flyclub

Indeed. My parents have given all the Low Costs the Benefit of the doubt - Easyjet (of which I have had a nasty experience myself), BMIbaby and Ryanair.

My mother would rather not go than fly Ryanair after a Brussels (or it Charlie something) fiasco.

In fact father has booked two trips with Ryanair and simply not used it after mother bursting into tears. I kid you not!

I think it is also a case that those who fly the low costs regularly don't have a proper benchmark to compare it too. It is just treated as 'flying'. I think the regular posters this forum attracts anyway are far from being 'joe public'.

BAAZ

Parents-in-law, not parents

Hmm - yes, not ideal, etc, but
- they're prepared to take the risk of FR being cancelled or whatever (diversion wouldn't be ideal, I admit), as they still have the reservation on BA
- the main issue is that STN appears to be operating normally whereas LHR is a nightmare (and AZ a/c's were stuck there apparently); either way, it won't be pleasant.

One of my colleagues tried to get to LHR yesterday from MUC (BA) for a dinner with us and gave up after 5 hours in the airport and 2 hours waiting in the aircraft on the ground, before going home. The plane did eventually arrive in London something like 8 hours late.

Lite

I wasn't really feeling provoked, simply trying to put forward a reasonable argument that Ryanair provide a good value for money service, which some die hard British Airways fans are finding rather difficult to swallow.

Indeed, Ryanair are operating an almost full schedule from London-Stansted, only cancelling flights to airports in Europe which are unable to cope with the adverse weather conditions such as Derry and Friedrichshafen. There are also very few cancellations from EMA and LPL. Now contrast this with BA (and even AZ) at LHR, LGW, MAN and BHX, and seriously tell me that using Ryanair to Rome for a flight today or tomorrow isn't looking like a sensible back-up to BA going tits up for another day.

Swanhunter

Pay peanuts, expect to be treated like a monkey (and then be pleasantly surprised and grateful if it is different).

G-BOAC

Dozens and dozens of posts summed up succinctly as ever, Swanhunter ^^

(Now, if only BA could guarantee the converse – pay a bit more than peanuts not to be treated like a monkey, don’t get treated like one anyway due to never-ending cuts in the race to the bottom – I’d be very happy )

wobbly wings

Sorry smirnoff but:

There's a good turn to it though. You've avoided the scram for the seats.

Like Raffles I do not really like blasting FR too much but clearly it's not the same as a major airline. But for someone doing a few days on the cheap; if that person does not mind the frequent cancellations than it could be one of the options.

Skipcool3

I am SURE that most of you here will have heard of Skytrax.. link here.. www.airlinequality.com Lots and lots of happy quotes by happy travellers who have travelled on F.R...... NOT!!! Ryanair rated as a 2star L.C.C. says it all, really.

Nicc HK

This was two years ago January. Decided to do the flight because last meeting of the day was in Devonshire Square near Liverpool Street Station, and I admit cost 1p each way plus GBP27 in taxes return. Social trip to visit family in Cornwall tacked on to business trip from HKG to London plus an in-built sense of curiousity.

STN-NQY

Check-In Early and friendly staff.
Departure 3 Hours Late, no information. Early evening departure became late evening departure.
Flight. Irritated Irish Captain who made it very clear he and the crew did not want to do the flight but was dragged out at the last minute. Would have been nice if someone other than the flight deck crew spoke at least two words of English, but probably just as well they didnt they were all so miserable and downright hostile. Did think decor was tacky, but thats my taste.

NQY-STN

Check-in Long Queue.
Departure 1 Hour late.
Flight Quick no problems better crew, but compared to BA or even more CX wont get an honourable mention.
Arrival 90 minutes waiting for my bag to arrival, no staff on hand to advise on when the baggage likely to appear, therefore spent twice as long waiting for bags as flying time!
Result. Missed Business Meeting in London.

Analysis.

Not an inspiring airline, get what you pay for (apologies for trotting out a cliche tailor made for Ryanair) and got off lightly compared to others.

As someone who sadly has to fly a lot and lives in Hong Kong so any visit to UK or Europe I am on tight schedules, means if something goes wrong it is far more expensive for me on FR due to business commitments than to take an airline like BA whom will take care of me when things do go pear-shaped.

Result. Next flights to NQY were on Air Southwest......and the next time will be on Air Southwest.........and the next time will be on Air Southwest, even if the tickets cost GBP125 return!

Will I ever fly Ryanair again? Not unless completely unavoidable.

Merry Christmas,

Nicc

redshift27

As many as that! Gosh!

Escocesa

I have flown Ryanair on many different occasions, and I have yet to have a terrible experience with them (touch wood!). Although I don't particularly enjoy flying with them, it has given me the opportunity to travel to new places on a regular basis, which my student budget wouldn't allow on regular BA trips. It has opened up Europe to those who may not have been able to afford a holiday before LCC's, and I can see it only as a good thing.

However, I tend to do most of my LCC travel on Flyglobespan which is far superior to Ryanair. Low cost it may be, but the service is friendly, it departs from GLA and it gets me to BCN; do I have any reason to complain?! The Spanish LCC vueling is one of my favourites, €20 return to SVQ from BCN, and they give you sweets and newspapers (that's the real pulling factor!!!). However, I'm glad I never had the opportunity to fly Air Madrid after this weeks shenanigans!!!

Anyhow, Ryanair has their place, but I prefer not to use them!

Smirnoff

Interested to know what you decided.

And are they booked on the 1700 flight which looks like it is going as normal, or the 1840 which is cancelled?

BAAZ

They were booked on the 1700. But they decided to try FR in the end. They said checkin at Ciampino airport was fine (remember they're Italian so they don't differentiate between queues and scrums ). In flight at the moment, expected into STN at 12.39 which is about 45 minutes late, which isn't bad. I'll get a trip report from them this afternoon.

joelacpa

If only!

spotwelder

For those of you interested in Ryanair stats here they are:

Ratio of flights on which Mandatory Occurrence Reports would be filed in the event of Ryanair being a UK registered carrier: 60%
Flights on which minor deviations were noted: 13%
Flights on which no significant deviations were noted 27%

Ratio of flights on which Mandatory Occurrence Reports would be filed in relation to BA flights (and related to BA operations): 0% (others are filed in relation to the destination airports etc but not directly related to BA flight crew, cabin crew, the aircraft or the operating procedures)

Flights on which minor deviations were noted 4% (of operating flights, however, my criticisms of the safety cards etc is well known, and has been taken up with BA. However, they are nothing like as bad as the Ryanair ones)

Ryanair seats and their associated brace position are likely to lead to a high percentage of broken necks in the event of a fast deceleration event. BA does not suffer from this.

Number of answers from the Irish CAA to emails and letters about Ryanair safety received in the office to date: Nil.

Perhaps if BA moved to the Irish register, they could cut down on their safety expenditure too?

More Champagne Sir?

Bloody Hell! Now that's just scary