If i can i avoid sleazyjet and ryanair.I would rather travel EI or BA anytime to be honest. I hate the term low cost bacause it does not exsist. Flights with these airlines are not cheap. You have to travel on a wed at 0530 and back some tue at 2330 to get the 1 euro fares. Long bus queues and hateful customer service like that horrible girl from Liverpool on the airline show who doesn't give a toss and has to have the last word. I only recently have started to complain for shoddy work or poor service. My company supplies most of the major supermarket groups in N.Ireland and mainland gb and I take a leaf out of their book. If it's sh** don't buy it. Wish Southwest Airlines would come to Europe...........now they are an airline...............Glad to see EI are starting to remember what Gold Circle means.Ws coming home from Manchester last week and they waived my change fee as I was prestige.Now that would make me come back and give them my business. Off to NYC next weekend with EI in J so will let you know how that goes............

I think you're asking the wrong crowd.
We tend to complain about not getting our nuts warmed in first class that we got from upgrading on a cheapo-economy ticket...


:)
seriously though, I guess you get what you pay for, that is, when they have the 1 euro fares... If you can stand going from point A to point B, but not really because they are VERY liberal at saying what city is close to the airport, (within 3 hours drive).... then I suppose you might be ok with it.

having said that,
I wouldn't fly them if you paid me.

AS one of the first posters said Ryan Air really is the worst of the lot...I remember Micheal Ryan appearing on Watchdog a British consumer programme on TV and telling them (with not sense of shame) that his customers didn't expect good service for the prices they paid !!! Incredible.

However, that having been said I'm booked from Gatwick to Dublin (both airports are particularly convenient for me) next week. When nothing goes Ryan Air is a bargain but when things go wrong..like you fail to check in 40 minutes before the flight...even though you're in their endless line...it's a nightmare.

As to Easyjet I took them one way from Prague to London and although things went wrong...due to a mechanical problem they had to fly a plane out from London...they treated us well..vouchers for meals/uppdates on the situation. I think the difference is that with the LCC you're not plugged into the wider world of airlines...they either try to fix your problem or like Ryan Air just say "hard cheese".

Ryanair does offer the lowest airfares, but they can also be very expensive if you buy your ticket close to your departure. Expect no service at all. I read a book about Ryanair that I can recommend. It was pretty neutral actually.

If you search news-sites there will be tons of stories of mistreated passengers. My "favourite" one is this one about Jane O'Keefe who when checking in for a Ryanair flight, found out that she was passenger no. 1.000.000. She agreed to Ryanair's request to attend to some publicity events, and as a thanks got free flights for the rest of her life. This worked just fine a couple of years, until Ryanair decided to limit her flights and availability. Taking things to court, O'Keefe won and got both settlement and free flights again. Court also noted that Ryanair's front make O'Leary had been aggressive when talking to O'Keefe.
On a sidenote, O'Keefe didn't get her money and had to once more go to court to get her money from Ryanair.

Ryanair is also known for not treating their employees in the best way. This has caused trade unions all across Europe to start a common campaign, see http://www.ryan-be-fair.com.

I have never flown them myself, but a friend of mine just returned to Nyköping (Stockholm) with them. Well, actually with SAS. Because while waiting in the airport cafeteria the gate for his flight was changed. Not having any signs at the gate (according to my friend), he was now at the wrong gate. Eventually the flight at the gate was called out, and my friend realized his was waiting for the Hahn-flight. In orded to see the gate-change, you had to go to the main hall and see the big board. Of course Ryanair did nothing to help them and so they bought a last minute ticket with SAS instead.

Not so much because of their lack of service, but rather because of their attitude and how they treat their employees, I will never give my money to Ryanair.

After years and years of resistance I finally had to give in and fly Ryanair to attend family function in Newcastle this May. On previous occasions I had flown EI but as Ryanair were now the only airline operating this route there was no other choice - apart from flying to Manchester/Glasgow and taking a train, which would have made no sense at all, as well as unmasking me as an airline snob.

The fare was something in the region of 60 euros with a very convenient schedule leaving Friday evening and returning late Sunday night. Having read so many disaster stories about delays, lost luggage, early check-in closure etc I was not looking fwd to this journey. However, to their credit everything went very smoothly and timewise was spot on: unlike big carriers Ryanair don't add 30 mins' padding to the schedule. Drinks and snacks were on sale on board but I didn't bother. The return sector was also uneventful, apart from a group of yobs being boisterous during the safety announcement whereupon the cabin attendant finally took a more forceful tone with "Pls show a bit more respect to the cabin crew during the safety demonstration !!"
I though it was very well put...

