V-Flyer

Am booked onto a RyanAir flight from Gatwick to Dublin next month and wondered what peoples opinions/experiences of RyanAir are? Everyone I have mentioned Ryanair to have wished me good luck getting there (including an ex-RyanAir employee!)

Opinions if you please.....

Have never used Ryanair, but the general concensus of people I have spoken to about budget airlines in general, is that they are great when things go right, but pretty awful at coping when things go wrong.

I have heard horror stories about people being abandoned when aircraft go tech or there is bad weather.

Having said that, the Ryanair, Easyjet and BMIBaby seem to be going from strength to strength so they must be doing SOMETHING right.

I have only used BMIBaby, and have been more than happy with them.

Nick

Hi,

I would make sure you allow plent of time to check in incase of any delays as I have heard that if you miss the checkin time by even a minute , you have to buy a new ticket ( Travel Insurance in the event of any delays might also be advisable).
Also their baagage allowance is low (15kg?- hold baggage))

I have flown with them twice ( a few years ago) -PIK-STN and STN to Skavasta, with no problems, flights on time and food to buy on board.( self seating)

Regards

TBS

Its basically a bus service.
You buy your ticket, you sit in the departures lounge with very little food choice and you all rush to the plane to bag the best seat.
But, it flies you to close to your destination for a very cheap price, so it does what you expect.
Eat before going into the departure area, get on, get off.

You get what you pay for basically.

This is going to sound snobbish but I would rather not go if it involved flying a budget airline.

Thanks,
Richard

I think if you compare budget airlines to a bus journey then thats about the correct expectation!

They're OK but thats it!

Remember to check the destination though as once flew to Frankfort but they actually go to Hans (about 2hrs away!) I know they got a few complaints about that too!

I prefered JetBlue and Virgin Blue, have never flown EasyJet so cant give a comparision.

Only flown with them on one trip; LTN to DUB and return. Outbound was cancelled because the extremely old 737 (not one of my favourite planes anyway) went tech when they couldn't start one of the engines. No LyinAir rep at LTN! Only a handling agent (one!) who told us all to go back to check in and queue up next to check in for next flight to DUB (which was checking in despite ours being cancelled!). After queueing for a half hour were given a piece of paper with RyanAir's customer relations phone number! This was engaged anyway. We then went to ticket desk who could only get us booked two days later, but were very generous and didn't charge extra for it!
Two days later the flight on same old crate was uneventful.
You get what you pay for, but this is a bit of a myth as you often pay the same as a proper airline, ie BA or Aer Lingus or BM. I would rather pay a bit more and get seat allocation, some comforts and the chance of changing to another flight or airline if flight goes tech, etc.
Only worthwhile using them if you don't absolutely have to get there on a particular day, are paying almost nothing, and the airport is near you.

I have to say I've never had a bad Ryanair flight but I'm always nervous in case anything goes wrong prior to take-off. I feel then you are very much left to your own devices. The flight itself is usually one big marketing exercise as they try to flog you food, tax-free goods and tickets into Central London (I've generally found it cheaper to buy the ticket at the train station as it can also be used on the Underground and buses)

As has been stated there are no assigned seats but you are boarded according to the number on your boarding card. 1 - 65 go first and in STN I've seen "pens" in which to wait according to your sequence.

Here in ORK it always makes me laugh when a Ryanair flight lands. The minute the plane touches the ground the crowd in the departure lounge immediately get up and form a queue ready to board - and this is even before the plane has arrived at its stand

Well im flying FR in 2 weeks so will report back. It always cracks me up though that people expect first class service when they only paid 99p!!! But although if you look at my TR on Virgin Blue you will see that low fares doesnt always mean poor service!

Richard--out of interest why wouldnt you be seen on a LCC???? You must be lucky and have more money than sense!

Thanks for the comments so far.

Yes the flight was very cheap so my expectations are not high and if it all goes wrong then I will tell myself "What do you expect!"

Looks like they are more good than bad by your comments. willd I would be very interested to hear how your flight goes. I am sure everything will be fine with mine but I cant help picturing myself getting p'ed off with the whole thing!

Richard, I know where you are coming from but at the end of the day its the week before Christmas and my other half is a student so any saving is going to get taken advantage of! Also I hate travelling without picking up miles! I booked into a Holiday Inn in Dublin so I can at least earn some AA miles that weekend.... I need help!!!!