Ryanair review by D Morris

29 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Just a note to all Ryanair passengers with children. If you go to the Civil Aviation Authority website they have clear guidance with respect to children being sat with parents. This is a safety issue as in the event of an emergency a parent will instinctively seek out their child and not head for the exit. This could impede the aircraft evacuation.

Ryanair review by Ian Oliver

27 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Four flights with my family: we have two small children, one 2 and a half and one 6 months. Tampere to Frankfurt Hahn and onto Santiago de Compostela. We stayed overnight in Lautzenhausen (the village next to Hahn) because connections don't match and we weren't going to risk trying connecting flight with Ryanair. The overall impression starting with Tampere airport which is absolutely pathetic in terms of facilities and general organisation and ambience - watch out for the rip-off parking fees for Terminal 2. Security at Tampere can only be classed as "abusive". Ryanair themselves rip-off families - you have no choice but to buy "priority boarding" when travelling with children. Ryanair are quite happy to seat a 2yo away from its parents. The crew from Tampere to Hahn were generally miserable and unhelpful. Hahn to Santiago took this to new depths to almost the point of being abusive to passengers. At one point on the flight form Tampere it really felt that the cabin crew had lost control of the passengers - thankfully turbulence calmed things down. Priority boarding is a joke to make Ryanair money - whether you get to the aircraft first to choose your seats depends very much on the ground crew. Don't expect any clemency or leniency because you have children or have paid for "priority boarding". Child families be warned. Santiago de Compostela airport is a joy to travel from - the ground crew there take care of child families by attempting to get them to the aircraft first and they don't require you to pay for priority boarding. Hahn and Tampere are very much free for all and you can forget about fellow passengers being "adult-like" as well. The crew from Hahn back to Tampere were cheerful and polite; all of them east-European and seemed to enjoy their work. You get the impression that Ryanair place their crews under great pressure to sell things to passengers. The aircraft while new and all modern 737-800s aren't very comfortable. Ryanair are fine if you're a single adult or couple (or group of people who can behave like adults) without any checked baggage. Forget it for child families - use Blue1, BA or Finnair if flying from Finland.

Ryanair review by L Roestad

27 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

TRF (Oslo) via STN to SDR, and back from GRO to TRF. Planes new, cabin standard quite good, and on time/before time. FAs were friendly and strict with safety matters, and offered beverages and snacks. Check in ok and easy, and a pre-paid-for suitcase followed me all the time. Bus service to/from slightly remote airports worked well and not expensive.

Ryanair review by David Pyle

27 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Stansted to Shannon. I am a frequent flyer on Southwest Airlines in the US so no stranger to flying on a discount airline but what I experienced on Ryanair made Southwest seem luxurious. The night before we checked in online in order to get "priority boarding" but because we didn't have a printer we would have to get our boarding passes printed up at check in. At check in my partner was told he had to pay for the boarding pass first at one desk then return with his receipt only to have an agent hand write a boarding pass for him. The fact that he had to pay to get a boarding pass at all just blew me away. I had a roll aboard carry on (20") that fits in most overhead bins but I remember our last flight out of LHR to MGA security said our bag was too big and would have to check it so I opted to check it vs having to return from security back to the RyanAir check in line. The agent was nice enough to not charge me for this checked piece however this some how disqualified me from getting priority embarkation; I still don't understand this. My partner boarded first, saves the seat next to him; I finally get on the plane and take my seat. The first thing I noticed was how "plastic" looking the seats were. No seat pockets? I'm assuming it's less weight so less fuel? Good idea to put the emergency card as a sticker on the underside of the seat table I thought, maybe some folks will be forced to read it. I didn't like the fact that I could not recline my seat, I'm going to assume it's so another row or two could be squeezed in? The advertisements on the overhead bins had a London Tube feeling to it which brings me to my biggest pet peeve, I didn't like all the marketing that was done. The FA's had duty free and a meal/beverage service which is standard but then offered scratch off lottery tickets with all proceeds to benefit European orphan children. Also bus transfers were being peddled to us as well. The shocker was the automated voice that was selling/marketing something to us twice during the 70minute flight. Personally, I'd rather just pay a few GBP/USD more and avoid all the nickel and diming that was done. THe positive parts were the price, GBP25 one way and the flight was on time.

