Researching airfare from Paris to Rome. Travel agent mentioned RyanAir, a discount airline. She didn't know much about it other than they've been around awhile. Roundtrip airfare for the dates we need is only 34.99 euro.

Is this too good to be true? Anyone know anything about them? Or any other European discount airlines?

I've flown on them twice. It was fine. The only drawback in this case is that you will have a coach ride of approximately one hour from Paris in order to get to the Beauvais airport. See:
http://www.aeroportbeauvais.com/bus.php?lang=eng

You will land at Ciampino airport, and you can take a coach for about 8 Euros to Termini station in Rome. See:
http://www.terravision.it

I flew RyanAir from Dublin to Edinburgh. It's like Southwest if you're familiar with them. I was happy because the flight was so cheap and it fit the schedule for us. Be warned though, check their baggage allowance. The baggage info was on the 4th page of our print out. I had to pay almost as much as my ticket for my bag. I know others have posted about this before.
Have a great trip. If you're a light packer, no problem.

I've flown Ryan Air a couple of times. They are cheap and dependable but be warned that you will fly into smaller airports that are out of the way. You also have to get there 2 hours ahead of time as they are serious about check in times. You can also try easyjet or one of the other numerous low cost airlines in Europe.

Flew Ryan Air from Minneapolis to Orlando about 10 years ago....went through a horrific, scary lightning storm and they got us safely on the ground. No complaints, except the plane was a bit shabby....you get what you pay for.

Can't imagine what AuntAnnie is talking about... but...

You'll find that virtually "everyone here" knows about Ryanair (and easyjet, and dozens of other low-cost intra-Europe carriers - - see whichbudget.com for more info) - - and by my estimate, 92% of "us" love them. I am in that 92% - - the other 8% are whiners, at least in the eyes of some...



You can find literally hundreds of posts about them here with a simple search.

Best wishes,

Rex

To clear up any confusion, there's an American carrier called Ryan Air (with a space) that is unrelated to the Ryanair airline that does budget flights in Europe.

My son flew Paris to Rome. Ryanair has great buses (look at their web-site) that you can take to and from the airports.
he had to pay a LARGE fee for overweight baggage (think it was more like 33lbs.
We flew Easyjet Amsterdam to London. They had no carry-on limit so we weighted down the carryon bags!! They had a slightly higher check-on limit.
You can't beat the price.

My daughter flew with them and except for the fact that she had to pay more in overweight baggage charges than the fare was, it was fine. Just make sure you're travelling light. (She wasn't, obviously!)

In order to catch the 9:30 Rome flight, you need to be at Porte Maillot to catch the shuttle to Beauvais at about 6:30 am.

Here's a URL for budget airlines

http://www.whichbudget.com/#from5

Ryanair is o.k. Just do not take very much luggage. I had to pay 80.00 USD one way, my luggage weight was over 33 pounds. It states in fine print about the weights. Most everyone was upset and had to pay extra. But from my experience it is best to travel light when traveling through Europe.

We flew Paris to Rome on Ryanair in June. It was GREAT! The airport is a little far outside Paris -- but the good news is it is VERY small and you will be the only plane taking off! So no delays.

The flight leaves realy early, but the food at that airport is nasty and expensive. So try to pickup something the night before and have it with you.

We hired a shuttle service to bring us out to the airport (there were 4 of us). I'd recommend doing that, but maybe not the one we hired. The teenager driving it fell asleep at the wheel!!! (Briefly - no wreck thankfully.) There is also a bus that goes there:

http://www.aeroportbeauvais.com/index.php?lang=eng

The Rome airport is also nice and small, and close to the city.

The planes are brand new and clean. No reserved seats - but who cares? It's a short flight.

Do it! You'll be into early, Rome refreshed and ready to go.

I flew Ryan Air from Paris to Rome this past week (Jan 4 - Jan 7). We found the plane to be perfectly clean and in not shabby at all. I would definitely recommend bringing your own food, as the options for sale on board were gross.

It pays to check in early. The first 65 boarding passes (numbered 1-65) get to board "early", after they finish boarding families with small children and anyone requiring assistance. This paid off, as we were able to nab two roomy seats in the emergency exit row.

We took 6:30 AM bus from Paris to get to Beauvais. I pre-booked our tickets on line and simply showed the e-mail confirmation to the ticketing agent on the bus.

I flew Ryanair from Rome to Paris last March. Second everybody's posts on luggage allowance. It is very much the cattle car and you have to buy everything, including water, so take snacks with you. I didn't try the bathroom so I don't know if you had to pay to use it!

I have flown several times with Ryanair, to Paris, and Glasgow, I think they are ok, I agree with all the previous posters that its no frills, the only problem is that they fly into airports way out of the city you fly into, which can end up costing as much as flying with the national carrier in Taxi,bus or train fares in the end!