Ryanair

Ryanair is good for its destinations the small airports closer to where you want to go. In the bigger airports their slots are obviously the cheapest and therefore the most inconvenient for passengers. The flights are cramped and the boarding process is very slow. Staff are often pleasant. The flights are not necessarily the cheapest; in domestic Spanish flights for instance by the time you have added a reserved seat and luggage in the hold you can travel cheaper and more comfortably with Iberia or Air Europa. Flights from Spain however to Baden Airpark or Ancona for instance are convenient because they are not routed through hubs with long conveyor belt waiting-times and one can often find an airport close to one's destination.

Bristol - Malaga. Return flight was booked for family of 4 with 2 bags checked in (already charged £100 for privilege of taking 2 hold bags). For the return my wife had to leave a few days early due to unforeseen circumstances so she departed on a different flight from Seville. At Malaga airport tried to check in with the 2 kids and 2 bags - only to be told had to pay an extra 100 Euros on the spot to 'transfer' one of the bags from my wife to one of the children. Otherwise would not be able to take it. Means I paid approx £130 for the one suitcase plus £50 for the other. Absolute rip off; and the flights were not exactly cheap even before the add-ons. Will never be flying Ryanair again.

I have flown with Ryanair many times and have just returned from Lanzarote flying out of East Midlands I cannot fault the service whatsoever. What I have noticed the same problems occur time and time again. People don't read the rules you don't get something for nothing you know that with Ryanair - accept it. Why do people with children think they have the right to complain when they saunter on to the plane at the last minute and wonder why the are unable to sit together. People get to the check and have to start unpacking cases because they cant be bothered to weigh there luggage. Ryanair is the cheapest not the best I accept that but most of the problems I have seen are caused by the passengers themselves.

I flew recently from Manchester to Bremen in Germany and am already a regular Ryanair passenger. As always the service worked perfectly. We arrived a few minutes late but I do not think 10 mins matters. Staff are always pleasant if a little unconcerned. I feel a little sorry for them having to sell lottery tickets but it does keep the prices down. I have never incurred charges as I read the rules.

Our flight from Limoges France to Stansted was cancelled due to poor weather although other planes including Ryanair flights were able to come and go. The next flight from Limoges to Stansted with availability was 3 days later. So we accepted a flight to Leeds the following day. That was all that was done for us we had to arrange our own overnight accommodation transport to and from the airport etc. My advice is if you travel with Ryanair: Make sure you have access to the internet because you need to react pretty quickly when the flight is cancelled as the airports are usually in the middle of nowhere. Know the location of the other airports Ryanair operate. We were offered a flight from Bergerac the next day but the airport staff could not tell us how to get there by train. Don't book stuff for the day after your arrival. There were people in the queue with connecting flights tickets for the Olympics that they could not use. Based on the above I would not travel again with Ryanair if I was travelling to a tight schedule. In total we got home 26 hrs after we planned.

Flying out of Manchester staff friendly and helpful coming back through Palma a different matter. My hand luggage that was the right size going out was deemed to be too large when I was flying home and I was forced to pay €50 and put it in hold leaving me without my pain medication. The priority boarding I had paid for was non existent traveling with small children they tried to split us up eventually got seats together near emergency exit! To add insult to injury they had no food apart from sweets and crisps.

When printing the boarding tickets we got our outboard flight no problem and when the home flight boarding card would not print we thought it was due to not actually being away. On our way home the check in lady at Malta said it was going to cost us 290 euros to get home due to no boarding cards even though in front of her on a check list were all the names of passengers and their luggage. After several words and a lot of shouting I paid the money having no other choice. This airline ruined a holiday that was otherwise brilliant and showed no remorse to me and several other unfortunate passengers. This will never happen again because I will never use them again.

Budapest - Manchester and back again with a 5 month old and a 7 year old. Budget flying is fine I was lucky enough to sit in the aisle seat with my baby and my 7 year old sat on the other side of the aisle. I even paid for priority boarding on the way back to give myself just 3 minutes to find a seat next to my own child and get my bags and it made no difference. They put the gate number up people run to the gate 12 minutes walk away they start boarding and I am still trying to push the pram to the gate. A fellow passenger kindly offered to hold my baby while I collapsed the pram at the bottom of the stairs. I still struggled to get on and get seated people pushing past me. I will be seeking my money back for 'priority boarding'. If you have a small child or infant it is not worth it. I flew long haul from Australia with a baby and 7 year old 27 hours worth of traveling and not once felt as stressed and helpless as I did flying Ryanair.

Myself and my daughter took a holiday to Kos. I have never seen such a shambles in my life. After the experience of the free for all to get your seats and then seeing the arguments between other passengers as they could not sit together got the holiday off to a great start. It was now the time for the safety announcements prior to take off I do understand that this is important however I have never seen such miserable faces from the cabin staff. We were sitting in row five and it took nearly 1hr to get served I think mainly because they had to keep explaining what they had run out of even before we took off. The list was endless of what they hadn't got. When it was our turn I ordered 1 bottle of water a whisky and a can of coke I was taken back a little when they said that's 11 Euros. I quickly put my money back in my pocket. All they wanted to do was to sell scratch cards and smokeless cigarettes. Overall not impressed at all and will never travel Ryanair in the future. One final thing. Budget airline? My tickets where certainly not cheap or even reasonable.

Stansted to Pula. Tried to adhere to all rules and regulations but failed to print boarding passes for return journey and hence fined €240 for family of four. This was a genuine error caused by my printing off the outbound boarding passes at too early a stage in my eagerness to do all correctly at which time unable to print for return. Erroneously assumed outbound copies and itinerary would suffice. Hold my hands up and agree nominal fine should be payable but believe that €60 per person is totally disproportionate to administration involved for the error. Walked 5 metres handed over credit card and after a minutes transaction and €240 pound payment returned to check in and allowed to board! Expensive lesson learnt but will avoid Ryanair from now on!