Ryanair review by A Sheppard

25 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Surly staff at check-in set the scene for this travel experience. They shout at you for having more than 15Kg in baggage, make you queue up again to pay if you want to take your baggage with you (surely a security risk to empty your bag and leave any excess in the airport?) then advise that you should have purchased 'Priority Boarding' if you planned to sit with your small children when actually on the plane. My family have travelled with Ryanair several times over the years, but in the last few months they have excelled at the penny pinching, thus I would rather pay for a more expensive ticket price with no 'hidden extras' and feel safe in the knowledge that if there were an emergency onboard, cabin crew would be professionally minded enough to cope with it - I have no confidence that the rude Ryanair crew would know what to do. So it's BA for me next time - Worth every penny!

Ryanair review by S Renaux

23 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Our return flight Ciampino Charleroi on 14th July WAS cancelled and of course Ryanair did not advise us via email or text message. So we arrived at the airport for the checkin and learned our flight scheduled at 20.50 has been cancelled and rebooked for the next day at 13.50 so no one of Ryanair was there at the airport in order to explain us the situation. Flight had a technical problem. So fine it does happen but we had to find an hotel by ourselves - a saturday night in July in Roma, and pay for all the fees - so hotel night, taxi and food. So it cost us 270.00 eur as the only hotel available was located 38 kms away from airport. I tried to contact Ryanair they do not want to talk about this problem over the phone, they keep saying pls send a letter to our head office. Be aware a European regulation exists to protect the passengers it is the CE 261/2004. Ryanair must respect it, even if it is a low cost airline they cannot take us for fools. So pls be aware in case of any problem (cancellation or delay) Ryanair do not help us, they do not care - the price to pay because their flights are very cheap? So never again Ryanair!

Ryanair review by B Jacob

23 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Forlì-Stansted-Forlì. Enormous check-in queues in Stansted, both times took about an hour. Some passengers had slightly overweight baggage but were allowed without paying supplements. Check-in in Forlì was quick and easy. Baggage never went lost. Staff friendly, seats very squeezed but both planes new. The prices are remarkably low, of course for "no- frills" they mean exactly "NO-frills" so you won't get anything apart being carried from point A to B. Don't buy the Stansted Express ticket onboard, you can get it cheaper when in Stansted, or you can spend even less if you take a bus albeit the travel is quite longer. If you can book a lot in advance, check also the other airline fares for Bologna - London flights. Try to avoid the very last Forli-Stansted in the evening, unless you can allow plenty of time to reach London (no trains, very few buses). Mind that both airports are quite far away from the cities they are supposed to serve.

Ryanair review by J McDonald

19 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

EMA-Londonderry Return. As a student am appreciative of fairly low (sadly no £1 deals here) cost flights and flying from EMA were pluses, and travelling with one small bag produced little in the way of additional charges. FAs were indifferent, Check-in not too bad though mostly because I arrived early enough to avoid the long line that formed later on, and overall not too bad pre-flight either end. Sadly the flight itself was annoying, with awful and uncomfortable fittings, ridiculously low levels of ventilation and air/con, and overall was glad it was only an hour flight. Will fly again domestically, anything longer and will go with Easyjet.

Ryanair review by Neil White

13 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I booked a flight with Ryanair to fly Bournemouth to Nantes but due to an illness in the family was unable to travel. Out of courtesy I called to cancel my seat and after holding for approximately 5 mins (at 10p per minute) was told that I need not have called as Ryanair do not resell seats. I asked if I could reclaim the airport tax as I would not be using the airport facilities and was told that if I called within one month after the flight I could reclaim the tax. When I called to do this I was again kept waiting for 4 mins (at 10p per minute) only to be told there is an administration charge of £14.00 to claim back £10.00 worth of airport tax. Where would you like me to send the additional £4.00 you idiots? I do not appreciate being taken for a fool. What a joke. Never again.

