Ryanair - frills will cost you! (Ryanair)

Member Name: SilkCutSilver

Product:	Ryanair
Date:	04/02/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: They charge you for everything

I recently travelled on Ryanair for the first time, having mainly used EasyJet in the past this was a new experience for me and one I thought I would share.

Booking---

I booked via the website Ryanair.com and found it fairly easy. The website is very much like the brand - no frills. Very bright clashing colours and a confusing amount of text and things going on on the screen. You book by selecting your destination and departure airports and dates. The website then presents you with a number of options of times (each with different pricing structures) of departure for your outbound and return journey, which you select the ones most convenient. Once through this stage you select (or deselect more like!) all the extras. Ryanair is even more no frills than easyjet -they charge you for hold baggage, checkin at the airport and try to add on insurance. We elected to take only cabin baggage as going for a short break only - a bag in the hold would have costs us £30 plus extra for airport check - in so we elected to check in online.

I panicked slightly once I had booked that we would not be able to check in online on the way back - as neither of us were takin a laptop - however I discovered you can do it up to 14 days in advance - so my advice is check in for both ways before you go and keep your paperwork in a safe place.

The one downside of the ryanair set-up is that they charge you for using your card online. A £20 charge (£10 per person travelling), for any credit card. The only card which does not incur a charge is a Visa Electron which is not widely accepted and therefore not that common - though when I tried to use mine (left over from my first bank account aged 13!), it suspiciously kept failing on the site and I had to use my Visa. This resulted in our £4 flights costing £24 so it wasn't the end of the world but very frustrating and quite sneaky on Ryanair's part as use of credit cards costs them a fraction of a pence - certainly £20 is a ridiculous amount to charge.


Flight--------

We flew from Stansted and the gates which Ryanair use are about 15 minutes walk from the main terminal building - just be warned! When we arrived at the gate we were seated for about 20 minutes before Priority Boarding was called - personally if I had paid for this I would be disappointed as Priority Boarding appeared to just be everyone at the same time - and there were plenty of seats so there was no need to scramble. I have travelled with Easyjet many times and found their logical way of boarding based on groups quite good for avoiding a stressful moment getting on the plane but although Ryanair atttempted this it just didn't work.

Once on the flight the safety announcements were made (very short compared to BA) and the lights were dimmed for take - off. Once in the air frustratingly the lights were turned on again - even though it was 6:30 am in the morning. Also for some unknown reason Ryanair serve food and drinks (why! flight is an hour! we will not starve!) which manly consisted of stuff you would not dream of eating like hot dogs and pizza (at 6 am! yes!). This just resulted in much faffing and to and fro-ing down the aisles by the cabin staff and meant you were given no peace whatsoever. On the way back (11pm flight) I was asked 4 times in the space of an hour if I had my seatbelt on as my flatmate and I had our coats over us trying to sleep. At one point the stewardess woke me up to ask me!! This would not occur on BA or even Easyjet - I mean for goodness sake leave us alone!!

Apart from the lack of any kind of peace or relaxation the flight was uneventful. I often find low cost carriers have poorer air conditioning, and smaller seats and you often feel more grotty getting off, but the seats -though uncomfortable (no change of position and very hard) were roomy and I didn't feel that dehydrated/stale feeling you often get on Easyjet.

The flight arrived bang on time on the way and was fifteen minutes delayed on the return so no real issues there. The staff weren't the most polite or helpful but to be honest I just wanted them to be quiet and leave us alone withtheir shopping trolley and disgusting snacks- who shops on an hour long flight I really do not know!

All in all the flight was worth £12 each. If i had paid any more than £50 I think I would have been disappointed by the service but for a cheap no frills carrier - you can't go wrong (just take some earplugs!).

Summary: As long as you keep to your budget you can't go wrong