Tips for booking/flying Ryanair.
Discussion
Bill said:
Number 1 is don't, I guess 
But it's substantially less than half the next competitor's price, flying from Gatwick, and the destination airport may be an hour from Stockholm but it is the side we want to be.
So other tips please to minimise costs and hassle.
Cheers.
We travel with Ryanair from Stansted to Västerås (Sweden) fairly regularly as my GF has family north of there, plus we live near to Stansted. But it's substantially less than half the next competitor's price, flying from Gatwick, and the destination airport may be an hour from Stockholm but it is the side we want to be.So other tips please to minimise costs and hassle.
Cheers.
Tips: if you are travelling alone, its fine, no problems. If you are travelling with family/children, make sure you buy the priority boarding thing. At least at Stansted that always means we have got seats together (and storage space in nearby lockers). You will end up standing in queues for a while, too (again, unless travelling alone and don't care where you sit). It is now possible to book a limited number of allocated seats I think.
Oh, and don't exceed the (limited) baggage limits. If you think you will, then pay in advance for the extra allocation.
With the baggage limits being a very strict 15 or 20kg depending on how long you are going for (or how much you want to spend) dont forget you can take another 10kg of handluggage in 1 bag but make sure the bag you use is within their size limits 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. They have a metal frame at the boarding gates and if your bag doesn't fit in it wont go on the aircraft...
Also dont forget to print your boarding passes for both trips, you can print them 15 days ahead.
Also dont forget to print your boarding passes for both trips, you can print them 15 days ahead.
This applies to all air travel, but Ryanair especially - when you arrive at your departure airport, enter into "bovine" or "domesticated animal" mode. It's a simple mindset - lower your expectations to simply arriving at your destination within 20-30% of the expected arrival time. Chances are you will.
Everything else should be ignored - you simply have to find a way to pass the travel time in the knowledge that it will be over relatively soon. Don't for heavens sake enter into the process with any expectations of customer service....
Everything else should be ignored - you simply have to find a way to pass the travel time in the knowledge that it will be over relatively soon. Don't for heavens sake enter into the process with any expectations of customer service....
These dudes run a very efficient ship and unless you simply must have those decadent luxuries like magazine holders on the back of the seats, tv screens, and fancy boarding tunnels for getting from the plane to the terminal then go for it.
For shorter trips (2hrs) you can't go wrong. As already suggested, pay a bit more for priority boarding and you'll think you're Royalty amidst the hoi polloi.
Don't know about the food but the queues to the toilets were 'generous'.
Tesco value with wings!
For shorter trips (2hrs) you can't go wrong. As already suggested, pay a bit more for priority boarding and you'll think you're Royalty amidst the hoi polloi.
Don't know about the food but the queues to the toilets were 'generous'.
Tesco value with wings!
chris7676 said:
Annoyingly you can't make a booking with Google Chrome browser as it asks you for some number which is irrelevant and you can't enter. Works with IE / Firefox.
Also clear your cookies before you book - if you have looked at the site a couple of times checking prices for set dates / flights apparently the cookies "remember" and strangely the price is slightly higher when you come to look again when you want to book. Clear the cookies and the price drops back down to the first price you saw (all things being equal such as flight not becoming full in meantime etc).Was a top tip the power of PH passed on a while ago, and worked for me - was a year ago so things may have changed, but worth a try!
Flown with them about 10-15 times now.
Few times to Tenerife, few times to Salou/Barcelona, Dublin etc etc
No problems here. Aslong as you can think for yourself and don't expect the air hostesses to beckon to your call with top champagne and courtesy nibbles you will be ok.
Priority boarding is probably best if a family is flying. If a group of men then not really worth it.
Just don't get tricked on their website into buying travel insurance or any other of the gimmicks they try and sell. In the drop down boxes they try to hide the 'I have my own insurance' option.
Also with booking charges, if you have a Ryanair prepay card you will be exempt from paying the charges. Can be quite a bit of money.
Few times to Tenerife, few times to Salou/Barcelona, Dublin etc etc
No problems here. Aslong as you can think for yourself and don't expect the air hostesses to beckon to your call with top champagne and courtesy nibbles you will be ok.
Priority boarding is probably best if a family is flying. If a group of men then not really worth it.
Just don't get tricked on their website into buying travel insurance or any other of the gimmicks they try and sell. In the drop down boxes they try to hide the 'I have my own insurance' option.
Also with booking charges, if you have a Ryanair prepay card you will be exempt from paying the charges. Can be quite a bit of money.
Zaxxon said:
They are s
t, I would never fly with them again. There is not a single redeeming aspect to their service, even Easyjet are a pleasure to fly with compared to Ryanair.
The trouble is all the proper airlines are having to constantly lower their standards to compete with ryanair and their low overheads like cheap foreign cabin crew and the lowest experience pilots on part time contracts and all the other shoddy, bottom of the industry, cost saving practices they use. t, I would never fly with them again. There is not a single redeeming aspect to their service, even Easyjet are a pleasure to fly with compared to Ryanair. CraigMST said:
Flown with them about 10-15 times now.
Few times ... No problems here. As long as you can think for yourself and don't expect the air hostesses to beckon to your call with top champagne and courtesy nibbles you will be ok.
