Never ever flown EasyJet or RyanAir. Assume I know nothing and gimme tips. Thanks.

[gussyfinknottle]

I'm flying to Crete with preteen and dh in 2019. I've never flown with EasyJet or RyanAir - two most likely options from Manchester. Assume I know nothing about using them although I am a seasoned traveler (old enough to have had a blue passport ).
Please give me booking/seating/eating/luggage tips. Thanks.

Cheers, Arch. I'm pretty old. They didn't have budget airlines when I was travelling. Anyfucker must be having a bad day.

Don't expect to be able to put your hand luggage in the locker above your seat - you may have to put it wherever there's space, which could be several rows away

Cheers, I was just talking hand luggage with my daughter.

Check which airport you are landing at. Budget airlines often use airports which are a long way away from the main airport (no idea whether Crete has more than one).

With RyanAir make sure you read the small print and follow all instructions exactly. People often get stung with massive fees for e.g. not having printed their boarding passes in advance.

With EasyJet, because of the charge for checked bags, most people now carry-on as large bags as they can get away with. This means that there is never enough room in the overhead bins. As you queue at the boarding gate, there will be repeated announcements offering to check in your bags for free and if not enough people take that up, the last people in the queue won't be allowed to take their bags on as carry on. There will also be a sharp elbows scrum for space in the overhead bins while people are trying to get to their seats, causing queues and some unpleasant behaviour.

With EasyJet, you will always end up queuing on an internal staircase for ages at the boarding gate!

Some good tips, Hedda. Great username btw.

"I'm loving RyanAir for putting the cabin bags in the hold. I like not looking for overhead space and messing about with bag."

Yes, I agree with this - much better than before where there was always a scrum for the overhead lockers and people taking the piss with massive bags.

Plus the smaller bag that you are allowed to take on can actually hold a lot of stuff - I got a "Ryanair size cabin bag" from amazon for £8 which I use for toiletries, tablet, camera, jacket, book, passport & anything else I need on the flight. Always manage to go hand luggage only for up to 2 weeks with the hand luggage sized bag (which now goes in the hold) + cabin bag, so no extra fees.

I always wait for the queue to board at the gate to get almost to the end and then join it - don't see the point of standing in a queue to sit on a usually overheated plane when seats are already allocated. Or paying for priority boarding to be first on the airport bus to the plane which then still has to wait for everyone else to get on it. :)

I do think the destination determines the vibe of the flight.
If you're on a flight to a destination that is popular for stag and hen do's the flights can be horrendous.
If you are on a Ryan air flight to somewhere quieter or less popular the flights are ok.
I'm not sure bout Crete but I often go to various places in Germany and it's usually quiet.

Well I've found this thread very useful as I've never used Ryanair and will be going to part of Europe where only Ryanair does at vaguely reasonable times.

I know they are all geared up to avoid hold bags, but if we want to put 3 bags in, is it just the cost or do they make it hard to check them in too? And if we have 3 adults and 3 kids, do we have to pay 5 fees for us to all be together and avoid being in three adult-child pairs?

I've never actually used Luton either - how does that compare to Gatwick or Heathrow? I'm assuming the cheap airlines will have longer queues and make you walk to the farthest gates and then a bus to the plane, but if there's a Pret airside I'm sure we can cope!

Ryanair change their baggage rules frequently. Some cynical people think they want to catch people out. Refer to their website for the current version...

Anyone who wants to sit in a specific seat or next to a specific person needs to pay to reserve their seats.

Luton is a dump ; easily the worst airport in the UK. It is operating far beyond its design capacity and airside is ridiculously overcrowded, seemingly at all times. There has been a lot of building work recently, so perhaps there have been some improvements.

Luton has been horrendous for the last year or so with all the building work but a friend travelled recently and said it was better. It's nothing like Gatwick & Heathrow and no Pret last time I was there.

One advantage of walking to remote gates is that often you walk straight onto the plane, often across the tarmac, rather than having to get a bus (not forgetting the lengthy queuing down the staircase thing!)

I fly very often with EasyJet. They are fine, apart from being very prone to delays. I've only ever flown with Ryanair once but I'd say EasyJet are better by a mile.

I've had weather disruptions with EasyJet and they were more helpful than BA on the same route so I wouldn't assume they won't be supportive. It may depend on the day!

They have recently introduced Hands Free - for £5 for one carry-on sized bag or (I think) £10 for a 'family bundle', you can check your bags into the hold. They also often offer this for free on busy flights so do ask before you pay!If you don't mind waiting for your luggage at the end or want to take liquids this makes the whole journey easier, and means there's no point at all in paying the full price for checked luggage unless you have enormous suitcases. It also removes my main EasyJet irritant which is their insistence on just ONE carry on even when the second bag is a small handbag. Given that you can take enormous shopping bags on with you, this winds me up! So checking your suitcase frees you to have a more useful carry on.

Luton has M&S Simply Food so a perfectly adequate alternative to Pret.

