Be careful. EasyJet may not notify you that a flight has been cancelled. I purchased tickets on EasyJet to fly from Paris to Milan on Christmas Day. The tickets were bought on September 28, 2006. On a hunch, I went back to their website on December 2 and noticed that the flight was cancelled. This was also the only flight of the day. I called EasyJet and they agreed to refund my money, but it took almost 6 weeks for it show up in my bank account. They sent out no email notification at all and my preferences were set to allow them.

The main problem with Pikeyair - sorry Ryanair - is the way they will screw every last bit of money out of you they can, often in ways that aren't obvious or which other airlines would consider civilised behaviour but they consider to be a money making opportunity

For example, they charge for checked luggage - but if you only have hand luggage then they'll "assist" you by slapping on a charge for Internet checkin and being able to board the plane first for which you've got to find the link to remove it.

If you are a family then the only way to virtually guarantee seats at the same end of the plane is to pay for the privilege.

Then you get to the end of the booking process and you pay by CC you discover that they charge a CC fee PER PERSON PER FLIGHT rather than one transaction charge for the whole booking.

I flew into Paris on Germanwings and it's the best LCC I've been on. I'd strongly recommend them.

As far as Easy vs Ryan, I'd go with EasyJet hands down. RyanAir is just depressing. EasyJet, I flew them from Athens to London and it was actually nice! And yes - the whole getting from Paris to Beavuax (sp?) to fly out on RyanAir sucks!

Ryanair are OK, I've flown on them 50 or more times and EasyJet at least a dozen times.

They aren't my favourite airlines, but when they do flights for < £10 and sell one way tickets without charging stupid prices (ie £500 like BA used to do) you can't complain. I feel a bit like I've been robbed when I've have had to pay £150-£200 for a seat though.

Watch out for all the hidden charges to check in bags, online checkin, credit card fee etc. Don't arrive late for check-in or they will refuse to board you and make you buy a new ticket.

Watch out for the airports they fly to, all the low cost airlines have a habit of flying to airports in the middle of nowhere. Factor in the cost/time of transfers against the fare.

If there is choice of airline, I'd pay up to £20 to fly on a non RyanAir/EasyJet flight but no more than that. If you are worried about getting service on board then spend £10 at a sandwich shop on the way to the airport and eat like a king when you are on the plane. :D

The good news is that Ryan Air are quite punctual and because the low cost airlines have a very fast 20-30 minute turn around for their planes you tend to get your bags quite quickly too.

Dunno where you are based but also consider Eurostar train....

I had no problems with EasyJet LIS-CDG last October, and will most probably use them again in the future. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth repeating that legacy carriers sometimes offer fares that are competitive with the LCCs and you should, as a result, use a fare consolidator to find cheap fares instead of automatically assuming that you'll get the best bargain with a LCC. Example: I ended up using BA on a LHR-LIS leg; LCC fares were equally expensive and less convenient (eg. departures from STN).

Lots do take in
 

Wow, thanks everyone I will probably stay away from RyainAir unless the price is much lower than other alternatives. How about traveling to venice which LCC is the carrier of choice?

The only other LCC between Paris & Venice is Myair.

Have you considered the Sleeper Train?

Try http://www.skyscanner.net/ to compare low-cost airlines.

From London, I like BMI because they don't have RyanAir's baggage fees, and they fly out of Heathrow (which saves 8-10 GBP $16-20 in transfer fees).

Mitchell

One of the better kept secrets in European air travel is that on the major carriers you can often fly into one airport in a country and fly out of another airport in that country for the price of a normal roundtrip.

In your case, you can fly Paris-Venice/Rome-Paris for the price of a Paris-Venice-Paris flight. Check out www.expedia.com and use the "multiple destinations" search under the "Flights" tab to see what I mean. Depending on when you book, LCCs can definitely be cheaper, but I'm getting prices of 170 Euros return for CDG-Venice and Rome-CDG. Both flights serve the cities' main airport, i.e. Venice Marco Polo instead of "Venice" Treviso and Rome Fiumicino instead of Rome Ciampino, which can be a plus.

At the risk of repetition - avoid Ryanair at all costs.
Sometimes in life it's worth saying no - no matter how cheap the date is !
In my experience Easyjet have staff who can speak English and understand the meaning of civility.
They also have many more gay stewards which is always a good sign,I think !

Painful lesson
 

If you're entertaining any sort of idea that you might use Ryanair to get you to a destination from where you need to make a connection or where you have anything to do that is time sensitive then please read first the horror stories that abound on the internet including my own.
There are also many examples on the Skytrax site as well as the Ryanaircampaign site.:(

I have found Ryanair to be ok, but difficult. I much prefer Easyjet. They seem friendlier and more professional. They are on time more. But Ryanair is cheaper.

However contrary to the general theme of the posts here, rest assured what I'm about to say is even more contrary to what I actually do in practise.

Ryanair, for all their hassles and quirks, does one thing and they do it very, VERY well. They get you from point A to point B for less than anyone else. Notwithstanding the fact that point A and B might not be anywhere near where you want to go they still do it, they advertise it, and it's critical to know about it, so this is why we read Flyertalk in the first place, eh?

Anyway, in my experience Ryanair is the most valuable when you want to go "somewhere" and you can get there in one hop from where you are (maybe two, but you're pushing it... more later). For example: I have a long weekend and can get to DUB the night before. This means I can get to Sweden for 20 euro. Sure, it means I have to go to Malmö, but I just want to get away, right? So I go to Malmö, and take a bus to Copenhagen. One flight, one bus, done. Same thing on the return. (compared to the 300 euro I spent to go to Oslo last time, it's a great deal).

Ryanair does one other thing marginally well, and that is to BE flight insurance. I had to get ORK-LHR last Christmas when LHR was shut down due to fog, but STN was still running. 1-cent Ryanair ticket + tax = 30 euro, which is nothing when the alternative is to miss the only seat for days on a transatlantic. I didn't even check in, since the Aerlingus flight factually took off, but it could have been a lifesaver for 30 euro.

Now, if you want to go to a specific place or are relying on a plane to do X so you can make a connection, don't use Ryanair. And if you need to connect somewhere, don't cut it close. In fact, if you need to connect somewhere, consider flying with someone else. I've seen a friend miss two Ryanair flights in a row because he relied on a tight bus-airport connection (to be honest, the first one was because of a security thing where they just cancelled his flight and 300 people rushed the ticket window to rebook). So if you're in a situation where you "need to be on this flight", you might want to hope that flight is with a different carrier.

So try to pick the flights that are going to run smoothly ;)

Anyway, if you have the time and have no problem playing by their rules, Ryanair can get you to some great places for basically nothing. They're clean-ish, comfortable (moreso than a park bench), you can meet some interesting people (like the guys on the way to Eindhoven who polished off a fanta bottle full of gin while we taxied out), and I hear it's nicer than a Cambodian bus. And if it's the choice between them and the bus, you know I'll take Ryanair... unless there's anything else available.

I have flown Easyjet from Glasgow to Nice and back from Madrid to Glasgow and found them to be quite efficient! I'd definitely fly them again!

:td:...