Let's get serious, how bad is Ryanair
 

So ... here am I , about to reserve a DUB-AMS flight on FR. I never thought this moment will come. Tell me why I shouldn't :D My carry on backpack is 54 x 35 x 20 cm, so that's OK. I am perfectly capable of printing my boarding pass ahead of the time, that's OK too. I can survive [moderator edit] seats on a 1:35 flight. (My next flight is the next morning and that's in KLM business because it's 10+ hours and that much I can't survive in a ...... seat.)

What did I miss?

Could you imagine Ronald Reagan (or Donald Trump) flying Aeroflot in the late '60s, because the airline was cheaper than TWA or PanAm? :cool:

I've flown FR three times for the simple reason that you could fly from Perugia to Stansted, avoiding about two hours of driving to FCO. The first couple of flights were really bad. Not only for the reasons you mentioned, but I simply couldn't stand the constant selling of food, lottery tickets, bus tickets (or was it train?), duty free, you name it. The last flight, 12 months ago, had less of that, I had a seat in the first row so, overall, it was not much worse than other airlines. Clearly one survives it.

On a route to AMS you probably will have to contend with passengers who are going for a fun time to the Netherlands and might be a little too excited by the prospect of art and canals (;)).

FR is fine if everything goes well. God forbid if there is a problem though(actually, it's not a bad idea to have a plan B since you have to catch another expensive flight in AMS).

FR is better than NK, usually on time, and the ratio of product to price is usually very good.
My only complaints:
1. Having to get to the airport earlier if you want to travel with your carry-on in the overhead bin
2. If things go wrong, you're SOL - their rebooking capabilities aren't that great due to high load factors and low frequencies. This is similar to other LCCs.

This is very true.

I flew this route on a Friday evening last month, and it was, shall we say, quite a boisterous flight.

We landed on the Polderbaan, which takes a good 15-20 minutes taxiing to get to the terminal. As soon as we touched down, 2 passengers were up and out of their seats and running down to the back of the plane (where I had the bad luck to be seated), informing everyone in earshot that they were "bursting for the loo".

I pity the poor Ryanair staff. One of the FAs at the back was firm and unyielding (and I applauded her composure in the face of some rather difficult interactions) and managed to get these pax - who were later joined by a third - to sit themselves down until the aircraft came to a complete stop. As it dawned on these passengers how long the taxi was going to be, she had to assert her authority once again.

The bickering and squabbling amongst these three [and the bad language] was not a pleasant thing to behold.

That said - the flight itself was fine, and the staff were among the best I have ever encountered, given some of the behaviour they had to contend with.

Ryanair are fantastic.
They get you from A to B, have an excellent safety record and are most inexpensive.
Your expectations need to be ~a flying bus. Follow their rules and there is no issue.

Don't you have the option of Aer Lingus, or the (possibly rather expensive) KLM codeshare on Aer Lingus on that route? I would choose Ryanair - or not- based on the city pair, because that determines the sort of people you will get on the flight most of the time. So, most routes would be ok for me, but some I would definitely avoid, such as PMI, Ibiza, and suchlike.

It's not possible to buy the KL-codeshare on Aer Lingus unless there are other KL flights on the same ticket. Therefore trips only between Ireland and the Netherlands cannot be bought as KL flights.

Ryanair's entry has had the effect of bringing down Aer Lingus's prices - they now start at €29.99 on the Dublin route, and €39.99 on the Cork route (even though FR doesn't fly to Cork, EI dropped the price on that route, too). It's worth checking both to see which is the cheaper - particularly as there is no penalty for buying a one-way flight on either airline. On my trip last month, I went over on Aer Lingus, and came back on Ryanair.

To the OP - you should have no qualms whatsoever about flying Ryanair.

Just remember to visit the "Document Check" desk landside before you go through security for your flight. If you have a non-EU/EEA passport (I'm assuming here that you are Canadian), you must have your boarding pass stamped to prove it was checked at the "Document Check" desk - you cannot fly unless your boarding pass gets stamped there. This also means you can't use the mobile boarding pass.

Flown them probably 30 times last year, never had an issue. As others have said as long as you follow the simple rules you shouldn’t have a problem.

The only downside I would say, without trying to sound like a snob, is that due to the low prices you do get a different class of character on certain routes. Normally I’m flying EDI to STN and its fully of business travellers which is fine. But did encounter an incredibly rude couple coming back from Gdansk. The gate staff we’re trying to tag someone’s hand luggage and they just went off on one pushing the staff about. He tried to barge past the staff down the stairs to the gate without scanning his boarding pass, it was just surreal. To make it worse once they got on the plane they complained to the lead flight attendant who offered them free drinks and snacks. I was livid as this chap was in the wrong yet he got rewarded for it.

Lottery Tickets? How much is the prize? Do you have to give any money back to FR if you win?

I'm in the same boat--we've opened up a new campus outside of Dublin so now I need to fly VLC-DUB about 6x/year. Only direct is Ryanair. For the first few times I took the train to MAD and flew with Aer Lingus, but it's just not worth it in terms of time lost. Or maybe it is?

Have you ever flown Ryanair? Almost every single complaint I see about them is either wrong or applies to any other budget airline in Europe (and most/all the flag carriers too).

I'm fine with them
 

Happy with my experiences. They've improved greatly. Last time I flew with them, the whole app based process for checking in, and transparent hand baggage process, made the whole trip very easy.

Complaints? I've witnessed what happened to others, when things go wrong - adverse weather in Lanzarote. I was glad I was flying with Jet2 that weekend - they were vastly better when things went wrong.

I can only agree with others. Having flown approx. 15 Ryanair flights in the last 12 months, mixture of business and leisure, they are absolutely fine and don't deserve all the bad press. Some of these flights were more than four hours and I still have no complaints.

Their rules are consistent, so you know exactly what to expect. You know the on-board food is expensive, so you take some food with you or just wait until arrival.

As for the type of customers, this is mainly due to the destination. If you're going to Edinburgh from Stansted, the flight will be mainly business travellers and (depending on the time of year) university students returning to university. If you're flying to Ibiza, the travellers will be rowdy regardless of the airline. I can atest for this having flown to Ibiza on FR and returning on BA.

Always check the prices as I rarely find the LCCs significantly cheaper.

Once you factor in check baggage and food (traveling with family something of a must) they are often more expensive. Low cost they may be but not necessarily low priced.