Has it become "fashionable" to hate Ryanair?

Never had a problem with Ryanair (that wasn’t my fault) You pays your money and takes your choice. Flew a few times from Angouleme for 1euro :clap: Thankfully our visits to the UK have now become less frequent.
How do regular commuters manage?

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Well, you do but if you want to go from a specific A to a specific B choices diminish. In this case we wanted to fly to Florence direct from the UK which means either BA from London City which would be an utter pain for us to get to or Vueling from Gatwick. Driving 1200 miles didn’t feel that good an idea.

Just deux pence worth, we have flown both RyanAir & Vueling ( as have a few others i guess).
Ryan was “ok”…you do get what you pay for as we all know. It worked, but you get stiffed if you have the add-ons.
I arranged a dual stop holiday last year, Bristol > Rome to Majorca back to bristol. The only way for direct flt, ( Rome to Majorca) was to use Vueling … and had never heard of the Spanish Airline before. I guess it is similar to RA, but i selected the “optima” option which included hold baggage, and paid for extra leg. It wasn’t that expensive overall, but a better experience than RyanAir or Eazy… there was less hassle, less pushing and shoving , and the common denominator was… hardly any Brits on the plane.

Was the total price less than BA after all the add-ons?

Not sure as I don’t know what BA would have charged for seat allocations.

Hopefully it will be fine . :crossed_fingers: I hope you have a lovely time.

I just booked a Ryanair flight last night for end March for the first time in ages (easyjet is usually more useful for us) and I can’t say I found the website that clear and easy to follow…but it functioned.

Out 35€ flights ended up as more like 55€ (which is fine as still good value for us) but the baffling bit is that we rejected the 70€ tickets that had 2 bags plus seats but found that on the next stage we could add on exactly the same thing for 10€ bags + 9€ seat… Now how does that work?

I was sorely tempted to book 2x return flights to Norway - no extras - price = £20 all in. Great value for the traveller.

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Not totally sure, Jane, but Ryanair’s middle ticket option (Plus) also includes a 20kg hold luggage.

Hummmm don’t get you Jane?

“How does that work” is my shorthand for how odd to complicate things by selling near-identical tickets for 70€ and 54€? Do people really pay an extra 16€ just for security fast track (whatever that is)? Our airport is a small field, a shed and a car park. But even if I were flying from a big airport I’m not sure I’d bother.

Just seems over-complicated to have three levels of ticket with different ‘benefits’, and then a whole list of separately priced add-ons. Adds frustration to the booking process if you select a ticket, and then several clicks later discover that there are other options so have to go back and start again.

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It’s just the low cost pricing model. Those who choose to add all the ‘extras’ essentially subsidise those who don’t. Those who book nearer to their departure date subsidise those who book a long way in advance …and so on.

We have a friend that comes to visit his holiday home, several times a year. He has had the home for years, before Ryanair began flying into Bergerac. Prior to that, he flew into Bordeaux and either had to hire a car or persuade someone to pick him up for the 2 1/2 hour minimum drive to his home. The slightest change in Ryanair’s prices or conditions causes him to go into meltdown saying ‘They have me over a barrel. I have no choice but to use them’. My response is ‘Of course you have a choice. You can do what you did before and fly BA into Bordeaux for more money!’
We’ve lived here for over twelve years and I calculate roughly that we have used Ryanair from/to Bergerac as a family and my wife as an individual (travelling back monthly to the UK) between three to four hundred times. That’s not counting friends and family flying over to visit. Apart from the odd very late arrival, on only two occasions has there been a problem with flights diverted to Limoges and Bordeaux.
For what you pay, Ryanair is a bargain.
As an aside, I cannot understand those that pay for priority boarding and stand in a queue for ages. The aircraft is not going without them! On two occasions that I have flown from Stansted, the priority passengers have got onto the bus first (from gates 88-93 I believe), followed by the rest of us. We get to the aircraft, alight from the bus and get onto the aircraft first. That must be so frustrating for those paying extra!
One of the few money making airlines in the World must be doing something right!

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If you don’t pay for priority boarding now you can’t take a small suitcase as hand luggage, only a very small bag that will fit under the seat in front of you.

@anon6482839

I guess that if the route is convenient, you fit in/between the seats and can travel without hold baggage it all works very well.

To be fair the extra money that we paid is not going to bankrupt me, or spoil my enjoyment of the trip - and one could argue we always take too many clothes :slight_smile:

However I can’t shrink my legs, 2 hours with my knees up on the seat in front is not comfortable and deliberately sitting away from my family is a bit anti-social so the seat reservations were a bit irritating - especially as the seats with extra legroom are the front rows so it was not possible to avoid the priority boarding fee as well.

I probably should have looked at the possibility of doing it by train - OK, I just did; no, that’s not going to happen.

Yes, it can be difficult for specific destinations, when flexibility is restricted.
A few years ago it was a lot cheaper for me to fly to UK (bonus of seeing the family) then taking a flight to Asia. Now I can fly from CDG at a much cheaper price. Admitted, the choice of airlines are fewer, but no problems so far.

You do get what you pay for, but sometimes you can do better for less. A couple of years ago we spent a few days in New York followed by some time in Florida. BA and Virgin were quite expensive booking individual flights. This was from the UK as France was a lot more expensive. We booked with Norwegian as they offered what we wanted and we saved a considerable amount on the flights. We flew on the new Dreamliner, which was lovely.
Several years ago we wanted to to go to Kenya, paid for by a legacy. The flights with Kenya Airways from Paris were €3000 more expensive than with the same airline from Heathrow. We tied it in with a visit to the UK. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Heathrow for £125 for a family room for four including a full breakfast and 17 days parking. We visited family as well and brought some shopping back. Unless you have money to throw away, shopping around can be worth it.

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