Ryanair review by Douglas Sinnott

13 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair are very difficult, in fact almost impossible to contact by phone, and the only things in their favour is that the website is good for booking flights - and they're cheap, although there are still a lot of hidden costs which bump the initial cost up quite a lot. Any queries about flights are very difficult to resolve as you cannot speak to anyone at Ryanair, without lengthy times on the phone.

Ryanair review by Gavin Stewart

12 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

LBA-Dublin every few weeks and until recently no complaints. The timetable is good with very late departures in both directions. Handy for the business traveller who doesn't want to eat into office time. Online check in, nicely done. Timekeeping, usually one of Ryanair's few strong points is getting really poor. 5 out of 6 late now. Not exactly amused by the "Latehansa" gags painted on the aircraft. Ryanair offers the spanking new equipment (738) yet excruciating passenger comfort : rigid yellow and blue plastic seats, onboard lighting to make your eyeballs melt, ear piercing tannoy. Everyone is squashed together while rows 1-12 are left empty. What's the point of such a crummy seat pitch when the flights are never full. We could all be sitting in 38" in theory. If you're lucky you might get an 'old-logo' 738 with the much comfier fabric seats, but be warned the new interiors are clearly specced to be around for a thousand years at least.

Ryanair review by Lisa Åkesson

12 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair proved to be as good as any low-cost airline. Check in at NYO was efficient, and I could check my luggage in on a counter that was open for all flights (I was there 3 hours before departure so I was surprised). The aircraft both ways were new B737-800, so nothing to complain about . On my way out the cabin was clean and new with leather seats. On my way home the interior was fairly old and worn out. You cannot judge the aircraft from the interior. I know this from working as cabin crew for a regional airline where cleaning had to be done by myself after each flight. Aside from that, the eastern european cabin crew was professional and looked happy doing their job, despite what I can imagine being tough hours. Most in their late 20´s which applies to a lot of airlines today. I had water and a sandwich and paid no more than other budget airlines. Both flights landed 30 minutes ahead of schedule and I picked up my luggage around 8-10 minutes after landing. One downside to the Ryanair experience was the no seating policy. This made boarding quite an experience with people queuing to board almost 10 minutes before the boarding staff actually arrived. I'm not sure if it would cost Ryanair more to give people a seating number, but I do feel that most people would have a more pleasant experience if they didn't have to push and run to be able to sit next to their families.

Ryanair review by Frank Fraser

3 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Stansted to Carcassone. Trying to find a cheaper option in an airline just was not a benefit. After all the extra charges applied (including 7.50 pounds to use a credit card as my Debit card was not accepted) it certainly did not work out as a cheaper flight. Late departure, unclean aircraft (like an old Australian pub that has a hose put through it in the morning) to obscure destinations. After a long flight from OZ I was happy to settle with a small Whisky and Cola with the understanding of not expecting too much of a low cost carrier but for another 4.5 pound for a 'baggie' of some unkown scotch with warm cola and no ice with the excuse of 'we ran out' is hard to understand 15 minutes after departure, was to say the least a tad dissapointing. I am glad I returned on easyjet.

Ryanair review by S Butler

30 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

STN-Prestwick-Paris BVA. The good points: cheap prices, very punctual and easy arrivals in Glasgow Prestwick and Paris Beauvais. The bad: very, very dirty planes, with obviously no cleaning done between flights in the name of punctuality, disinterested and fed up looking crews, overpriced onboard food and non-stop onboard advertising announcments. I chose this airline because it offered the best Glasgow Prestwick - Paris option, but I'm surprised Ryanair haven't been fined for selling Beauvais as Paris! It takes approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from Beauvais to northern Paris, which is ironically longer than the PIK-BVA flight. You get what you pay for and Ryanair is cheap but not so cheerful. Wouldn't readily choose them again.

