Ryanair

Ryanair flight from Stansted to Pisa was fin,e and crew were good. Boarding was a shambles as the gate had closed before anyone came to process the passengers. People were having their cabin bags taken into the hold at random even though the bags were well within the limit. One passenger sailed through with a backpack the size of small car and the staff said nothing. Makes me wonder why I bother following their rules.

Ryanair may have super low price deal, but only if you're familiar with the rules. Make sure to online check in once they send you the mail a few days before the departure date. Otherwise you will be penalized for £45 per person. If you don't print your boarding pass or have their app, there will be a penalty of £15 per ticket. The check in process was pretty lengthy. You have to line up for check in first and then line up again to drop off the package. Make sure to be in airport at least 2.5 hrs earlier.

I've just been on Ryanair's re-vamped website. It told me about 4 times that my session had timed out (after being on there only long enough to enter my booking number and email). When I started again from the beginning it told me that there was a problem with a script running on the webpage. Leaving it for some time and starting yet again, it told me that if I wanted to check in it would cost me £5.99 and that free checkin would only be available 5 days prior to my flight. I had been going to book a seat and priority loading both ways. Now I'm not going to bother, so they've lost a sale that they could have had from me.

Having received an e-ticket which stated: "Your trip is now fully confirmed" I arrived at 06.30 hrs and waited for nearly half an hour to book in. When I got to the front of the queue I was informed I would have to go elsewhere and pay £45 because I had not got a Boarding Pass at least 2 hours before the flight left. I "very reluctantly" paid the £45, which will be refunded by a Danish University. No other airline I have flown with has made this stipulation, and so having read the words "fully confirmed" I simply checked times and flight numbers.

We were called to board on time, this morning, at 7:15am, for an 8am Ryanair departure. All seemed well. We had concerns after being delayed on the outbound flight from Edinburgh, 2 weeks earlier. After standing on a staircase for 10-15 minutes we were told to return to the departure lounge. The staff, not Ryanair, told us there was a problem with the plane and it may take at least an hour to resolve. We received no more updates and the notice boards simply said boarding and gate closed. At approx 9:15, the notice boards stated we had to board again, but from a different gate. The plane was fully boarded by 9:45am. The doors were closed at 10:02am, and we took off at 10:15am. This was a delay of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The captain said it was down to Spanish air traffic control, they told us it was French air traffic control that caused the outbound delay. As Ryanair's terms state that if you are delayed by at least 2 hours, you will receive a text stating your rights, explaining compensation etc. No text received. When I challenged the stewards they said they thought it was 3 hours, not 2! Wow they didn't even know their own rules. They weren't willing to help at all and said I should just complain directly to Ryanair. Which I will be doing. The staff were more interested in selling as many snacks and drinks as possible, rather than apologising for the delay and issuing passengers with a food and drinks voucher.

Stansted to Memmingen return with Ryanair. Both flights almost full and on time. We haven't flown Ryanair for a few years and were pleasantly surprised. The lack of recline in the seats means your space is secure, no seat back in your face as soon as the wheels are up. We only had hand luggage and did not buy any refreshments.

Initial Ryanair ticket seems to be cheap but you must pay for anything. If you have the bad luck like me to lose your boarding pass you must pay penalty to issue new one. Check-in staff are rude. Onboard seats are too close, you cannot move them front or back. Because the low fare ticket they do not serve anything for free, even water, you must pay for everything. Finally I had the feeling that I was traveling by a bus and not with a plane.

Staff very pleasant and with no adjustment on seat found the it more comfy as minimised other passenger interference with me. Boarding on the home leg little chaotic due to the logics of no Ryanair ground staff. I read up on onboard limits and stuck to them, so no extras and because little hold luggage loaded, no hold ups that could not be made up in flight.

Used Ryanair for many years, never a problem. This was a Bournemouth to Gerona return trip for under £100 return for 2 people all in - that is good value. My only gripe is the new seat allocation, I much preferred 'free seating', but I know I'm in the minority. Out on time, arrived early and return flight on time. Great value, but you do need to read the terms and conditions carefully.

Aircraft was clean, we set off within 15 minutes of scheduled time, staff were pleasant and friendly, and kind when I started to have a massive nosebleed! I had a nice cup of coffee on the flight and while it cost 50% more than I might have liked, it was good quality. The flight was not completely full so there were few issues with hand luggage and so on, and I like being able to take two bags with me as this saves a great deal of hassle. Downsides were due to Stansted's overcrowding. There is nowhere to sit while you wait for a flight, as they are rebuilding. The security is chaotic and unnecessarily stressful as they have not invested very intelligently in the screening equipment and they have rather bizarrely chosen hardware that increases rather than reduces processing time. Finally we were somewhat kettled in a holding bay near gate 88 by ground crew without explanation before boarding, while another flight disgorged its passengers, and I think it might have been better for Ryanair to send us down a bit later, as some of the families and older passengers grew uncomfortable with nowhere to sit. The Stansted experience is starting to put me off using EasyJet and Ryanair, and I often choose Heathrow and scheduled flights instead. In Ryanair's case, the cost difference between many of their tickets and a scheduled flight is now negligible and sometimes the scheduled flights are even cheaper and include more, so I wonder if Ryanair will be in business in a few years' time, despite their efforts to be less nasty to passengers.