I don't really get what people have against Ryanair.

It markets itself as a no frills budget airline. It offers to get you from A to B on time for the lowest price and more often than not, it does so.

I live in the US now and UA and Frontier are my airlines of choice (because they're the ones contracted by my work) but if I'm completely honest, UA economy isn't all that much better than Ryanair, at least not enough to justify the price difference for a similar distance flight (Frontier is another matter).

Before Ryanair travel around Europe was expensive and elitist. As a student, I had the opportunity to have 10-15 European weekends a year thanks to Ryanair. Usually for about 30 Euros each way.

Most of the complaints I see leveled against Ryanair seem to be quite silly in my view, take for example the "hidden charges" - I was a student when I did most of my Ryanair flying, I knew the budget I had going on to the website and at no stage did I think I was going to end up paying 1 cent for a ticket. I factored in the CC charge and the booking fee, I was smart enough to decline the add ons and I could pack a weekends clothes in a carry on. When I paid my 60 Euros return, I didn't through a tantrum because it was 59.99 more expensive than advertised (with taxes, airport charges and ryanair charges) I merely compared it to the Aer Lingus/EasyJet/BMI/BA fares and saw I'd just saved myself about 100 Euros.

Then people complain about the level of in-flight service.... errr how do you think the company makes it's money? Do people think Ryanair are offering low prices out of the goodness of their heart? You get what you pay for, period. Ryanair never compares it's standard of comfort of service to BA or any full cost airline.

The airport locations... hrmm yes.. I can see an issue here... I'll admit I've looked at some destinations and thought "I'd like to go there" and then seen the actual airport location and decided against it. In other cases...As a casual traveler, Beauvais isn't that much worse than CDG.... OK, you can factor in another 40 Euro bus fair to Paris city centre which may bring your ticket price up, but again, still probably cheaper than flying to CDG and having walked through CDG I don't think strolling out of Beauvais and busing to Paris is less convenient than making your way through and out of CDG on a busy day. I've read posts on the web were people have complained "I was left stranded 120km from the city I wanted to be in" Really? You mean you actually made travel arrangements and arrived at the airport without ever even once looking up the airport transport services?? That would have given you a good idea. And that's Ryanair's fault? Are these the people who sue when they spill coffee on themselves because it was hot?

The bottom line is if you blindly book a Ryanair flight and don't actually do any sort of planning or research on the process or don't read the terms of the booking, you kinda deserve what you get. If you want comfort and convenience and are willing to pay, then fly with another airline. If you want budget travel, expect budget travel.

Sorry. this turned into a rant