RYANAIR review :  3 July 2009 : by M Dobson   (UK)

Newquay-Alicante-Newquay. Checked in 1 bag weighing in at 12.7kg usual chaos, people with over weight bags holding up the check in whilst they remove items. Received attitude at security as I had a slim over the shoulder body bag with all the paper you now have to print out to fly, and was told "1 bag only"! Usual scramble at boarding as people try to get seated together. Whoever thought this was a faster way to get people on an aircraft and seated in an orderly and speedy manner is somewhat deluded. On return we checked in the same bag minus a whole host of liquid items we had used during our holiday, only to be told the case now weighed 17.5kg. So somewhere between Newquay and Alicante we had gained 4.8kg. This not only happened to us but a relative who flew from Leeds & weighed her case herself at both ends also ended up with an increase at Alicante of 3kg. It seems that wherever possible there is an extra charge unless you are a qualified proof reader when checking your booking. I will never fly Ryanair again and neither will my family.

RYANAIR review :  2 July 2009 : by T Danko   (USA)

Ryanair is the worst airline I have ever flown. The representatives are rude and insulting. The service is non existent. The additional baggage fee charges are obscene and excessive and you either pay the fees or they refuse to issue boarding passes leaving you stranded at the airport. You have no choice when you are traveling with your spouse and children in a foreign country. Flying Ryanair was a mistake that I will not make again.

RYANAIR review :  2 July 2009 : by J House   (UK)

DSA-GIR. Both flights on time, aircraft clean and modern. FAs not particularly pleasant or friendly. All ok really, but the whole Ryanair experience of being rushed onto the plane, having to fight for your seat and pay for everything just makes the whole experience rather unpleasant. Only paid GBP50 for the tickets, would gladly pay twice as much to fly with another airline.

RYANAIR review :  27 June 2009 : by J Malone   (UK)

STD-KRK return flight. Ryanair fees are getting ludicrous. With all fees, the "1 pence" tickets with checked baggage now cost around 97 pounds, making this the absolutely cheapest possible Ryanair international ticket out of Stansted. Since BA and EasyJet are just charging a little more, it's becoming increasingly worthwhile to pay a little more to escape the hell that is Ryanair land.

RYANAIR review :  26 June 2009 : by K Gilding   (UK)

I travelled from Stanstead to Rimini yesterday to work for two months. Foolishly I did not check the excess baggage charges on the website. Ok, my fault, when I checked in the bag was 24K instead of the 15K allowed. I had to pay £136 and I will have to pay the same again coming back, unless I want to dump a lot of my stuff. The check in area was chaos as lots of people were opening their cases and dumping things, or trying to put more stuff in their hand luggage, because they had weighed their bags and realized how much it was going to cost them. Also some people were struggling with the machines and payment, my mum helped two people, with Ryanair staff giving no assistance. Low cost airline - what a joke.

RYANAIR review :  26 June 2009 : by C Drake   (UK)

STN-Pisa return. The problem with Ryanair is the "go to hell" attitude when things go wrong. I recently did a London / Pisa return and except for the delay on the return flight of some 45 mins it worked quite well. I use them about 7-8 times a year as I have a home in Italy. B737-800s new, seats uncomfortable (I am 6ft 4") - but don't care not on a flight thats under 2 hours. FAs onboard so far seem very pleasant. The food very poor value for money. The price - its all the "extras" that put it up - but its still below BA fares.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by Michaela Tothova   (Slovakia)

I absolutely agree with A O'Donnell. The latest charge of Ryanair for online checkin is unreasonable and ridiculous. The passenger saves them time, the check-in personnel and also the check-in material (like boarding passes) and is charged for that 5 EUR. I wonder how long people will tolerate this - I certainly won't and certainly won't fly with them again although they offer most convenient connection for me from Bratislava to Bergamo. I will rather take another carrier from Vienna and be treated fairly and with respect.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by D Stone   (UK)