Ryanair review by G Higgins

30 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Have flown from STN to Gothenburg City on a few occasions, and the experience hasn't been that bad. Check-in quite prompt, we circumvented the scrum to get on the packed plane, by inadvertently jumping the queue. To be greeted by the requisite sour-faced, east european cabin crew, an Irish captain and a first officer of indeterminate nationality, who spoke in a high-pitched, rapid tone which was indecipherable. At £3.10 for a hot dog, I passed up on the opportunity to avail myself of the low cost inflight catering with ease. The cabin was fairly clean and not too bad apart from the garish colour scheme, good thing I was only on the plane for 90 minutes. The crew were reasonably friendly. Admittedly, I didn't pay through the nose, but everything about this airline reeks of saving as much money as possible by providing the bare minimum under the banner of "Budget" which is none too comforting.

Ryanair review by Mary Cox

30 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Newquay to Stansted return. I am disabled and travel with my Assistance Dog. I was treated with great respect by Ryanair staff and helped at all stages. It was easy to book, even with a dog; not only did the staff ensure I had a good flight, they also asked if there was anything I needed for my dog.

Ryanair review by J Ludewig

27 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Frankfurt-Hahn to Biarritz and return. Both times hand luggage only and chck'n-go web-checkin. Can only advise webcheckin if you travel with hand luggage only. You have priority boarding, thus first on and off the plane. Nothing to add to the flight itself. is ok, if you wish to pay. Otherwise not a clean plane (they do not have cleaning service at Ryanair), a bit of a delay (both legs about 10 minutes delay for takeoff - but almost on time arrival).

Ryanair review by J Lewis

27 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

BLL-PSA and return. Check in was smooth and quick at both stations. Both departures on time. Crew was ok and delivered a very reasonable service when you have ticket price in mind and are aware that you are onboard a low cost airline. If the price is right and the departure and arrival times are ok and fits my travel plans, I will use this airline again.

Ryanair review by G Wilson

27 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Unfriendly check in staff at Prestwick, sour faced cabin crew and dirty airplane - chewing gum on seats, broken / torn armrests and check in at Girona took about 1hour.T he baggage situation is a joke where you pay for each bag, but don't have an allowance for infants - try taking an infant on holiday without a bag -does not work! Will never fly with these cowboys again.

Ryanair review by B Bader

25 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

FRA-Hahn to Rome-Ciampino and return. Cannot complain about the leg room since they try to get as many people onboard possible. Fares on several flights higher than Lufthansa. What really frightened me was the fact that the Captain was German, the First Officer Irish and Cabin Crew Polish (or of other Eastern European origin) and nobody was able to speak understandable English. That might work in day-to-day normal operation but when it comes to Emergency situations I wonder how they communicate between each other. I am quite convinced that in such a situation the Captain would not understand a single word of what the cabin crew would try to tell him. Due to the fact I want to feel secure I would never travel that airline again.

Ryanair review by Geoff Becque

25 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

East Midlands-Girona return. Both flights full and on time. Modern 737-800 with no problems on safety briefing or flight information. The problem with Ryanair is check - not computerised and based on extra revenue for excess baggage and not efficient people handling. As long as you follow their weight rules and are prepared for the wait (normally 45mins) to check in, then use them and take advantage of the priority check in for the extra £2 (€3) - we had free choice of seats as an early boarder.

Ryanair review by Julie Moore

14 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Blackpool to Girona. Flown this route quite a few times and not had any problems, on time outward and return. Most times I have encountered the cabin crews from hell but this time found them friendly. No one forces us to buy the drinks, food on offer and I find a lot of the other airlines are just as much to blame for overpriced drinks etc. Aircraft clean apart from the lumps of chewing gum on seat backs - was I on the same plane as a previous contributor? I find the baggage limits fine, after all on other airlines it is 20kgs checked in baggage 5kgs hand luggage - same total so what is the problem.

Ryanair review by Rita Ankerbo

14 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Billund to Dublin return. The plane was as clean as any other plane we have been on, the staff was polite, friendly, efficient, and professional. Actually it was a rather pleasant trip both ways.

Ryanair review by J Bennet

7 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Terrible service, none existent communication during a 5 hour delay in Spain. Email reply in response to my complaint letter was an attempt to absolve them selves of all and any responsibility. At least other low cost carriers at least try to give value (a smile costs nothing!) Lets face it, no one likes flying with these guys, if ever there is an alternative route and I can afford it I will be taking it without hesitation.

