What you pay is what you get. (Ryanair)

Member Name: chloelouise09

Product:	Ryanair
Date:	18/09/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cheap

Disadvantages: Delays

There's no doubt in my mind that Ryanair is rather good value for money. After browsing their site we decided to book a last minute trip to Ireland total for the flights came to £4 return for two of us bargain! At this point I wasn't aware that you had a booking charge of £10 per person per flight however at £22 each overall I still didn't think that was too bad. It is a tad irritating that Ryanair charge you to book with them however if you are using them often it maybe of a benefit to you to know that if you book using an Electron card these fees are not applicable, therefore you would just pay for the flights and nothing else. These cards are available through the pre-paid card system and some banks are still offering accounts with an electron card, this is well worth opening if it saves you £10 per flight!

A few days before our flight people started telling me about all these stories that they had heard about Ryanair leaving people stranded at airports after cancelling flights etc, as you can imagine I was starting to worry that this would be happening to me. I was only going for the day so any delays would have serious complications. I took the chance that this wouldn't happen to me so off we went.

Ryanair fly from my local airport in Leeds and it is very easy to get to. Transport links include a regular bus from Leeds city centre every 30mins (this is correct at the time I write this) easy access by car, there is also a service to get the train to the local train station and a bus from there. We opted for the bus from the city centre, low fare and we were there in about 40mins very convienient. Unfortunately Ryanair do charge you to check in at the airport, however there is a free check-in service online. This takes a matter of minutes and is very easy to complete you can check in from 21 days to 4 hours before your flight so this has the advantage in most cases checking in for your return flight before you even leave.

Outbound flight was only 10minutes behind schedule so this wasn't a problem. This flight overall was very pleasent the staff were friendly and the cabin was clean. We were offered refreshments and before we new it we were arriving.

Return flight was a little bit of a different story. We got to the airport about 2 hours before our flight, this is when we noticed that our flight was already running two hours late, amongst many other of their flights. We ask what this was due to and apparently it was a 'technical problem' I'm not an expert however I personally don't believe that all off their flight were effected with a technical issue at the same time on the same day, that's actually quite worrying. Of course in these situations there is nothing you can do. We went through to the departure lounge and had a wonder around get some food and decided to go to the gate and sit on some comfy seats. The hours past and unfortunately our departure time got later and later, this was a tad annoying. We were not informed of this and no member of staff really knew what was going on everything we were told contradicted the other persons answer. I don't expect much from a situation like this however been told what is going on and why would have been nice. In this case it was too much to ask. Eventually we got home about 4/5 hours later than expected yet still none of us knew why! Once again though the staff on the flight back home where very plesent and friendly.

Overall with Ryanair it was a fairly pleasant experience, you get what you pay for. Ryanair doesn't advertise themselves as this amazing airline they are budget and budget is what you get! I know time keeping isn't one of their strong subjects, however if they kept their customers informed maybe they wouldn't be having so many people bad mouthing them? Obviously my opinion only. I would recommend anyone to fly Ryanair however don't expect too much from them.

Summary: Overall an Ok experience