Everyone, very quickly I am planning a trip to Europe in early May and I wanted to hear the experiences people have had between EasyJet and RyanAir. I am flying to Paris and I am looking for the best way to get around in Europe, thank you.

First of all, when Ryanair flies to "Paris", they actually fly to Beauvais, which is about 50 miles or so from Paris, and could be a problem actually getting in/out of the city.

Secondly, Ryanair is notorious for abandoning their passengers in the event of irregular ops (delays, cancellations, etc.).

My advice, for what it's worth, is to avoid them and stick with one of the more reputably LCCs. Do a lot of research here and get a feel for the ins and outs of intra-Europe travel. Also, check out whichbudget for a good look at what's available. One can often find flights for as little as 1 euro (plus taxes and fees) depending on the city pairs.

I have heard very little negative about EasyJet, and my personal experience with SkyEurope has been very positive.

Avoid Ryanair at all costs. Or, as is often the case with regard to their flights, even at low costs. With Ryanar, you get what you pay for, if you're lucky, and even less, if you're not.

easyJet is a fine budget carrier. No frills, but excellent value. And, as noted, you can skip the god-awful bus ride to BVA, which to be honest, is positively awesome in comparison to the circus tent that is the airport's gate area.

I am a bit concerned since I need to get back to Paris from Rome to complete my return trip to LAX. I originally wanted to do some sort of LCC from rome to paris on the day of my return trip to LAX but it now looks like I should not do this. I will plan on returning to Paris a day before my return to LAX. Thank you for your comments

You could also look at taking the night train from Rome to Paris - depending on what level of accommodations you take on the train (seat vs. sleeper) it may be cheaper than spending the money on a hotel in Paris.

If you do end up flying back to Paris on the day of your flight be sure to leave plenty of time for your connection back to the US - if your LCC is late in getting you to CDG (or if you fly into an alternate airport and get stuck in traffic), your carrier is not required to reaccomodate you.

I must say that I have flown both Easy Jet and Ryan Air, and while the two airlines got me to my destination safely, Easy Jet has always been the more economical.

From London to Cologne on Easy Jet the price in 2005, including fees and taxes, was only $25, whereas the Gatwick Express to the airport to take that flight was almost the same price. (I've since discovered you can get regional trains, which take only ten minutes longer at half the price).

From Salzburg back to London on Ryan Air (admittedly a larger distance) the fare was three times higher, about $75. Plus, I find the fees added on to the deceptively low prices appear to be much less with Easy Jet than with Ryan Air, which makes me suspect a scam on their part. After all, taxes should be the same or similar.

Last October, I flew Easy Jet from Paris (CDG) to Lisbon and from Barcelona back to Paris (ORY) for about $110. So, in certain instances you could make a connection to a transatlantic flight with Easy Jet in Paris. I used Vueling Air (a Spanish carrier) to get from Lisbon to Barcelona for about $60. Both flights were fine and they handled the baggage excellently. Also, Ryan Air for quite awhile was only allowing 15K, as opposed to these carriers which gave you 20K. The fact that Ryan Air is now charging for baggage puts another negative in their scorecard.

Having said all that, these carriers have allowed us reasonable fares (assuming we plan ahead) and the possibility to get these fares on one-way routes, so that the triangle flight I took in October was possible. In the past, you had to fly one carrier round-trip in order to get some sort of decent fare. And the problem was that you might have headed to another location by train in the country you flew into and the second location did not provide a flight back on the carrier that got you to the country.

Just check what's convenient for you. I don't know about Beauvais outside Paris, but I do know that the idea of flying into Stansted in London scared me until I researched it and saw that there were cheap express buses from the airport into London -- much cheaper than the train -- and it only took about 45 minutes (as opposed to half an hour from Heathrow).

All in all, the flights were safe and generally reasonable, and that's what counts the most.

Ryanair, EasyJet and several other European LCCs all offer low fares and minimal service.

Only Ryanair seems to treat its passengers with disdain and the mere units of profit they represent. Check these wesbites for more info then decide if you want to use their services:

http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ryanair
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ryanair

No, what we're saying is - fly LCCs, but don't fly Ryanair. Especially not if you actually have to get to where you need to be in a timely fashion. Chances are, everything will be fine and you'll only be annoyed by Ryanair's constant onboard announcements trying to sell you stuff. But if things do go wrong, Ryanair have no qualms whatsoever about leaving you stuck whereever the heck you are.

Other LCCs tend to take a slightly more customer-oriented approach. I would not hesitate to fly them. But with Ryanair there is always a certain risk of things going horribly wrong, causing you significant additional expense.

Of course, on the Rome-Paris route, you would still have options if things go wrong with Ryanair, but these would involve a very expensive last-minute, full-fare, one-way ticket on one of the major carriers (Air France or Alitalia).

