I am taking a Ryan Air Flight from Baden Baden in Oct to Rome. Anything I should be aware of? I have heard/read horror stories on budget airlines in Europe...(for the life of me I cannot remember WHAT the horrors are!)

Do a search over on the Europe board for RyanAir.

Main issues are:
1) Everything comes with a fee including checked luggage, airport check-in, priority boarding, using CC to book your flight etc.

2) Be very careful with the amt of luggage you have. It's cheaper to pay for the Checked luggage when you book your flight than when you wait till you're at the airport.

3) Give yourself plenty of time at the airport. Lines can be long and if you're not checked-in before the cut off time (even if you have been standing in line before then), you're SOL.

YK - thank you! I will do a search over on the Europe board but this is the information I am looking for.

I went back to my ticket and it looks like I did pay for:
20.00 EUR Passenger Fee: BAG

********10.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Airport Check in

********10.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Priority Boarding

*********8.00 EUR Passenger Fee: CC

Priority Boarding is a bad deal. Don't buy it next time. All it means is getting to the front of the boarding line <b>inside the terminal</b>. At airports where you just walk out to the stairs, others who walk fast or run can jump ahead of you; at airports where you take a bus, that's even worse, as all you get priority for is the bus ride.

rkkwan - thank you for the tip. I was really unsure about what to do. DD is 11 and can be a pain in the arse and has a hurt foot that she will still be recovering from so I thought it *might come in handy...

Ryanair do what they say on the box - so you get a free luggage allowance (if you pay for it) of 15kg not 16kg, they close check-ion 40 minutes before the flight not 39 minutes 59 seconds

Unless you absolutely need it then don't take up anything that Ryanair &quot;helpfully&quot; offers you - it's virtually guaranteed to benefit Ryanair only and not you.

AND NEVER, BUT NEVER rely on any airline, let alone Ryanair getting you to your destination in time for anythign important (like a flight home). If you have &quot;must do's&quot; then make arrangements so that you are there a day earlier if possible

Wear your heavy clothes on the plane. Put the lighter clothes in your checked bag. Put heavy items in your carry on bag.

Alan - thank you - that makes sense. The worst thing that will happen is I am in Baden Baden an extra day or two and then we miss the first day or so of our school in Italy. I can live with that.

Now, I have to get back to LHR by November 4 and have yet to work through the details on that end of my trip -- but believe I will be going to London about 3 nights prior to departure to visit the great city.

More anecdotal nonsense. Ryanair is the largest carrier in the world. All of its passengers get on planes and get to their destinations. The low prices come with personal discomformits that are not experienced on Premier Lines. Money or comfort?

money

Ryanair is far from the largest airline in the world, no matter how you measured it.

It is &quot;largest&quot; by market capitalization, and I believe had been #1 in the world. But checking the stocks today, its total market cap is about US$8.3B, about 40% down from last April and again last November.

I am not sure what airline holding company has the largest market cap right now, but Lufthansa is at about <b>US$12B</b> right now (down about 23% from 52-week high, achieved last spring); and Air France is at about <b>US$9.4B</b> (down almost half its 52-week high); Singapore Airlines is about about <b>US$13.4B</b>; Southwest is at <b>US$9.7B</b>.

Ryanair is the largest low cost airline in Europe, and that's about the claim it has currently.

&lt;&lt;&lt; All of its passengers get on planes and get to their destinations. &gt;&gt;&gt;

Sometimes they don't - Ryanair 's aircraft are equipped to a lower level than other airlines so they may cancel flights due to weather when other airlines are flying

If that happens it's a good idea to have a backup plan as, whilst Ryanair will ultimately get you to your destination, it may be several days in the future and getting reimbursed for additional expenses will try the patience of a saint

&lt;&lt;&lt; All of its passengers get on planes and get to their destinations. &gt;&gt;&gt;

Big joke.
Anyone who has at least some knowledge of European airtravel knows that Ryanair has been in notorious violation of EU passenger rights law over and over again.

If they cannot fly from A to B for whatever reason, you will get your money back. Period.
But how and for how much you will get from A to B instead will be your problem.

When there are no problems, Ryanair is as good or as bad as any other low cost carrier. But when things go wrong, don't expect them to give you any kind of assistance (even when they are legally forced to do so).

Thanks for all the feedback. I will expect the worst and hope for the best

It's reassuring to see that RyanAir hasn't changed a bit since my first and last time flying them in 1999.

Friend and I were in London for a wedding. We had a few extra days after the wedding to travel, so on a whim we booked a flight to Venice (Treviso, to be correct) for 3 days.

Our scheduled flight was to leave at the crack of dawn, so friend and I spent &pound;&pound;&pound; on a car service to get to Stansted.

RyanAir decided to cancel our flight.

The agents were not able to re-book the pax. Instead, they told us to call RyanAir when the customer svc line at 9am (when they open).

Took us forever to get thru the line using a pay phone. Finally, we got ourselves rebooked on a flight leaving in the evening.

We spent &pound;&pound;&pound; to take Stansted Express back into London to spend the day there before returning to the airport for our flight.

We got to Treviso like around 11pm, and into Venice at midnight.

Our original 3 day trip turned out to be just 2 days.

Ryanair isn't the largest carrier in the world. Never has been: never will be. A couple of America's (largely domestic) airlines carry more people than anyone else, and America's bizarre love affair with protectionism means no non-American airline will ever be allowed to operate America's domestic airlines.

But it is the largest <b> international </b> carrier in the world. In fact it carries more people on international journeys every day than any other company in the history of transportation ever.

And of course it carries more people on routes which allow real competition than any other airline. Though Irish, it's the largest domestic airline in Britain (where our legislators aren't patsies for UK airlines' lobbyists), for example.