Warning - Dont book extras with Ryanair

Gisappointed

Sorry, I assumed this was a thread about a blow-job from a guy called Ryan.

Callumcafc

I’ve personally had worse experiences on EasyJet than on Ryanair but I’ll avoid both of them if I can.

usetobunkin

Flew LGW to Florence with an airline called Meridiana. 14 hours late, lost luggage bird strike on approach to Florence. Pre booked meal not served. 

Phone Italian phone number for delay repay and refund for meal. Didn’t know I was on a premium rate call.  Total stitch up start to finish.  

Luggage arrived 3 days later having flown around Europe for the 3days. 

TelMc32

Never had an issue flying with them, but would never book “extras” with any airline. You’re only adding another party to a transaction and one who will want their cut whether that’s parking, car hire or hotels. 

RedPanda

Callumcafc said:

I’ve personally had worse experiences on EasyJet than on Ryanair but I’ll avoid both of them if I can.

Yeah easyJet have really gone downhill the last few years. 

Wizz are highest on my sh1t list thanks to late cancellations, too many stories about over-bookings, and they wanted £60 from me to sort a typo/bad auto-complete I noticed straight after booking. The flight was £33 so I just bought another ticket, and got my money back by not reserving seats. I generally do that now as so many airlines do over-book. 

It's easy to say "I'll never fly with X" but sometimes that airline is the only one serving your destination that morning or evening. 

R0TW

Found with the budget airlines, try and get an early flight.
The late ones have usually been all around Europe by time its your turn
one delay knocks the whole schedule bandy.

Stuart_the_Red

Unfortunately, Ryanair is my only option for flying to London from Nantes.
I flow over with them for the Swansea game in early November. I’d read all the horror stories about them and was very careful when booking. Checked the box for priority boarding and 10 kilos of cabin luggage. I was a little worried that my bag was too big for the cabin, but it wasn’t even checked. Both flights were about 20 minutes late but, apart from that was OK.
I’m still reluctant to give O’Leary my money though!

cafcfan

If you have to use a budget airline (and, sadly,  that's what BA is now) I'd say Jet2 is the best of the bunch.

ValleyGary

They’re shocking but I’ve never had an issue with them. Kept it simple with a carry on, and got from A to B and back. 

WizzAir are much worse from experience.

R0TW

cafcfan said:

If you have to use a budget airline (and, sadly,  that's what BA is now) I'd say Jet2 is the best of the bunch.

Funny how opinions differ. Flew with them once, never again.
Had to queue for two hours for check in, got to front of queue then announced anyone on our flight to the front of the queue otherwise you’re miss it. Very stressful shambles

DaveMehmet

cafcfan said:

If you have to use a budget airline (and, sadly,  that's what BA is now) I'd say Jet2 is the best of the bunch.

BA were useless when we went to NY last month. Received the below text at 2pm Christmas Day. No info, no number to call, nothing. Managed to get through to them but the people I needed to speak to weren’t on until the morning. Thankfully managed to get through to our brilliant travel agents (Oakhurst Travel, Blackfen), despite it being 9pm on Christmas Day, who were able to look into it more and see that we’d been transferred to a Virgin flight. 

We're sorry the BA114 on 26 Dec 2025 JFK-LHR is cancelled.. Travelling to or from a different point may incur additional expenses BA will not cover.

 

  

O-Randy-Hunt

Easyjet are in a different league to Ryanair. Have flown with Easyjet untold times and very rarely encountered any problems apart from a few delays which you get anywhere. As far as budget airlines go, Ryanair are fighting relegation in the vanarama national league where as Easyjet are just outside the league 1 playoffs.

Off_it

Leroy Ambrose said:

I got Fucked on Ryanair up the wrongun. I will never set foot on one of their planes again. 

That sounds like an eventful flight, Leroy!

Stig

TelMc32 said:

Never had an issue flying with them, but would never book “extras” with any airline. You’re only adding another party to a transaction and one who will want their cut whether that’s parking, car hire or hotels. 

I think that's sagely advice for many things in life. As soon as you have two companies in a supply chain they'll play things off against one another, in the event of something going wrong. The poor old customer is left doing a load of toing and froing to get things sorted out, whilst everyone one else tries to deny all responsibility.

