Ryanair will take you from Point A to Point B in a very new 737 - 800 very often for less than the fare on the Heathrow Express.
Want anything else? You pay for it. Simples.
GPMG it sounds as though you have champagne taste and a beer budget.
Condescending comments like that are hardly helpful.
Rightly or wrongly the average fare paying passenger when buying a ticket expect to obtain a reasonable service based upon what was advertised and declared the price they will pay for the service offered - so when told that what they want does not match the service offered because of caveats in the contract small print there can be some surprise.
Ryanair has a history of mis-representation of costs and has been told a number of times by the office of fair trading and other agencies to bring its act into line. The misrepresentation of ryanair fairs has been brought to the attention of various government angencies with little progress being made in improving the situation and these are still being contested to this day.
If we look at the bare facts, "it is all laid out in ryanair's terms and conditions" that ryanair can be within their rights to charge for the extra's - the issues are that ryanair hide behind the smallprint and rely on three factors 1) the pax not reading the small print and 2) the passenger misinterpeting the small print - 3) The pax feeling pressured into paying the balance to make the flight and have their journey/holdiay/meeting (delete where appropriate). Whilst there is nothing illegitimate ryanair has been warned and requested to ensure that the price advertised is the price payed which is a minority of the cases.
I personally have no axe to grind with ryanair, I have flown them a few times and it was as expected for a Lo Co. The major issues being investigated now are to do with the sales and not the operation of the fleet - I can understand the requirement for making a profit or at least breaking even but to behave in an suspisciously underhand manner to achieve this is only ever going to leave a distate, which is why they have been requested to establish clearly their charging model.
It is a tough time for all in the aviation industry at the moment, but there is no excuse for undermining the trust of passengers by hitting them with large unexpected charges. Flying is not cheap, anyone with more than one brain cell can accept that - but it does not give licence to lure in with one fare and then charging another. Ryan air are on the borders of legality and have been advised as to how to tow the line as to being reasonable, i.e. guiding the passenger to what the price they will pay for the service they require rather than advertising a minimum price that can rarely be achieved.