Ryanair - Not as cheap as they'd have you believe. (Ryanair)

Member Name: RoleySkate

Product:	Ryanair
Date:	05/07/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They're still one of the cheapest airlines, generally any delays are fairly short

Disadvantages: Extra charges keep adding up, bit tight on the luggage, customer service leaves a lot to be desired

I've used Ryanair quite a few times over the years and to be honest, the service they provide seems to be getting worse and worse.
First of all, although the prices seem very cheap to start off with they keep adding and adding and adding more on the further through the process of buying your flights you go. There's the taxes, baggage fee's, admin fee's, checking in fee's...so what starts off as a £5 flight can easily end up costing you well over £100! Sometimes you can actually grab yourself a little bargain when they have their special offers on certain flights where they are tax free, so long as you're only carrying hand luggage though because checking in bags will bump the price right back up.
I think that checking in has got more complicated too. I remember when you just had to print off your emailed confirmation and hand that in but now you have to check in online up to 15 days before hand, log into their website and print off boarding cards for each person indiviually. On some flights (Spain and the Canarie Isles if I remember rightly) you have to fill in passenger information for each person regarding passport numbers and such which can be quite laborious if you have a group booking. They will also charge you £40 if you don't have your boarding card with you. Bit much if you ask me. I can't even remember a point when I was booking that I was even told about this, but maybe I'd booked my flights before this came into play.
You only get an allowance of 15Kg per bag for checked in luggage and it cannot be spread out (eg, you can only have two bags at 15Kg and not one 10Kg one and the other 20Kg). They charge you quite a bit for going over too - £15 per Kilo! So be careful when you're packing. You are allowed 10Kg for your hand luggage which makes up for the smaller checked luggage.
The staff themselves can be a little hit and miss. Sometimes I've been on a flight where they have been helpful and cheerful and had a banter with passengers throughout the flight, but often they can be a little rude and treat you more as a walking pay cheque, ie they'll be nice, but only if you're buying something off of them. I've found that many times when I've asked for something like a tissue to mop up a spill you will generally either wait a long time to get it or just not get it at all but when buying something they're with you in seconds. During my last flight with Ryanair, we asked if there were any facilities to heat my 7 month old nephew's food and told a definate no straight away only to find out later that they could have put it in hot water for us. Also, we had to ask five times for some boiled water for my nephew to drink after his own drink had leaked out in our bag resulting in a very cranky, thirsty baby.
Ryanair pride themselves on being on time but in my experience with them, out of about 10 trips, i've been delayed about four times which is nearly 50% of my Ryanair experience. I must say though, the delays have never been over an hour or so, which is better than many other airlines.
With Ryanair, you cannot prebook your seat but you can pay for priority boarding which is ok I suppose, but I think if I'm paying extra then I should be able to get the seat that I want without worrying that one of the other priority boarders are going to get there first. Just a minor grumble there.
In all, although Ryanair are probably one of the cheapest airlines to fly with, their service is not great and their hidden charges are rather annoying. Ryanair are best for those who just want a quick flight without any baggage. For anything else, I'd probably pay the few quid extra just for lack of hassle.

Summary: Yeah they're cheap, but not the best by far.