Masterbrew

https://youtu.be/uVASZ2lCY5Y?si=nBqvnNM25gMljV_5

Solidgone

I have travelled with BA for many years now mainly for the avios and tier points. Fortunately I’ve now realised it’s a load of bollocks with the recent changes to their rewards and their service. 

I’ve booked a flight to India at the end of the month with Emirates. It’s a £1k cheaper than BA and they provide a chauffeur to drive us to Gatwick from central London. I’ll use up my avios and in future fly with different airlines. 

As for Ryanair they can fuck off as I’d rather walk! 

Carter

Thats a good point about BA. They have well and truly joined the race to the bottom. 

Emirates I have a theory that they charge whatever the fuck they want to a lot of people who are willing to pay 16k for a trip to Saudi and it enables them to keep their other prices sensible 

closet_addick

Worse than Luftwaffe. 

stockportugaladdick

I had flights booked with Ryanair including two 20kg suitcases that cost a fair bit then covid kicked in and it was illegal to fly, travel or even leave my house.

I contacted Ryanair to move, switch flights or get a refund or vouchers and was basically told to jog on because my flight had operated as a mercy flight. In Ryanairs eyes, they had done no wrong because the flight operated even though it was illegal for me or anyone else to travel.

Scum company.

paulsturgess

Interesting this thread. Clearly I’m in the minority…. But I’m gonna stick up for the buggers… i think Ryanair is actually excellent, at least once you’ve got your head around the nuances etc and take it for what it is 

they allow longer flight times to give themselves a little more leeway than needed for late arrivals… but almost all of their flights are as they like to boast on time, know where you stand  

they have a shitload of extras they try and shift you but actually so do EasyJet… the advantage of it is they offer a very cheap headline price and sometimes the option to travel light and on a budget works and is all you need… and it’s nice to have that option than pay more for stuff you’re not arsed about 

they fly loads of routes , many of which aren’t readily available on other airlines 

I wouldn’t choose to fly with them if I can go BA for a similar price to same destination… it’s certainly not a luxury or even enjoyable experience and they’re not gonna be hanging around to keep the gate open for you if you’re running late but you don’t always need that and if both options are available I can make that decision… equally they offer choice… I flew to Warsaw recently and went to Modlin airport which is 30 mins from the city as opposed to the main airport 15… hours as a Ryanair experience but the flight was 35 quid BA was 140.. I didn’t need the minor extra convenience the further 100 quid would’ve bought me

i was actually also impressed even with the customer service recently as was able to change a mistake on name just using the online chat thing… 

its a budget airline, cheap experience etc but that’s what they market themselves as … they fulfil a purpose and I think they do that role well so fair play to them… you don’t turn up at the valley on 400 quid season ticket and expect to see Barcelona tiki taka but that’s not why we’re at the valley and not what the box office purport to offer… you don’t turn up to Wetherspoons for steak night and expect silver service… 

Wizz air on the other hand now they are truly appalling In my experience 

ElfsborgAddick

stockportugaladdick said:

I had flights booked with Ryanair including two 20kg suitcases that cost a fair bit then covid kicked in and it was illegal to fly, travel or even leave my house.

I contacted Ryanair to move, switch flights or get a refund or vouchers and was basically told to jog on because my flight had operated as a mercy flight. In Ryanairs eyes, they had done no wrong because the flight operated even though it was illegal for me or anyone else to travel.

Scum company.

That's disgraceful.

cabbles

The team that run their X account are a bunch of twats to.  Always trying to be funny if someone criticises them online.  Scummy company.  If possible, I do everything I can to avoid budget airlines

Carter

paulsturgess said:

Interesting this thread. Clearly I’m in the minority…. But I’m gonna stick up for the buggers… i think Ryanair is actually excellent, at least once you’ve got your head around the nuances etc and take it for what it is 

they allow longer flight times to give themselves a little more leeway than needed for late arrivals… but almost all of their flights are as they like to boast on time, know where you stand  

they have a shitload of extras they try and shift you but actually so do EasyJet… the advantage of it is they offer a very cheap headline price and sometimes the option to travel light and on a budget works and is all you need… and it’s nice to have that option than pay more for stuff you’re not arsed about 

they fly loads of routes , many of which aren’t readily available on other airlines 

