RYANAIR review : 27 May 2008 : by John Clift

Customer Rating : 3/5

BRS-DUB return. For what you pay (on ine check in, no checked bags no insurance and booked in advance) its cheap and cheerful with no frills. If it goes wrong then you are on your own but what do you expect. Cabin staff not too friendly but when you watch passenger behaviour its no surprise.

RYANAIR review : 24 May 2008 : by J Oliver

Customer Rating : 1/5

I flew last weekend from London Stansted to Newquay and it was one of the worst and most stressful flying experiences. It is not possible to pre-book your seats on line unless you have only carry on baggage. Those individuals who are lucky enough to have no baggage (apparently about half the passengers) can check in on line and pay extra to board the plane first whilst the rest of the passengers (including children) wait in a kind of rugby scrum to board last. The plane was about an hour late leaving but no announcement was made. This will be the last time I will use this airline. They do not appear to welcome comments and it is not possible to e-mail comments to the airline. It is budget flying at its worst.

RYANAIR review : 24 May 2008 : by Benjamin Titzck

Customer Rating : 3/5

Frankfurt (Hahn) - Budapest - Frankfurt(Hahn). That is some cheap flight, but Ryanair doesn't fly from Frankfurt Intl airport, but from Hahn. You have to take a 1.5 hour bus ride there from Frankfurt's main railway station what costs you about another 10€. If you are travelling with hand luggage only you can do the online check in and then you will be able to preboard, to be one of the first to get on the plane. The flight attendants were very unfriendly and of course you get drinks or food only if you pay for it (very high prices).

RYANAIR review : 23 May 2008 : by R Johnson

Customer Rating : 2/5

Dublin - Gerona flight was late and there was a group of about 10 passengers who were very drunk and obnoxious. FA's continued serving alcohol throughout the flight and did nothing to encourage them to observe seat belt signs, safety warnings, or just basic respect for other passengers. They were loud, vulgar, spilling beer on other pax, and upon landing several were out of their seats, beer cans in hand. This kind of behavior should not be tolerated. It's a safety issue if nothing else. Return flight was also late, which I did not expect from the "on-time airline." I'll most likely pay a bit more and avoid Ryanair in the future.

RYANAIR review : 23 May 2008 : by Andrew Wielochowski

Customer Rating : 2/5

I had a group of 18 travelling and according to Ryanair it is possible to change names (at a price) by contacting their offices on a special £1 per minute number - however various people including myself could never reach this number which seems to be unavailable as all other numbers in other countries that they provide. Apart from that the service you get at boarding and on the flights is as mediocre. The biggest issue I find is that it may well work out the cheapest occasionally but if you try to have any extra service / have baggage etc you immediately end up paying considerably more and it often works out cheaper and more pleasant to travel with a "normal" airline.

RYANAIR review : 23 May 2008 : by Christopher McCaw

Customer Rating : 4/5

Altenburg to London Stansted. Purchased online check-in which I was pleased with, but disappointed they are now going to remove free priority boarding for online check-in passengers. My complaint is the flight attendants - two of them had such a poor standard of English that I found it impossible to understand them. If there had been an accident I don't know how they would have managed. A German couple sitting in front of me in the emergency exit rows were asked if they could speak English. They could not understand the flight attendant, but when I translated for them, they said they could speak fluent English. I think Ryanair should spend a bit more time and money training their flight attendants to be competent in the English language.

RYANAIR review : 22 May 2008 : by Peter Salisbury

Customer Rating : 1/5

I'm afraid that the "free preboarding" mentioned by J van den Berg will very soon be a thing of the past. Like everything on Ryanair it's always trying to raise cash, so although right now the ability to get priority boarding by on-line check-in is available, on the 3rd June this will disappear.'Web check-in will continue to be free of charge' (how nice!) but 'web check-in passengers will no longer receive priority boarding free of charge, but will be required to pay the same £4 as airport check- in passengers'. Surely there can't be much left to charge for?