I'm surprised about the people buying food to take in a plane! It would never occur to me to buy a meal at the airport

Is that because you are flying short distances and won't get hungry on the plane, or is it because you just buy the overpriced crap on the plane?

I usually fly to the Canaries, or at least Malta, so 4-6 hours travelling time including waiting around in the airport. During that time I am going to get hungry and bored so it makes sense to me to sort out some food and I will go for the best taste/value available at the time - ie Pret etc at the airport rather than paying double and chancing that they have it available on the cart.

Plenty of reasons why you wouldn't have flown budget before, and asking for tips is eminently sensible before you book

I think your perception of Budget airlines is skewed by a north/south divide (in England at least) and whether you mostly travel to capital cities or holiday destinations.

In northern England, there are very few non-budget flights to European holiday destinations so if your main experience of flying is from Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool to the Canaries or the Med, then Ryanair/Easyjet/Jet2/Thomas Cook is your flying 'norm' because you have little other choice.

This was illustrated to me when I went to a conference with a southern colleague in a European capital city. I had the choice of two budget flights each way, one of which arrived very late at night.

She had the choice of five flights a day from Heathrow on the destination country's main flag carrier, plus undoubtedly numerous budget options from Heathrow or other London airports.

And YY to the destination of the flight (and time of day) dictating the vibe on the flight. Like all good Mumsnetters, I instinctively avoid the likes of Magaluf, Benidorm etc but we do go to naicer parts of Mallorca, Canaries etc and of course, you have to go on the same plane as the stags and hens going to Magaluf and the 'English Breakfast with a pint' resorts of the Canaries .

The worst was when we flew out early one Friday morning to Mallorca and there were groups of stags and hens in their 'Shazzas 50th piss up in Maga' t shirts running up and down the plane pissed off their faces at 8 am.

But the reality is that the flight is just a mode of transport and the budget airlines have made travel accessible to far more people. Say what you like about Ryanair, but I'm perfectly happy with their offering, especially when they'll take me to Lanzarote for some winter sun for the princely sum of £30 return, or I can go all over Europe with them for about the same price (or sometimes quite a lot less) than a train to London.

I found that they mace the flight times seem longer than it actually was. They put in a buffer so they can leave late, but still arrive "on time". Don't know if that's true, but I often found that.
They also leave from the gates that are furthest from the terminal, so leave plenty of time to get to the gate.
Leg room is pretty tight, so might be worth looking into getting the emergency exit row if possible especially as you'll be on there for a few hours.

When I return to the UK, my two hour flight costs me less than my one hour train journey. Which is all kinds of screwed up, but honestly, we don't expect trains to resemble the orient express, so why do allplanesneed to be such perfect experiences? I always think people who make such a big deal of their flight experience clearly don't travel enough.

All really helpful. Thank you so much.

If you are planning to buy checked in luggage, travel extremely light on the flight. You'll see people queuing up at the gate before the flight starts boarding: don't bother! Just sit until boarding actually commences (and the queue is smaller).

The only advantage in queuing is is you have a wheelie case to go in the overhead locker; those at the end of the queue are often told there is no room for their wheelie and they must check in (for free). You won't be told this if you have a soft bag e.g. ruck sack.

If you do decide to go with free check in of hand luggage, keep in mind they won't allow lithium batteries in the hold so if you have a laptop, for example, you have to take it out and carry it on board.

easyJet are really strict on the single piece of hand luggage on some flights. Even if you have a tiny pouch-type bag for passport/purse they will insist on it going InSIDE your larger case before you board (only to have to pull it out again as soon as you get on!)

I haven't flown easyJet for years so can't advise on them but am a very frequent Ryanair customer. Whatever complaints people may have about them they've been the only airline that does direct flights to places I've needed to travel regularly so I've just learned to play by their, ever changing, rules.

If you choose Ryanair they have just changed the baggage policy again. That's not to say it won't change again before 2019! I actually like the new rules. You can still take a cabin sized wheelie case for free plus a second small bag. If you pay for priority then both come with you into cabin, if not the case is put in hold at gate. Makes boarding a lot quicker without the fight for space in overhead lockers.

For seating if you want to sit together you must reserve and pay. This didn't used to be the case if you were quick to check in and lucky, but they changed the algorithm last year. Child seat reservations are free but that might only be for under 12s. If you don't mind all being apart (or ever fly solo) my tip would be to use the app for your boarding pass and check in as late as possible (must be more 2 hours before flight). They allocate all the middle seats first when free check in opens 4 days before to try and force people to upgrade! I did this last week, watched the plane fill up (you can check by clicking to book a seat but not proceeding) and managed to get myself a good window seat for free. This won't get you seats together though. However if you aren't keen on the app (you mentioned a blue passport!) you might want to get priority boarding to allow you check in for both directions before you leave (60 days before I think) and print out paper tickets.