Ryanair review by A Foster

7 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Luton - Rome Ciampino return. Despite all the horror stories the flights were fine - slightly late leaving, but arrivals on time. I paid for 3 checked bags and even though one was over 15kg on way out I wasn't charged excess, on way bag they didn't weight bags separately. I hadn't paid for Priority Boarding which could have been an issue going out as there were 5 of us and we ended up boarding near the back, but found 3 and 2 seats near enough. On way back they didn't even bother if priority boarding so whoever paid for it wasted their money. Just bought drinks on board which weren't too bad. Worst parts were on the ground - long security queues at both airports and long wait for bags at Ciampino. Overall for route I flew it was a convenient way to fly.

Ryanair review by D Jones

5 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Stansted to Perpignan. Plane was 30 minutes late in departure, boarding is one giant free-for-all. Rip off charges to put bag in the hold, cheap plane interior and dirty uncleaned aircraft (seats were filthy and covered in the remnants of food left over from the last silly person who decided to spend £8.00 (!) on a 'Ryanair low cost club sandwich'. Flight back equally uncomfortable, aircraft completely filthy, re-used flight magazine materials (which I know for a fact cost airlines nothing to produce as they are paid for purely through advertising) were torn to shreds with crude pictures scribbled on them. Overall a horrible, uncomfortable, experience and one definitely not worth the fairly expensive flight. Note to all readers : just fly with a proper airline! Certainly worth the extra cash to do so- fly in comfort, not in squalor.

Ryanair review by Torsten Kaminski

5 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Rome Ciampino to Gerona. Flight left 30 minutes late but arrived only ten minutes after schedule. Only drawback was the rather filthy cabin with several chewing gums sticking on the seatback in front of me and stained tray table. Also had chewing gum sticking on my hand lugagge which was placed under the seat in front me and rests of potatoe chips were covering the floor. I must say Easyjet planes are much cleaner and seating slightly more comfortable and I would rate them much more reliable, as another flight with Ryanair I booked was cancelled only a month before. Even though I understand that one must pay extra for checked luggage I find it ridiculous that they even do not allow you to share one piece with a travel companion. So just ly to them if they ask, which was not the case in Rome anyway (we were two with only one piece of luggage, below the allowance of 15 kgs). I would considering to fly with them again if it is a real bargain only.

Ryanair review by Derek Messenger

28 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Santander (Spain) to Stansted on Sunday 20th May was rerouted to Valladolid to drop off a Ryanair flight engineer. We were not told this until after we had boarded the plane at 18:00. The Captain said “sorry about this but it's only about half an hour flight time and we will be back in the air in about 15 minutes and we will make up time on our way back to Stansted". No such luck – when we landed at Valladolid our plane developed a problem and we were stranded on board for almost four hours while they tried to fix the problem. Eventually the Captain declared the plane non-operational and we had to stay overnight in the middle of Spain further away from home than when we started. We arrived at our overnight hotel at 01:00a.m tired thirsty and hungry but no refreshments were available. The hotel would not accept Ryanairs AMEX so we had to pay our own hotel bill. We eventually took off at 17:30 the following day after four hours at the airport and yet another 90 minutes stuck on the runway. The plane had not been serviced or cleaned, there was no fresh food, and all the ice for the drinks had melted overnight. To add final insult to injury some of our groups luggage came off on a different carousel to the one announced, adding a further 45 minutes to this 24 hour delay. I’m sure Ryanair have probably lost another plane load of non-valued customers.

Ryanair review by Rob Borzillo

28 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Rome Ciampino - Shannon A long 3 hr and 15 minute flight from Rome to Shannon. Boarding time was supposed to be at 17:15, but that came and went with no announcement. Finally at 17:45, aircraft showed up due to late departure from Stansted. Flight was maybe 50% full, so I had a full row to myself, although very unpleasent for a 3 hr and 15 minute flight. Arrive in SNN around 8 pm local, 20 minutes behind schedule. We were the only flight in the airport at the time and breezed by customs. No a great flight, but certainly not a bad flight, considering I only paid 19 Euros including tax for a flight 2000 kms!