BHD-STN-BHD. This was my first, and hopefully my last time flying Ryanair. I had my reservations about flying with them, but the fares were good, and most people I spoke to had said "at least they are usually on time". That proved quiet ironic as it turned out. The first problem was the length of the online check-in process. By the time we'd entered the details for all 4 travellers and reviewed it, the session had timed out. After a second attempt we were checked in. We had some problems at BHD too, but these were airport, rather than Ryanair related. The flight was called about 45mins before departure and we were herded to wait needlessly for the period in a corridor. On board I have the usual gripes, regarding the horrendous colour scheme, lack of comfort and the service. The crew all spoke English to some degree and with various accents. No offence to them, but on a UK/Irish based airline, cabin crew should be able to be understood by the majority of the passengers. The real fun started as we approached STN. We were told that there was an unspecified problem and we would circle to try to see if anything changed. A little while later we were told that the auto-pilot was not working, and we'd fly around a little more as it was very foggy and we were unable to land. Ten minutes later we were told instead that we would have to fly and land at LTN instead. Now flying this was only a 5-10min diversion, but for anyone being met or with travel connections at STN it's a good hour out of the way. When we landed at LTN we were welcomed to Luton Airport by a cabin crew member who seemed oblivious to the fact that we were at an airport that nobody wanted to be at. We were first told a coach would be organised to get us to STN, then a few minutes later a plane was found to get us back. By which point half the plane was ready to disembark, and make their own way onwards. We decided to leave the plane and make our own way into London, which meant we had to pay again for new train tickets, as the Stansted Express tickets we had booked were now useless, as we had by now missed the last train of the night, even if we had made it back to STN. Frankly we were more than ready to part company with Ryanair. Except we had to fly home of course. Luckily the return journey was much less eventful, just a half hour delay, which was excellent service in light of the outbound flight.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by Kerry Stockbridge   (Denmark)

AAR-STN-AAR with Ryanair and I never fail to be amazed at simple how bad the experience is. - The experience at Stansted was not to be believed. We were scheduled to leave from gate 45 and our plane was delayed due to bad weather but they then decided to move a flight to Venice- Treviso to our gate causing mass crowding. An hour or so later our flight was moved to gate 44, which was filled with people waiting to go to Frankfurt-Hahn, who then had to move to gate 42. Those who know these gates at Standsted will understand how insane this is. We were shocked at the response of a Ryanair official who refused to help a woman carry her stroller down the flights of steps to the plane (she had an infant on her arm that was too young too walk). The Ryanair woman's response was "No, I can't", no sorry, nothing ... and continued counting boarding cards.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by S Blackburn   (UK)

I think the worst thing about Rynaiar isn't the plastic seats, or the fact that they have the same seat pitch as a London bus. It's the fact that you're playing a game by their rules, and they keep changing the rules. As a result everything is underscored with a sense of caution as you check and triple check to make sure you've unticked the right boxes on their website, printed the right boarding pass, worn all your heavy clothes, etc. to avoid being hit by a fine. It's just soul destroying. Obviously the benefit - and the reason we all keep on paying the piper - is that we can now fly to more places and occasionally pay less than we might otherwise have done. Anyway, flights STN-PSA were ok; return was an hour late. Two tips: Ryanair flights are likely to be later as the day goes on, so expect evening delays. And the last leg for any plane will probably only unload from the front door, so not worth going on through the back.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by J Stewart   (UK)

Beware of Ryanair flights to Dusseldorf. We booked flights from Manchester to Dusseldorf only to find on landing that we were in the Netherlands! The flights are advertised as Dusseldorf Weeze, but it cost us 130 euros in a taxi to get from the airport to Dusseldorf.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by John Fairclough   (France)

Perpignan to STN return. Gone are the days of being able to describe flying with Ryanair as cheap. It's becoming very pricey now,o nce you've added up all the charges etc. Of course the flights are bought on a "you know what you're going to get" - ie cramped conditions, poor service, a scrum at Stansted. Ryanair ought to remarket themselves as the "High Fares Airline". EasyJet are no better. Just priced a flight from London to Geneva for a family member and they are much more expensive from LTN than Swiss from LCY or BA from LHR. It's time the myth was exploded.

RYANAIR review :  23 June 2009 : by Y Owen  (UK)

Liverpool - Carcassonne. Both outbound and inbound flight on schedule and service at both airports was excellent, cabin crew helpful and efficient. We did not buy anything on board and travelled with baggage within the restrictions allowed.

RYANAIR review :  18 June 2009 : by Philip Chircop  (UK)

My family and I travelled from Edinburgh to Malta last week. Herded like cattle at check-in. My daughter had to pay £190.00 excess luggage even though her daughter had no hand luggage. No consideration was used. Inside the aircraft all plastic - no headrest covers. I hope the previous passenger did not have something nasty in their hair. We ordered 2 coffees and 2 small soft drinks. Cost £10.60. Coffee tasted like warmed up dish water. As for announcements, it might as well have been in Chinese as we could not make out most of what was being said.