Roger

... for you and your (unspecified) airports.

There are plenty of passengers who have flown FR even more than once with very different experience.

FWIW, Ryanair use more 'normal' airports than the legacy carriers in their area combined, as has been demonstrated many times over. Just because your one flight was a waste of time for you doesn't mean that this has any bearing whatsoever for others using the world's favourite airline, as confirmed by IATA.
http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/iata-...rite-airline-2

Camflyer

That's exactly the way to treat it. It's a National Express bus with wings. You'll get a set, they'll get you to your destination alive and hopefully on time. Everything else is a bonus.

Personally, I prefer EasyJet over Ryanair as you get less of the hard sell on board - but if you take an MP3 player and/or book you can zone out of everything.

Don't feel as if it's compulsory to buy something on board. It isn't. Bring some nibbles from home if you can't last the lenght of the flight without eating something and buy a bottle of water at the airport.

pacer142

EZY are *just better* than Ryanair. But then Ryanair are normally cheaper than easyJet.

That said, I'm getting a bit miffed of late with easyJet's lack of information and slight arrogance. In particular their Twitterer always "answers back" at any suggestion (politely, to be fair) rather than taking it on board. By comparison, the Twitterer for London Midland trains has quite a bit of influence, has done things I've suggested before and always seems to take things on board.

In particular, the "nature of a strike" (as they put it) is not a reason for them not to phone round airports and ask about how bad the passport queues were yesterday then to inform their passengers properly. Not having someone to do that, or it costing too much, is a valid if slightly "undesirable" answer which I would have accepted. But the response I got was a bit like the usual generic "security reasons" given by airlines for things that usually have nothing to do with security and everything to do with revenue.

Neil

mookie10

[QUOTE=Camflyer;16655835]That's exactly the way to treat it. It's a National Express bus with wings. You'll get a set, they'll get you to your destination alive and hopefully on time. Everything else is a bonus.

Personally, I prefer EasyJet over Ryanair as you get less of the hard sell on board - but if you take an MP3 player and/or book you can zone out of everything.

Don't feel as if it's compulsory to buy something on board. It isn't. Bring some nibbles from home if you can't last the lenght of the flight without eating something and buy a bottle of water at the airport.[/QUOTE]


+1 - you can also take an empty water bottle or 2 in your hand luggage and then fill up at a water fountain after security

Concerto

I think that this is most informative out of the above posts (not that the other posts aren't helpful as well), and echoes my own strategy of using them. Oddly, I dislike easyJet far more than Ryanair, but I can't coherently explain that. At least Ryanair doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Concerto

Short trip report NRN-EDI 27th June; EDI-NRN 1st July

I just completed two sectors this week, from Niederrhein (AKA Düsseldorf Weeze) to Edinburgh and back again. I was impressed with the efficient and relatively stress free operation at Weeze airport. Boarding is by walking to the aircraft, Ryanair save money and time by not using airbridges. Access to the aircraft is by a series of stages where you are held up and made to wait for the next stage of walking. This probably improves efficiency. Only downside, people start queuing early, so that can mean quite a bit of tiring standing around.

Seating is not allocated, it is all first come first served, but both flights were perfectly civilized during boarding. I scored the front row going, and row 5 to myself coming back.

The cabin crew were really quite pleasant, and there was a young Scot among them. The pay-as-you-go service is indeed a bit dear, €2 for soft drinks, €3 for a tea/coffee, €1.50-€2 for a chocolate biscuit, €4.50 for a beer (Heineken), €5.95 for wine. Cheese and crackers will set you back €1, peanuts and other munchies €2. The tea was surprisingly good and refreshing (as a Scot I like my tea black with milk), the beer was not sufficiently cooled. Observing those who ordered hot food, it seemed pricey (steak sandwich, bacon baguette €7), took a long time to prepare, and when it was served (during the commencement of descent) it looked very unprepossessing, out of the microwave still in its cellophane wrapper.

