allturnleft

I booked a short notice trip to Warsaw for a surprise Birthday Party.
Most BA fares were out of reach with a single Economy fare and club being around £350
The way round it was to book a Ryanair 'Business' fare out and an RFS BA club Europe single back using avios.
With the controversy of the new CE I thought Ryanair may seriously challenge the CE experience.
Firstly the outward journey yielded a few unpleasant surprises. To start with you have to get to Stansted. The Stansted express is a miserable train even at 6 in the morning. No luggage racks and not enough seats for passengers even at this time.
Stansted airport itself was a real eye opener. A mass of people being ferried around in something akin to animal farm. I thought I would ameliorate the stress by per booking the number one lounge at Stansted.
The lounge was at the end of one of the piers which turned out to be the wrong pier! . There were signs in the lounge saying that the lounge was going to be closing down; No 1were leaving Stansted, the coffee machine didn't work, limited food and miserable staff. I have written to get my money back!
We then realised our flight was going from the other pier and to get to that you had to run back via numerous staircases against the flow of the departing hoards building up a serious sweat. The other pier required taking the transit which was so infrequent the hoards of people massed up and the transit resembled a train in Mumbai as people literally pushed and shoved to get on.
In the next pier round each gate crowds of people queued for their Ryanair flights like waiting in a food rationing queues
We joined the priority queue for our flight. We eventually boarded the plane in our pre-allocated seats on the front row. These were great seats and there was a great experienced polish stewardess who provided great interaction and chatted and joked with us throughout the flight as she tried to see us scratch cards etc. and told us what to expect in Warsaw.
Evert seat on the plane was taken; at one point the last passenger couldn't find a seat and one of the stewardesses panicked,but they discovered a space.
It was actually a fun flight; I was by the window, my partner in the centre felt very hemmed in despite the unlimited leg room
We landed at Modlin Airport Which is in the middle of nowhere but had pre booked a transfer into Warsaw centre; with a nice driver and no hold luggage we were in in the city within 30 mins. Summary extreme Stansted stress but nice flight.

Now to the return. Only 10 mins by taxi to Chopin Airport. Airport empty. We were the only people at Business Security , empty Balero lounge to wait for delayed BA flight. Plenty of booze in the lounge no food apart from cheese and nuts but pleasant place .
On board it was my first view of the refurbished cabin. Looks very smart. Leg room really is an issue though; it feels like a British rail standard class pitch with knees touching the seat in front.
There were only 6 in CE with five rows allocated.
The service was excellent with pre drinks (tried the much mentioned Monopole for the first time) great cod dish , desert cheese and baileys and coffee . Making the service last almost 2hrs into the flight.
Nothing was too much trouble for the crew and was genuinely a very nice flight.
I finish this review as I am still in the air but in summary
BA ; stress free ; great flight but please give us back the 2 inches! .
Overall verdict ; I had forgotten what LCC flying entailed and Stansted was the main downfall of the outward experience. The pre allocated front row of Ryanair is actually a nice option, BA with a quiet CE cabin is very pleasant but the lack of seat pitch is ridiculous and should be remedied ASAP because the rest of their product is great. We are now descending and am still supping a baileys and coffee an a 2 1/2 hour flight.
They are still dry different products .
I should mention though Ryanair was more punctual and this is a reasons Polish friend uses the Stansted route regularly.

allturnleft

Nice end; we ended at Terminal 3 and the crew wished us a merry christmas

Geordie405

Thanks for the report. I'd be inclined to agree with you about Stansted, and the train service. I haven't flown out of there in years but as far as I'm concerned it has always been a hellish place.

highpeaklad

Sounds as though your main gripe with Stansted was your lack of experience there, not knowing which pier the lounge would be in etc.
a bit like going to satellite C at LHR only to find no lounge there.
Thanks for posting, it takes a lot of effort and it's always great to see other peoples experiences.

allturnleft

Thanks; the level of unpleasantness at Stansted is something way beyond Terminal 5C ; sheer high volume , low cost , not fit for purpose. Think Sir Norman Foster would cry at the Carnage which lies beneath the canopy he designed.

paul4040

Surprising that a Ryanair passenger couldn't find "a" seat, given Ryanair moved to a model of allocating everyone a seat some time ago.

Stansted is a hole though. Taken a few flights to Ireland from there in my time, though none in recent memory.

EuropeanPete

I actually find Stansted ok - the only bit of the experience I find particularly unpleasant is the usual waiting around standing up (often outside) when flying Ryanair. I usually find Gatwick South more annoying, for example.

Some of the other LCC airports are really rough though. My personal highlight is the "prison" that Ryanair and Wizair flights from which can only remind me of watching TV documentaries about Gitmo.

I've never tried Ryanair "Business", but I have decided to stop flying Ryanair whenever possible (generally always, it seems). I expect you'd find a closer comparison with a fully loaded Easyjet flight which is far more pleasant and which I think really does give BA a run for its money.

Skipcool3

Thanks for posting. Agree, Stansted is Grim. Queues take too long at check-in and security, transit etc.
A new lounge is opening soon that will be better placed I understand.
I have managed to avoid Ryanair for a while now I am pleased to say.

aceman

Odd, I notice that you didn't mention security at stansted, which I'm assuming you got fast track for? Did your partner not feel hemmed in on the BA flight?

Have to say maybe it's the flight times I've taken, but I've never had much of an issue with stansted other then the loooong walks.

Still, it seems you've got a better idea of which way round to do it now: get a BA flight out and a Ryan air flight back!

allturnleft

Fast track security at Stansted was actually a breeze. Yes Partner couldn't believe lack if leg room on BA had to put arm rest up and sit sideways!

Paralytic

I was sure this was going to be another complaint about Monopole.

revan

I was hoping it would be a report on the effects of LSD whilst flying

rich0110

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you say that most BA fares were 'out of reach' so booked Ryanair, but why I ask did you HAVE to fly business in the first place? For the sake of flying economy for the very short 2hr flight, you could have saved yourself the Stansted experience, and a few quid at that?

Apart from some lousy lounge food and a baileys coffee on board, I cannot ever see the point in CE tickets?

Nimrod1965

When the terminal at Stansted first opened in the 1990's, flying out of there with Air UK was actually quite pleasant even though it was a bit of a trek round the M25. Haven't been there for about 10 years when I flew from there to Prestwick with RYR, but the area they were using was scruffy then.

irmster

STN is the one "London" airport I avoid at all costs. Full of people who fly Ryanair!

So after 25/12 it will not have any business lounge which unusual for an airport of that size.