Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (Merged)

[jkgourmet]

A question about RyanAir tickets

In America, we do not have RyanAir, but we have other discount airlines (Southwest, for one). Sometimes, the round trip airfare is actually less than the one way airfare. This seems to be very much the case with Ryan Air - especially when they have special sales. I am planning a trip from Stansted Airport, England to either Barceona or Valencia. The RT tickets are MUCH MUCH cheaper than a single one way ticket. But, I will never use the second leg of the RT since I will fly home to the US directly from Spain. Does this cause any problems for me? Thank you.

[jetsgo]

It shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t use the return leg.

One word of warning if you’ve never experienced Ryanair, like Southwest they don’t tend to fly to main airports so for Barcelona you’ll end up at either Girona or Reus. Also be aware of the ‘extra charges’ as this is how they make their money. Follow their rules and you’ll be fine. They are ruthless at enforcing the rules and very efficient with their operation. Punctuality is very good, but don’t expect very good customer service.

[EISNN]

Have used FR a number of times and sometimes not used the first sector in the end cos I've been able to go where ever a day or two earlier. There's no problem if you don't use one sector. the other sector will be recognised and honoured.

[eu01]

The RT tickets are MUCH MUCH cheaper than a single one way ticket.

NEVER seen anything like that @Ryanair. The return ticket costs roughly the same as two one way tickets purchased separately. Are you sure you are trying to buy the flight directly from the carrier (ryanair.com)?

[jetsgo]

Agreed eu01. No frills carriers in Europe don’t tend to sell tickets like that. You are effectively buying 2 one-way tickets with Ryanair so it’s never going to be cheaper.

[Seat62K]

jkgourmet,

Unlike Ryanair services to "Barcelona", its flights to Valencia use the city's airport. It is easy/cheap/quick to get "downtown" from there by metro.

Reus, on the other hand, is near the interesting Roman town of Tarragona whilst Girona is a beautiful city in its own right.

Have you considered Madrid? Ryanair flies from Stansted to Barajas, which also has an excellent, quick (12 minutes from T1-2-3) and cheap (2 euro) metro link to the city centre. I prefer Madrid to Barcelona but others would disagree!

Enjoy your trip!

[OFSO]

..and I much prefer Girona to Barcelona, so fly straight there and ignore Barcelona and Madrid !

Girona: no street crime (or so I've found), less hectic pace of life (daytimes), more hectic pace of life (nightimes - although NOT more hectic than Madrid) plenty of good restaurants, historic sights, old buildings, Jewish and Arab quarters, Cathedral, excellent public transport up and down the coast.

And buy a single ticket on Ryanair, carry-on bag only, no insurance, no priority boarding, and forward your heavy luggage (if any) separately to BCN.

Alternative: Eurostar train London to Paris, TGV Paris to Perpignan. Almost as fast, almost as cheap* (if you buy ticket three months in advance) and luxury you won't believe after flying Ryanair.

Paris last week on the TGV from Perpignan cost €45 each way - first class.

R

[BladePilot]

Flew EDI - DUB a couple of weeks back with EI. When we got to the check-in desk there was an American guy and his wife frantically trying to repack their bags, they even 'offloaded' a few items attempting to 'gift' them to onlookers before resorting to binning them! I turned to my wife and remarked that I'd never known EI to be so hard on folks, I was wrong as it turned out the couple were flying EDI - DUB with FR their flight was scheduled to leave 5 minutes behind ours. They had been told at FR check-in (adjacent to our check-in) that they would need to re-arrange their baggage to aviod paying a heavy excess charge.
We met up with them in the departure lounge and asked them how they'd got on with their weight shedding excercise, not well enough it turned out as they were walloped for £150. The poor guy had never heard of FR - Ryanair, found them on the internet when he searched for flights EDI - DUB didn't spot the alternative EI he was mighty upset. To make matters worse for him our EI flight departed almost 20minutes early and when we got to DUB I checked the FR flights STA the flight information indicated
- Delayed -
And MOL still harps on about how expensive Dublin airport charges are

Make sure you check out all the alternatives before you click that 'buy now' button on the FR website!

[AdamC]

As has already been said, that cannot be the case as you are buying in essence 2 seperate tickets.

However, there will be no problem with just travelling the one way - I've done it a fair few times myself. You could even skip the outbound and return on the inbound with no problems (from experience).

[Seat62K]

BladePilot,

I think you'd have a point if:
(i) when they booked, the passengers couldn't find information about the maximum weight they were allowed; or
(ii) the passengers were told one thing at the point of booking and found at the airport that the actual allowance was less; or
(iii) other carriers' excess baggage charges are significantly lower than Ryanair's.

I have some sympathy for passengers in the situation, but not much.

What part of the "three bags, maximum 15kg, no pooling" regulation did they not understand? It's not rocket science.

