any views on ryanair?

[bossykate]

hello everyone, we have a couple of trips to cornwall coming up in april and may (one holiday, one wedding). the drive is a ***, so i was thinking we might get those cheap ryanair flights to newquay.

however, i've read some real horror stories about ryanair customer service in the press, so am not sure if it's a good idea, especially with a toddler.

on the other hand, it's a very short flight...

any feedback on ryanair much appreciated, thanks in advance

Hi bossykate - we have flown to Ireland many times with Ryanair, with toddler and baby in tow, and it has always been fine. Yes, it's cheap and cheerful, but the flight is very short and sure beats the road trip! Having a toddler in tow, you'll get seated first and you can take your buggy right up to the plane. The only gripe I have is that our car seat got filthy once (it was handled as fragile luggage too - ha!), so if you're taking one, put it in a plastic bag.

bk, my cousin lives in Cornwall and uses the cheap Ryanair flight from Newquay to London regularly. He says it's great, although admitedly he doesn't have his children with him when he travels. As you say, it's a short flight so if I was you I'd do it. Hmmm, 45 mins on a plane or 5 hours on the M4/M5 and crappy country lanes, know which I'd choose

bossykate - have used ryanair quite a few times now and have had no real problems.

You'll get priority seating with kids and just be aware that often the airport is not actually at the stated destination. But often it is as well.

Smaller airports, imo, are better - quicker to get out of, can't get so lost etc.

I know ryanair can be b* if things go wrong - NO customer care AT ALL - but you get what you pay for. And if you're in England, you can't get too stranded. Have read about someone missing Trieste flight and having to get trains back to London!

But I am a BIG fan of low cost airlines - I would never have been able to have as many trips away with my daughter (and without ) without ryanair or Buzz. Have justed booked easyjet for Venice for Feb half-term so have to see how the compare next!

Just make sure that whatever you take to the plane, you are able to do it without any help. I flew from Stanstead to Sweden with them, along with a four month old and a four year old. Yes I was allowed to take the pushchair to the plane, but they wouldn't help me down 4 flights of stairs with it, baby, child and hand luggage, and staff walked away when they saw me trying to hold the baby, control the 4 year old, watch the hand luggage, while trying to fold up the pushchair for them to put away. Ended up having to lie ds2 on the tarmac in the end to do it. They had no food to buy despite supposedly having just restocked. Also my almost new pushchair was badly scratched and had bits hanging off when it arrived at the other end. Coming back was better though.

Bossykate - I have used Rynair to fly Stnastead to Newquay, to visit my parents. It is much better than driving all that way on my own but agree that you get no help at all. I was 'allowed' to take the buggy to the departure gate but then found two flights of stairs down to get on the plane!! I just looked helpless and other passengers helped me on & off both flights! DS wasn't very good at sitting still for the 45 minutes so against my better judgement I just let him eat crisps the whole of the return journey. Overall worth it, but don't expect any help, except for getting on and off the plane first.

Just wondering how we are going to cope with a 10 flight to the States this summer!!

I wouldn't fly RyanAir again if you paid me. We had a nightmare journey returning from Italy with ds when he was 12 mo. or so. The staff were beyond rude, threatened tokick us off the plane for complaining about their trying to give away ds's seat (I had purchased one for him) and they made rude comments in front of my 12 year old step daughter about my breasts and bfing ds. When I wrote a complaint letter, I received a semi-illiterate response basically telling me that I had made the whole thing up. I wrote a second letter to the CEO who gave a half-hearted apology. Cheap fares does not have to mean rude and appalling service.

I flew Ryanair to Italy 1st time in the Summer and had the same concerns as you. I went with low expectations and thought they were good, I did however make sure I had travel Insurance in case things went wrong which they didn't.

I find as they fly out of smaller airports, they don't get the same holdups as Heathrow or Gatwick tends to, baggage collection is better and you get out of the airports so much quicker. (I was in Heathrow over xmas and it took 1 1/2 hours to get bags and get to the car...longer than the flight!!).

I agree with Pamina, customer service with BMI/BA etc is apalling, I have travelled with 2 children with both these, and had no help whatsoever. At least with Ryanair they are honest about what you get and what you don't get.

