Ryanair Priority Boarding - yet another rip off plus boozy passengers

[Wottknott]

I paid for Priority Boarding from Alicante, Spain back to the the UK. The only priority you get is in the aiport terminal, boarding first from the gate descending to the ground floor level, where you wait for the bus to collect passengers to take them over the airport tarmac to the aircraft. After that is a free for all.

When the first bus drops the passengers off, opening it's doors, all the passengers including, priority and non priority get off (get off is polite - actually shove and push). Then a rush to the plane steps. Depending on who runs fastest to the aircraft steps resulted in who boarded first. When I boarded I mentioned this to the crew who informed me it happens all the time and to complain on my return. I will be and I'm going to request a refund.

There was a poor Spanish family with 3 young children, twins and toddler, who by the time they had got off the coach, dodged the rush, put the buggies down and boarded were at the back, wondering why they had bothered to pay the extra for priority boarding. Poor things.

To top it all a group of drunk passengers (outbound and inbound), no Ryanair flight is complete without them it appears. I have not encountered the same level of acceptance towards drunk passengers on other airlines. The drunk swearing doesn't make it a very family friendly flight. Take earplugs for the kids if you are flying with them. I won't be using Ryanair again.

Ah, thanks! I managed to print off the outgoing and we don't go till the 25th, I'll do the return the day before we go then.

Yeah - I got caught out with the return check-in, but luckily the hotel reception let me print it off in their office :)

I am trying to stay calm before our £500 for 3 of us return to perpignan flights in 2 weeks. They ahve already chanegd the days. the CAA guidleines are printed and I am ready for battle!! I do try t avoid them as the last time i flew Ryanair from prestwick to London was years ago for a job interview. the plane was not only late, it went via Dublin!!! bad thing was I was late for my interview. Good thing was I got duty free (how long ago was this???!!!) and the job as my new boss thought hte whole Scotland to London via Ireland disaster was hilarious!!!

This is our first time on Ryanair and I'm not sure whther to dread it and be ready for battle or stay calm and just get on with it! We're going to faro..

Ba longhaul economy serve free drinks, trolley only comes round couple times, but you can go to galley and ask for a drink at any time :)

Cashingsquirrels - thanks for the boarding pass info - another hidden cost there then! as the song goes 'only a gob-shite believes in flights for 50p'!

Cool - I concur, our 'cheap' flights have also been changed (now arriving with a group of 11 under 7s at midnight - would keep clear of Reus on the 21st!). Will be printing caa guidelines to smack people out of the way with. Tempted to use my 100ml allowance on gin.

Love the song, Drayford.

We have flown with both Ryanair and Easyjet many times and have never had a problem. Even with priority boarding.

We may not all 4 of us sit together but that does not bother me. DH takes one DC, I the other.

If I am alone, I do priority boarding, when DH is with us I don't bother.

Have never had a drunk on a flight, but I guess that is due to our destinations (Geneva and Düsseldorf) rather than a holiday destination.

Update: - I faxed a page about the priority boarding and request for a refund for the inbound sector: feedback as follows to my email address:

"Unfortunately, on this occasion a bus transfer was used to transport passengers from the departure gate to the aircraft and we were therefore unable to offer the benefit of priority boarding to you.

We have refunded the fee charged for this service back to the credit card used to pay for the service."

Result.

Ryanair are still worth using as they are cheap, but their priority boarding fiasco annoys me intensely. Paying for it is tantamount to a tax on travelling with children. However, Easyjet have two catergories: priority boarding (which you pay for) followed by boarding for families with young children. This is why, given a choice, I'd use easyjet every time.

PS If you want to read my advice on booking cheap family holidays adroad, check out my blog at www.fatherof3boys.com.
Cheers

I am not a great fan of Ryan air. It's a mine field trying to work out how much the fair is going to cost. I tend to not even bother looking at them for flying abroad BUt I use them in the same way I would use a bus. When I'm nipping over to Ireland for a couple of days I take no luggage, don't bother with any extras, take a deep breath go.

I've never had any problems with Easy Jet or Monarch tbh.

Oh embarrasing tale. I never book priority and last year I was flying back from the French Alps with my boys. Easy Jet gave an announcement that those with children to come forward. I didn't realize they meant very young children and were given priority to those famlies. I said to my kids 'Oh that us, Let's go forward' Cue lots of muttering from fellow passengers as my DS 1 was 5ft 9 at the time and 13!

We got through without any question but I was sooo embarrassed.