I get it. This is not the usual Flyertalk Trip Report! I hope some of you will find this interesting and useful. Perhaps it may help in further driving air fares towards zero. Keep reading for an explanation of the last sentence. Apologies, I didn’t take any photos.

Six months ago it would have been incomprehensible for me to be writing this Trip Report, let alone to have flown on Ryanair. Until now I had been extremely proud to have never flown with them. Now everything has changed. I did it; I flew Ryanair and can confirm it’s perfectly flyable.

Let me pause and introduce you to my golden rule of flying with low cost carriers: If you absolutely need to be somewhere on a specific day and/or at a specific time, don’t use a low cost carrier. When things go wrong (IRROPS), you are on your own. Full stop.

This is the bit you don’t get on Trip Advisor. I am a Oneworld flyer. The bulk of my flying time is spent with BA, AA and Cathay. I occasionally fly with SQ, because they’re simply fantastic, though I feel like I’m cheating on OW when I do! I haven’t flown long haul economy in something approaching 10 years, everything is in J or F these days.

Anyway, back to how I ended up flying Ryanair.

For years I have regarded Ryanair as evil, wicked and would have been delighted to see them go out of business. I still think they’re partly evil, but they now serve a useful purpose in my eyes. More on that at the end.

Some months ago it became clear that I would be travelling as part of a group to Lisbon and I’d have no realistic option of travelling separately (as I have always done previously where Ryanair was involved). BA and TAP were outrageously expensive. I can’t recall why Easyjet was ruled out, but we ended up with 2 flight options; Ryanair or private jet.

You’re probably screaming at your display that there is simply no choice to be made. If private jet is even a consideration, why not book that? Well, private air travel is extremely expensive by almost any measure. In this case, due to the number of people in our group, we’d have needed a larger than normal jet, and that jacks up the cost even further. I know people with their own private jets who routinely fly on commercial carriers (including low cost carriers), because they baulk at the cost of flying on their own planes. They charter them out to try and recover some of their vast costs.

After much deliberation we agreed that Ryanair would be the mode of travel. I resigned myself to breaking my long standing rule of never flying with them.

Finally, let’s get to the flights.

STN-LIS
I haven’t been to Stansted for years.

I was expecting mayhem at check-in when I went to drop off my bag, including a thorough check and weighing of my hand luggage. There were no queues at all. The agent was perfectly friendly and didn’t even glance at my hand baggage (which was within their strict size and weight rules).

Security was a bit of a mess. It took about 15 mins to get through (not using Fast Track). Being a holiday airport, the not so frequent travellers struggled a bit with what to take out of their bags, how much undressing to do etc. The staff, in line with LHR, were pretty unfriendly and barked orders at people.

Airside, a bit of money has been spent on the place. There is a Harris + Hoole coffee shop, which despite being owned by Tesco, makes a reasonably good coffee. In UK airport style, you then walk through the duty free shop to get to the departures area, where there are new looking shops and restaurants to pass the time. Being part of a group I didn’t get the opportunity to visit any lounges.

At the gate I was expecting additional hand baggage checks. There were none.

A priority boarding lane was available. All it does it allow you to have your boarding pass scanned quickly. You then join the queue in the “boarding pen”, post boarding pass scan, where you wait before boarding.

Boarding is done using both the front and rear stairs. I had selected a standard seat just over half way back, so used the rear stairs to board.

Everyone seemed to gravitate to the front stairs and there was a long queue, much less so at the rear.

Ryanair operate an all 737 fleet. On board, the garish blue and yellow interior made me think that the plan was about 20 years old. In fact it was only about 3 years old, probably using an interior that was significantly older than that.

The Seat
Legroom was fine for a short hope. The seats don’t recline.

Most annoyingly, there is no stowage (net) in the seat in front of you. You have to hold everything (reading material, headphones, tablet etc), during take-off and landing.

The Crew
This flight was operated by a Lisbon based crew. They were professional and would have not looked out of place on a “real” airline, which cannot be said for some of their LCC competitors. They were efficient and friendly.

Onboard Sales
I slept through all the sales announcements, of which there were probably 3 to 4. The trolley cart did make several trips up and down the aisle.

The Flight
We pushed back right on time and the flight was uneventful. It was almost full.

There was no jungle played on landing.

At Lisbon, we were bussed to the terminal. The busses were completely full, but immigration was fast and luggage arrived on the carousels quickly.


LIS-STN
Terminal 2 at Lisbon is a shed with a few fancier than usual (for a shed airport terminal) looking food+drink outlets.

Upon walking into the terminal we were greeted with a long queue for security. The queue was actually just to get to the bit where they scan your boarding pass. I estimated it was a 15-20 min queue. I also noted an empty Green/Priority lane.

At the bag drop, which was again deserted, I was helped by a friendly agent, who no doubt works for the airport services operator and just happened to by performing check-in for Ryanair that day.

I enquired about the Green/Priority security lane, asking if Ryanair’s “Priority” would work (I was fully expecting them to not be paying for it!), or if there was an option to pay for it. He didn’t know but made a phone call and confirmed that Ryanair Priority would be accepted!

We went to the front of the Green/Priority line which was Tensa-barrier closed the the front. The agent came over, scanned my boarding pass and said to me “You are not in First Class”. I pointed to the “PRIORITY” wording on my Ryanair boarding pass, which she gladly accepted and let us through. It was hilarious!

Airside it’s a bit of a disaster. There is a fancy looking Nespresso coffee shop, but the coffee was poor. There are limited seats, so having purchased something to eat, you could not sit down to eat it. I opened my Priority Pass app and wished that I was in the main terminal, with 3 lounges to choose from, including the ANA Lounge.

At the gate there were again 2 queues, one for Priority. There was a huge non-priority queue and no one in the Priority lane. At this point I realised the price sensitivity of most Ryanair travellers. I think Priority was £4 each way. I was expecting it to be oversold to the point of being useless, not the other way around! After a boarding pass check (no hand baggage check anywhere on this leg either), the “boarding pen” was outside. Fortunately it was pleasantly warm. In winter it must be horrible.

Again there was a huge queue at the front stairs to board and a far smaller one at the rear.

The crew on this flight were Stansted based. Again they were perfectly pleasant and competent.

Pushback was delayed a bit, no doubt due to some local bureaucracy. The flight was uneventful and we made up time, arriving 2 minutes after our scheduled arrival. There was no landing jingle played.

Summary and How Ryanair Actually Helps FT'ers!
A few years ago Ryanair reached the bottom of the “race to the bottom”. They started their “always getting better” programme and put a piece of gaffa tape around Michael O’Leary’s mouth. Evidently this is paying off. I was literally amazed at how easy and hassle free the whole experience was. I had been expecting a nightmare. Perhaps I got lucky.

I am not about to change my flying routines or rush onto my next Ryanair flight. I still think they are evil in some regards. They are however an option. They also serve a useful purpose for all of us FT’ers and this is the reason I have written this Trip Report…

Competition is driving air fares through the floor, and there is still more room for them to fall. Ryanair’s contribution is that they help to keep our favourite legacy carriers in check. Let’s enjoy this boom period whilst it lasts. The days of the FT’er have never been better!

Cheers!