyone can give him money, the things he says about his customers

[GingerGeorge]

We always compare flight prices as we do sometimes use Easyjet but honestly, by the time you've factored in all the add-ons you're just as well of using BA or some other larger carrier. If it's a small difference it's BA for me every time although I do quite like Easyjet it does sometimes feel a bit as though you're being herded like cattle. However, I'll give them this - their staff are very nice!

[Bridgetbidet]

Before I had a baby my and my OH used to use them all the time. When you can just jump on and off with hand luggage and pack your own snacks they are vv cheap. But they're not so good for families, now we get the ferry to Ireland instead of flying over.

But people forget what it was like before Ryanair, flying was out of the realms of an everyday thing for normal people. Pre-ryanair my husband (who is Irish but lives in the UK) hardly ever went home. It was a sixteenn hour trip one way on the ferry. He certainly couldn't afford to fly. Ryanair and easy jet changed all that and also brought down prices on other airlines.


I travelled a lot in my twenties and saw lots of Europe really cheaply using Ryanair as a flying bus. Hand luggage only, traveling during term time. Wouldn't have been able to do that without budget airlines, they made travel accessible for a lot more people.

[Rosa]

IMo the hostesses can dance the can can and try to sell me time shares as long as the safety is never ever compromised...Mr O ' Leary has done this one more than one time. The thing is nobody wants a diaster to make him finally learn not to do it again... Yet what will make him stop and put safety first?

[Sallyingforth]

People often book with Ryanair or Easyjet because they assume that it will automatically be cheaper.
But if you book carefully in advance with BA or equivalent you can usually pay very close to Ryanair prices, and not be treated like a piece of shit. With the advantage that you arrive in the main city airport and not some place miles away.

[theodorakisses]

But if you fly with a budget airline you can't expect it to be a nice experience can you? ryanair are pretty vile in the way they rip families off but the only way to avoid them is not to use them. I fly less but business because the whole flying experience has become so stressful, especially if I have to travel in or out of the UK

[reallyyummymummy]

freddiem - I love it. The best line is "if you haven't paid to use the steps you'll have to f*in jump".

I am so cynical about Ryanair after my last experience. If they are so prepared to compromise on customer satisfaction then it does not surprise me that they compromise on safety. I will definitely not be flying with them again. I am really sure everything that they do is part ploy to get the customer to spend more money and this I object to.

[Cherriesarelovely]

Depends....Dd and I are flying to France later this week. All told the flights cost £90. I think that's pretty good for 2 people. Having said that their delight in adding on extras for absolutely everything is bloody annoying!

[KobayashiMaru]

Bit of an odd AIBU. Its as cheap as it is. Which is to say sometimes its much cheaper than other airlines, and sometimes it isn't.
You decided to pay what Ryanair were charging at the time. You didn't need to buy their food, you could have brought your own.

I don't see any cause for complaint here.

[Zamboni]

YANBU - they can be cheap but you have to know all of their shitty policies so you can avoid them. DH and I are using them for a city break later in the year without the DC, but we are not checking luggage, dont care where we sit, and will weigh and measure our hangluggage very carefully first.

[Pandemoniaa]

I won't fly with Ryanair on a point of principle. I don't care how, allegedly, cheap they are. I'd prefer NOT to fly at all rather than choose this bunch of disablist shysters. But in reality, they are often no cheaper than other airlines once you take account of their fairly well hidden charges.

[ihearsounds]

I find them to be the cheapest.
I book in advance, and save around £300.
I often book singles (just like I do with the train).

We take hand luggage only. Amazing how much you can pack. Plus it means that you only take what you actually need. Toiletries can be bought, often cheaper at the other end.
We never do priority. Why would we? Saved time by not checking in a bag. Plus, the staff will try and accommodate families who get on the plane very late, and ask passengers if they will switch seats so child and parent can sit together, have been on a rival airline, and the staff wouldn't help and shouted at the mum to sit down when she started asking passengers if they would swap so she could sit with her 2 year old.

