My experience at Stansted tells me that you were dead lucky! At security when you show your boarding card, if your flight is with Ryanair, not only do they insist on one bag only, but also scrutinize the size of it and send you back to check-in if they deem it too big!!!

Sorry I may have misled you. My bag was OK for size always is and I only had 6K in that bag. I could easily fit my handbag inside it I simply forgot and no one mentioned it. It was only when I was through security that I realised when my shoes bag coat and my bag came through that I remembered.
At Leeds/Bradford they always will say at the security prior to proceeding that you need to put the bag in. This is to anyone who forgets and they are always announcing it over the public address system.
I put my handbag in as soon as I have checked in and prior to going to the Security.

Sue

Is anyone having trouble getting on the Ryanair website. I have tried for the last week and can't download it. Have to delete to come out of it. Anyone else. Many thanks

No problem here. I booked a couple of tickets with them a few days ago and the only problem I had is that I couldn't see how to decline the insurance. In the end I booked the tickets with the insurance and then sent an email to the appropriate department cancelling it, which was done the next day.

I had a similar problem when for 3 days I was unable to complete a booking with them. It kept giving me a security warning. When I tried to ignore this it still would not let me book.
When I did eventually get booking complete it cost me £31.50 instead of the £2 offered on the Sunday. In total I paid £67 when the charges for baggage and check in were added.
I see they have flights today at £5 single and I could book if I wanted to but don't have the time at the moment to go anywhere.

Sue

Hi have managed to get on now. Booked return flights to Glasgow for hubby and I for £10 return, but when I got to paying stage was charged £16 for paying with a debit card!!!!

Ryanair pulls out of Valencia

Routes to Valencia from two UK airports will be withdrawn next month as Ryanair closes a base at the Spanish city.

Nine services will be cancelled from November 4, including flights from Edinburgh and East Midlands.

Ryanair said it would continue to operate a limited service to Valencia on a Stansted-based aircraft.

"Passengers due to travel on affected flights to or from Stansted may be able to transfer to one of our London-based services or can receive a full refund," the airline said.

Passengers due to travel on all other cancelled Valencia based services, will receive a full refund.

The budget carrier is pulling out a little over a year since establishing a hub in Valencia and will move to a new base, details of which are to be announced next week.

The withdrawal comes as the result of a dispute with the local authorities over co-operative funding for the promotion of the airline's network from the Spanish city, according to the airline.

Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said: "This is a very black day for the airport of Valencia and the city and region which it serves.

"Ryanair had begun to transform this once overlooked region of Spanish tourism into a powerhouse of growth and development.

"Without any assistance or cooperation from the local tourism board, Ryanair has already shown the possibilities which are uniquely available through its low fares."

The "naked subsidisation" of competitor airlines at the expense of Ryanair and the refusal to engage in any meaningful discussion "have meant that continuation of our base at the airport is untenable".

"We have already received numerous enquiries right across Europe and we will be announcing a new base elsewhere next week with these two aircraft," said Cawley.


With permission from Travelmole

The cheap flights are just a rip off. OH and I booked return flights to Riga - £4.99 ouward and £29.99. By the time everything was added the price had gone up to £217- crazy. I tried to check in 1 bag at the airport for myself and OH online with no bags - you couldn't do this. If one of the prty is checking in at the airport you all have to, or make separate bookings. At Riga airport there was a chap whose sole job was to check the size and weight of hand luggage, and we did see 2 sent back . I asked for a brandy on the way back and nearly pmsl when it came in a plastic pouch - like a sachet of shower gel Can't fault the service though!

Yes my daughter went to Ireland yesterday with her Husband and Children. She booked herself and the children and did the on line checkin. Made another booking for her husband with one case and he checked in at the Airport. Their fares were £15 each but it ended up being £153 when the card charge was added etc.

Sue

I think theres more to this "Ryanair pulls out of Valencia" story.

Just up the road, about 70 miles, lie's the Costa Azahar, a brand new airport is nearing completion there Aeropuerto De Castellon and rumour has it that Ryanair is already scheduling to use this airport along with other Euopean low cost carriers. I would hazard a guess that to attract these companies, airport charges will be far lower giving them a chance to establish a new base not far from their old one and therefore using an excuse to get out of the higher charging one.

Wouldn't surprise me if it does happen that with Ryanairs policy of using out of city airports and still using the name, that this base on the website would be referred to as Valencia North!