Ryanair review by F Thomasson

24 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Watch out for Ryanair charging your credit card in another currency. Live in Italy and paid with Swedish credit card. My bill was in Euro but Ryanair charged me in Swedish kronor at a ludicrous exchange rate. Another transaction a few days earlier with same credit card gave me 1 Euro = 9.21 Swedish k, Ryanair's rate 1 Euro = 9.70 Swedish k. Another 5 % of "commission". This in addition to the new credit card "handling charge" of 3 Euro per flight. ACH - couldn't they just be upfront with the extras and save everyone the aggravation? But no - then flights wouldn't be for free (or 0.01 Euro) anymore.

Ryanair review by R Scutt

22 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Trip to Palma, Majorca and just got back today, almost £100 paid to Ryanair for excess baggage. My wife and I had read the 15Kg allowance, packed all our stuff into one suitcase that weighed a total 30Kg and got charged £87 excess, so we bought another Bag for the return journey (another £25) and were 3 Kgs over on the return (pressies etc) and got charged another 24 Euros. The queue at Ryanair desk was enormous and VERY slow as people swapped luggage into their hand luggage, and there was constantly a crowd of people at the Ryanair desk waiting to pay their baggage excess. Why? The weight is the same whether it is one bag or two? What is Ryanair reasoning for this? Extra work for the baggage handlers? The size of some of the hand luggage that went on the flight beggared belief! Oh and a fun size Pepsi on the plane - £1.10p. That works out at £8.80 a litre of Pepsi!! Well you can fool people once - but never again - not for me anyway.

Ryanair review by P Matthews

21 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

LTN to RAK. Trip uneventful, priority booking worked fine. Much prefer flying from Luton with Ryanair - never seems to be a hitch here. Chose to return with Thomsonfly as Ryanair does not operate this route on a Thursday. Must say the staff were nicer on Thomsonfly and having inflight movies even though you pay for them is a bonus.

Ryanair review by S McKenzie

14 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Excess baggage charge of £110. 15kg per passenger whether 1 bag or 20 (though they charge for the number of bags also). My son is in the armed forces and has no choice but to carry his kit. No option to pay in advance, nor allowed to buy an extra ticket. Daylight robbery. Extremely unreasonable.

Ryanair review by Chris Pyne

13 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

EMA-MUR route a few times recently & have found the priority boarding facility they introduced somewhat interesting. The first time we booked it by mistake due to the confusing web site and it was cheaper to just accept it than ring the premium help line so we thought here's another Ryanair money grab but for only £2 each we conceded we would be to be able to board the aircraft in some sort of civilised manner without the rugby scrum it normally is. However they apparently sell up to 60 priority boarders and at Murcia a full 737-800 the other night - instead of one big scrum there was two - one for priority boarding and then the rest - we will not be purchasing this option in future instead will let everyone fight for a seat and then just get on at the last minute.

Ryanair review by Chris Davies

13 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Liverpool to Seville. Our first flight was cancelled and we were moved to a flight two days later which we accepted as they advised us 4 months in advance. Check in was swift and boarding was relatively painless. The cabin crew were friendly on the outbound but took nearly the full flight to serve the drinks! Upon arrival the ground staff took fifteen minutes to work out how to move the stairs to the plane then they unloaded the Stansted flight bags onto the belt first even though we had landed first! Coming back we paid the three euros to pre board and got on a bit sooner. Cabin crew friendly and efficient, upon arrival in liverpool we were lucky and got a stand right in front of the building and bags came through quickly and we were on the road within half an hour.

