Moan/Rant about 'low-cost airlines'

[MotherOfRatios]

I'm planning a trip to Seville in Spain (July) and Milan (August) and I'm planing to do both by train because the cost of Ryan air appears cheap on the surface but then you have to add on luggage etc.

Has it always been like this? (I'm mid 20s)

Just get a small carry on. Unless you are going for over 2 weeks? The only pain is the outdated liquids freakshow they put you through in this country, so you do need to be prepared to buy sun lotion over there and decant favourite oils/shampoos, foundations into pots that can fit into a clear bag. Most other countries have equipment for scanning liquids so that you can take water bottles and essential things through, but we're not one of those countries.

Can I ask where you are getting it £100 cheaper? Because Ryanair to Milan from London airports throughout august is around £130-160 including bags.

The Eurostar one way is £49 at the cheapest and fares are not yet released for rail travel but from experience, you'll be lucky to get to Milan from any of the Eurostar terminus for £100 one way in august.

That makes for at least £300 and a couple of days of uncomfortable travelling as opposed to a couple of hours and less than £150

If you don't mind travelling with a small backpack and sitting where you're put then you can get some really cheap flights. As soon as you need any sort of luggage or not to be sat 3 rows away from from your 2 year old you might as well go with a full service airline. Yes it's always been like that.

Even leveraging all possible student and OAP discounts, I couldn’t get Milan to Paris by train in JUNE ‘23 for less than 100 Euros (so £85 per head). And prices have gone up since then.
Low cost airline was a no brainer. Easyjet dimensions are slightly larger than Ryanair, so we managed for four days with well stuffed Eastpak rucksacks.

One small ruse is to travel out with hand luggage and during your stay buy lovely clothes and a suitcase, go onto the website while you’re abroad and add that suitcase (€25?) to your return journey only.

If you play them at their own game you can get some bargains but you have to take a lot of threats from them to get the lowest price.
Threats like “you will get a €70 fine if your under-seat luggage won’t fit” or “Are you SURE you don’t want extra insurance”x3! or “check in now for €10 per person and avoid a fine (what fine? ) if you haven’t checked in on the day (err yes, free check-in is 24 hours before flight).” All playing on your travelling anxiety.

"As soon as you need any sort of luggage or not to be sat 3 rows away from from your 2 year old you might as well go with a full service airline."

Utter bollocks. They do not do this as they're not allowed 😂 comes up every year. Ryanair make you select your seat and your child's (under 12s) upon booking. Other airlines allocate but always next to their adult. That can be across an aisle or in front but never 3 rows away (and on Ryanair the child gets their seat free, the adult pays £6)

The bags are more expensive than people are saying, they are not £20!

my last Ryanair flight in Oct charged me £20 per flight to place a 10kg bag in the overhead locker.

I'm also struggling to imagine a Eurostar train in August that is cheaper than a flight 🤔unless you are crossing via ferry with onward train travel? That is doable but you may end up spending a long time between ferry/train stations depending on where you get the ferry to? I'd love to do Europe by train. Might take you a fair while to get anywhere and back within 2 weeks though.

Even with BA you have to pay extra to choose your seats. Which isn't really a fancy luxury when travelling with a 4 yo, more a necessity

No. Air travel used to be much more expensive !

travel is miles cheaper now, relatively, than it was when I was your age. I'm 48

"The bags are more expensive than people are saying, they are not £20!"

£33.50 or £20 for a cabin bag. That's a 10k small case and a normal backpack. Surely enough for someone in their 20s. Who on earth drags a huge suitcase across Europe on the train anyway 🤣 just to save £13. Madness.

Goodness me 😅 London to Seville, over £500 return, 3/4 changes at huge stations, with a fucking massive suitcase, 30 hours each way.

OP - you're having us on. Some bargains on Ryanair mind for anyone fancying a trip!

The only way I could imagine such low train prices is if you get an INTERRAIL pass for people under 27 years old.
IIRC (from DD) 5 days’ travel within 2 months is less than €300 but you have to pay booking fees.
(I inter-railed in the early 80s but my standards have risen since then!)

It's really expensive once you add on basic things like a bag. Some airlines are worse than others.

In the early to mid 80's, it cost £200 to fly return from Dublin to London. That's around €620 in today's money compared to 1984. Around 1987 they introduced apex fares where it cost £80-90 provided you bought the ticket a month in advance. That's about €230-250 in today's money.

You got a meal, a newspaper and bags included. I'm much happier with the deconstructed fares.

Manchester to Seville flights cost £210 with a 20kg checked in bag on 4th May. It will take 3 hours.
The same journey by train on the same day will cost from £395, involve 6 changes and take 36 hours.
Train from Seville to Milan will cost from £184 and again take around 30 hours with 4+ changes.
Flights for Seville to Milan with 20kg checked in bag will cost €125 and take 2 1.2 hours.

It'll be very, very hot in Seville and Milan at that time of year (over 40 in the shade potentially). I'd recommend going before the school holidays in May / June or after in September or October. Also cheaper to fly on Tue / Wed normally.

My last experience with Ryanair put me off. I'd stayed in a lovely hotel in a European city but then flew with shitty Ryan air as they were the only ones who went form my airport to the destination.

Even if you pay for the extras, others don't, which is fair enough. But it makes boarding and the whole experience a bit ferral.

I'm 38 and I do think it's become more grim and basic over the years. With the extras feeling quite a lot of the overall price.

It depends on what extras you feel are absolutely necessary. Some people pay for priority boarding, extra luggage, seat sellection and whoomph up thw cost of the flight.

We've learnt how to pack light (buy toiletries and sun cream out there), a couple of summer dresses and a swim clothes. Phone, and charger. It can still be cheap.

I look on the budget airlines the same as I would a bus journey. It's taking me from a to b without any frills. And that suits me fine.

I've had some delays over the years but aside from that no major inconveniences.

They might want to try a bit of reverse psychology
price the flights with luggage and discount it off if u don’t want luggage

Milan, you have to go via Switzerland at the moment because of the landslide or via Nice. Whichever takes hours and hours. SNCF trains aren't available yet but I'd be surprised you could possibly do it for less than the cost of a flight. I just priced up a trip to Puglia on the train, and will buy interrail tickets as cheaper. Milan via Switzerland likely to cost a bomb. I am skipping Munich - Milan and going Innsbruck to Bologna instead.

Train is much more relaxing and better for the environment, so win-win

The last RyanAir flight I went on they sold lottery tickets up and down the aisle. You don't get that on the Eurostar...

I did Innsbruck -Bologna and down to Puglia in August (you and I seem to be travel twins!) And paid €79 for two of us in premium class. There was a 2x1 offer thing on, I didn't book it until about 3 weeks before either.

Had it not been so cheap I'd have definitely flown though!

@MotherOfRatios I live in Italy and old enough to remember when getting to London involved a month's salary, 24 hours and flights from Bari-Rome/Milan-Zurich/Amsterdam/Brussels-London. I now get one flight and it costs me with luggage about a hundred quid. And sometimes that's BA.

Long live Ryanair and choices I say.

@MotherOfRatios

'Has it always been like this?'

When I was in my 20s in the 1980s there was no such thing as cheap airlines . You could go on a cheap package - but that was mainly cheap because the hotel was rubbish . We also went on coach holidays.