I have never flown with ryanair before, but have found flights £200 cheaper for my family, for next year flying to Tenerife with them. I have heard so many bad things about them i'm a little dubious to book with them. Things like them cancelling flights last minute for no apparent reason. Could anyone out there put my mind at ease about them, or would i better paying more and flying with another company. Thanks
Maxine

Could anyone out there put my mind at ease about them,

I'm afraid not! Ryanair are a low cost airline that cuts costs to the bone and hence, yes, does cancel/amalgamate flights in order to ensure that it only sends out planes at their full capacity as far as possible. Only you can decide whether it's worth paying the extra in order to reduce the likelihood of this happening. I'd never use them when travelling in connection with my work where I need to know that I really will be able to get there and back in the day and still get the job done - I can't afford to take the chance that I will end up having to cancel what could have been a meeting of some long standing. On the other hand I have used them for family travel where timings are far less crucial. But even then I don't book with them for Tenerife flights because we fly to Tenerife only in order to get the ferry over to La Gomera and a missed ferry connection can end up with us having to spend an unplanned for either costly or uncomfortable night on Tenerife.

But often the price difference can be really marginal by the time you've paid for all the add ons with Ryanair - Ryanair will charge you £24 for each checked-in piece of luggage compared to many airlines not charging you anything extra. They also tend to charge more for using your credit card than many other airlines and charge per passenger not per booking so they can soon add up to a lot for a family. In my experience the final total cost only appears at the very last stage of the booking and can come to a surprising amount more than I've been expecting!

And also, sometimes you just have to go with your gut instinct - when I was booking flights for our usual October trip to La Gomera, Excel were coming up as the cheapest on every site I surfed. But the difference was only £20 per head less than Monarch who were consistently the next cheapest. I booked with Monarch in the end because I just didn't have a good feeling about Excel's reputation for delays and decided that it was worth the extra in order to book an earlier flight time and have more leeway with any possible delays. We were delayed but we still made it in time (just!) for our planned ferry. But of course more importantly we still made it to Tenerife in the first place! A colleague who was due to fly out the same day as us never made it because he wasn't able to find flights with another airline from Scotland for the school half term break, literally at any price. The extra I'd paid compared to him was the best value £20 per head I've ever spent!

SM

Unfortunately I have had to book Ryanair because only they fly to Seville from a convenient airport for me. In fact only one other airline (Clickair from Gatwick) fly to that city, so it's more or less Hobson's choice for me. Let's hope the airline don't have a falling out with the airport like they did at Valencia !

On the bright side the tickets for next April only came to £75 each. This includes checked bags and the debit-card charges.

Are you flying from Liverpool or Stanstead? Having used the Gatwick - Seville route with Clickair myself, I would rate their service way above Ryanair! It would now be my route of choice because living in Scotland it was also much more convenient and cheaper than the other way I've done it with Iberia via Madrid.

SM

We are flying from Stansted. We live in the East Midlands and the the journey to that airport isn't too bad, via the A1/M11. Flight times are quite good. Out at 07.10 and back by midday.

stella7 wrote:

Could anyone out there put my mind at ease about them

Your Circumstances make a difference, my wife and I have flown to Tenerife and several other places with them and had no problems what so ever, they do a lot of add ons which do add to the price but if you have compared them with others and are saving £200 then go for it. SMa highlights the possibility of missed deadlines with business flights and from her previous posts takes aged or disabled parents to La Gomera in that situation I would perhaps like her proceed with caution. they do not seem to be the most considerate. But if you are able bodied and just want to get to Tenerife from an Airport convenient to you, it should not be a problem. From this you can see that I like em' and consider the final price however it is arrived at, I have had some amazing value.

Dave

I've flown East Midlands to Granada with Ryanair and didn't have any problems at all. Yes they added charges on, but it was still a good price in my opinion. We landed early on each flight.

Unfortunately they no longer operate this route, you have to fly from Liverpool or Luton (or maybe its Stansted) to Granada now, but I prefer to give this a try than fly East Midlands to Malaga. Fingers crossed the experience will continue to be a good one!

Louise

Thanks very much for all of your replies. The £200 difference with ryanair included all the add ons even priorty boarding.
I'm still unsure what to do, whether to take a chance and hope they don't cancel the flight or pay extra and fly with Thompsons.The dates we are looking to fly is at the beginning of April, near the start of the school hols....so hopefully it is a busy period and the flight will be fully booked, so no need to cancel the flight. Have to make a decision soon......thanks again everone.

Go on don't hang about Stella you'll miss the boat, thousands fly with them every day with no problems at all.

Dave

Stella

stella7 wrote:

I'm still unsure what to do