Despite my doubts I couldn't find a single fault with either the booking process or flight itself. They do have a bit of an image problem and of course are not the most 'prestigious' airline to travel with. However, as far as getting from A to B goes they are more than adequate. Then again, I wouldn't like to be in a position where things do go wrong with them - you'd need nerves of steel for that.

Well i used to fly a lot with ba from lba to dub untill they pulled out then that only left FR , which was a very bad thing !! ryanair do serve a certain type of passenger ie someone off to get pissed up in dublin not business passengers , i wish that ANY other airline would pick this route up as ryanair are SO bad its untrue as far as myself is concerned ( even jet 2 who are a better low cost airline than ryanair but lets face it that would not be hard .... :rolleyes: )
Yes ryanair they are ok for some but not me .... i just wish i had another choice

Thank You for your suggestion and post I have just purchased the book !

Very good reading here. I almost thought for a moment that RyanAir was in bankruptcy, since no one seems to fly them :D

They are A-B, they're cheaper than the so called legacy airlines, their parking is much lower in price, too. Yes, I have to miss out on lounge visits and miles when I'm on them, but, geez...when they cost €70 to GRO when LH's best price to BCN is €340 (the money always comes out of my pocket), guess what? That ride from GRO to Barcelona just isn't that far.

Irr ops is not their forte, so I avoid irr ops. ;)

The truth is that they're like McDonalds when MickeyD's first came to Europe. Not a soul admitted to going there, but somehow they always made enough money to reopen the next day.

They just don't serve the executive traveler on an expense account in the manner most have grown accustomed to (and they don't know where Oslo or Barcelona is, but never mind).

The free snack on the back of the LH bus isn't much to cheer about. If I really want caviar on the flight, there's always at least that much room in the carry-on. :cool:

Flown them nearly every month for the last 5 years: they never let me down, brought me there on time for no money. Never paid more than EUR 100 return. If you play the Ryanair game by the rules (arrive on time, watch out with luggage, etc ...), you won't have an issue. Most of the complaints about Ryanair come from people who expect to a Singapore Airlines services while paying peanuts. Ryanair is the ALDI in aviation world, low price, basic service. If you can't live with that, don't fly them...

bad experience
 

I just got back from Europe today. During my trip I had to fly Ryanair for the first time.....2 words came to mind.....NEVER AGAIN! A basic point to point does not bother me. I don't need all the frills. But I have never experienced customer service this bad, from the gate to the FA's. I don't care how cheap the fares are, treating paying customers so poorly (no matter how much they pay!) is unexceptable. Just needed to vent a little. Ok, now I fell better. Thanks!

I am not sure that this behaviour is typical of Ryanair. I fly Ryanair once or twice a year and until now the customer service I experienced has been quite OK.

A recent example: I flew them last week accompanied by my 7 month old son and:

• the check-in agent did not object the few extra carry-on items for the baby
• they implemented an efficient pre-boarding for families with children
• they provided a special seat-belt extension for the baby – something e.g., Hapag-Llyod Express does not do (although I believe this is mandatory ?)
• the FA heated up the baby milk we carried
• the FAs made sure everyone paid attention to the safety information
• check-in staff and FAs were polite and kind (much better than any of my recent experiences with US airlines)

This of course does not mean that Ryanair is the perfect airline – and I may have been lucky this time – but I think they are worth considering for short point-to-point flights if you can live with the limitations of their product.

BTW, for me, the main drawback of Ryanair is that if something goes wrong, you are basically on your own (for this reason, I will only fly them for leisure trips).

On a side note: the plane we flew on had seats that no longer recline because they are cheaper to maintain. Not a problem for me on short flights, but I imagine this can bother some.

Interesting feedback, I may have simply have gotten a bad ride, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I had heard all the rumors of poor service (and read about them on FT) but I was still expecting something like SW, which I have always had a good experience on.