Ryanair review by K Powell

9 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

After a short break in Carcassonne we tried to return to East Midlands on Friday 4 May 2007. ‘Tried’ being the operative word, as we had the misfortune of becoming the latest victims in what appears to be little more than a ‘scam’ operated by Ryanair. As a budget, no frills, ‘cheap’ airline I would echo the views of previous passengers in that you can’t expect too much in the way of the normal ‘comforts’ offered by other airlines, however, this should not absolve them of their duty to provide decent customer service. This was non-existent throughout our whole experience. Having arrived at the airport on time and checked in, we sat in the departure lounge only to watch our plane fly straight past the airport. We were then told that it was unable to land due to adverse weather conditions (it was cloudy). Not being aviation experts, we had no choice but to accept that this hindered the safe landing of the aircraft and obviously would never expect safety to be compromised. However, rather than ‘delaying’ the flight until the cloud cleared a little (which it did within an hour or so) it was promptly cancelled and we were told to proceed to the desk for a refund or to re-book. Before joining the queue we decided to seek out our luggage as there had been no mention of when or where to ‘reclaim’ it. To our dismay it was just left in the corner of the baggage reclaim section, which everyone had to pick through. This was a fantastic display of their attitude towards security and confounded the bad service that we continued to receive. On ‘re-booking’ we were offered the next flight to East Midlands which was 2 days later (no mention of any help with additional accommodation costs), or a flight from Spain which we would never have caught anyway. We specifically asked if there was any form of assistance available, not necessarily financial but advice about picking up another connection and were promptly told that this was not Ryanair’s problem. We opted to book onto the earlier of the 2 Stansted flights offered to us and waited, justifiably without hope. After being told to ‘queue’ for boarding, we were almost out of the 'gate' when they suddenly changed their minds and altered the London boarding sign to Shannon, completely without explanation. There may have been a valid reason for this but it was not forthcoming. Sometimes just being told what’s going on is enough to appease anxiety but this is yet another basic facet of customer service that they have failed to grasp. As an aside I use the term ‘queue’ loosely as there was no system at all. Perhaps it was circumstance but ‘priority boarding’ went completely unobserved; considering they charge a fee for the privilege only worsens their audacity. We sat back down and just waited in the small departure lounge until we were told that there was another flight available but a bird had flown into the engine and they were flying in an engineer to fix the resultant problem. Accordingly there was a further 3 hour delay. We arrived at Stansted and then had to hire a car to drive to East Midlands to pick up our car before making the final leg of our journey to Newcastle. I fail to see how this can be deemed acceptable and unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a one off. The cheaper tickets are pure false economy as you need financial back up at the ready to cater for the parts of journey that this airline so readily fails to deliver.

Ryanair review by C Waugh

4 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I live and study in Europe (Scotland) so I inevitably end up using Ryanair fairly frequently. Ryanair has in a sense democratised air travel by making it affordable to students (like myself) and others who simply wouldn't have the cash to make the odd weekend trip to the continent. Considering this, I was quite impressed with their fares (I have friends in Rome and have gone to see them several times never paying more than £30 return incl. taxes) plus I wasn't really bothered by the service (or lack thereof) until recently. One complaint is that they tend to use out-of-reach airports, hence allowing them to charge lower fares. However, if a plane is scheduled for a late night arrival often there is no way to get out of the airport. I was on a flight from Rome which was meant to get into Glasgow Prestwick at 23:30 but was half an hour late, this meant there were no more buses to Edinburgh OR Glasgow which meant of course we were more or less stranded at the airport - I suppose I could've paid for a taxi that would've cost more than the flight itself but I opted for a night in the terminal. No help from Ryanair staff of course. I have been living in France for the past year (Grenoble) and bought a Ryanair ticket to Dublin over the winter holidays. At the airport they called the flight (which was already late) and passengers began to line up for boarding. Then something happened that I've never seen before in my life, the screen sort of mutated from announcing the departure of the Dublin flight to announcing to departure of another flight to Liverpool. No explanation whatsoever, it was another 2 hours before we finally took off. I have to say it was a breathtaking experience, even with the knowledge that Ryanair was constantly coming up with colourful ways to screw their passengers over. One can't expect plushness and luxury from an airline that charges 1p fares, and if you do than you're stupid. So on one hand the improvised nature of the airline is forgivable. Then again, asking to be treated like human beings and not like animals is not such an incredible request. I think it must be the only company in the world that behaves in such a way that they give you the impression that its YOU that should be thanking them. The more I read about them the more I think Michael O'Leary is really beneath contempt and doesn't deserve anyones business, lest he be made even richer than he already is. Sadly, in terms of affordability usually Ryanair is the only option. Sometimes its worth paying a bit more for an easyjet ticket, at least they seem to realise that you're not invisible and land in an airport thats within a 500km radius of the city they claim to be taking you to. Also, sometimes BMI or even British Airways offer very cheap fares for european flights, sometimes just as low as easyjet. With Ryanair you definitely get what you pay for, take it at your own risk - your sanity may depend on it!