We flew to Brussels with Ryanair and it was fine. Only took 35 minutes too! It was dead easy to book on-line, no problems checking in, etc. It's a free for all for the seats as you don't get seat numbers BUT if you have children you get to go first. I longed for a child that day so I could have first pick (have one now so I'll have to try again!) but there were no problems getting seats anyway - very civilised, all sat together.

Let's face it, it can't be much worse than going by rail here can it?! Probably cheaper too - sorry but just had a quote for £150+ for a return trip to Edinburgh about an hour ago, gonna drive instead now - no planes for me here, boo hoo!

Go for it!

Just read one or two of the other posts about no help with puggies, etc. Although when I went I didn't have a child I did notice what was happening - was pg so was interested, noisy!?!

On our flight the assistants were great. People with children did go first and were given some time before the rest of us were allowed to go out. The children were pushed in their buggies to the plan steps. The assistants then took the books, folded them up for you and stowed them. When gettnig off the flight the buggies were all waiting unfolded ready for the children to get back into. I was quite impressed as I had not seen this on any of the other travel companies I'd flown with.

I really hope that this wasn't a one-off occasion of niceness.

thanks everyone for the replies. i think we will risk it, bearing in mind the caveats mentioned.

thanks again, this has been very helpful

BK

The drive to cornwall from London takses us about 5 hrs. Do you think that the drive/train to stansted, the check-in wait, baggage collection etc. will be any quicker. Wouldn't you consider strapping DS in and just letting him sleep in the car if you leave early/late and avoid the flying hassles? I would certainly fly to Scotland to avoid the 9 hr drive but airports are a nightmare and generally to be avoided with kids in my opinion.

Ryanscare!! - just kidding - I have used them a couple of times. Struggled a bit as I was travelling alone with dd and as people have already pointed out you get no help.

on one occasion my lugguge got lost (which was a real pain as it included car seat and buggy). I was really surprised at how helpful they were - (they they got me a replacement car seat until mine turned up). My lugguge turned up the following day.

I would only travel with them if I had no alternative but on saying that have no real complaints about them. You get what you pay for.

clucks, when we have driven to cornwall in the past, before ds, it has taken us seven hours. that is to st ives which is of course at the westernmost extremity - i'm sure it's quicker to drive somewhere in eastern cornwall. as i said, that was before ds, so onto that seven hours we would have to add in more, longer stops, plus he is not a great passenger. unless we started out in the very early hours e.g. 2 - 3 am i don't see that we would get much benefit from driving. we could get to stansted in one and half hours, plus one hour check in, plus an hour's flying time so that would be a time saving of at least 50% assuming the flight leaves on time.

plus we would be going during school holidays - the solid jam of caravans on the road has to be seen to be believed...

I'm a big fan of Ryanair but certainly agree that the service (or lack thereof) leaves a lot to be desired. But their prices are so incredibly low that it is worth it in my view.

We have just returned from the most magical family trip to Venice (£11.99 out £16.99 back) which we just wouldn't have done were it not for the low fares. I have just booked a trip to Venice in June for my brother and family who are coming over from Australia. The fare is a grand total of £2.99 each way although obviously taxes bump it up.

bells - glad you're back. I've booked to go to Venice in Feb. Do you have any tips about best places (areas) to stay? Need to be cheap! Was thinking Lido island at the moment but any tips gratefully received. Have Venice thread going if you want toa nswer on there instead of me hijacking this one. Thanks

We have used Ryanair regularly - in October used them to fly Prestwick-Stanstead-Turin return with 2 children (aged 9 months, and 2 3/4) and they could not have been better. We have also flown with them all over the country, and they are great.
Yes, it is cheap and cheerful, but I would rather take the risk than fork out £100's of ££££ on BA or similar. We simply couldn't afford to do that!

Bossykate - agree with you that flying is quicker, it would take me 8+ hours to drive to Cornwall, so even though Stanstead is just under 2 hours away it is is worth flying, you can never tell what the traffic will be like. Having said all that I am driving to Cornwall in a couple of weeks time!! But using the opportunity to break the journey overnight by catching up with friends en route. Also my wonderful mum is meeting me half way to share the driving and coming all the way back with me ........ and then going home on the train. She really is a mum in a million!