I wouldn’t choose to fly with them if I can go BA for a similar price to same destination… it’s certainly not a luxury or even enjoyable experience and they’re not gonna be hanging around to keep the gate open for you if you’re running late but you don’t always need that and if both options are available I can make that decision… equally they offer choice… I flew to Warsaw recently and went to Modlin airport which is 30 mins from the city as opposed to the main airport 15… hours as a Ryanair experience but the flight was 35 quid BA was 140.. I didn’t need the minor extra convenience the further 100 quid would’ve bought me

i was actually also impressed even with the customer service recently as was able to change a mistake on name just using the online chat thing… 

its a budget airline, cheap experience etc but that’s what they market themselves as … they fulfil a purpose and I think they do that role well so fair play to them… you don’t turn up at the valley on 400 quid season ticket and expect to see Barcelona tiki taka but that’s not why we’re at the valley and not what the box office purport to offer… you don’t turn up to Wetherspoons for steak night and expect silver service… 

Wizz air on the other hand now they are truly appalling In my experience 

You almost make them sound fair. 

Truth is if you fly to somewhere like Shannon regularly on your own and only take a tiny bag with you I'm sure it costs in and its tolerable. And I don't begrudge them that principle of turning thins around quickly. What nobody likes is the way it is made as budget (read a dogshit experience) as they can. Its unecessary. Their shitty ways of doing things have bled into other airlines. 

I've never flown with wizzair and I've heard enough horror stories about them to not change that. 

ken_shabby

I always swerve Ryannair if there's s choice.  The owner has made it clear what he thinks of customers and there is usually another option. I don't give my hard earned to someone who treats me with contempt.

Algarveaddick

We have to use Ryanair for Bournemouth, no choice. Their policy of sitting you apart if you don't pay extra is Trump-like childishness when the aircraft (as our flight in December was) is half empty. Even when it's pretty full, as soon as the seat belt signs go out, everyone just swaps anyway. 

They also refused to refund our costs when a border control strike meant we missed our plane (we had arrived and booked in two and a half hours before - the maximum time Ryanair will allow at Faro). In fact we didn't miss our plane, it was delayed fifty minutes and was sitting at the stand when we got to the gate. But they had closed the gate, despite knowing the circumstances, and told us we should have been there at the alloted time.  

Wizz can be a pain (e.g because they use the minimum of booking staff, if a flight is due to close, they shout everyone still in the queue to the front of the priority queue) but we are premium discount club members, and it is well worth the annual subscription. 

Stu_of_Kunming

Charlton and on said:

I'd rather stay in the UK than fly with Ryanair. Never had a major issue with them but decided around ten years ago that I prefer to pay more and travel in comfort, with an airline that recognises the needs of travellers, e.g. having luggage, decent check-in rules.

On the flip side, I love the budget airlines as I don't end up paying a premium for things I don't care about, like luggage, or check in rules.

I can fly AirAsia to Bangkok for around £50 return, the exact same flight with a 'proper' airline can be 3x that.

Rizzo

SporadicAddick said:

Top travel tips when using "budget" providers:-
 - Understand how airlines, hotels etc at the value end operate. 
 - Read terms and conditions. Don't expect support / consideration outside of them.  
 
This thread will be full of issues where people are pissed off because Ryanair wouldn't make an exception to their terms and conditions or because something outside of Ryanair's responsibility has gone wrong.

For the record, I think O'Leary is a knob, but he's an incredibly successful one that continues to lead a business that has gone from 1.5m to +200m passengers ("customers"?) in 30 years. 

That's the issue I have. They have their own view on what they are responsible for and it does not align with the authorities view on what they are responsible for. Their response to that is to ignore the authorities, fuck their customers and fight the few cases that disgruntled passengers actually bother to pursue. 

aliwibble

Masterbrew said:

https://youtu.be/uVASZ2lCY5Y?si=nBqvnNM25gMljV_5

*grin* That has been going round in my head since I opened the thread, and I was going to post it if you hadn't already. "... someone's being diddled and it's us..."

jose

If you take just the small hand luggage, going from South East London to Limerick via Gatwick and Shannon can be done very quickly and very cheaply via Ryanair, the flight taking about 45 minutes.
I don’t know what other airlines do Gatwick to Shannon.

cafcnick1992

I love Easyjet and Ryanair. You'd soon miss them if they disappeared as other airlines would crank up their prices!