Have recently had another look at flights, with thought of changing my flights

My flight at the moment London - Ancona, I paid £104, that flight now costs a wopping £301.34 and of the fare £199 from ancona-london syansted

Flight which looking to change, was liverpool to Rimini, ryanair at the time wanted another £104 on top, whcih would have mean I would have paid out £204, checked this flight today, and all I need to pay is a extra £56, so look like come payday, going to change flights

not that anyone is interested (apart from me) but the rescheduled tuesday flights from Valencia to Tenerife South have now appeared !

Chris

TFS, It has been a saga for you, Ryanair aren't the best are they? Hope all goes for for the 5th!

calabonagirl wrote:

Ryanair aren't the best are they?

perhaps the most polite putdown i've ever heard about ryanair ,

calabonagirl,

they certainly have their moments but all turned out ok in the end ! albeit one day longer in Spain, an extra days carhire and later arrival back in Tenerife, apart from that everythings ok !

Chris

Hi all. I am considering booking a cheap family holiday for Whitsun week and have managed to find something within budget, however, the flights are with Ryanair who I have never flown with before. Have read lots of reviews on them and most don't make for good reading. Will be travelling with children aged 10 and 6, and worry about being split up. I know priority boarding is an option, but have read that the system doesn't always work. I'm thinking twice about booking at the moment - any advice particularly from those that have travelled with children would be great. Are they really that bad?

Where are you planning on flying from/to? Most airports do follow priority boarding rules, the only problems seem to be when buses are used, however it does just tend to be coming back to Uk. The crew will do their best to sit children with their families, however if it is a full flight and passengers refuse to move then that's when the problems start. However if you do purchase priority I would say you will get seats together, the problems only happen when you are one of the last to board on a full flight.

Ryanair rarely use buses to board flights as it costs money !

We, nor our families with young children, have never had any issues with boarding. If you want to sit together make sure you are towards the very front of the queue, maybe one of you stands in the queue as it starts to develop (this can happen very quickly) and the other person with the children then join you when boarding actually starts - of even sit the children on the floor in the queue and play games / have a drink etc - we have seen that before. However, if you are last on and its a busy flight, you will unlikely sit all together.

Are they really that bad - perhaps their approx 70 odd million passengers in 2010 could help you with that !

Chris

Thanks both for your replies, sounds promising. Chelle 375 - it's Emids/Palma. TFS1 - I had thought about having one of us stand in the queue and then the rest join but wondered how other queuing passengers might react.

I had thought about having one of us stand in the queue and then the rest join but wondered how other queuing passengers might react.

I understand why you might think this would be a good thing, and whilst I'm sure that nobody will actually thump you, you might find that other folk might say things that would get your holiday off on the wrong foot. It depends on the size of your party ... I've seen this happen with an extended family including uncles, grandparents and all Rabbit's friends and relations, and it does tend to unsettle the other passengers. OK so it's not illegal, but would you like someone to do this to you?

You'll be fine, at east mids you walk straight from the gate and in Palma airbridges are used 99% of the time, you'd probably be fine not purchasing priority boarding, however to be on the safe side I would recommend it what with it being half term!

I have travelled with young children on Ryanair several times and will be doing again this year. I am always near the front of the queue because we prefer to sit near the front of the plane. I have never had any problems with Ryanair and have only once seen a seating issue and that was with a teenager who had to sit across an aisle. It is very easy to get to the front of the queue, if you see a Ryanair gate attendant in the airport just ask them which gate your plane will be leaving from and then sit near there ready to go once the queue forms.

Remember Ryanair are a perfectly good airline "IF" you follow their T&Cs, especially around bags. If you dont follow their rules then problems can start to happen.

if you have young children I would be very surprised if anyone objected. If it were a group of adults I could see the point that is being made. I have seen, as have many on this board, all sorts of folk just forcing their way into the queue without batting an eyelid.

It happened on our flight here to Tenerife, a family of 3 just walked straight top the front of the queue and stood there ! - now that did raise an eyebrow of two. That was on easyjet not ryanair.

Chris

ps and sound advise from son of homer.

+1 for Son of Homer's advice. However, note that Ryanair don't have any fixed limits for the number of Speedy Boarders (as Easyjet do) so it could be that 80% of the passengers could have purchased speedy boarding!! Get there early and find the gate and start the queue (bring a book or a snack!!).

Ryanair have a limit of 90 priority boarders (a lot I know !), which is around 50% of the seats available. Easyjet used to limit Speedy boarders to a max of 30 for each flight. - not sure if this has changed.

Get there early and find the gate and start the queue (bring a book or a snack!!).

Good advise from Alsacienne, as I have said before someone needs to start the queue so why not you - we have done it many times before and within seconds of you starting it its a 'mile' long ! It normally brings a lot of relief on peoples faces as at least it stops the 'when will the queue start', 'where will I be in the queue' etc etc - think of it as you are doing everybody a favour !

Chris

Many thanks for all your replies, you've given me some confidence in them so not put off anymore. In the couple of days that I've been thinking about booking the prices have gone up though! Not by too much so I am still debating what to do. Looks like I will have to decide pretty quick if we do decide to go ahead.

We too, have used Ryanair about 6 or 7 times. Every time from EMA, never a problem as stated on earlier posts, no buses used, the planes are close to the exit door in the terminal. Have flown into a few different Spanish airports and buses never used, like earlier post said, too expensive for Ryanair! We always use priority boarding and have never had a problem.

Last year me, my husband and youngest queued as soon as the gate opened, and my older son and girlfriend joined us later, no-one said anything, and to be honest, neither would I........probably if there were half a dozen or so then it would be different!

I would never hesitate to use them again...............do beware of the hand luggage size though, last year at Alicante the staff were actually measuring them in the cages, first time I have ever seen that. Good though, as one of my pet hates on these flights is when passengers board the plane with a suitcase the size of ours which we have paid for to be put in the hold, and then they try and move my flight bags to accommodate their case

Good luck!

Best Regards

Elaine

NicJW,

I booked some flights for our daughter and family (4 people in total) to join us in Tenerife this October. Got them for £570 now they are £1470. Maybe prices sometimes go down but not always.

Regards, Chris

At valencia our hand luggage and everyones elses have been more actively checked at over the past year. Starting with a visual check by the gate staff to sniff out the oversized cases or those trying to take more than one piece onboard, other times all hand luggage is placed in the measuring cages.

At Stansted checking starts as you do the long walk to the gates, normally around the cafe when going towards gates in the 50 range. At both locations they have their handheld credit card machines ready to take the £35 / €35 off of you. Im told that they try and get 2 oversized pieces of handluggage per flight. They wont be making moeny out of me !

Chris