Ok, look, FR has good days and bad days. Sometime they do "a good job" and sometimes they don't. Their defined service standard is very low and they boast about this, as it is the fundament of their low costs. So set your expectations accordingly and you shouldn't have a bad day, unless you end up stranded and alone in some third rate airfield. Then you can mouthe off about them being $h1t€ at what they do. If you want them to offer SQ style F service - then they're $h1t€ all the time.

How you define whether they "do a good job" is a matter of expectation, and FR knows a thing or two about managing expectations. Ryanair makes one simple claim - we'll get you there, on-time and cheaper than the competitors. We'll skip the invective - as we can all point to (frequent?) instances where this is not true - the "my colleague flew with FR and blah, blah, blah" stories. It only take one plane to go tech for 200 people by 5 return flights in a day to produce 2000 people with a "Ryanair are $h1t€" story.

I won't defend FR - I loathe them - they have consistently displayed a wanton disregard for people - staff and passengers - in a manner that leaves people in a very bad situation. However, FR is there to make massive profits and this is their stated position - so they will consistently put profits before people - and they are proud to let you know this i advance of travelling. Most corporations won't do this. FR just won't pretend to be nice, or try to appease you, like most corporations try to do. FR's position could be summarised like this:

Our plane from (insert secondary airfield name here) to (insert tertiary airfield name here) is leaving at this time. Buy early, turn up early and we'll probably get you there on time and cheaper than our competitors. If anything goes wrong, we'll screw you. And if you want to whinge about that you can screw yourself. Have a nice day, or not, depending on the circumstances - either way we don't much care, because it's too expensive to pay someone to listen to your complaints, so, we'll just replace your custom with another cheap fare loving @$$ in our seats - and we'll all be happier like that. So, do you want to ride with Ryanair? Do ya? If you do, then shut up and let us get on with it - we'll probably get you there on-time and cheaper than the competitors. If we don't, we'll just assume you won't be happy, but it will simply cost us too much to care, so kindly go screw yourself, quietly and somewhere else. Low fares, low service, high numbers, high profits - set your expectations accordingly. Take us or leave us, but for f***s sake don't waste our time - oh, and it'll be a waste of yours too if you complain, or are not happy, so don't waste anyone's time with invective. Did we mention the low fares at ryanair.com?

Ryanair's honesty and lack of hypocrasy is at least refreshing - and their profits are impressive; their offered service doesn't suit me, nor my status loving pride, so, personally, I avoid them. For me it's that simple. Live and let fly, would be my take on all this.

The one thing, however, that I won't forgive them for is their anti-competative dominance - they'll enter a route, slaughter the competition with untenably low prices, and then, increase the average price paid per seat back to original levels, or sometimes higher levels. This is the famous Walmart effect that people in the US will be familiar with - the store moves in, cuts prices, waits for the local (smaller?) competition to wither away and then they raise prices again leaving the customer without any choice - no competition and no voice to complain.

Most sensible analysis of Ryanair that i've seen in years Goldcircle. It is all about expectations in the end of the day. I must admit I've used them myself in the past and more than likely will in the future but with a couple of caveats; 1./NEVER for business and 2./NEVER for connections since if things go wrong under those circumstances you're high and dry with little recourse.

With those guidelines I've never had any worse experience on Ryanair than any other airline (delays etc..).

Having said all that I'd rather be a shareholder than a pax any day :D

I've flown FR a good few times - esp to the UK & Paris... I've no huge prob getting the bus to Beauvais to be honest - it can take as long by public transport from CDG sometimes (and CDG is a pain in the ...)

Changing gates isn't the airline's prob, it's the airport authority... 4 times when I was going to EDI during the summer, so you just learn to keep one ear open.

Yes they are cheap & cheerful and you def. get what you pay for - I've personally never had a poor experience with them because I play the game & being nice to staff is always a worthwhile investment. On the other hand, EI are sliding downhill at a v. rapid rate - we flew DUB/JFK & BOS/DUB on our honeymoon a few weeks ago and eewwwww... crew were so lovely (because we were newlyweds) but you pay for all your booze now & the food is just sh*te. I'd much rather have paid for a sambo & Pringles than eaten the swill that was served.

Also, we managed to score a realy good cheap deal for a 3 day w/e break to Brussels in 5 weeks time. Flights to Charleroi with FR (yes I know there's a bus transfer) & 3 nights in the 4* Marriott Renaissance via Priceline - all for the huge sum of €136 each. We'd be lucky to get the fare alone with EI!!!