RYANAIR review : 17 May 2008 : by A Spencer

Customer Rating : 1/5

Real joke. Feel sorry for the staff. They try hard but its so easy to see that they are overworked and underpaid. We flew LTN to Malta recently and the flight was pleasant. We did have to pay an addtional £30.00 for 3 Kilos over on the suitcase although when returning the weight was heavier and no charge. To be fair, for what we paid we should have flown Air Malta and had in flight entertainment, meal and happier service.

RYANAIR review : 13 May 2008 : by M Alan

Customer Rating : 2/5

I have twice experienced a mysterious increase in baggage weight on my return trip with this airline, when no weight had been added at all, and had to pay €40 difference or not be allowed to board the plane. Somehow, my carry- on weight was grand on the way out! I have been considering whether to chance a flight to LGW with Ryanair on the first leg of a journey to Fla, but looking at the on- time average, I think I'll spend €100 more and go with another carrier, as a delay would be a disaster. Really glad I read these reviews, at least I know I am not hallucinating my idea that Ryanair make things as tricky as possible in order to get you for more money.

RYANAIR review : 13 May 2008 : by Geoff Reed

Customer Rating : 4/5

Stansted - Bratislava return. Have found Ryanair disappointing in the past (even by low cost standards) but pleasantly surprised - check in was quick and efficient, planes were clean. FA's helpful and efficient (used to feel hassled when they came around selling the lottery tickets and gifts or when they asked for your spare change), they were mainly Scandanavian on the return; not sure if that makes a difference. I can't say anything about food and drink as I always take my own onboard.

RYANAIR review : 11 May 2008 : by Allan Robins

Customer Rating : 4/5

Liverpool-Kaunas return. The last time I travelled Ryanair, you got a free 20kg allowance, however those days have gone. The new 15kg allowance did worry me slightly, I was 16kg but got away without paying, whilst the person in front was 17.5kg and got stung. Flight on time, FAs friendly. The food was a little on the steep side, and quality not great either. I would say that Ryanair are a cheap airline as long as you know what to expect. However if you pay more than £90 for your ticket though, I would look elsewhere.

RYANAIR review : 7 May 2008 : by Damien Varoquier

Customer Rating : 1/5

I use Ryanair 3 to 4 times a year to fly from London to Biarritz and Valencia and every single time the plane is at least 50 minutes late. On 4 May 2008, however, we were scheduled to take off at 9.25pm but eventually took off at 00.45am. The only compensation we got was a miserable 5 euro voucher. I do not believe the disrespect this company has towards its passengers. EasyJet have just opened a new route London-Biarritz, and their luggage allowance is 20kg. I have rated my trip experience very poor, because the option appalling is missing.

RYANAIR review : 1 May 2008 : by Mike Carter

Customer Rating : 4/5

Flight arrived late into Stansted for turnaround, staff did not appear until the plane was ready for boarding so no explanations. Priority boarding passengers were let on to the plane first (use web check in if going for day trip). Plane clean, garish, but cheerful. Staff pleasant and friendly. The plane made up time in flight and was 5 mins late. Return flight was there on time, but they changed departure gates without telling anyone. First on plane. Clean cabin, friendly staff.

RYANAIR review : 30 April 2008 : by K Jones

Customer Rating : 2/5

LPL-Girona. Flight left on time with minimum fuss, plane filthy due to unrealistic turnaround times. Staff seemed indifferent, there seems to be a morale problem? Return flight two hour delay, strict on charges with overweight luggage, I was charged 60e, my fault I suppose! Office would only accept payment by euros in cash, no cards or sterling causing major problems for some. Plane filthy again and as last leg of day hardly any food or drinks to purchase, plenty of scratch cards though. Ryanair is cheap and gets you where it says, but makes its money on extras so be careful as the slightest error will cost you.

