Ryanair

I fly with Ryanair about 20 times a year. They are consistently reliable and punctual. The only time they let me down was when the ash cloud happened. The prices are fantastic but you have to be flexible to get the best deals. They are not BA but you need the mind set that it is like catching a train and do not expect luxury. But it means I visit my house in Portugal regularly and often pay more for the car parking than the flight.

FR1448. Ryanair really can't help annoying customers can they? Now there are allocated seats priority boarding has no real value. So what do they tell you? - "If you want to guarantee to have your hand luggage with you on the plane then you should pay for priority boarding". So in effect you are being charged for having your bag with you. I am a regular traveller so don't take hold luggage to avoid the waiting at the destination. The small bag allocation is insufficient so I rely on the hand luggage. There is a hand luggage locker for every seat on the plane so how can they justify "first 60 only"? Ryanair shareholder please note if there is an alternative to Ryanair then that's still the one I choose!

Flying London Gatwick to Shannon in Ireland. No problems but not a cheap flight for a flight that only took an hour. Cheaper to fly to Malaga with a different low cost airline when you take into account the cost of hold luggage. Saying that we would probably use them again as we liked Shannon Airport. If you have to wait at Shannon find the brilliant viewing area on the third floor with free WiFi.

Flew Shannon-Poitiers-Stansted-Shannon. All flights were late leaving but made up time except for the Poitiers- Stansted leg which was delayed by 1 hour due to a passenger injury at boarding time. My only gripe is that I had booked a Shannon-Nantes flight and Hertz car hire in January. Ryanair cancelled the Nantes fight in May offering a flight to Poitiers or money back. Transfer went very smoothly. However Hertz told me that they did not have an office in Poitiers and my only option was to cancel which I did only to be charged a 50 euro cancellation fee even though I had booked through Ryanair. Small print and all that. Ryanair flights were excellent with very friendly and helpful staff.

Took flights as a family of 4 2 adults 2 children Stansted to Alicante and back. First time taking hand luggage only with Ryanair (used easyjet in May) and as Ryanair now allow your handbag too it has made the whole process much easier. I would put them above Easjet for that fact alone. Had a lovely Spanish crew on the return journey and the flight arrived slightly ahead of schedule. As others have said as long as you follow their strict rules on baggage and boarding passes there should not be a problem. I booked priority boarding for both journeys as it helps with the children to not have too long a queue and sort out seats and luggage before the plane becomes packed.

Dortmund-Krakow RTN. Avoided Ryanair because of their aggressive policy but decided to give them a try again. Finally Ryanair has understood that free seating leading to a scrum has had its longest time. The allocated seating for decent fees is a big improvement. Onboard only harassed once for a lottery. No constant announcements for buying this and that anymore. Leg room stays a problem though as they press 198 passengers into a Boeing 737-800. Wouldn't bear a FR-flight longer than two hours. All in all a decent experience for less than 200 euro rtn for two including bag priority boarding - worked well but isn't really necessary anymore with allocated seating - and reserved seat. If you reserve a seat at the time of booking you can can check in 30 days prior to departure. Well worth the extra fee for people who complain they can't print their boarding passes while being away from home.

Return flight from Palma to Stansted on 7th Aug 2014. Arriving at the airport we went through the check-in etc and proceeded to departure to then be told the flight was delayed. Then for almost 2/3 hrs we were told different stories about what was happening. It turned out that the plane required full checks before flying why oh why couldn't we have had the truth up front. We were herded together like cattle in departure with no air conditioning no drinks were offered for the children until just as we boarded. On the positive our hold case was brought through to us so my husband could get his medication. In fairness my husband and I were assisted by a lovely lady who fast tracked us through as we were both struggling with the long walk and queues through the checks both having mobility problems. She was so kind and wasn't asked to help lovely to see that there is someone willing to go the extra mile.

Flew Edin-Malta-Edin with my 5 year old son for 7 days and so was unable to print off return boarding pass before arriving in Malta. There are no internet cafes in Sliema Malta so thought would print off boarding pass at machine at the airport. On arriving at Malta airport 2 hours 20 minutes before my flight a particularly grumpy Ryanair agent took up 10 minutes of my time telling me I was too late and should have done this in Malta (How exactly if there are no internet cafes and you do not stay in a hotel?) before finally pointing me towards the computer where I could do this. This touchscreen computer was slow and unresponsive and so I was 2 minutes late to meet the 2 hour deadline because of this woman's complete lack of customer service. An EUR 140 fee and a horrible stressful end to the holiday. What gets me is that I knew I had to print the boarding pass off 2 hours before and made a fair effort to do so leaving 20 minutes to do this on arrival at the airport. I noticed Lufthansa had dedicated machines clearly visible for this purpose. I had to beg this woman to tell me where was the Ryan Air machine before she pointed it out to me all the while telling me I was too late etc when I still had time. However reading other reviews it looks as if even if I had been at the airport much earlier that the fee might still have been charged. I am sure they can afford to install these with all the EUR 70 fees they have been stashing away this summer.

London (Stansted) to Bremen (Germany) return. Beware of Ryanair suitcase check-in/drop off unless you want to risk missing your flight. Checked-in online with only a trundle. Drove from Leicester to Stansted. Arrived 2 hours before the flight and were met with chaos as my niece (on same flight with us) who had come to visit needed to drop off her suitcase (also already checked-in online). Passengers of numerous flights had all been lumped together into one disorientated heap of people with check-in operating at slow pace. The usual clue as to the destination above the relevant individual check-in desks was not there and was replaced by one single queue/lump of chaos. One distraught couple told me that they had already been queuing for 40 minutes at the wrong Ryanair desk round the corner. I asked a passing Ryanair staff if we were in the right queue (although it was hard to describe it as such) and pointed out that our flight was about to close. He confirmed we were. 15 minutes later he asked passengers for the Bremen flight to come forward. Our flight had already closed whilst at security which was as chaotic. Mercifully the flight was late taking off. I have never experienced in all my years of travelling to all the continents on the globe such chaos stress and anxiety. There was nothing leisurely about this trip. We had to run (it was very hot) all the way through corridors and shops only to be met by a train (not a gate) taking us to the gates. We were lucky that our gate was in the thirties not seventies as we would have missed our flight for sure. In the end we arrived breathless hot and sweating in front of another lump/queue of passengers with just enough time to use the toilet. I should also mention that the word priority on your check-in paper does not mean a thing. Our little trundles of less than 10kg were put into the hold on our return journey.

I paid for a flight from Madrid to Beauvais. My apartment in Madrid did not have internet access so I could not access their website nor print the Boarding Pass. I did not think this was a major problem since all airlines have entry stations to get answers to problems and obtain Boarding Passes. Ryanair charged me $168 and made me go through two very long lines. This was in addition to the cost of the flight. And the cost of a glass of water was 3 Euros! Customer service was miserable: long lines no information just shut up and move along. Avoid this airline!