Ryanair – Your Opinions?

Ok Steve, keep me updated mate :).

Sorry to bring this back up…. just to let Steve and anyone else know, I have booked up for LHR on the 29th October, arriving 08:00 leaving 20:45? (Something like that, gonna be a long day!).

Steve or anyone else is more than welcome to join me :).

Will certainly look at that – need one of my freebie trips fro France next year – but could certainly be appealed by LHR again. Will see what the roster says!

One thing I particularly hate is the excruciating wait for baggage to be offloaded and delivered at Säve “airport” as the aircraft turns straight round – it has to be loaded and depart before the handler(s) (perhaps there is only one) deal with incoming luggage – never less than a 45 minute wait for your bags – it would be better for them to leave the trolleys on the tarmac and let us get our own bags!

Incidentally on my most recent flight a week ago the guy in front of me reclined his seat fully as soon as he sat down (before takeoff) and only raised it when told by the cabin crew, then reclined it again as soon as possible – for a 1h 40 min flight he was thus sitting in my lap – horrible, and unnecessary in my opinion for such a short flight!

None of this is Ryanair’s fault.

I don’t know why people expect so much out of Ryanair, at the end of the day your ticket is very cheap, so obviously you not can’t expect BA type service.

Flex 35

Here in Gothenburg I am virtually forced to use Ryanair for my fairly frequent trips to the UK and never manage to get a flight for less than 100 pounds. “Low cost” doesn’t exist over here. The “service” is virtually non-existent and I would gladly use any other airline if I could, except that BA and SAS prices are daylight robbery – due I suppose to the Scandinavian monopoly/cartel!
One thing I particularly hate is the excruciating wait for baggage to be offloaded and delivered at Säve “airport” as the aircraft turns straight round – it has to be loaded and depart before the handler(s) (perhaps there is only one) deal with incoming luggage – never less than a 45 minute wait for your bags – it would be better for them to leave the trolleys on the tarmac and let us get our own bags!
Incidentally on my most recent flight a week ago the guy in front of me reclined his seat fully as soon as he sat down (before takeoff) and only raised it when told by the cabin crew, then reclined it again as soon as possible – for a 1h 40 min flight he was thus sitting in my lap – horrible, and unnecessary in my opinion for such a short flight!

I’ve flown on FR on 10 different sectors. Having flown on the ex-Buzz -300’s (G-BZZG, G-BZZH), 200’s (EI-CNT), 800’s with the old interior (EI-CSR, EI-CSS, EI-DAG), and 800’s with the new interior (EI-DAN, EI-DAO, EI-DAZ, EI-DCY) I hardly have a complaint against them. I have to admit that the new interior is pushing it a bit, in terms of no seat-back pockets and a particularly bad leg room. But other than that, every single flight with them has been on time. Aircraft haven’t always been especially clean, but I couldn’t expect the cabin crew to do the best job in the limited time they have.

I’ve flown about 50 Ryanair sectors – most of those were within a two year period whilst I lived half an hour from STN. However, as a comparison to easyJet, well, in my opinion, there is no comparison. I much prefer easyJet. Ryanair have miffed me on 5 occassions out of those 25 (round trip) flights. Three of those instances left me heavily out of pocket and the last one was the icing on the cake and my love affair with Ryanair more or less ended – I now fly them when there is no better alternative, not just on the price either. The ‘icing on the cake’ issue was when I was in Germany last year. We flew out to Lübeck from STN for a 5 day break. Whilst we were in Germany on holiday, Lübeck airport was closed due to runway issues – not Ryanair’s fault – granted. However, as my journey had already started, I find it most unacceptable that Ryanair did not attempt any contact with me other than an email to advise me that the return journey had been changed to another airpoirt – i.e. Hamburg. We turned up at Lübeck Airport blissfully unaware of any alteration to our schedule. Why do Ryanair ask for a contact telephone number and then not bother to use it when it is most definitely needed. At a cost of EUR80.00 we had to get a taxi back to Hamburg (where we had to change trains to get to Lübeck!!!) and we made the flight with literally seconds to spare.

I persevered with Ryanair’s cheap service and low fares and hiccups and I upheld the ‘you get what you pay for’ moto, but enough became enough. Where I used to actively regularly look for Ryanair flights to go on because they were cheap, I now no longer bother. I check easyJet and travel almost as often. I do still occassionally fly Ryanair, but they are now my last resort. It’s a shame really, but I did manage to get to most of the Ryanair STN network that appealed to me.