RYANAIR review : 30 April 2008 : by J Davies

Customer Rating : 3/5

How Ryanair makes extra money out of passengers: Easyjet = 20Kg checked in baggage allowance : Monarch = 20Kg : Aer Lingus = 20Kg : Ryanair = 15Kg. So anyone used to flying with other budget carriers who flies Ryanair first time and who doesn't read the small print gets charged €10 per excess kilo. At my flight from Dublin yesterday, the queue was big and consistent with people paying! All legal maybe, but in my book this falls under the heading of sharp business practice.

RYANAIR review : 29 April 2008 : by Chris Wheeler

Customer Rating : 1/5

This week my family and I returned from a holiday in Majorca with Ryanair. Departing from Stansted was organised. I had booked the flights some months before on a good deal, but was surprised at how many extras you have to add if you are going to be checking in bags. £6 for checkin of each passenger, £12 (I think) for each bag to be checked in. But it was still cheap and the time taken to carefully pack no more the 15kg into each suitcase seemed to be fruitless as they did not seem to check the weight on checkin. However, on the return it was a different story. Checkin only opened about 1 1/2 hours before departure (which annoys me as you then have to be quite quick through security etc) and after being in line for about 20 mins we soon realised that they were scrupulously checking the weight of bags. People in front of us were paying £50 or so extra for their 'over weight' bags at checkin. We had three bags, one being 4kgs over - they wanted to charge 10Euro per kg, but we repacked in front of the desk and took loads in our hand luggage and between our other two bags. It is a nonsense that they cannot add up the weight of all three bags and divide by three. It is not a health and safety thing for the handlers either as over weight bags are allowed if paid for. The thing that I do not understand is that the same weight went on the plane in the end all be it divided up amongst our hand luggage. It is a deliberate ploy that they do not check your bags on the way out but do on the way back. Top tip - buy the biggest hand luggage bag allowed and use that. 

RYANAIR review : 23 April 2008 : by P McCurley

Customer Rating : 1/5

Having lost some information on my computer recently I needed to get confirmation for some flights I had booked. I tried contacting Ryanair by phone for several hours and finally decided to see if anyone else had experienced problems. I found some very useful information on this site and thanks to another frustrated customer was able to work out my reference using my credit card statement. There is a number following Ryanair on the statement and when I removed the zeros at the start and the last zero, had my six figure reference. Ryanair customer service is non existent and at this point they have been no help at all. Thank goodness for web sites like these.

Ryanair review - by P Roberts

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

VLC-CRL. New B737-800, garish yellow headrests, advertising everywhere, incessant playing of special offers for booze, scratch cards etc etc, overpriced drinks and food, excellent crew. Not too chaotic boarding (although nobody seemed to know what Priority boarding was), on time - and a cheap fare. Which is more than can be said for the 'fantastic' new terminal at Charleroi. Yes it's much nicer than the old shed but service clientele is still awful, high prices for everything that you'd expect at a main city airport - which is clearly isn't - and badly organised transport onto to Brussels! If there is a problem it seems Ryanair dont want to know you, but I have to say my experience yesterday was pleasantly surprising.

Ryanair review - by R Symonds

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I've just got back home after a wedding in Barcelona, but I thought I'd share a highly unusual experience with you involving Ryanair. he ticket cost £35 from Bristol to Girona, Spain. I arrived at Bristol airport with plenty of time to spare and went to the check-in desk, but was redirected to another queue at the Ryanair information desk. So I wandered off to a queue snaking back about 50 people long. There were some pretty angry and emotional people in the queue. An airport representative told us Ryanair had decided to void any tickets that had been booked without providing 'advanced passenger information' to satisfy the requirements of the Spanish government. However we were told it would be possible for us to board the plane if we paid Ryanair £220.37 and re-booked the ticket. There were lots of Spanish people in the queue along with other EUs. We were all told we would have to pay for our tickets again to board the plane, even though we had all already paid for a seat on the same flight. Most people booked another flight for Saturday morning for £50 and went back home. I was one of a handful that paid the ticket and assumed it was some kind of error. The staff were not employed by Ryanair since Ryanair doesn't employ it's own staff at the airports from which it operates.