The flights themselves were pleasant enough, just like on any other shorthaul airliner. Seating is a bit cramped (I am tall), but no more than on Air France or Laudair.. bearable for flights up to 2 and a half hours. Just ignore all the stuff they try to sell you, and don't waste money on the scratchcards. The planes were clean enough, the flight back to Niederrhein a bit less so.

On the second flight (EDI-NRN) we picked up 50 minutes delay, having already boarded, apparently for engine oil to be topped up (but I think we missed the slot too). Virtually no information is provided, and no drinks offered (not even for purchase). I could feel the pax beginning to get restless. I think that Ryanair could be truly scary with major delays and cancellations.

Advice: 1) do not book a 2nd connecting flight after a Ryanair flight. I have done it and got away with it, but I would not wish that stress on anyone. If you do it, leave at least 3 hours connection time.
2) If you are late, as my flight was (we landed at NRN 35 minutes late), and you miss a shuttle bus connection, consider trying to get people together to share a taxi. I managed to get 8 people to share a taxi bus to Duisburg Hbf, which cost each of us less than the price of the shuttle bus itself!

michael9

Lowcost airlines are named like that b/c they offer only no frills bus transport but then a airplane.

If you know that it is no problem at all.

Only when there is a problem (delay/strike/volcanic eruption etc) you will know very fast their service is nothing compared to that we know off with the classic carriers (certainly when you have a frequent flier status).

Uh Clem

Ryanair really isn't that bad. Here's a video they have on youtube which is posted under their old name, Yorkshire Airlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VLYpKGVBUg

krpjr

RyanAir is the greyhound of the skies...Just think of Spirit Airlines, then you'll understand that Ryanair is the European version of Spirit, both SUCK!

pacer142

A good piece of advice, and one given by FR themselves. They *will not* honour connections under any circumstances regardless of the reason for the delay/rescheduling, and make this very clear.

Neil

Mizter T

Curious to hear about your experiences? (Or is this all just second hand?)

Uh Clem

There are some interesting interviews on Youtube with the president of Ryan Air. He's quite a character and not very professional. In one of the interviews he jokes with a German reporter (female) and tells her the difference between Business class and Economy on Ryan Air is in Business Class you get BJs. I don't think Ryan Air's flight attendants were very happy with that interview.

nrr

In Business Week, about 6 months ago, the CEO of Ryanair was interviewed, he is considering (1)allowing standees, strapped to a wall, (2)why have a pilot and a copilot?, just train a fa to be able to land a plane in an emergency.. (3)charging for use of the toilets.

meester69

And more 'weird' airports too. They fly a lot.

Just had a look Easyjet vs. Ryanair:

Brussels - EZY actual Brussels, FR - miles away, in Charleroi
Paris - EZY CDF and Orly - FR miles away in Beauvais
Frankfurt - EZY no service - FR miles away in Hahn
Hamburg - EZY actual Hamburg, FR miles away in Lubeck
Munich - EZY actual Munich, FR miles away in Memmingen
Dusseldorf - EZY actual Dusseldorf, FR miles away in Weeze
Venice - EZY actual Venice, FR Treviso
Milan - EZY two actual Milan airports, FR miles away in Bergamo
Amsterdam - EZY Schiphol, FR - Eindhoven or Maastricht only
Barcelona - EZY Barcelona, FR - miles away in Reus

and there are many more....

Mizter T

Yes, and so what?

He's a showman, the whole thing's an act, and he's operating on the principle of 'any publicity is good publicity' - how much media attention do each of these carefully considered comments generate? The answer is of course bucket loads.

The more Michael O'Leary can coax the media into mentioning Ryanair, the less advertising they have to do, and the more the image of the airline as a low-cost if not bargain bucket way of travelling is reinforced in the mind's eye of the general public. And it works - Ryanair is hugely profitable and, as stated above, carried more international scheduled passengers than any other airline last year - over 71 million.