RYANAIR- genius or crap?
 

Have you all had good or bad experiences w/ Ryanair? Are people really elbowing each other and cramming on to planes?

I have had great experiences with Ryanair. The plane was comfortable and clean and perfectly fine for a short flight. I flew to Rome with ryanair a couple of years ago for 15 pounds including tax - how can you complain! Also, I have flown with easyjet several times, no complaints.
Carolena

I've flown with them many times but only short journeys just to Glagsow and France. I found the them perfectly fine, people do not elbow each other to ge on the planes, i've experienced far worse behaviour with other airlines, but then again thats not the fault of the airline its the ignorant passengers that use them.

Go to www.airlinequality.com and read passenger complaints about Ryan Air. There are many! Ryan Air has a two star rating, the only airline in western Europe, I believe, that does. Only two airlines worldwide have a one star rating.

Of 16 major airports on the western continent, those with over 10 million passengers per year, Ryan serves exactly -- NONE.

Of the 15 cities served by those airports, Ryan has no service to five, including Kopenhagen, Zurich, and Madrid, Munich. Of the remaining 10 they use secondary airports in Berlin and Rome that are about as good as the primary ones, and less than an hour out of town. In the other 8 their airport is an hour further out of town than the primary one. Hahn is 1 3/4 hour from Frankfurt.

So, you can get some really good fares on Ryan, but before booking, look closely at the airport(s) they use and figure out how you are going to go from there.

Flew from Edinburgh to Dublin - no problems of any kind. Nice because Ryan actually uses the main airports in these cities unlike the outlying ones used elsewhere. This was before some of the recent changes like charges for checked bags, etc. Overall, good outfit.

Having used Ryanairseveral times, they seem to have gotten better of late in enforcing the "early boarding for early check in". In Palermo they were quite forceful in holding back a group of Young Italians who had tried to force their way to the front of the queue. They were also goo at ensuring that families with children and the infirm were allowed a good "head start".

I was quite amused when a middle aged London couple with exageratted limps asked to go ahead as "we have difficulties with walking". As soon as they were out on the tarmac, they miraculously got better, and took the seats by the emergancy exits. After everybody else had boarded, the stewardess moved them out of these seats because "I can't let you sit there because of your walking difficulties" - what impressed me was that she had not a trace of a smirk until she had left them and was walking back.

I agree with Carolina -- the experience is find given the price on both Ryanair and EasyJet. Most of the flights I have taken were between 1hr & 2hrs - for that amount of time, I don't really care when I can fly to Prague, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Dublin (a few of the places I have used these airline for) to or from London for about $45 about supreme comfort. I haven't noticed really noticed any elbowing or cramming on the flights I have been on. All my flights were on time or early as well.

Lots of airlines have numerous complaints against them. The number one reason people have problems with Ryanair is that they try to check in too late, which means they are left with nothing and with having to pay for a new full-fare flight. Getting to the airport in plenty of time will eliminate more than 90% of the problems people have with Ryanair.

Occasionally Ryanair cancels a flight. This can cause havoc. Having travel insurance is probably a good idea, or accept there's a 1/1000 chance or so that your flight might be cancelled and you'll have to find another way out. (And it's not as if other airlines are perfect in this respect.)

As for me, I'm perfectly happy with every budget flight I've taken in Europe - Ryanair, EasyJet, Transavia, BMI. Some were a little late (not Ryanair, I dont' think), but I expect that with any airline .

"RYANAIR- genius or crap?"

Both - when things are ging well, when you follow their rules to the letter then it's genius, if you don't or something happens at their end it's CRAP