Ryanair review - by Geoffrey McNab

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Day trip to Liverpool from Belfast City during the sale to mark the reopening of the ‘new’ website in February, simply to find out if the ‘free’ fares existed and were easy to find. No problem finding the 01p fares, allegedly free of all taxes, fees and charges” for the dates I had in mind. What the small print doesn’t say, of course, is there is a handling charge for credit or debit cards. Thus my 2p fare, with a debit card handling fee turned out to be £2.02p, still a bargain! I found the online check-in easy to use and the printer churned out the boarding passes for both flights. At each airport the ‘Priority’ queue was enforced giving those who had checked-in online priority boarding. The crew seemed to be very young, several chewed gum and their personal grooming left a lot to be desired. One girl, clearly acquainted with a male colleague travelling as a passenger, stood in the aisle and chatted to him during the entire boarding process; chewing her fingernails and completely oblivious to the elderly lady a few rows in front trying to put her bag into the overhead locker. One good thing about Ryanair planes is the seats cannot be reclined so at least you do not get the person in front trying to recline into your face, which is already fairly close to the row in front anyway. The horrid aspect to Ryanair is the relentless music, announcements and flogging of food, drink, shopping, and scratch cards. Not only was this done by a recorded announcement but it was repeated by the cabin crew. On the outward flight the male steward, fond of his own voice and probably with an eye on his commission, flogged to death the scratch cards, gave heart rendering speeches about how this was all to help childrens charities and I object to the use of emotional blackmail for what is simple another moneymaking aspect for Rynair. Thankfully the return flight was a bit quieter with the music low and the crew not so ‘chatty’ Both flights departed on time and arrived on time, or earlier – cue for another taped message, of course. On both flights I had an empty seat beside me which didn’t make the row feel quite so cramped. At the end of the day I flew cheaply. The trick seems to be to take no luggage at all other than the one piece 10kg hand luggage and use online check-in which gives priority boarding. As far as I could see no-one checked the weight of hand luggage of those who had checked-in online and one or two people seemed to have realised this probably seldom happens and their cabin bag had a well stuffed look to me, requiring in at least one case a great deal of shoving and squeezing to squash it into the overhead locker. Ryanair is a good product if only they would ease up on the relentless onboard sales and chit chat. And it has to be admitted the ‘sale’ fares are great value if you book and use them.

Ryanair review - by Greg Boyd

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Has any one else had difficulties printing Ryanair boarding cards (other airlines are no problem) since the 'wonderful' new Ryanair web-site materialised. I, and several colleagues, using different printers and different print quality settings, have found our bar codes unreadable. On a recent trip through hell (otherwise known as Gatwick), I was turned back at departures as the barcode could not be read, but as I was early I joined the handful of people waiting for the check in desk to open. Ten minutes after it should have opened, they changed the desks to adjacent ones. Impossible to know why, if one is of above average intelligence, so that all at the front were at the back. I ended up returning to the departures some 80 minutes after my first attempt. I am reverting to Aer Lingus with whom I have no problems.

Ryanair review - by Mary Downey

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Waiting for boarding to be announced on a flight Stansted/ Kerry I went to the ladies toilets. I came out two minutes later to see the boarding scrum was underway. Before I joined the queue I asked the Ryanair girl in charge of boarding (all of nineteen) why the announcement for boarding, if it was made at all, was inaudible in the ladies toilets. She turned on me and said "If you say another word I will stop you from boarding and you will be barred from ever flying Ryanair again." I am sixty years old and deeply resented having to allow a teenager in a cheap uniform to speak to me like that. I had no choice but to use them -t hey are the only carrier with a direct flight from London to Kerry - otherwise wild horses would never get me to use the no-frills, not-so-low cost, no manners airline ever again. Ryanair's success is a total mystery to me - and the website bookings site is just begging you to make the slightest error, it does smack of entrapment and utter ruthlessness. And as for any redress from customer service on that strange thing called a phone - don't make me laugh. Ryanair is a horror story all the way through.