I would recommend flying EasyJet from Rome to Paris, but be aware that EasyJet uses Paris Orly airport (ORY), while most intercontinental flights from Paris use Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) and you need to allow time for a transfer between them. I believe there are bus services between the two, for a fee.

I have flown EasyJet, Ryan Air, SkyEurope, and Wizz. I will shortly be flying Germanwings. The only problems I have had with delays or cancellations have been two flights on SkyEurope, but the airline handled those reasonably well.

My my choice is EasyJet because of their more lenient policy on carryon luggage. My last choice is Ryan Air, not from personal experience, but from the stories I read about them.

A couple of months ago we flew from ORY to BUD (on Skyeurope). I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by Orly airport.

It is much smaller than CDG and is actually closer to the heart of Paris. Transportation in and out of the city is relatively inexpensive and quick, and all the other hassles of a major international hub (security, customs, etc.) were minimized.

Yes, if you have to get from ORY to CDG to make a connection it could be a problem (but, of course, there are many ground transportation options), but if I were flying into ORY in order to spend some time in Paris I wouldn't hesitate for a second.

There isn't much between both companies but Easyjet have much friendlier staff and as already mentioned better luggage allowance. Ryanair have better punctuality though.

The RER B train also connects the two airports and would be my personal preference.

I have flown Ryanair a number of times now and after each trip I tell myself i am never going to fly them again, but for some reason I keep doing it. My first experience was from "Gatwick" to "Paris". The amount of connection time there was hardley worth it. Next I flew "Frankfurt" to "Milan" and back. It worked out ok but I had very long layovers on both ends. I live about an hour and a half away from the "Milan" (Bergamo) airport now. I flew "Milan" to "Amsterdam" and nearly missed my flights in both direction dues to trains/busses not arriving on time. It can be a pain to get to the little airports. The airports are far away from the major cities and it usually takes at least 2 hours to get to from the major city to the airport.

Ryanair is generally cheaper than Easyjet.

I was just looking into Milan-Amsterdam for March and Ryanair was going to cost 44Euro vs. Easyjets 135Euro. But when I compared the total cost flying Ryanair with getting to/from the airports and with travel time vs. the cost of Easyjet, Easyjet came out to be about 50Euros more expensive but it saved me 6 hours of travel and allowed for a full extra day in Amsterdam. Unfortunately I waited too long and the price of easyjet went up and it became cheaper for me to just fly KLM and ear some miles along the way.

So can anyone tell me why I still bought a Ryanair ticket from "Milan"-"Barcelona"? Oh yea, it was only 20Euros.


All in all I say you have to weigh the cost/time of the two carriers. I've never had a Ryanair flight cancelled on me but I have had some pretty sketchy landings.

Also note that I don't check bags, and if you do it costs 9Euros/bag.

Having flown with both airlines, I wouldn't hesitate using easyjet again, flight was civilised, clean and professional, and they fly to 'proper' airports.

Ryanair oth, it always felt like a dodgy bus service, you spend loads of money to get to remote airports, the buses that go to the airport are run by ryanair, many of the airports I've been to are no more than a shed with a runway (with few exceptions) but what tempts people is always the price.

whatever you do, always have a good travel insurance, I missed my flight from STN to PIK on ryanair once, the replacement flight was �180 inc tax, railway ticket was �80

I have flown LCCs on numerous occasions (primarily EasyJet) with quite good success. However, they did leave me high and dry on a trip from LGW-SNN this summer which was only rectified by me shelling out significant money on a last-minute flight. And that is krux of this story. When all goes well on LCCs, you can pat yourself on the back for saving money. When things go wrong, you can often find yourself in big trouble, particularly if you are connecting onto a flight on a different ticket.

To illustrate this point, a colleague of mine got stuck in ADR (Rome's hub for LCCs) for 24 hours. Although the initial delay was weather-related, the airline (EasyJet?) was unable to get another plane into ADR for 24 hours because of flight scheduling issues. When she finally got to ORY, she had to shell out 100+ Euro to catch a taxi to CDG to catch a flight she had booked on a seperate ticket. Needless to say, it was a stressful 24 hours, it cost her significant money and she would have been SOL if she missed her flight out of CDG

Because of this, I would recommend looking at cheap flights on primary carriers as some of them are now beginning to offer fares comparable with the LCCs (BMI, SAS, SNS come to mind). The benefit of this is that most operate multiple flights a day to primary destinations (meaning you're less likely to get stranded) as well out primary airports (meaning your less likely to have to switch airports). If you select a carrier in the same alliance as the connecting flight, I would think you would have a reasonable chance of having the connecting flight modified in the event you get stuck at the original desintation.