stokebailey

Our return flight to U.S. departs DUB at 2:30 PM. Plan now is to spend the previous night in London, get morning flight to DUB with Ryanair. Is this very much riskier than booking London-DUB with, say, Aer Lingus? How early would you plan to depart London, assuming you would do such a thing?

Zeus

I had the same worries using Easyjet last summer. Instead of just hoping they operate on time, I decided to fly from Amsterdam to London the night before just to make sure I'd be there for my flight back to the U.S. I love those European cheapie airlines but I don't trust them to operate on time or to even leave at all. There's a reason the "major" airlines don't have interline baggage and ticketing agreements with them.

stokebailey

Has anyone else tried and succeeded, or been burned? I love Dublin, too, but was hoping to have that one more evening in London.

WillTravel

You can find Ryanair horror stories with a search on the web. I think the percentage difference in risk between Aer Lingus and Ryanair is slight for this particular case, but each flight runs the risk of being delayed for mechanical failure, bad weather, terrorism alerts, etc. What is your backup plan if you miss your return flight, and how much money will it cost you? Do you have travel insurance that would cover such a situation (mine required that I allow four hours between flights at the same airport on two separate tickets). What time is the Ryanair flight supposed to arrive in Dublin? Is the Aer Lingus flight any earlier?

I wouldn't risk not going the night before, because I couldn't take the stress throughout my entire vacation worrying about my flight home. Note that Ryanair can change the time of its flight (and so too could Aer Lingus) up to a certain point prior to departure.

mjs

I think that the probability that you could fly from London to Dublin in the morning in time for your transatlantic flight is very high. In travel however things sometimes do not go as planned. What are the consequences if you miss your transatlantic flight? If the the consequences are high I would fly into Dublin the day before. I do not think which airline you pick makes much difference here. I always plan our trips so that we either have all our long distance flights across oceans on one ticket or plan to be in the city of origin the day or more before the flight.

GSteed

Ryanair operates on schedule. Gates close 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time. This is a welcome service for travellers who respect schedules! Weather and mechanical problems may cause delays but these are safety issues rather than operating deficiencies. Anecdotal information is often in conflict with airline information.

lincasanova

i would say this will be no different than any other non-through ticketed flight.

the consequences, as mentioned, of missing your connection, whether it be ryan air or whatever, are what would concern me.

if you are willing to deal with that, than go for it.

i, too, however, would opt for sleeping the night before in country of flight.

CotswoldScouser

The Ryanair horror stories all boil down to one central fact: if things go wrong, Ryanair leaves you to your own devices. However unpleasant a mess that dumps you in.

But, because of the near psychopathic micro-management style of its CEO, things actually go wrong on Ryanair less often than on major airlines.

If your alternative is to fly to Dublin on an airline that'll through-check you home, take the alternative because they may well assume responsibility if anything goes wrong. Otherwise there's only any point in using someone else if the flight's due to get in earlier and that earlier time fits your desired level of comfort.

Personally, I'd get Ryanair if it was due to arrive 90 mins before checkin time. I certainly wouldn't use another airline if arrival times were the same UNLESS they assumed responsibility for the onward connection.

alanRow

"Has anyone else tried and succeeded, or been burned?"

It's not a case of succeed/get burned, it's a case that it's possible that Ryanair (or any other airline) won't get you to Dublin in time for your connecting flight.

If you don't give a damn about your connecting flight & are willing to suffer the consequences then get a flight to Dublin on the day you are flying out of Dublin, otherwise go the night before.

TimS

If you decide to take a morning flight from London to Dublin, I recommend you plan to arrive at Stansted three or four hours before your scheduled departure for the US to allow time to claim baggage and check in for your flight home. I'd choose Aer Lingus or BMI because they depart from Heathrow and their prices to Dublin are competitive with those of Ryanair. When you include the cost of getting to Stansted, you may end up actually paying more. And don't forget the time it takes to get there.

TimS

I made an obvious mistake in my previous post. I meant to say you should arrive in DUBLIN three or four hours ahead of your scheduled departure.

stokebailey

Thanks so much, all. We'll go with Dublin the previous night, I think, all things considered. Besides, Ireland is my 1/4th and my daughters' 1/8th ancestral home. I was having trouble with the concept of airplanes just randomly failing to take off; seemed unlikely.

But if storms or terrorists threatened, it would be comforting that day to be on the same general island as our (nonrefundable) flight home.

stokebailey

It turns out that the Aer Lingus flights from Heathrow are at Ryanair-like prices, 1-3 GBP plus, for that date. We will go the day before and savor Dublin for that night and morning. I appreciate your time and money-saving hints, dear Fodor's Persons.