The RYANAIR thread
 

Hello fellow FTers!

After being on this forum for a while I would like to do some contributions! I was looking for information on Ryanair and, although I know that this is not a dumpable airline (of course) and that I would obviously not find it in main posts, I thought I was going to find something. But I didn't!

So I would like to start this post with some tips that are very useful when flying with them:

24h grace period
When you buy a ticket you have, as the name implies, a 24h period for FREE changes in routes, times, name... anything. You can even do a RT from a different airport, if you ask (something you can't do when booking), i.e. BCN - BRU, CRL - GRO. You can only touch two countries, though.

Free Priority Q
If you are one of the last passengers to check in, chances are high that you get a "paying seat". The reason is simple: as people check in the system assigns them a free seat. If they run out of free seats, they will start giving the non-free seats. And these seats come with Priority Q!

Mobile APP
When you're travelling with Ryanair it is nice to have that app, specially because you can check in with your mobile phone and have the boarding pass right there. This means no need for printing and being environmentally friendly! ;)

Luggage
There have recently been changes in their policy regarding cabin luggage. The last times I've flown with them I was carrying a big suitcase and a normal backpack and had no problems.

Flight prices
This might be one of the trickiest, but still there are some interesting tricks. You can know almost for sure that a price is not going to go down if you see the "X seats remaining at this price" mark. And you can see the next price if you do a search with more passengers than seats remaining! If you don't see the scary sentence, then the price might get lower during one of their usual promotions.

When to book
I think the best time is 3 to 5 weeks in advance of the flight. Anyways if you find what you think it's a good price get it! The lowest it can get recently is 5 - 6€, but that is rare. Normal lowest is 10€.

That's more or less all I have to share at the moment! I hope it is useful for your next trips with them. It is deffinitely not the best airline, but by far the cheapest. And please feel free to contribute if you have anything to add!

Wow - I never knew about the grace period ... let alone being able to change the routing. Can you do the routing change online yourself ?

Although, I find it's sometimes cheaper to book to singles separately anyway.

There was a page on Ryanair about their grace period, but I can't find it on their renewed website.

My bolding. I'm afraid that's not correct - sometimes Ryanair later go on to offer the flight at a lower price after that message has appeared (e.g. if they're trying to fill up the plane). What they don't do is actually offer a fare at that very same price level - so the sentence is accurate on a literal level.

Skyscanner's Price Alerts email service (prices checked daily) can be useful for tracking price fluctuations, though note it covers all airlines flying a route - but if Ryanair is the only airline flying between two airports then you can use it to get an idea of how their pricing works.

You can change the routing if you talk with them through the online assistants. I think you can yourself but you're gonna have to go through the normal procedures, and they will charge you.

Interesting the single ticket thing, I have never seen that but will try! Anyways I think it is better to book separate tickets specially because of this 24h period, so if you want to change one flight it won't affect the other.

Yeah you might be right, I was doubting into putting "almost sure" or "sure", although I have never seen prices going down after the message. Good to know! I don't understand the last sentence: they won't put the same price again?

This is very true.

Ryanair prices can vary, upwards and downwards, at any time.

Of course, the trend is usually upwards, but this is not always the case.

(For instance, it would be crazy to book now for flights approaching the end date of the booking window- selling these seats is not currently a priority for the airline, so it will charge over the odds for those suckers that are anxious to book several months in advance)

This may happen more often for returns starting in the UK (particularly London) - so booking a single *to* London can be cheaper than adding a return leg to the outbound ticket.

This is not a very good example as you would be very unlikely to see the '"X seats remaining at this price" mark' tag, which was what the_gironian's point was about but the more general point made is, of course, correct even though the_gironian also has a point, in that this indicates that this fare bucket is getting full so the odds of a lower fare are towards the lower end of the spectrum.

Interesting points indeed. Have you seen the new website? It is quite useful, specially the option to search for flights departing from an airport depending on dates and maximum price! The website still has some bugs but I always thought the old one was lacking this option.

Also, I've seen something new on the price windows. On some flights (not a lot) a higher price appears crossed above a new, cheaper one. I've seen this on a flight that was first 33€, then 27, and now 33 again. Could this be the option that we are discussing: Ryanair trying to fill up the plane?

You can even do a RT from a different airport, if you ask (something you can't do when booking), i.e. BCN - BRU, CRL - GRO. You can only touch two countries, though.

I don't understand this part of the comment. Can anyone explain? We use RyanAir about once a month & love it. Always glad to learn things that can keep the price down or make the experience better.

I think the idea is you initially book (online) a return
e.g. BCN - BRU / BRU - BCN

But within 24 hours (during the grace period) you realise that actually CRL - GRO would be a more convenient return leg, so you contact Ryanair and they will amend your booking.

But what you can't do is change the return leg to a flight from Netherlands - Spain (if they even fly it).

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Ryanair virgin here
 

I have never flown Ryanair, but need to get from DUB to BRU on a day where Ryanair provides the best flight timings. I need to catch an onward flight from Brussels and cannot afford to be late in arriving in BRU.

How reliable is Ryanair in terms of punctuality?

My experience is that they are very reliable in terms of on-time landing. However for your requirment, an issue could be that a lot of their flights actually use Charleroi (CRL) airport, which is some distance south of BRU.

No, they use BRU for some flights to/from DUB. I have used this route a number of times.

Punctuality was pretty good, and BRU isn't too bad for transferring.