I'm not sure where to post this, so I am trying here. I have used Ryanair in the past and have booked flights for the future. However, I have not had the experience of a friend, so I am passing on this information. If you book two connecting flights on Ryanair, and they cancel the first one, they will refund your money on the cancelled one, but not on the second one, even though they have been booked consecutively. My friend was going from Rome to Dublin, booking two flights through Stansted. He got an email saying the first one was cancelled, and he can get a refund for the flight. We called Ryanair in Dublin, on speaker phone so I could help, and we were told that there are no refunds for the second flight. The agent said 'we are a point to point airline and do not have connecting flights. You took a chance by booking the second flight'. The only option is to pay the fee for a change of schedule for the second flight. This seems totally ludicrous as it was their fault for the cancellation, but the agent was adamant that he could do nothing. Has anyone else had this experience? I know that when things go well, the prices can't be beat, however, this seems over the top.

That's quite true, and a good reason to always book an overnight stay in between legs whenever using one of these budget airlines.

Maybe he can book an earlier flight for the first leg?

You sound surprised? Ryanair is notorious for this sort of carryon, but they don't care. They're cheap, so people fly them. It's as simple as that. Initially it was a controversial business model - Southwest without any loyalty to the customer. Their stellar growth has proven that it's one that works.

To be fair to Ryanair, they're pretty open about this. And when you do get the ridiculously low fares, this is why. There's a lot of money saved in avoiding re-routing customers, endorsing, giving meal vouchers, hotel accommodation... Basically, any contingency.

I'm sure they'd be quick to point out other practices that full-service carriers use that they don't, such as overbooking, cancelling subsequent legs of a flight if you miss one, etc.

I don't like flying on them, personally, I find it too much of a hassle (including getting to STN). But when you get a fare for a fifth of the closest competitor, as has happened to me in the past... Well, you get what you pay for.

WYPFIWYG, What you pay for is what you get. Ryanair have the cheapest tickets (although also expensive ones..) and you can't expect any service. Like a previous poster said, Ryanair don't make a secret of this. I've read incredible stories of how Ryanair treat travellers but on the other hand, their tickets start at 0.1 Euro.
So I'm sorry, this is a risk you take when flying FR.

From the Ryanair website
"We recommend that passengers do not book onward flights on Ryanair services. Ryanair assumes no responsibility for making connections and therefore will not be liable for any losses or expenses arising out of any failure to achieve a planned connection."

I have travelled Ryanair from Dub to Carcasonne (via stansted or charleroi) a couple of times and hated the fact that I had to leave a huge amount of time between flights. If Ryanair are delayed on the outbound flight and you miss your second flight, it's tough cookies. They do state this beforehand and to be fair, seem to discourage the practice.

Fortunately, I've never been affected by this, but, yes, it's something that has to be considered.

Your friend does have some options. I would recommend a quick read of RyanAir Change Options; possibly there's something that can be done to ease the situation a little. Maybe a ticket transfer to someone else? (something you can't even do on the 'traditional' airlines)

Well I use Ryanair from time to time as their base at Stansted airport is convenient to my part of London. And I have to say that I have never got any of these 0.01 fares, and the last time I went from London to Dublin I paid GBP 170 round trip, possibly less than BMI out of Heathrow but not by much.

Yet for my mainstream fare I am treated in exactly the same way. I really get a little tired of these excuses for Ryanair saying "well if you only pay GBP 5 what can you expect", because my company is not paying that sort of fare to them at all.

When you get to Ireland you will discover this is just the Irish business ethic, which all the public there (though not in Britain or the US) seem to readily accept. Businesses just state their terms and conditions, and everyone runs round to comply without any thought about consumer primacy or anything like that. It's a different world. Ireland is a small market (only 3 million population) and somewhat isolated, and many businesses were semi-monopolies in their sector, so I presume the culture grew up from there.