Free, free, free. Did I mention it was free? (Ryanair)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Ryanair
Date:	16/12/02 (447 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See op

Disadvantages: See op

No matter how much I favour „conventional“ airlines, there’s one word I never seem to get apart from with their budget counterparts. That word? “Free”.

~*~*~*~* The Deal ~*~*~*~*

Ryanair if a budget airline. While the safety aspect remains the same, there are subtle changes to your flying experience, including:

· 15 kg baggage allowance. Less than the standard 20kg, but at these prices you can’t complain. You can check in as many bags as you like up to that weight limit, and are also allowed a small one to carry on. Plus your airport shopping of course :-)

· No complimentary meals or onboard refreshments, although light snacks and drinks are available to buy on board, at prices that aren’t any worse than in the airports themselves. You do get a free in-flight magazine though, although it might not be waiting for you in the seat pocket in front of you. Instead one of the air hostess types will come round with a pile of them as you take off – a great idea as it stops people taking them (and binning them soon after) even if they don’t want them.

· Seats are not allocated when you book or even when you check in. Instead, you are given a plastic (reusable) boarding card with a number on it. Numbers 1 to 60 get to board first, and so on. I was number 2 going, and number 4 coming back, but I was practically the 60th person to get on the plane both times. Why? Because, at least for one of the trips, it was 7 o clock in the morning, and I had absolutely no desire to push and shove with the other customers to get on first. Here’s a fact – once you’ve checked in, your seat I GUARANTEED. They may book more people than they have seats for, but they cannot check them in. So there’s no need to fight to the front of the queue unless you’re traveling in a party of 9 million who absolutely have to sit together. Both times I found window seats, and both ti
mes there were even spare seats available as we took off. So chill, ok?


~*~*~*~* Destinations ~*~*~*~*

If you’re in the UK and Ireland you can choose to fly from Aberdeen, London Stanstead, London Gatwick, London Luton, Cardiff, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool, Bournmouth, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Teeside, Dublin, Shannon, Manchester and Glasgow. Your choice of destination might include France, Italy, Germany, Spain or Scandinavia. Their number of routes is forever increasing, and according to their website they will be Europe's largest airline within the next 8 years.

Ryanair don’t always fly from the most convenient airports. Take the one near me, for example. It may have “Frankfurt” in the title, but Frankfurt Hahn is over an our away from the city in question. Not always a problem, but make sure you know which one you’ll be landing at if your destination has more than one airport.


~*~*~*~* Prices ~*~*~*~*

The best bit! I initially booked my flights because, well, they were free. I only had to pay the taxes (the same as on a normal ticket), so ended up with a return to Italy for less than 20 quid. Even on the days when they’re not going mad (and they do it quite a bit, you know, I came home and promptly booked another trip for the spring) the prices are nice and low – many start from about 40 GBP return. At the moment, I noticed a single to London from here for less than 5 Euros – bargain. And, on average, they’re 50% cheaper than Easyjet….. The tickets come with restrictions, but none that are especially strict. You can change the date or even destination of a ticket whenever you want, or pass it on to someone else to use instead by paying a 15 GBP processing fee.


~*~*~*~* Booking ~*~*~*~*

The simplest way to find and book a flight is through their website, www.ryanair.com. It’s a nicely laid-out place and I’m yet to
encounter a broken link or dodgy connection. Plus it’s a tasteful blue and yellow, not orange like you know who. It’ll retain your details too if you tick the box, so you don’t need to type your address each time. You don’t need to register to book either, and can pay with Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Connect and Delta cards. If your journey originates outside the UK, you’ll be charged in Euros rather than GBP – for me this means I incur an extra (though minor) fee in the form of the dodgy exchange rate my bank use for euro transactions, because although I have a euro account over here, it comes with a debit card and not a credit one.


~*~*~*~* My Experience / Thoughts ~*~*~*~*

My flight out was remarkably painless. The plane was incredibly clean, especially considering it had only landed less than 30 mins previously. The leg room was no worse than with KLM, the airline I flew with on my way out here, and the staff were helpful. We hit turbulence, but that’s hardly something you can blame the company for. We landed ahead of schedule in both Pisa and Hahn (although I am beginning to thing this is a generic airline trick to lessen the likelihood of those negative “always late” points). Nope, my flights were fine. Checking in in Pisa however was a different matter. I arrived 2 hours before departure as they’d told me to. Because this meant an early morning start on a Sunday, I had to get a taxi as the busses wouldn’t get me there until quite a bit later. In fact, I arrived 2 hours and 10 mins before we were supposed to fly.45 mins later I was still sitting there, with my luggage, waiting for the staff to show up. I checked with the girl running the plastic-packing luggage machine but she just shrugged and told me that “Ryanair always late”. I sat and I sat. I watched people check in with BA and with Alitalia. All this time the Ryanair office at the airport was deserted, so w
e couldn’t even ask them. When the staff did show up, they were not in the least bit apologetic, and took a good 10 mins to settle down, start their terminals and check their make up before they let anyone check in. By this time, my airport shopping opportunities were greatly reduced, sob. I very much doubt non-budget airlines would get away with this. So grrrrr at Ryanair for that.

Overall though, I had a good trip, and to their credit there were no mossies on board the planes…. I preferred them to Easyjet but maybe I’m just softening on my approach to budget airlines in my old age. The service wasn’t of a BA standard, but then the prices were about 150 GBP cheaper….. I’ll happily fly with them again, which is a good thing since Rome’s coming up in 6 weeks :-)

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