Budget Travel - 1 Euro cent ++ - Paris-Venice OW on Ryanair

I was looking for May 08 travel from Paris to Venice, notice the flight cost is only 1 Euro cent, less than 23 Euro all-in one-way. Is this a normal promo fare on Ryanair?

Yes it is.

Just remember that you get exactly what you pay for. You'll be treated like cattle. If all goes well you'll get there safe and sound. If something goes wrong you'll be left on your own. Don't except any help from Ryanair in that case - after all you paid them only a cent.

Oh and it's not Paris to Venice - it's Beauvais to Treviso - which are completely different places.

And don't forget all those extra charges on top, including their check-in fee which as a non-EU national you can't get out of because non-EU nationals are not allowed to check in online.

Have a very close look at all the small print so that you know exactly what you are paying and so that there are no nasty surprises.

Never flown Ryanair, tempted to try them out on these low fare. For us newbies and non-EU citizens, what are the must-know fine prints that we should be aware of when flying Ryanair? From the purchase to flying to checkin to changes to penalties...etc.....I would like to avoid any mistakes.

Yes, you can get out of paying the check-in fee. You simply need to request the refund at the ticket counter when you check in with your non-EU passport. Read their FAQs online. I've done it before.
But overall, Ryanair is not great and 0 customer service to speak of.

I was looking for May 08 travel from Paris to Venice, notice the flight cost is only 1 Euro cent, less than 23 Euro all-in one-way. Is this a normal promo fare on Ryanair?

Overpriced for a departure out of Beauvais, as incredible as it may sound when the price is one measly cent.

I would like to avoid any mistakes.

Your biggest mistake would be flying RyanAir.

I'm no airline snob. Southwest and easyJet, for example, are okay in my book.

RyanAir? Flew 'em one time BVA-CIA and return. Never again. :td:

There's a nice thread in the Budget Travel forum about RyanAir, where someone basically asked, Is it worth it?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=758990

I've flown RyanAir, and I'd say, as was suggested above, if you know what you're getting into, then it's a reasonable option. Just look into and be aware of

hidden check-in fees
significant baggage fees
no flexibility/refundability in circumstances where a traditional carrier would help out
in some cases, unsatisfactory arrangements during delays/cancellations
difficult travel arrangements from airports to/from city centers
etc.

I would say, it boils down to:

If there is a cancellation and the flights on later days are fully booked, can you afford to either:

- be stranded for several days without help from FR;
- pay a walk-up fare on another airline.

If yes, FR is for you. If no, you seem to like gambling.

Moving this to Budget Travel.

Ryanair is often a great deal, but €23 is very expensive by their standards. If you're flexible and wait around a bit you'll likely find something under €10.

Online check-in is for EU passport holders AND no checked luggage-online check-in qualifies for "Speedy Boarding", being allowed to board before the rest. Speedy Boarding may also be purchased during original booking or at the airport. On heavily traveled business routes Speedy Boarders can be half or more of the passengers so getting in line at the gate early is still important, although on most flights this is not the case.

15kg baggage allowance but you must pay per item to be checked and cheaper to pay the baggage fee during original online booking. I paid 6euro for a checked bag on numerous booking last fall-they might have raised the fee. Excess weight charges were 8 euro/kg, rather steep for a short haul carrier. One carry-on with dimension limits on the website-I believe 22 inch high rollaboards are 1-2 inches too big for the sizing boxes which are sporadically used. 10kg-22 pound limit on the carry-on. A second "smaller" item may be carried, ie purse, small knapsack, duty free bag-never had the second item inspected or challenged. At London Stanstead there is a scale at each entrance to security screening and they routinely weigh rollaboards-I was 5kg over and told to check it. Put heavy items in my pocket and on my person and got through on second weighing.

Travel insurance is automatically added when doing online bookings and you need a little effort to remove it unless you actually want to purchase 3rd party insurance priced higher than your actual airfare?

"Paris" Beauvais is a considerable distance outside Paris. There are buses departing Porte Maillot, 12 euro oneway (if I remember correctly) taking about 75 minutes. Buses are scheduled to leave 3 hours before a given flight's departure time-the whole operation is geared to get you there for specific flights. If you are on the last departure of the day and miss the bus leaving 3 hours before flight departure, your options are take a cab, hitch hike, or miss the flight. The Beauvais bus factor makes Ryanair a bit of a pain from "Paris" but the taxes and fees are much lower-fly from CDG instead and the taxes/fees are a good 20 euro higher although for flexibility on getting there, closer, and no fee per baggage item checked, checking in at the counter. Probably no 1 cent fares from CDG except Aer Lingus competing to DUB with Ryanair. Beauvais Airport is small and less of a hassle to navigate than CDG after the lovely 1 h 15 min bus ride.

Ryanair's food and drink is extremely overpriced so if you make the mistake of boarding hunger or thirsty you could pay a considerable portion of your ticket price to keep your blood sugar from falling.

I have not personally experienced but have heard how passengers can be out of luck if a flight cancels and later flights are sold out-they will not accomodate you on other airlines wereas IATA member airlines will. For this alone it is better to book Aer Lingus for flight to/from DUB if a compareably low fare is available.