No food. No luggage. Very soon BeachBoi's proposal will be implemented. Then - what's next?

NO PASSENGERS?

The notion of weird airport locations is specious, in my opinion. Dublin? Graz? Palermo? Malaga?

If that's where you're headed, then there's nothing weird about those airports.

The "big" airports are often not the airports "of choice". MDW is much better for getting quick in and out of downtown Chicago. EWR is hardly a thir-rate airport anymore (I remember when it was), but the "other two" (LGA, JFK) are out of the question when I want to go visit my brother in Morristown.

I would not disagree that eliminating checked baggage would amount to a fare increase for many passengers. So what?

As for selling ("shorting"?) RYAAY, that advice is rather late, it would appear. The horse got out of the barn right after Christmas. See http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=RYAAY&t=5y

I wouldn't buy it or sell it right now. A much more interesting question for those who like to buy speculatively, among the bottoim fish - - is where does this picture go? http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DAL&t=5y

Of course, this forum is hardly an "investing tips" source, though - - now is it?

<b>Rex</b>,

The last poaragraph about my choice not to fly RyanAir is very true to me. Majority of the airports are hour+ from major European centers. If it fits your schedule, fine, but please don't start digging couple of examples and making it sound like I'm totally off in my post. I need to be in Frankfurt very often, Madrid and Barcelona, Rome, Paris and few other places. Besides I do prefer business/first class all the way to my destination, so again RyanAir will not work for me.

As far as MDW/ORD, I'll take ORD ANYTIME. The wonderful AA Flagship Lounge or AA AC Lounge is all the excuse I need to use ORD.

My original post was NOT about comparing notes. I stated what I believe to be the case as far as the luggage rumor and just qualified the statement with what my preference and needs are, when flying.

And since you insist, I will say it again: Majority of RyanAir airports are very inconvenient. No self respecting businessperson would use this airline. Nothing wrong with the leisure traveler saving some major bucks as long as they know what they ae getting themselves into.

What?! Someone actually said buy clothes at your destination? So then whaddaya do? Throw the new stuff in the trash before you fly home?

Ryan air, if they do this, is simply narrowing their customer base &amp; I do resent being cut out of this option. After all, other airlines will figure out the US travellers won't be able to use Ryanair, and then there will be no incentive for &quot;competitive rates.&quot;

Buying clothes at your destination is more expensive than flying BA - and as the previous poster said, do you just dump the designer pieces or give them to the maid?

Nope, you put them in a box and mail home. What would we do (or won't do) for a cheap flight!

&lt;&lt;Nothing wrong with the leisure traveler saving some major bucks as long as they know what they ae getting themselves into.&gt;&gt;

At the risk of over-generalizing, I think that the focus of this forum is predominantly leisure travel.

<b>At the risk of over-generalizing, I think that the focus of this forum is predominantly leisure travel.</b>

Not ALL leisure travelers are budget travelers.

I'm a budget traveller and I still don't like Ryanair for the same reason AAFrequentFlyer doesn't. Time is money, even for a budget traveller, and their airport locations, lousy schedules and appalling check-in policies eat up a lot of that precious commodity.

It's easy to scoff at the major airlines, but they weren't using subsidized airports like Ryanair was until the EU threw out that option for them. This apparently is why they are now struggling to figure out how to meet their suddenly increased costs.

Presumably Ryanair will do their market research before implementing this idea. If they go ahead, I wonder how they'll deal with the increased delays at check-in since passengers, having no recourse if their luggage exceeds the 10 kg limit, will argue endlessly.

Mr Michael O'Leary also says he wants to abolish all its check-in desks, eliminating the need for counter staff, conveyor belt systems to carry the suitcases, handlers who load the luggage into holds and all the vehicles they need.
He is also doing away with window blinds on all its new aircraft, as well as reclining seats and velcro-sticking laundered headrest covers. Seat pockets are also being eliminated to cut down on capital and cleaning costs - the safety notice will be permanently stitched to the back of seats and there will be no in-flight magazine.
And finally Passengers will have to print out tickets when they book on the Internet and then go straight to departure gates where hand luggage will be security-screened. Any passenger willing to pay the luggage surcharge will also have the suitcase scanned at the departure gates - and will then have to carry it to the aircraft for loading.

Well, Ryan Air is currently charging .99 pounds ($1.84) for travel from London to 23 European cities. At that price, who cares if you have to travel with a 22 pound carry-on (which I have done on short trips).

I'm happy to see that this is remaining civil - - and clearly we are headed towards agreeing to disagree. I think that a goodly number of people here are leisure travelers, who seek the &quot;best&quot; bargain, and as one of those, Ryanair has fit well into my plans for the five segments when I have used them. I have also used other bargain airlines - - the now defunct &quot;AirUK&quot;, one called Air Liberte, which was (is?) a subsidiary of BA, and one that was <i>supposed</i> to fly me from Lisbon to Sevilla many years ago - - they were on &quot;permanent&quot; strike (?) when I got there; I think they never did resume operations. I lost no money with them, and had an interesting &quot;plan B&quot; experience, as a result. I don't remember the name.

Anyhow, I will continue to look at ways that the routes of Ryanair can help me build an itinerary. Getting between two distant points, at the lowest possible cost, and in the shortest amount of time, remains a cornerstone of how I enjoy traveling in Europe.