Ryanair review - by I Cort

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair may be cheaper, however in terms of service and scheduling they are the worst airline I have ever used. In the space of a couple of months they have changed the timings of the Manchester Shannon route from evening flights out and back, to a mid afternoon flight out, and now the return flight back is 9.40am on Sunday morning. What use is that for people who want to have a weekend in Shannon. Hopeless.

Ryanair review - by Ray Taylor

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Missed a morning flight from Valencia to Stansted due to motorway accident hold-up. We re-booked on the evening flight £50 each, there were four of us travelling, two couples. one couple paid cash euros. We paid by credit card. When our credit card statement came the amount of £100 had geen taken twice. Have tried Visa fraud dept, Ryanair cutomer services Faxing all relevant details and receipts, but to no avail. We have just got to loose the £100. Disgusting.

Ryanair review - by D Hodson

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

BRS-BEZ. Flight arrived early both legs. Staff pleasant and efficient check in at both ends. Can't really ask for much more considering the ticket cost under £50.

Ryanair review - by D Whiting

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

STN-Frankfurt Hahn many times in the past two years. My wife and two children use this service usually once or twice a year to visit relatives in Germany. It is not ideal for me as I live in Surrey and it is a 150 mile round trip to Stansted. Having read so many negative comments, I really didn't want to give this shower of rip off artists my hard earned cash, so I checked online and found that Lufthansa out of Heathrow worked out at £50 more in total, which in my opinion is well worth paying. I agree with the concept of budget travel - Easyjet have proved that it can work without treating their customers with contempt. I have taken a decision never to fly with Ryanair on principle - and so should you all. Then, and only then, will Ryanair sit up and listen.

Ryanair review - by Madeline Davies

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair website is a shambles. Getting a refund is abysmal. No way of speaking to an actual human being on the telephone. Airline staff are poorly trained to deal with customers. What is with the fanfare when they land early? Their flights are actually overestimated timewise so really they don't land early at all! Inside the cabins the yellow is awful and the food/drink is overpriced. I used to travel with them a lot but I will not book with them now after seeing my friends flight in february cancelled and she has still not been refunded her money.

Ryanair review - by Ronald Lightbown

15 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

have been trying to book a flight online from Stansted to Ancona Italy for August for the past week and all I get is a notice, as I approach the end of the programme, to say their is a fault and please try later. During this period the price has risen from £416 to £556 for 2 tickets!!

Ryanair review - by C Camidge

12 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair is basically a con, when it comes to cheap fares, you are only allowed 15 kilos luggage and are charged £7.50 per kilo over this. You are not allowed to mix the weights of the luggage if you are travelling as a party or couple so even though my bag was light and my wife's just over we had to pay the extra kilo. Friends who were travelling to the same destination were charged an extra £90.00 outward and £20.00 inbound and they bought two new hand luggage bags for £10.00 each to spread the load. Perhaps if Ryanair were honest they would have weighing machines for there clients to check the weight of bags before queuing for boarding tickets, that people might be more aware of the exact weight of their bags. In future we'll fly Easy jet, better service and fairer service.

Ryanair review - by J Tudor-Williams

11 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Would seem like Ryanair have got a new trick as I too have been given wrong passenger details for booking I made - duplication of same details twice. No option but to pay a £70 correction fee for each of the £60 flights. 29 attempted calls over 2hrs 45mins yesterday morning (including line not connecting, cutting out part way through calls etc ) and I eventually get through to "customer services" long enough to have a conversation. They flatly denied that such a fault can exist with their website. 3 hours of faxing a letter to complaint to head office and line is either "busy" or "the number you are calling has hung up". A friend last week had his booking duplicated and had to pay twice as well. I have only given them one star because you can't award negative points!!

Ryanair review - by M Walsh

11 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Was looking around ryanair.com for a number for the complaints department. I also had a look at Ryanair compiled monthly stats for complaints and was surprised at how low the figure was, until I saw that Ryanair don't have a number for their complaints department, just a fax number! So, how many people do you know who have a fax machine at home? Clever! Their customer service number is 99.9% of the time engaged - and if you do get through its to a surly a defensive customer service agent who is of absolutely no help whatsoever.

