My first Ryanair flight experiance..

rafter_2

Flown a few times with Ryanair now mostly on the promo fares and more than happy, the vast majority of these horror stories you read are from people who have screwed up in someway or actually havent flown Ryanair.

sunflowersuffolk

Glad you enjoyed your first Ryanair flight.

I've flown with them probably 12 trips now, and mostly been early or on time, once a short 1 hour delay. I've been lucky I guess, I realise if things go wrong you can't expect great (any)customer service.

However I've done flights for 1 penny each way, all in, no extras, by follwoing "the rules" so I'm more than happy to forgo the frills. I take my own food and water on, and always have a book handy in case we do get delayed.

I always laugh about the moaners who don't read the conditions/weigh their luggage properly and then moan they are getting ripped off.

I would never have been able to do these short trips without these sort of deals, so I'm very happy.

MrSmartprice

stokegal wrote: »

I've officially got the bug now, I'm back on line looking for a cheap flight for somewhere to go in March. I fell in love with Dublin at the weekend - just a shame that my bank balance didn't

The answer is possibly to try Belfast. We went for the day last Thursday, 4 of us got return flights for a grand total of 8p.

Belfast is considerably cheaper than Dublin and you pay with pounds. It's every bit as interesting, and there are plenty of flights. If you book at the right time you can get real bargains. Make sure you get on the Ryanair mailing list so you know when the cheapies are on offer.

Nobjocki

choc_mouse wrote: »

Budget airlines recruit less experienced pilots I presume! I flew on an airline I can't even remember the name of to Marrakech and I'm pretty sure we landed sideways!! OK maybe that's slightly exaggerated there :rotfl:

I was listening to Michael O'Leary on the radio yesterday and he explained that rather like a Formula One car the technical data on every single Ryanair flight is downloaded and analysed at the end of each day.
So-called hard landings are among the things examined.
Of course there are occasions when pilots are required to make hard landings for the safety of the plane.
Ryanair's safety record is exemplary, its aircraft are the newest of any fleet in the world and you'd be surprised at quite how few hours pilots are expected to fly every week.

zolablue25

How very reassuring this thread is. We (me, wife & 6yo daughter) are flying on our first Ryanair flight from Bristol to Tenerife on the 17th and to be honest I am dreading it. It is nice to actually hear 'the other side' to Ryanair. I have paid for hold luggage and priority boarding and it still came in £150 less EACH than the only other option (and that would have been without baggage).

There are so many threads about saying how rubbish Ryanair are that I was of the opinion that I am guaranteed a horrible experience. Hopefully I'll be one of those praising them rather than criticising them when we get back.

MrSmartprice

zolablue25 wrote: »

How very reassuring this thread is. We (me, wife & 6yo daughter) are flying on our first Ryanair flight from Bristol to Tenerife on the 17th and to be honest I am dreading it. It is nice to actually hear 'the other side' to Ryanair. I have paid for hold luggage and priority boarding and it still came in £150 less EACH than the only other option (and that would have been without baggage).

There are so many threads about saying how rubbish Ryanair are that I was of the opinion that I am guaranteed a horrible experience. Hopefully I'll be one of those praising them rather than criticising them when we get back.

You were only dreading it because of some of the scaremongering and downright mischief posted on these forums. Much of it is from people who do seem never to have flown Ryanair. (I recall one buffoon claiming that Ryanair wanted extra money to allocate his family seats together, despite the fact that they have never allocated seats on aircraft.)

There are many, many people on MSE who seem to travel regularly with Ryanair, and love the experience and low fares. Sadly there are some vindictive ones who love to hate Ryanair, mainly due to prejudice.

I have at times been critical of the line taken by Martin and MSE too. He has, in my view, been far more harsh on Ryanair than on the others, who are lower profile but more expensive. It is possible to travel for peanuts on Ryanair, but you have to play by the rules. We use a prepaid Mastercard, don't pay priority (no need), and travel with cabin bags. 10kg is plenty for a week away if you put your mind to it.

choc_mouse

Despite all the in-seat entertainment and surprisingly nice meals I have experienced in long haul flights; I think my best flight was with Ryanair from Stansted to Vienna. Why? It cost me 1p.

It's their attitude that annoys many though and new customers don't normally expect such awkward rules when trying to book a short trip.

luci

I was forced to fly with Ryanair at short notice after the demise of Globespan and I was dreading making the booking. They were the only airline going to my destination and I had accommodation booked so couldn't change.

I found everything on their website clear and I managed to de-select the travel insurance. Yes we paid £60 to take 2 pieces of hold baggage and another £20 for using a credit card as I didn't have time to arrange an alternative. This was all recovered from the credit card company when I put in my Globespan claim.

We made sure we weighed both the hold and hand luggage on both the outward and inward journeys to ensure we were within the limits. Checked in online, printed off the boarding pass and didn't cut it up as some people seem to have made the mistake of doing.

Everything went smoothly. We didn't buy the over-priced food and drinks onboard.

The guy in front of us at check in on the inward journey was 2kgs overweight with his hold luggage and was charged €40, but he accepted it and didn't complain. I felt quite sorry for him as he didn't have any hand luggage.

It seems that if you play by the rules there are no problems.

gums_2

if everything goes okay, then they are fine to fly with, its when things start to go wrong that they go really wrong because the lack of customer service is astounding.