Everyone always complains about the crap quality of plane food, so why would we want to put ourselves through eating shite? I wouldn't do this at home, and traveling is no exception, unless long haul. Optional extras, are just that, optional. This is how they make more money by flogging crap to people who don't bother checking other airlines and their own policies.

We factor in the cost of travel to/from the airport when looking at booking. Thought this was the norm.

Doesn't matter what airline you travel with. If you are stressed it has nothing to do with them.

First time we traveled I read up on advice from the airport and airline about how much time. Hence don't check in a bag, as they mention long queues of a hour+ just for that. Never mind another hour or so for security. No way am I spending at least 2 hours queuing.

[reallyyummymummy]

Why do you think odd AIBU? Any AIBU is perfectly legitimate if it is to question an individual's perspective.

I can see that some people on here do appreciate the fact it is cheap and for them it works. It was the first time I had flown Ryanair ever. I have flown other cheap airlines and this was the first time I actually felt conned.

[cathers]

I think with Ryanair in particular, it's all about preparation . I also view them as a 'bus' service and wouldn't use them for flights more than3 hrs long.

However, for short flights with hand luggage only, they are often the cheapest.

Travel with kids and they have to seat you with them so no need for priority boarding. I also always pick up snacks/ sandwich etc once through security as food is cheaper and much more edible. They can be cost effective way of travelling if you are prepared.

[Gossipmonster]

We flew with them last summer.

Bloody horrendous experience they may as well have fired a starting pistol once you were allowed on the Tarmac, the undignified scramble for seats (ie to be able to sit next to each other) was appalling.

Tried to sell us bingo tickets or whatever for the entire journey and we paid the same as if we had flown with BA as we only booked 24 hrs before we flew.

What did amuse me though was them trying to flog us tickets for a local Submarine trip.

OH has just got back from 3 month patrol - on a Submarine .

Never again!!

[LessMissAbs]

My favourite trick of theirs was their member of staff at the boarding card check just before you boarded repeatedly shouting at me (and over me) to "put my handbag in my hand luggage". It was a small purse, containing my passport and boarding card. So I had no choice but to comply, despite trying to tell them it contained my passport and boarding card and I would just like to get them out first, alas they were far too excited and said they couldn't let me fly otherwise. When I had done so, they then asked to see my passport and boarding card...

[OhLori]

LessMissAbs priceless.

[KobayashiMaru]

Odd since it doesn't make sense. AIBU to think Ryanair is not that cheap? Well doesn't that rather depend on how much you paid for it?

[nenevomito]

Damn! I was going to post the link to Cheap Flights as well.

Great minds though Freddie [bugrin]

[gindrinker]

When you fly with Ryan air you have to be prepared to fly with hand luggage, from a smallish airport to a smallish airport, read the small print and just get on with it. If they say one bag 10cm x 5cm x 0.5cm you ticked the box accepting this, don't winge when your told you'll have to pay for your massive suitcase to go in the hold.

I'm sure hiring a private jet would be more fun but 100x the price. If Ryanair aren't the cheapest option then don't fly with them. No one forces you to.

[Laquila]

KobayashiMaru, Trills and BridgetBidet - I second all your points.

The way I see it, the hidden charges are only hidden if you didn't pay a blind bit of attention during the booking process. If you've done your research with the other airlines, taken into account transfer times to/from the relevant airports and have factored in costs such as priority boarding (if that's important to you), hold baggage and taking your own meals, and they're still the cheapest, then....yes, they're the cheapest.

I don't think I've ever paid more than £150 tops for a Ryanair flight, including hold luggage, and have paid as little as £35 on some occasions, so to me, that's pretty cheap. I've never been delayed more than 20 minutes and have never lost luggage with them, so as far as I'm concerned, they're doing alright.

That said, their CEO is clearly an idiot, but if his company provides the cheapest way for me to get from A to B, then I'm still going to use them.

[Gossipmonster]

Also I will never fly with them again for the sole reason alone of that bloody awful jingle they play when you land with the forced round of applause .