Ryanair review - by B Evans

11 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I can see from other people's comments that I am not the first to experience the inefficiency of Ryanair's web site and lack of operational phone numbers to talk to a human being. Clearly Ryan Air do not give a stuff about the travelling public but just want to take our money.

Ryanair review - by Simon Garner

11 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LPL-LDY return. Booking online easy, no check-in baggage required. Checked in and printed boarding passes online. Interestingly, my bag wasn't weighed at all (because I didn't need to go anywhere near the check in desk I expect!!) Priority boarding a boon, (although it was free because I checked in on line) - it's probably not worth the extra if you have to pay. Onboard service acceptable, although I have to say that the cheap interiors that Ryanair have in their aircraft don't appear to be very durable as aircraft was fairly new but leather interior was very tatty.

Ryanair review - by J Overton

9 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Alicante to Stansted. Only 1 person checking in luggage so was standing in line to be checked in for an hour. On board they have background music of "chopsticks" which was really incredibly annoying. Just falling off to sleep when a big loud speaker of what they want to sell you comes over yet you couldn't even hear the captain over the tannoy. They want you to buy duty free yet no magazines supplied and person I was travelling with asked 3 times for a magazine until she got one. Other person next to me asked for 2 bottles of wine where the crew proceeded to get his pocket book out to write it down. Passenger asked, "you need to write that down?" and he said, "yes". Couldn't believe it. Seat okay, we sat in exit seats which are slightly smaller than the others.

Ryanair review - by Mark Martin

8 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Just got back from Milan with Ryanair. A party of nine of us, who all, according to Ryanair had identical names! They insisted that I must have entered my name nine times on the website and that I should pay 100euros per person to change names. My protestations that I had entered the names correctly were ignored, and I was told to apply for a refund later (and we all know about Ryanair's infamous customer service). I've just checked on their website and it won't let you enter identical details, coming up with an error message if you attempt to do so. Even the staff at the airport were agreeing that this was an obvious computer error, but when they phoned Ryanair in Dublin they insisted on the name change fee. We travelled out to Milan with Easyjet and the experience was painless, including no checking of the weight of our hand baggage, a 20kg allowance and a sympathetic approach to the fact that we had children with us (ie, cabin staff ensured we sat together). I'll certainly never travel with this airline again. 1 star is too good for them.

Ryanair review - by Alex Zak

8 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Birmingham-Dublin return. Paid a total of £0.00 in their free flight giveaway. Their software problems meant my credit card wasnt charged the correct fee. Friendly Irish crew going out, fairly miserable Eastern European crew on return. Aircraft clean, Ryanair magazine quite good. Dublin airport the best Ryanair hub I've used. Light, airy, and spacious gate areas with ample seating. Priority boarding working better now that they use seperate queues at some airports. Use Dublin bus No.41 outside terminal to reach city centre-its only 2 euros compared to 8 for the Ryanair terravision bus tickets sold on board. At Birmingham on several different flights I've travelled on the gates seem to be called at the last minute leaving maximum time in the shopping area with little seating, then a rush to get through gate security with different flights called at the same time.

Ryanair review - by R Hopkins

8 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Stansted to Dublin. I have used Ryanair a number of times on different routes and this was a little more civilised than it sometimes is. Sure, the queue at Stansted was slow, but after that it was no worse than expected. Why is obviously overweight luggage not dealt with separately? It would speed things up considerably. Check in at Dublin was open early with virtually no queue. On both journeys there was better queue control for boarding than at some airports, but this does appear to be airport dependent, as well as airline. Onboard prices are high, but I avoid any purchases. Both flights were on-time. It continues to worry me that the cabin crew speak English with such strong non-native accents. In an emergency, will anyone understand their instructions? I’m sure I’m not the only one who listens briefly to try to decide whether the announcements are in English or another language. Why is it that the adverts are completely audible when nothing else is? I’m just not quite convinced that safety is the priority that it is claimed to be.