Let us know and i mgiht book it on my freebe tickets!

Sorry to bring this back up…. just to let Steve and anyone else know, I have booked up for LHR on the 29th October, arriving 08:00 leaving 20:45? (Something like that, gonna be a long day!).

Steve or anyone else is more than welcome to join me :).

Flew with FR from Blackpool to Girona and back. Flight was on-time both ways. The experience was something like being on a crowded bus……….very noisy, but bareable for a short hop.
Travelling from Liverpool to Cork with them on Friday lunchtime this week.

Let us know and i mgiht book it on my freebe tickets!

Excellent stuff Steve, Ill let you know on Friday!

Not bad, i guess you get what you pay £15, so a cheap service. Thats NOT a complaint, just saying if summat goes wrong, it’ll go big time!

I’ve had no problem with um…tho leg room one the newer 738’s is bad!

Lets keep this on topic guys. 😉

Flex 35

Im certainly not going to turn this into a political issue but LHR-DUB is most definitley NOT a domestic flight. It is an international flight as Ireland does NOT belon to the UK hence we are called the Republic.

I would never have guessed! :rolleyes:

Mind you, with the facts aside, you do have to go to ‘Domestic Departures’ when flying from London Heathrow to any Irish destination with Aer Lingus.

Im certainly not going to turn this into a political issue but LHR-DUB is most definitley NOT a domestic flight. It is an international flight as Ireland does NOT belon to the UK hence we are called the Republic.

Thats when im looking to come……. DOH!

I have to look for weekends because im not sure when the college holidays fall, I have found an absolutely cracking fare on the 29th October (A Saturday), arriving LHR 08:00 leaving 20:45 from LBA, just £51.90!

If its the same when I get paid next week, im going to book it :).

Let us know and i mgiht book it on my freebe tickets!

I too love the frills of KLM/BA/LH/AF etc. the list goes on. But most of the time they are too expensive, and more often then not you can fly to much more interesting destinations with Ryanair then you could with BA for example. Santander, Santiago, Alghero, Porto etc. are some nice destinations where I couldn’t get to direct with BA/IB and suchlike.

Flex 35

Thats when im looking to come……. DOH!

I have to look for weekends because im not sure when the college holidays fall, I have found an absolutely cracking fare on the 29th October (A Saturday), arriving LHR 08:00 leaving 20:45 from LBA, just £51.90!

If its the same when I get paid next week, im going to book it :).

Agreed totally Michael, I am currently looking to fly down to LHR on the autumn, and feel that over £70 return with bmi is a bit of a rip off now there is no food or drink included in the price, still gonna pay it though, determined to come to LHR, although im also considering BA from MAN, though then that comes back to your arguement about the cost of travelling to other airports.

Make sure its not a weekend and I’ll come and meet you… 😉

Agreed totally Michael, I am currently looking to fly down to LHR on the autumn, and feel that over £70 return with bmi is a bit of a rip off now there is no food or drink included in the price, still gonna pay it though, determined to come to LHR, although im also considering BA from MAN, though then that comes back to your arguement about the cost of travelling to other airports.

And as long as there are people like you Michael, us who like our cheap flights will get them for just that on the low cost carriers, dirt cheap :D.

£26 for LBA-DUB-LBA last Wednesday was damn good for me, especially as I dont see why you need meals and drinks on such a short flight.

(Not having a go at you BTW :)).

Absolutely. £26 for a return flight is great value, regardless of the airline.

I think for someone like me to say that I’m only into full-frills is for the simple reason that I only have access to these sorts of airlines from Heathrow, being only 20 minutes up the road.

Cheap fares are available from Gatwick, Southampton and Luton (the next three closest) but by the time I have paid to get there, it doesn’t seem worth the money. When you’ve got to pay a little bit extra to fly with the likes of British Airways, Aer Lingus, bmi etc, I feel that you deserve a little something extra in return. bmi’s hot panini and a drink on their current domestic and short-haul flights are excellent – just what I need, but it seems that more people prefer the low-cost approach as bmi are now phasing this out in the next few weeks.

And as long as there are people like you Michael, us who like our cheap flights will get them for just that on the low cost carriers, dirt cheap :D.

£26 for LBA-DUB-LBA last Wednesday was damn good for me, especially as I dont see why you need meals and drinks on such a short flight.

(Not having a go at you BTW :)).