Priority boarding is probably best if a family is flying. If a group of men then not really worth it.
Just don't get tricked on their website into buying travel insurance or any other of the gimmicks they try and sell. In the drop down boxes they try to hide the 'I have my own insurance' option.
Also with booking charges, if you have a Ryanair prepay card you will be exempt from paying the charges. Can be quite a bit of money.
Would concur with all this - I fly regularly from Belgium to Edinburgh and it just has to be endured (that self-congratulatory recording when the flight lands on time just about sends me over the edge though).Few times ... No problems here. As long as you can think for yourself and don't expect the air hostesses to beckon to your call with top champagne and courtesy nibbles you will be ok.
Priority boarding is probably best if a family is flying. If a group of men then not really worth it.
Just don't get tricked on their website into buying travel insurance or any other of the gimmicks they try and sell. In the drop down boxes they try to hide the 'I have my own insurance' option.
Also with booking charges, if you have a Ryanair prepay card you will be exempt from paying the charges. Can be quite a bit of money.
They are very strict about hand luggage sizes - on Monday I saw two people having to pay £50 to put it in the hold at the gate immediately prior to boarding.
Definitely pay the extra for Priority Boarding with young kids as it is a free for all. No need to get to the airport too early though as the gate doesn't close until 30 mins prior to departure (40mins for bag drop). All in all - a pretty crappy experience but roughly what you would expect for the money.
Zaxxon said:
They are st, I would never fly with them again. There is not a single redeeming aspect to their service, even Easyjet are a pleasure to fly with compared to Ryanair.
The redeeming aspect to their service is the fact you can fly to Sweden for £30 return!t, I would never fly with them again. There is not a single redeeming aspect to their service, even Easyjet are a pleasure to fly with compared to Ryanair. I've flown with them loads of times and never had a problem. Its the people who are stuck in the golden age of flying and expect glamourous air hostess's to come along and tickle their balls every 10 mins who like to have a good whinge about Ryanair.
Its the local bus into town, but with wings, thats all.
They USUALLY offer good value for money and efficient service.
The booking process, lack of pricing transparency and other stuff (on-flight scratchcards, etc) are irritating. Interesting post about the cookies, I wouldn't be surprised at all. The staff is as polite/rude as any other average airline in my experience.
The booking process, lack of pricing transparency and other stuff (on-flight scratchcards, etc) are irritating. Interesting post about the cookies, I wouldn't be surprised at all. The staff is as polite/rude as any other average airline in my experience.
Shay HTFC said:
The redeeming aspect to their service is the fact you can fly to Sweden for £30 return!
I've flown with them loads of times and never had a problem. Its the people who are stuck in the golden age of flying and expect glamourous air hostess's to come along and tickle their balls every 10 mins who like to have a good whinge about Ryanair.
Its the local bus into town, but with wings, thats all.
I don't expect luxury at that price. But I also don't expect a dirty (filthy) cabin, very uncomfortable seats, an air hostess that doesn't give a sI've flown with them loads of times and never had a problem. Its the people who are stuck in the golden age of flying and expect glamourous air hostess's to come along and tickle their balls every 10 mins who like to have a good whinge about Ryanair.
Its the local bus into town, but with wings, thats all.
t that my 4 yr old daughter is throwing up and there are no sick bags (the stupid bh brought us 2, yes 2 tissues to clean up). Slogans that slag off other airlines (how pathetic), adverts on the seat back in front of me, paying for extra baggage but not weight.It was comparable to sitting in the sling seats in a C-130 back from the US via Gander.
Having read the PPRUNE forum, it seams that the pilots and cabin crew are only there as they can't get work anywhere else and it is a last ditch effort to stay in the job. So is that the same regarding the people that maintain the aeroplanes?
Some things are worth paying for, if the only choice was RyanAir, I'd rather walk.
Zaxxon said:
Shay HTFC said:
The redeeming aspect to their service is the fact you can fly to Sweden for £30 return!
I've flown with them loads of times and never had a problem. Its the people who are stuck in the golden age of flying and expect glamourous air hostess's to come along and tickle their balls every 10 mins who like to have a good whinge about Ryanair.
Its the local bus into town, but with wings, thats all.
I don't expect luxury at that price. But I also don't expect a dirty (filthy) cabin, very uncomfortable seats, an air hostess that doesn't give a sI've flown with them loads of times and never had a problem. Its the people who are stuck in the golden age of flying and expect glamourous air hostess's to come along and tickle their balls every 10 mins who like to have a good whinge about Ryanair.
Its the local bus into town, but with wings, thats all.
t that my 4 yr old daughter is throwing up and there are no sick bags (the stupid bh brought us 2, yes 2 tissues to clean up). Slogans that slag off other airlines (how pathetic), adverts on the seat back in front of me, paying for extra baggage but not weight.It was comparable to sitting in the sling seats in a C-130 back from the US via Gander.
Having read the PPRUNE forum, it seams that the pilots and cabin crew are only there as they can't get work anywhere else and it is a last ditch effort to stay in the job. So is that the same regarding the people that maintain the aeroplanes?
Some things are worth paying for, if the only choice was RyanAir, I'd rather walk.
I guess it's like walking into Tesco. Don't expect alot from the staff but their are people who show pride in their job and like to help people out.
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