Ryanair review by Nick McCready

3 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Ryanair cancelled its flight FR1973 from Reus to Dublin due to depart on 01/05/2007- they failed to comply with any of the EEC Air passenger directive, a hand out stating that they were appealing that legislation anyway. They left a full aircraft of holiday makers including young children/babies/and elderly stranded at Reus from 1345hrs until 0900 the next day. Ryanair staff were nowhere to be seen, and left the handling agents at Reus to tell the passengers that they were on their own until the next day. Why does the EEC not fine this company on a daily basis for failing to comply with its legislation. If Ryanair wish to operate an airline within the European Union, comply with their current legislation, as is clearly laid out and displayed in all EU airports. First and the last time ever with Ryanair.

Ryanair review by C Regale

1 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I travel with Ryanair every week, so I too know all the tricks. The website has become complex over the years with a good deal of inertia selling going on (insurance, bags, priority boarding). I would say however that perhaps things are changing - inconsistencies are more common now. LGW boarded us the other day by order of check in ! another day they ignored the priority boarding. DUB ground staff regularly ignore the priority boarding and some days kids are boarded after priority and some days last. Some crew keep seats for families so they can be together and avoid a fight and some crew relish the fight. What has characterised FR over the last years has been a novel income generator every few months - bag charges, priority board, name changes, mobiles on board etc etc. I suspect they are running out of ideas and the more recent ones are causing a lot of hassle for crew - especially priority boarding. Make enough enemies in any business and one is very exposed.

Ryanair review by M Singer

1 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Apart from a few minor delays mainly caused by passengers who can't seem to find their way to the departure gate on time, up to now I have very few complaints. I would however like to see them drop their money grabbing tactics. Now, I have to pay for priority boarding if I want a decent seat and if I travel with checked baggage it cost more to transport my suitcase than it does to transport me. After completing the on-line booking form there is still one more hidden charge, the cash or credit card transaction. I'm pleased to say that the cost of using a card (of which there is no option incidentally) is far cheaper with Ryanair than with many competitors. Why can't we just have a fully inclusive price, instead of trying to deceive and confuse your customers. Ryanair is the cheapest and for my money the service is quite adequate.

Ryanair review by Harry Albright

28 April 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

It is possible to remove the priority boarding if you are traveling without luggage. There is a tiny link under the drop down menu. I wonder why they don't provide two options in the drop down menu, one for no bags and no priority boarding, and one with no bags and priority boarding? The answer is obviously that this is another money grab by Ryanair. They are hoping that people will miss the charge and pay it without realising it. I no longer fly with Ryanair after years of loyalty because of tactics like this.

Ryanair review by R Brighton

28 April 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Re previous comments about removal of charge for priority boarding with no bags. If you select 0 Bags On line check In / Priority Boarding option a 3 line text then shows if you click the word remove in the last line of this text it removes this charge. The crafty bit is that it means you have to check in the normal way as it also removes the on line checking option!!

Ryanair review by Tom Daley

28 April 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

No problem with baggage in any terminal except Barcelona. The overage on the baggage is a money making racket in Barcelona. The man said our bags were 4 kilos over and I had just weighed them so then he changed the weight to 2 kilos over and charged us $44.00. I wanted to take out a pair of pants and put it in my carry on but he wouldn't let me. This happened to other people in line also. Ryanair needs to control the terminals because I talked to the supervisor in Frankfurt and she said the terminals do not all go by the rules. One kilo over is no charge so why should we pay $20.00 for two kilos over?