[sitigeltfel]

Originally Posted by Humpmedumpme

1) The flight was delayed by an hour as the techlog needed to be sighed off by an engineer.

Yep, a shrug and a scribble. Nothing new there.

Sorry, couldn't resist it

[Sir Lee B´stard]

OFSO, please check your emails

[The Real Slim Shady]

The application of the 1 bag in the cabin policy is being enforced everywhere: reasons are straightforward.

Firstly, it is in the T &C's of travel. Secondly, it generates revenue, checked and excess baggage, and finally there isn't enough locker space on a full flight for people to take more than 1 bag.

Anyone who is carrying more than 1 bag when they present themselves at the gate will not be refused travel, however: they will be asked which bag they wish to leave behind.

[The Real Slim Shady]

Engineers are only located at FR bases.

Gatwick isn't a base, hence engineer would have to come from Stansted or Bournemouth or Luton.

As to the cabin crew.....take it up with your favourite Irishman MOL.

[al446]

I do know what OP means, I have vowed never to fly CryingAir again. came back from Murcia to LPL with them. Couldn't understand a thing being said in announcements, girl at check in looked most put out when my bag weighed 15.0 kg exactly. When we booked we decided that we could with just 1 bag but wife could not check in online (this was booked before they charged for on line book in) so bit the bullet and paid for check in desk. Lo and behold, we were charged for two bags but only credited with one. Not worth the effort to reclaim and would have cost more in phone calls.
EZY or Jet2 next time. And never again FR. And I know what is meant by the smiling CC, must of them were chewing wasps or sucking lemons.

[Avman]

If you choose to fly that joke of an airline, Ryanair, you have absolutely no right whatsoever to criticise them. They pretend to be Europe's equivalent of the USA's Southwest Airlines. As one who has flown SWA frequently, I can testify that there is nothing further from the truth. SWA provide a smile and a good, respectful service to its clients from a team of happy employees who are in turn treated with respect by their employer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ryanair are a disgrace to the industry.

Ducking for incoming scuds from the pro RYR lobby.

[Seat62K]

I'm about to book some trips away for later in the year. Ryanair and easyJet prices are similar and my preference is to fly Ryanair. I'll be booking easyJet, though, and for one reason only: I'll be away for more than a fortnight so would not be able to check in online for both flights before leaving home if I choose Ryanair.

Come on, Ryanair. Why can't passengers check in online earlier?

[Dit]

1) The flight was delayed by an hour as the techlog needed to be signed off by an engineer. Fair enough but where did he find the traffic jam that allegedly delayed him for so long?

you would've thought they'd have woken the fella up beforehand so he could miss the Cork rush hour at 13.00

The part will almost certainly have been changed at Cork as it is a base, whereas Gatwick is not. It may have been a simple case of the part being changed overnight and the engineer forgetting to sign it off, then on the first flight of the day the crew notice the missing signature and know they can't go without it. I believe the engineers at Shannon are now covering the Cork base as well, so he may well have had to drive all the across from Ennis...

2) Were all the cabin crew having a miserable day or have they been told that they have to pay a pound to smile.

I often wonder why people don't give the crew some benefit of the doubt. The work damn hard and in this instance have picked up an hour delay before they've even got going, with the real possibility of picking up more at Gatwick due to arriving late. They may well have been thinking about the possibility of the day becoming a 14 hour shift, missing out on any plans they had made for the evening etc. Granted, a smile and a good attitude go a long way, and are sometimes missing from some of our crew, but there’s up to 189 of you and only of them. If you have all run out of patience, imagine how rapidly they'll run out of it looking after nearly 50 impatient people each!

5) Finally, is Ryanairski an airline or an advertising company that flies around Europe at .8M? The incessant announcements for mobile phone networks, lotto scratchcards, car hire, discount hotels is almost enough to make you buy their light and fruity cabernet sauvignon.

Come on, you've paid £20 for a ticket to go about 620km, of which over £10 will go to the Irish government due to taxes! How do you think we make any money?

[Dit]

I've no problem with using FR as it's cheap... Generally [ryanair's] pretty reliable

Another pilot once summed up FR to me; We get you from A to B on time (something like over 95% of our flights are on time) and without losing your bags... Thats not bad service for £20 in my opinion.

[ladylily63]

We have just returned from our second flight with Ryanair EMA-ALC) and as with our first flight we could find no fault with the service. The crew were friendly and efficient and our flights were on schedule. We will continue to fly with them whilst they provide this service at such a low cost. This time we chose to take hand luggage only which caused no problems, I was told to put my (very) small handbag in my suitcase at the gate on our outbound journey which is fair enough as rules are rules. However on our return at Alicante nothing was mentioned!

We did not opt for priority boarding but ended up being bused to the aircraft with the priority boarders which would have needled me slightly if I had payed for this.

However all in all excellent service, we have flown with numerous airlines and we have nothing but praise for Ryanair. Maybe we have just been lucky?