RYANAIR review : 22 May 2008 : by Joe Devere

Customer Rating : 1/5

Ryanair Valencia/Charleroi. Baggage weight rip-off. Beware! The weight of my suitcase when leaving Charleroi was 12.2kg. The contents were unchanged when I checked in at Valencia a week later. This time the bag weighed in at 16.4kg. The check-in staff demanded that I pay a €15 excess baggage charge. I refused, saying that I would remove some contents and put them in my hand baggage. I was told to go and do this 'over to the side' and then queue up again (another 25 minute wait). I removed 1.5kg and used their scales to check this. After the re-queuing wait, I put my suitcase on the scales again (these scales were alongside check-in desk no.2). This time the suitcase registered 17.1kg. I enquired how this could be so, as I'd removed 1.5kg. I demanded to be allowed to weigh the suitcase on the first scales I'd used (alongside check-in desk 1). The staff refused, were obstructive, and said that I'd have to queue up a third time to do that. Fortunately, the people at the head of queue 1 allowed me to use the scales ahead of them, and in fact insisted that I do so despite the check-in staff protesting and threatening to send them to the back of their queue. This time the bag weighed in at 15.1kg. The Ryanair check-in staff went red in the face and were clearly embarrassed to have had their scam discovered. Word of this discrepancy quickly spread to the long queue of people waiting to pay excess baggage charges at the Ryanair ticket desk, causing several to protest angrily at this contrived con. My bag was put through and no excess baggage charge was made. However, on reaching Charleroi, my suitcase did not appear on the baggage carousel. After enquiring its whereabouts at the Ryanair ticket desk, and a 1 hour delay while they made their enquiries, it was eventually 'found' and returned to me. Coincidence? I think not.

RYANAIR review : 22 May 2008 : by J Palmer

Customer Rating : 3/5

LGW-ORK-LGW. An easy check-in at Gatwick Airport. The queue was fine but was starting to grow by the time we'd moved on. We did have to wait for half an hour before getting on the 737-800. Inside, it became apparent that it was a budget airline. There was no entertainment, interior was basic and seats were comfortable. The staff seemed friendly enough and efficient. The tables and some of the interior could do with a spot of more thorough cleaning between each flight.

RYANAIR review : 22 May 2008 : by Carol Webster

Customer Rating : 4/5

Malta to Girona. I don't know what people expect flying with a budget airline, but our experience was good - a pleasant flight, on time which is the most important thing to u. Cabin crew efficient and fun.Flying with a budget airline doesn't mean luxury travel, it means getting from A to B which we did to our great satisfaction.

RYANAIR review : 21 May 2008 : by K Ng

Customer Rating : 2/5

Stockholm Skavsta - Basel Europort. There was a reason why my one-way ticket for the 2 hour flight was only around 30 Swiss francs: Ryanair's cheap in every sense of the word, and tacky! Yellow interiors with ads all over the overhead luggage compartments, tired navy-blue seats, and flight attendants selling lottery tickets - it's a flying bus. Only 15kg baggage allowance so pack well. FAs were not particularly friendly. Somehow we had to keep the 3rd and 4th rows empty, and one FA kept shouting to passengers: "I told you already, you can't sit here! Didn't you hear me before? You can't sit here!" If you just want to get from point A to B as cheaply as possible, then Ryanair does the job. If you can afford a little extra, I'd probably fly another airline, preferably from an airport that's actually in Stockholm. ("Stockholm Skavsta" is 80 mins bus ride from Stockholm, in Nykoping.)

RYANAIR review : 21 May 2008 : by J van den Berg

Customer Rating : 3/5

Bremen to Venice Treviso, flights on time and aircraft clean. Staff friendly and efficient. When travelling with hand luggage only you can check in online and are offered free preboarding (although at Venice that was somewhat chaotic). For the prices paid this airline offers good value for money.

RYANAIR review : 19 May 2008 : by Colin Smith

Customer Rating : 1/5

STN to Forli. Easyjet no longer fly to Rimini so used Ryanair £180 as opposed to £500 for BA. I have booked my car hire through the Ryanair website, plane arrives at 2215 if on time, the Hertz car hire closes at 2300. What's the betting our flight will be late, and the car hire will be closed and we'll be stranded at the airport until the morning? So in anticipation of the appalling service I will expect and the £200 contingency sum set aside for the hidden fees, local hotel at Forli, I give you my rating of 1 star. Unfair to give them one star for flights I've not taken yet? Not as unfair as their appalling service. I have no expectations that way.

RYANAIR review : 19 May 2008 : by A Machin

Customer Rating : 1/5

On 13 December 2007 I bought priority boarding at Krakow Airport. This service was not provided and we ended up as part of the usual mad scramble for seats. It took 2 letters to get an email response from a Mr Smith on 29th January 2008 to the effect that a refund had been made to my Wife's card and the refund would appear on her next statement. This did puzzle me because my Wife has never used any of her cards either directly, or indirectly with Ryanair. Unsurprisingly no refund appeared and I queried this, but despite numerous emails both to Mr Smith and a Ms Green of Customer Services (that's a laugh!), I have had no response. What I have had, however, is an email from someone at Krakow claiming to be a handling agent who has a refund and asking for my Wife's bank account details. I have put it to Ryanair that my receipt mentions only Ryanair and that, as my contract is with them, I have no intention of dealing with a third party. In any event I suspect this email could be a scam and, whether genuine or not, my Wife has no intention of disclosing her bank details to someone she has had no dealings with, especially over an insecure email or fax. Thus in its one and only response to me, Ryanair attempted to mislead me by telling a lie and by ignoring my attempts to get a satisfactory explanation and a refund, one has to wonder if these doubtful practices are Company policy

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.