WillTravel

I am looking at some Ryanair and EasyJet fares in September for Madrid-UK and return.

I have flown both Ryanair and EasyJet in the past, without complaint. But my experience with EasyJet is much more recent.

Is there any specific reason why it is worth 30-50 Euros more to fly with EasyJet versus Ryanair on these routes? I know everyone likes to criticize Ryanair, but I'm not sure how much quality differentiation there can be on a budget flight with no food/beverage service and little legroom. I know that Ryanair (rarely) cancels flights, but so too does EasyJet.

HCA

I had flyed with both back in 2007 and I will probably just go with the cheaper fare.
However, it was old experience. Not sure what they changed in these two years.

757DUD

Since both have different fees for luggage, check-in etc, be careful when comparing different prices. Otherwise there is not much difference (from my point of view, you have a little bit more room on easyjet, however for such a typical short flight, this should be no big deal)
757DUD

cardesigner2000

Don't know about UK-Madrid routes, but Ryanair tends to fly to more remote airports which could affect the time and cost of reaching the center of town. At 30-50 euros more you might even be able to find non-LCC carriers like BA or IB instead of EasyJet...

Aviatrix

Are you travelling with checked baggage?

Are you 100% sure that you will be able to print your own boarding pass for both flights?

The answers to these questions could make a lot of difference

WillTravel

Yes, I'll be able to print my boarding pass.
I will have 1 piece of checked luggage.

Roger

Only partially true. In the case of MAD, they use MAD.

The OP doesn't give his/her routeing. Perhaps more relevant would be his/her UK destination. If FR and EZ use the same UK airport, I'd probably go for the cheaper all in fare, i.e. including all relevant charges, though acknowledging that EZ is several steps superior to FR in customer experience.

WillTravel

There were some pluses and minuses to choosing various UK airports, but in the end I decided to use London airports.

Ryanair turned out to be the best choice in terms of schedules and fares and airports. I decided to use Stansted on the outbound, because I wanted to go to Cambridge from Stansted Airport, and that is very convenient. For the return, it didn't matter so much which airport, but Stansted turned out to have the most convenient time.

Both ways, I got Ryanair 0++ fares. With luggage and credit card and check-in fees, the roundtrip fare for MAD-STN turned out to be 90.64 Euros. EasyJet looked to be about 114 Euros (not sure if any other fees would have come along after that), but not so convenient times and airports for what I specifically wanted.

Maybe I should have considered longer, but I didn't think the airfares would get any cheaper.

Seat64A

The only Madrid-London route which Ryanair and easyJet both fly is Barajas-Gatwick. Ryanair also flies Barajas-Stansted and easyJet Barajas-Luton.

I have flown from London to Madrid on both carriers and would choose Ryanair even if both carriers' fares were the same.

Ryanair punctuality for me has been better (although my last two flights on easyJet were on time). I prefer the Spanish-based Ryanair cabin crew (not all of whom are Spanish, by the way) to those of easyJet. But perhaps more importantly, boarding a Ryanair flight is generally more pleasant, especially at airports which have clearly marked lines for "Priority" and "Non-Priority". In comparison, boarding an easyJet flight can be a truly ghastly experience particularly when one has to fight through the "group B" passengers to board.

So, no, there is no good reason to pay more to fly easyJet (in my opinion).

N1120A

Other than the obvious with checked bags, a less obvious thing to check when comparing is the cost of getting to/from the airport. Given that you are actually flying into MAD, it isn't salient to this discussion, but with many airports you will find that it is as cheap or cheaper to go with a flag carrier.

bizclassboy

Also bear in mind Stansted is a long long way out of London compared to Heathrow and there are a whole host of cheap fares with more reputable airlines than Ryanair

Seat64A

The original poster was interested in Madrid-London. Apart from Ryanair and easyJet that leaves BA (to LHR, LCY and LGW), Iberia (to LHR) and Air Comet (LGW). None of these has fares which, generally speaking, will match Ryanair. As far as the total cost is concerned, much will depend on where your final destination is. For many Heathrow would be a more expensive choice, especially considering that many of the highest fares to Madrid are from LHR.

bizclassboy

but once you add the rip off costs of getting into Cambridge from Stansted plus the hours of time you just might find a real airport in London might be worth paying to fly to and using a good bus service. Also bear in mind that the time it takes to get your luggage at Stansted is about the same time it took you to fly there !!

Roger

Some of the information here is preposterous!

Please compare Heathrow to Cambridge with Stansted to Cambridge. Is there a train from Stansted to Cambridge? Yes, approx 30-45 minutes journey time. Is there a train from Heathrow to Stansted. No, most transport other than taxi means several changes and heaven knows how much time.

How far is Cambridge from Stansted? How far is Cambridge from Heathrow?

I have only had baggage problems at LHR.

Gosh! Honestly!

You may not like STN (or FR or EZ), but there is really no need to post rubbish.

Aviatrix

The train journey from STN to Cambridge takes 37 minutes and the fare is GBP 9.00