British consumer survey : Ryanair "2nd worse short haul airline "

[Picasso Republic]

The problem I see is that so many have simply jumped on the bandwagon of criticism and will simply look for problems with Ryanair - and they'll see problems because they're not looking for issues when they fly with others.

I fly 'low fare' most of the time now, not because I choose, but because the airlines I use (EasyJet, Ryanair and WizzAir) provide me with the most flexibility simply because of where I travel from and to on a very regular basis (1 or 2 return trips weekly). I fly AerLingus from Geneva to Dublin on a fortnightly or monthly basis also. Do I see any diffference - not really.

All airlines require you to get to the airport.
All airlines require you to go through the security checks.
All airlines require you to Q at the gate.
Some airlines offer premium boarding for a payment.
All now monitor cabin bags for oversized bags.
All low fare airlines charge for checked in bags (I never travel with checked in bags)
Many low fares airlines fly to less busy/central airports (perhaps 10 minutes extra on a train) – remember its not the distance to the airport you can complain about, but the additional distance.

Some people seem to think even a low fares airline should be offering the same service as airlines with far higher fares as standard. Some believe they still live in an era where you are handed a drink and a warm towel with a tongs prior to departure (I remember those days), where you are served a warm meal gratis and you get a real knife, fork and glass.
People need to get over this mindset, see the plane as a flying bus and the fares reflect that – remember, we were being robbed blind prior to the emergence of Ryanair and other low fares airlines.

Also, rather than whining – if the destination is not exactly where you want to go, then don’t book the blasted flight – fly to where you want to go with another airline. I had to travel to Kerry a few weeks ago, the best price I could get was into Belfast International – major mistake – what a drive – but should I condemn EasyJet for flying Geneva to Belfast simply because this was not my final destination?

[Hogsback]

The problem I see is that so many have simply jumped on the bandwagon of criticism and will simply look for problems with Ryanair - and they'll see problems because they're not looking for issues when they fly with others.

I fly 'low fare' most of the time now, not because I choose, but because the airlines I use (EasyJet, Ryanair and WizzAir) provide me with the most flexibility simply because of where I travel from and to on a very regular basis (1 or 2 return trips weekly). I fly AerLingus from Geneva to Dublin on a fortnightly or monthly basis also. Do I see any diffference - not really.

All airlines require you to get to the airport.
All airlines require you to go through the security checks.
All airlines require you to Q at the gate.
Some airlines offer premium boarding for a payment.
All now monitor cabin bags for oversized bags.
All low fare airlines charge for checked in bags (I never travel with checked in bags)
Many low fares airlines fly to less busy/central airports (perhaps 10 minutes extra on a train) – remember its not the distance to the airport you can complain about, but the additional distance.

Some people seem to think even a low fares airline should be offering the same service as airlines with far higher fares as standard. Some believe they still live in an era where you are handed a drink and a warm towel with a tongs prior to departure (I remember those days), where you are served a warm meal gratis and you get a real knife, fork and glass.
People need to get over this mindset, see the plane as a flying bus and the fares reflect that – remember, we were being robbed blind prior to the emergence of Ryanair and other low fares airlines.

Also, rather than whining – if the destination is not exactly where you want to go, then don’t book the blasted flight – fly to where you want to go with another airline. I had to travel to Kerry a few weeks ago, the best price I could get was into Belfast International – major mistake – what a drive – but should I condemn EasyJet for flying Geneva to Belfast simply because this was not my final destination?

I think a lot of the criticism the low costs cop is just outright snobbery/disgust around the ability of the smelly masses to fly to previously unspoiled destinations, spewing carbon as they go.

Flying into Belfast International is ok. Flying out is to be avoided if my recent experience is anything to go by.
The geriatric search freaks in there seem to think the troubles are still in full swing and put anything I've seen in the US to shame.

[bluefirelog]

Last year, I took Ryanair a few times. They serve a useful purpose, but if I have a choice and there is no significant price differential with another airline, I will take the other airline.

One of the flights I took with them last year included free taxes and charges and the flight itself was a few euro, so I couldn't justify not taking it as the time and airports suited me. The other flight was return to London and again the reason was the large differential in price with what was available when I needed to travel so I couldn't justify not taking it, even if it wasn't the handiest airport and I had to take the train.

Nevertheless, I find that most of the time, the flight prices between Ryanair and the other airline are often comparable. Ryanair bump up their prices when there is demand. If you book them last minute, they can be expensive - as MO'L says, he loves funerals because people need last minute flights and you have them where you want them. Aer Lingus, in particular, can often be very competitive with Ryanair, but is offering better flight times or a better located airport. Sometimes the prices of the other airline are even lower. Sometimes if you look at big cities in mainland Europe such as Brussels or Paris, you will find the prices are the same or the differential between them is mitigated by Ryanair flying to an airport that is in a different place and requiring a bus journey.

If I am going, for example, to Paris, I would need quite a price differential to make me think it is worthwhile going to Beauvais. Especially if only going for a weekend.

Basically if you fly Ryanair to Paris, you end up in a different place called Beauvais.

When you get outside the terminal, there can be a big queue to get bus tickets. Then there is the cost of the bus. It's something like €15 extra each way, so €30 which you need to factor in to any cost comparison. There can also be tons of other people from other flights trying to get on the bus as their flight arrived around the same time. There are then queues to get on the bus to get out of the place. So you have the ticket queue and the bus queue and once you've got through that, the bus journey itself is a minimum of an hour, they drop you on the outskirts of the city on a metro line. To get to where you need to go you may then change metro a few times. By the time you arrive at your destination, you have used up quite a lot of time, if you are on a short trip.

On return, you have to make your way again to the outskirts (assume by metro.) There are then strict rules on getting the bus – you have to be there a set time before your flight is due to leave - something like 3 hours or a minimum of 2 1/2 hours before. There can be lots of other people waiting aroun for different flights and no bus arrived back from its last journey yet – and the bus operator will manage which bus you can get on depending on your flight time. The whole thing of hanging around the bus park can be messy.


Then when you get to the airport, getting on and off the flight with Ryanair is usually a pain. Due to the lack of allocated seats, queueing starts generally at least an hour before the flight goes. Next the checking of bag sizes that goes on is much more extreme than other airlines and there can be all kinds of scenes involving distressed passengers.

With Aer Lingus, you fly to Charles de Gaulle and are on an RER line which can get you into the centre in 20 minutes or so and you can be at your end destination easily in under an hour. So overall, my choice in flying somewhere like Paris is Aer Lingus over Ryanair, unless the Aer Lingus flight price is such that I consider it over-priced. It's not snobbishness, it's comfort, time and enjoyment of time available on a short trip.


On the European Commission not paying for MO'L's flight recently because he went to Charleroi, I think it is possibly something to do with the Commission being anti-low fare airlines because they encourage mass travel which causes carbon emissions. I have also heard of other companies that don't pay for staff to take low fare airlines for work trips, but I'm not entirely clear why. I think on the Commission position, it is a bit rich, considering they spent years trying to liberalise the market and create competition and open air travel to the masses and now that we have that, they seem to have decided flights should be expensive...