V-Flyer

Good little article on the oft-mentioned Ryanair plan to have standing on flights.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8779388.stm

As the article remarks, still headline grabbing and enough to get him on the front page of one of the dailies this week.

Cheap advertising

honey lamb wrote:Cheap advertising

HL

Could not agree more v(

Why oh Why do people still want to fly Ryanair ?|

buns

buns wrote:Why oh Why do people still want to fly Ryanair ?|

buns

Oh there is probbaly enough to write a thesis there Buns !

I think primarily it's the (often misplaced) feeling of getting a bargain.

'I dont care that I was charged £40 for luggage and £ 5 per sector credit card fees and £ 50 for needing them to reprint a boarding card BECAUSE I ONLY PAID £2.50 for the flight'

I flew with them once - only because I needed to get St. Malo quickly - NEVER AGAIN v( v(

buns

buns wrote:
Why oh Why do people still want to fly Ryanair

buns

Because if you have a second home in Europe close to an airport served by Ryanair & know all their rules, you can play them at their own game.

I've got a second home in France, just over an hours drive from one Ryanair-served airport & about 20mins further to another. I can travel with hand baggage only, even if going for a week or more. I'm generally flexible with regard to travel dates (not tied to school holidays etc). I've done some research & got a pre-paid Mastercard debit card (costs me 1.5% of what I load onto it I think, so a huge saving on the £5 per sector, per person charge for using another debit/credit card). I buy nothing onboard the flights - much better food is available at the airport from Pret a Manger etc (even at their inflated prices + I know the food there is fresh from that day - probably less than a couple of hours ago).

So by using Ryanair, I can often get to/from my second home for £5 each way**, all-in, as long as I keep an eye on when they are offering promotional fares and nab them. Sure, the seating is "compact" and may not be 100% clean - but take a look at Y on a Virgin LGW/MAN fleet 747. You may prefer the Ryanair option, even with non-reclining seats & no IFE. For a short flight of under 2hrs, Ryanair is more then bearable, IMO. Just listen to your iPod for as much of the flight as they allow so you can ignore the food / drink / scratchcard / gifts sales announcements etc. As to the trumpet fanfare when they land early or on time... I wish they would stick the trumpet uo MOL's ar*e. (** = + hire car costs, which I would have wherever I fly to. Interesting to note that Ryanair's discount rate at Hertz is better than the one for FC Silver members too!)

The saving I make by flying with them (as opposed to BA or Air France to the nearest "big" airport - which is further away from my house too) is much better put towards saving for the next UC fare on Virgin. Yes, I am probably lucky - the worst problem I've had with Ryanair was a 30min delay.

As to the "standing room only" press releases = 100% free advertising. The B738 is certified for 189 pax. Ryanair have 189 seats on all of their fleet. Yes, they could try and get the B738 recertified to carry more pax, but this would be at their expense - hardly what you would expect a LCC that is obsessed with cost-cutting to do.

James

Kraken wrote:

buns wrote:
Why oh Why do people still want to fly Ryanair

buns

Because if you have a second home in Europe close to an airport served by Ryanair & know all their rules, you can play them at their own game.

I've got a second home in France, just over an hours drive from one Ryanair-served airport & about 20mins further to another. I can travel with hand baggage only, even if going for a week or more. I'm generally flexible with regard to travel dates (not tied to school holidays etc). I've done some research & got a pre-paid Mastercard debit card (costs me 1.5% of what I load onto it I think, so a huge saving on the £5 per sector, per person charge for using another debit/credit card). I buy nothing onboard the flights - much better food is available at the airport from Pret a Manger etc (even at their inflated prices + I know the food there is fresh from that day - probably less than a couple of hours ago).

So by using Ryanair, I can often get to/from my second home for £5 each way**, all-in, as long as I keep an eye on when they are offering promotional fares and nab them. Sure, the seating is "compact" and may not be 100% clean - but take a look at Y on a Virgin LGW/MAN fleet 747. You may prefer the Ryanair option, even with non-reclining seats & no IFE. For a short flight of under 2hrs, Ryanair is more then bearable, IMO. Just listen to your iPod for as much of the flight as they allow so you can ignore the food / drink / scratchcard / gifts sales announcements etc. As to the trumpet fanfare when they land early or on time... I wish they would stick the trumpet uo MOL's ar*e. (** = + hire car costs, which I would have wherever I fly to. Interesting to note that Ryanair's discount rate at Hertz is better than the one for FC Silver members too!)

The saving I make by flying with them (as opposed to BA or Air France to the nearest "big" airport - which is further away from my house too) is much better put towards saving for the next UC fare on Virgin. Yes, I am probably lucky - the worst problem I've had with Ryanair was a 30min delay.

As to the "standing room only" press releases = 100% free advertising. The B738 is certified for 189 pax. Ryanair have 189 seats on all of their fleet. Yes, they could try and get the B738 recertified to carry more pax, but this would be at their expense - hardly what you would expect a LCC that is obsessed with cost-cutting to do.

James

James, while I do not have a holiday home near a Ryanair airport I do have experiences close to yours. It has been my airline of choice and at times necessity when there have been no other alternatives (e.g. ORK-LGW until Aer Lingus joined that market) Plan it well and it is cheap enough and I have never been delayed - although at times I wish I had in order to avoid the trumpet fanfare

buns wrote:Why oh Why do people still want to fly Ryanair ?

Is it more that, as Kraken and HL have pointed out, it's often that Ryanair (and easyJet) are providing flights on routes that full service carriers are unwilling to service? I don't see BA putting their offering to the test against any of the busy services out of Stansted.

For me the choice is a predictable 40 minute drive to STN to fly Easyjet to EDI vs a minimum 1hr 45 min drive to LHR to fly BA, at twice the price for the same 1 hour flight. Now which am I going to take?