Ryanair - hoping for some positive comments

[MascaraGirl]

This morning I booked Ryanair flights for late September, after extensive searching, and with the help of a travel agents, they appear to be the only airline who fly directly to the required destination from the airport that works for us.

If anyone’s had any positive experiences with Ryanair, could you share them? We’ve had two recent poor experiences with BA, and wonder if the whole industry is in decline?

I’ve flown several times with Ryanair and never had a problem. DH and I always pay for a check in case 20 kg each, plus a seat of our choice but DS has had several short trips with his friends where he has just taken the free underseat bag and whatever seat they give him and not had a problem. I’ve not noticed any more delays with Ryanair than Jet2, and they’ve never been more than around half an hour.

As an aside, it would have been cheaper for you to have checked a 20 kg case each than checking one and paying for the 10 kg carry one each. The only reason for the priority board is so that people with carry ons can get them up in the overheads without holding up the rest of the passengers boarding. It’s not like years ago when there were no allocated seats and there was a mad rush to get to the gates when they were announced. You can get a huge amount of luggage for 20 kg, we have extra large cases which we take away in the winter when we holiday for a few weeks and need a variety of clothing (warm in the day, cold at night) and we are always under the 20 kg on first packing (and I take half my wardrobe!) . I take a rucksack of the underseat dimensions and always put an emergency change of clothing in that, plus any medication.

@mamagogo1
The liquids rule depends on the airport, some now have scanners which allow you to take full size toiletries and full drinks bottles through - but obviously you need to check that with your local airport, and the one you are returning from.

We have had one flight time change with Ryanair, but we’ve also had a time change with Jet2 and Iberia airways. All in the last year actually, don’t know if there is a reason for that.

Definitely good for punctuality for take off, it’s cheap, after that, it’s a budget airline, charges extra for everything, don’t expect anything fancy and you’ll be fine

It's honestly in my view one of the more transparent airlines out there!

I agree it was all quite transparent. You select your flight, then there’s the option to book (or not) specific seats, then the next page is luggage, select what you need (the dimensions are clearly visible)then proceed to payment. So (after reading this thread) I’m wondering if the complaints are from people who expect specific seats and checked bags, but don’t want to pay for them (delays and cancellations are another matter).

I've never had a ryanair delayed flight.

and if you google it you will see it is one of the few airlines never to have a fatality

Generally the complaint are all from people that don’t read the rules, or think they don’t apply to them.

’My hand luggage was only 1cm over but they made me pay’

’I didn’t book a seat and now my kids at the back of the plane’

Flown individually and as a family of 6 with Ryanair. Never had any issues. Read the terms & conditions & follow them.

The positive is that they don't fly from Heathrow and rarely from Gatwick, so I don't have to witness those people who condone bullying and sharp practice to allegedly save a bit of money.

OP, look at travelling somewhere else, or flying to another airport and hiring a car or completing the journey by train.

I’m currently at home feeling sorry for myself because EasyJet cancelled my flight as we were boarding on Sunday.

Last summer LNER cancelled all trains south when we were already on the way, and had to get a taxi to London from Peterborough.

Two days later, we were on a sleeper train from Amsterdam to Innsbruck that was also cancelled before we left Amsterdam.
We flew back from that trip on Ryan Air without a hitch.

RyanAir are the only international travel provider that I have tried to use in the last year that haven’t let me down.

We fly with them a lot, they are miles cheaper than Jet2 and find them perfectly fine. Occasionally the flights get delayed, they run quite a tight schedule, so one plane will generally do 3 return trips in a day from it's base airport with only a fairly short spell on the ground each time, so if you are not the first flight and there is a delay anywhere in the chain it generally impacts the later flights. You can track your particular plane on flight radar website though, so you know hours in advance (unofficially) whether your plane is running to schedule. We've never had a delay of more than a couple of hours. The one issue we did have was there was some issue with our plane in Malta, and they had to swap planes on us, unfortunately they gave us a smaller plane which incidentally fitted everyone booked, but for some the seat reservations were a mess. They did refund what we had paid for the seat reservations for us though.

I've never had a problem. They usually overestimate the flight time so quite often land earlier than scheduled. The app is great for ordering to your seat in advance. No frills, no drama, pay for the right seat and right luggage and you'll be fine.

We follow their rules and have always had good experiences with Ryanair.

Check the permitted bag sizes and stick to them, and arrive well in advance. All should be well.

Flying is really unpleasant these days. I do particularly hare flying with Ryan Air I’m afraid. Much prefer BA.

Just flew from Stansted to Spain. Had priority boarding, fast track, hold luggage reserved seats, 10kg on flight etc. Stansted was very efficient (for 7.30am flight) and staff were friendly. I’d fly them again

I’ve flown 3 times recently with Ryanair and been really pleasantly surprised - like you it was the only viable option for the location. It was super efficient, staff were nice and twice we actually landed early ….and they were really chilled about hand luggage size. It was bizarre!

I have flown with them once and never again because of the rudeness of the staff.

DH flew with them regularly until last year. He was on a plane that was being loaded. One of the ground staff ran up the stairs to tell the cabin crew to evacuate the plane because an engine was smoking. The crew panicked and had no idea what to do. A very long and disorderly evacuation organised by ground crew as the cabin crew stood there. After several hours an engineer arrived and declared the plane safe. Many people refused to re board.

I think there was another incident fairly recently where there was a shambolic Ryanair evacuation.

Frankly the least you can expect is that cabin crew are trained properly which does not appear to be the case.

Find them better than easyJet to be honest. Mostly always been punctual for me.

Or put another way, they claim to be on time or early by deception, and false advertising of the flight time.

Wow. Why are you so hostile?

I would have said they plan their services accurately: they tell you the time to be at the gate for boarding; and the arrival time.

Why does it make you so so unreasonably angry if they take the view that between those two time points is the time available for them to get you to your destination? I mean, it isn’t as if you didn’t know at the time of booking.
Where is the deception, where is the false advertising?

Have used RyanAir a few times and you get what you pay for. No frills. It's budget, efficient, staff are pleasant.
As others have said, theyre very strict on luggage rules.

We travel with a peanut allergy sufferer and they always do the announcement and do not sell nut based products, so I really couldn't ask for more. I feel very reassured travelling with them.
Enjoy your trip.

we have never had any issues but the seats are so uncomfortable and small. You are crammed in like sardines.
I prefer jet2

Seats are a bit cramped, but it's fine - I've flown tons with them and never been delayed

Seats are definitely a bit cramped so fork out for extra legroom if you can, but they're pretty good, and unlike Jet2, at least you don't have to suffer that wretched Jess Glynne song.

Our last flight with them was delayed by 2 hours, but that was caused by bad weather so nothing they could do about it. They kept us informed well, so at least we knew what was what.