This has been my experience, too, on well over 100 Ryanair flights.

On one of my frequently-flown routes I have a choice between Ryanair and easyJet and almost always choose Ryanair.

The main reasons for this preference are: (i) price; (ii) punctuality (I went through a bad patch with easyJet a year or two ago during which the same Friday evening flight was always late, meaning that I could not get to a supermarket at my destination to buy things I needed to make breakfast the following morning); (iii) the boarding process; and (iv) cabin crew (I prefer the Spanish-based Ryanair cabin crew on the routes I use most frequently).

My only complaint about Ryanair is that sometimes I am away from my main home longer than 15 days which makes the printing of boarding passes problematic as I do not have a computer or printer at my destination. (EasyJet allows passes to be printed 60 days in advance of travel.)

Yeah, and Spirit Air's PR'ing that this carry-on baggage fee is not anything bad because it's lowered the airfare by the amount of the checked bag fee ($40) so there's no increase in price. It's also saying that this will streamline the boarding/exit process (how thoughtful) Now, I ask, Who does Spirit Air think we are: CHILDREN? We all know that this isn't go to remain the case very long! Smoke 'n mirrors! This attitude (charging for carry-on baggage)----is really going low!

Hands down. Easyjet... Any CEO who is going to make me buy the drinks and pay to discard them after they go through the plumbing is not on my list of carriers, I'd fly. Spirit might only be one step about Ryanair.

Hate RyanAir for their cynical and timewasting manipulation which make you feel like a sucker happy to go elsewhere, but unfortunately have been let down the last 3 times by EasyJet who seriously delayed flights for trivial reasons (the last, on 29/03/2010 flight 5298, was that their electronic runway booking system went down so the manual process took longer - which makes you wonder how bad their backup system is).

Delays are even more important than cash, especially when it messes up trains, connections and work. EasyJet also make sure nobody is around to advise when it is badly late and what your options are (which contravenes EU law). The last time it was more than 3 hours (running over midnight so the trains were missed), customer support later kept going around in circles saying they were only due to refund a �3 sandwich rather than comply with EC Regulation 261/2004 which has now been accepted as being applicable to delays > 3 hours as well as cancellations, with EUR250 compnsation due. Has anyone got this out of EasyJet, RyanAir or anyone else?

Looks like the EU law is toothless too - after all our taxpayers money spent on those beaurocrats busy writing law which they don't backup. Nice work. Left to EasyJet, they also couldn't give a monkey's uncle about you.

The recent volcano has put another nail in Ryanair's coffin.

My daughter was caught in Nice and Easyjet played things by the letter of the law, providing food and accommodation for an extra 5 nights before getting her back to teh UK yesterday.

Ryanair apparently told people to pay for their own food and accommodation and then get in touch with the airline once they were back. However they followed that up yesterday with a statement that they were limiting liability to the cost of the ticket which drives a coach and horses through the relevant EU regulations and is absolutely typical of their total disdain for passengers.

Seems like Ryanair are opening up them for a class action blatantly flouting the law- some lawyers should jump at the chance to sue O'Liar and his company . By the way Ryanair, just because someone paid you �5 for a ticket does not give you the right to deny paying more than that for accommodation - plenty of court cases about parties who entered into a bad commercial deal - it's just the risk you take.

Why is the choice limited to easyJet and Ryanair?

Have you actually looked what BA, bmi, FlyBe actually charge (end price) and compare?

Take the end price .... i.e. after you come home, tot up everything that you actually paid, including food in the airport to make up for the fact that you don't get free food on the plane.

I bet you will find that Ryanair are amongst the most expensive and that BA come very close to easyJet at the end of the day.

Sometimes easy will be cheaper and sometimes BA will be cheaper. I haven't been bmi or FlyBe but I hear their prices can be quite good if you are flexible over the dates you want to fly.

I would have thought that competent pilots and working aircraft was a given for a company that call itself an airline !!

It's what they do on top of the basics that makes people come back.

Although to be fair some people are taken in by the ostensibly low prices and then start bleating when things go wrong and the LCC in question abandons them or doesn't want to meet their legal obligations.

In the end, you actually do get what you pay for ....

I have RyanAir flights booked for August. Well, I'm hoping I hit a RyanAir Anniversary, 20 million'th passenger or someother celebratory event where the airline serves free champagne, free snacks/sandwiches and has balloons and dancing girls, everything you know.

You'll have to pay for that, too.

Being mean towards whom? There is no reason to paint things rosy for those who are yet (foolish enough?) to fly with Ryanair and I think they deserve us being honest.
And as far as being "mean" towards Ryanair..., I don't see a reason why not be mean towards an airline which treats its customers with such contemp t.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/wo.../01oleary.html

Couple this contempt he seems to have for his flying public wrt the "duty of care" (sic), I would rather walk over hot coals than give him a penny of my business on principle. End of.

Mr. O'Leary sounds like a nice man. He's probably real generous and picks up the check for you at a restaurant, pays for the bridge toll for the motorist waiting behind him, generously slips bills to homeless people begging on the sidewalk, and throws his cash around, tipping waiters and cabbies very generously. Yeah.....HAH, HAH, HAH!

Anyone who believes in the simplistic notion that when it comes to customer service it's "easyJet good-Ryanair bad" should read the following (taken from another thread on this 'site):

Myself, husband & son were stranded in fuerteventura last saturday, we had a flight booked with easyjet & went to the airport first thing on the saturday morning even though it wasn't due to fly till the evening & were told by the information centre in Puerto de rosario to go to an internet cafe & book other flights because easyjet had cancelled (which we knew as it was all over the news) they also gave out a number to all easyjet clients which was disconnected !! I would call easyjet totally unhelpful & uncaring.

We headed back to resort found an internet cafe & have paid for our own flights, plus an extra weeks accomodation, meals, no end of phone calls and eventually got back last night with thomas cook.

No idea if insurance will pay because they aren't available due to extremely high calls !!!!! so to try again monday.
Easyjet put you through a document to reclaim your flight money back which is a nightmare.

We will wait with baited breath whether we receive any money back but to be honest we're not optimistic at all.

The british press & easyjet are making out in papers & national news they are helping stranded passengers being in the unfortunate position & experiencing it first hand there is no help at all.