Ryanair review - by J Delaney

4 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair advertise in flight for its new range of premium spirits - buy one get one free. A gin & tonic turned out to be a plastic glass with ice, tin of tonic, and 2 clear plastic sachets looking like condom packets. It was foul and cost 5.40 pounds. Another big con by the Ryanair tricky- dickies!

Ryanair review - by Steven Brandist

4 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Tried to book 26 March, entered flight and payment details but website stopped working. No on-screen or email confirmation. Everything pointed to the fact that the transaction had failed. Ended up booking with an alternative carrier. Now I find that Ryanair have charged my credit card. Getting a refund is going to be almost impossible due to the circumstances that 'I tried to pay' and even though this is with a credit card. Only thing available to salvage this to to move flights to another date or destination. Very annoyed.

Ryanair review - by B Brind

3 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair's so called customer service = complete shambles. I tried all day to contact a human being in the UK to speak with about the flight I have booked and paid for with Ryanair but, as many folk on this site know. Waste of time. Ryanair's website is as useful as a chocolate teapot. If you want to speak with a human being you have to phone either Dublin or Italy and be prepared to wait for a long time (paying for the call) in their 'queuing system' only for the line to go dead. Let's hope someone from Ryanair read the comments on this site (which after all is aimed at sharing information), and let's hope Ryanair take heed somehow before they go out of business. It would seem, many of us passengers have flown with Ryanair because they had no other choice at the time (or in my case, it was only Ryanair that offered a direct flight to my destination) - given the choice. I will not fly with Ryanair again.

Ryanair review - by Peter Tanner

3 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Big mistake! Booked flight on new route STN-FAO (have always flown Easyjet in past). Checked in my mountain bike and they charged me £50 plus £6 airport check-in (As opposed to £18 with Easyjet). I only want to take the bike one-way and leave it in Portugal, but their system only allows two-way when a return ticket is purchased. Tried calling their 10p a minute help line to be given a £1 per minute help line number. Scandalous. Never again Ryanair!

Ryanair review - by M Scott

3 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Be very aware of the new baggage regulations. I booked 4 tickets from Stansted to Riga and booked 3 bags, as I booked the 3 bags under 1 name the limit is only 15kg and costs £60 ! I did call them to change this to 1 bag per person for 3 which works out at £12 each and 15kg each , a better deal altogether. The call centre number they give you is a joke, it says it costs 10p a minute but when you call that number there is a message to call the internet support number at £1 a minute. For an online business they force you to actually call a call centre and reap more profit from the customer. The fares may be attractive but there are many surcharges such as check-in fees, baggage fees, credit card fees to consider .

Ryanair review - by Peter Jordan

2 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

My flight from La Rochelle 8479 cancelled without any notification at 21.20 - cannot speak to anyone and completely dissatisfied with service and the customer support system.

Ryanair review - by P Mathison

1 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I've been flying Ryanair for 5 years and in the past, they were cheapest. Crunch time came with a recent trip DUB-LGW. For flights out on a Friday night and back Sunday night I checked with Aer Lingus and Ryanair. Identical airports, very similar flight times. Ryanair advertised seat price for the return journey was EUR16, Aer Lingus EUR51. After you go through to the end with all taxes and charges added before hitting the 'pay now' button, Ryanair 96, Aer Lingus 100. So I advise people to shop around, rather than thinking that Ryanair is still the only option for 'cheap' flights. Be wary also if you don't have an EU or EEA passport (I'm Australian). You can't use Ryanair online check-in service. Aer Lingus fast check-in kiosks can read my Aussie passport ok and can give me a boarding pass, so why not online checkin with Ryanair? Note you can 'apply to have the airport check-in fee refunded', but I dare ask how - I've been playing the Ryanair 'game' successfully for so long, but it just gets harder and harder, and not as beneficial as it once was.

Ryanair review - by S Hyde

31 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

How I agree with the majority of the comments. I have been trying to obtain a refund for a flight they changed although they accepted the refund request nothing has happened. You cannot speak to anyone and on-line information is useless. I have travelled with them several times but never again.