For all those complaining about the lack of seat pocket, that's another way they can turn the planes around faster and keep prices low. Just as they overestimate flight lengths by around 30min so that they can achieve a high% on time and play that stupid fanfare when you land! Buy water and a sandwich in Boots (wow all you fancy mumsnetters down south with Pret ) Take headphones to drown out them selling the silly scratch cards etc.

Ryanair almost always use the cheapest, furthest away gates, so be prepared for a long walk and stairs. Also a lot of the airports don't announce the gate until shortly before boarding so you have to watch the board like a hawk then be ready to sprint to the gate as they are already boarding. You will probably then get held for ages like cattle in a staircase/corridor/bus as the incoming flight often hasn't even landed but again that's clearly how they keep to short turnarounds.

Doesn't affect you but they are also one of the more generous budget airlines for infant equipment allowing 2 free items. However basic the experience itself, I couldn't have done half the family visits or travelling without ryanair. Makes travel possible for those of us without big budgets. Hope it goes well for you.

Just on the delay point, we were delayed for 5 hrs last yr with Easyjet. They told us at the outset how long it would be, gave us food vouchers to spend at the airport and the EU compensation that you're entitled to for long delays was in my account before we got home a week later.

I fly easyjet all the time so if that ends up your airline of choice, my biggest tip is... don't take a pull along suitcase, take a holdall type bag that you can shove under the seat in front.

That way you don't have to sprint to the gate so you can use the overhead lockers when you get on. Easyjet now take at least the last third of queuers at the boarding gate and make them put their pull along suitcases in the hold. Whilst lots on this thread don't seem to mind, I do! Some airports are very slow at getting cases on carousels. With a squashy holdall, I have never been asked to put my cabin luggage in the hold, they only go for pull along cases.

I would always fly EasyJet or Jet2 (or any airline, actually) rather than Ryanair. I hate them. We had one too many negative experiences with them several years ago so swore never again but have since flown with them twice as they were the only option. Both times we found ourselves taking off hours later than scheduled due to "technical reasons". The way they deal with these situations makes the whole experience of delays even worse. You get zero customer service. They really don't give a flying fuck about their customers. EasyJet are absolutely fine in my experience but if you have to fly Ryanair just make sure you lower your expectations.

I’d heartily recommend EasyJet. I’ve flown with them for years, as a widow with kids, and we’ve always been able to sit together free. The cabin crew have always been friendly and good fun, with a sense of humour. Incidentally, you don’t need to print out your boarding cards from online check in - printer ink is wildly expensive. The EasyJet booking website will deliver the boarding card bar code to your iPhone- just go straight to security, no queuing at check in desks, just put your phone on the scanner and skip on through. Show the phone again with your passport at the boarding gate. Free and simple, and you don’t have to remember to take a pile of paper with you to the airport.
I’ve also found EasyJet’s ground staff kind and helpful. I even offered to marry one old check-in chap (much to his amusement!), when he got me on to a shuttle flight after the gate had closed. We were late due to a scheduled airline having an hour’s delay on our connecting flight. He saved me from being stuck overnight at Gatwick!

Cheers, Arch. I'm pretty old. They didn't have budget airlines when I was travelling

If you haven't flown for a while, you might be shocked at how poor the non budget airlines are! I'm old enough to remember the British Airways days where on a domestic (Glw-Lhr usually) you would be welcomed with a drink, hot towel, served a three course meal with wine, all in the space of an hour! There really isn't much difference now between BA and EJ - except that BA are more likely to lose your luggage!

But I'm in the camp that it's a means to get you there. I have my kindle loaded and a nice picnic from Pret or M&S. It's fine.

Ryanair change their baggage rules frequently. Some cynical people think they want to catch people out. Refer to their website for the current version
To be fair when you book the web page is full of information about baggage rules and once booked you get text alerts as reminders to the rules.

I'm surprised about the people buying food to take in a plane! It would never occur to me to buy a meal at the airport

Is that because you are flying short distances and won't get hungry on the plane, or is it because you just buy the overpriced crap on the plane?

I usually fly to the Canaries, or at least Malta, so 4-6 hours travelling time including waiting around in the airport. During that time I am going to get hungry and bored so it makes sense to me to sort out some food and I will go for the best taste/value available at the time - ie Pret etc at the airport rather than paying double

I usually fly to Spain, Portugal, occasionally Moldova and Lithuania.
I never buy on board, it is not good value. I just tend to eat at the set times, breakfast, lunch and supper and if I'm flying during those times I may have a biscuit and catch up on the next meal even if it means missing one out. It's not a big deal for me. I'm just surprised at the number of people who eat and fill the bars at airport. However I realise that some people the holiday starts once they get to the airport but for me my trip begins at my destination. I don't like to drink before or during a flight ( alcohol that is).
Each to their own,mine was just a throw away comment when thinking about my travel habits.

notacooldad, just having a biscuit and catching up isn't the best option with children. A two hour flight turns into five or more hours once you figure in time to and from the airport, security etc. Those two hours are the easiest time to eat, and also giving kids a sandwich etc takes up some time and offers distraction.

Alistair I did say each to their own!