Spot On Chris !

Hi Lesley

I too had the same fears for flying Ryanair after hearing so many hororr stories. However, flew to Girona with them in June of this year and it was brilliant - got a way on time, arrived home slightly early and no problems checking in and getting a seat (booked priority). However, was suprised to see how many passengers were getting on with 2 and 3 bags and hand luggage bigger than my case.

Because of the ease I found flying with Ryanair I booked for next year and got the cheap flights.

Enjoy yourself and dont worry.

Hi Lesley

I also follow almost exactly the rules Chris has just posted and have never had a problem.

Its a superb way to travel if you are canny

regards
Andy

I'm sure a majority of passengers who flew with Ryanair over the last few years had an uneventful and successful flight. But following the rules certainly doesn't help when things go wrong due to cancellation, delay or other reasons, then Ryanair often show themselves to be a totally uncaring outfit with zero customer relations. Unfortunately the airline review websites are full of reports of incidents of this nature where the contempt shown by O'leary and his cohorts for their passengers is unbelievable.

Hi Judith,

When did you last fly with Ryanair ?

Chris

Last Year, Why?

I could guess at the sort of experience Judith has had and it's why I would never plan to use Ryanair.

But as others have said, as long as you fully understand their rules, and follow them, you get there cheaply. And unwritten Rule Zero is quite simple - the fare is the price for getting you there without crashing, everything else is extra and that doesn't just apply to drinks and snacks. Remember this is the company that tried (and still wants) to charge disabled people extra for help in boarding the plane and was only stopped by court action.

I've no doubt that if you accept this rule there is a good chance that you will have a journey just as good as a dearer traditional airline but you have to accept that if things go wrong you'll be on your own very quickly.

the points about following the "rules" are valid as stated by Chris, (TFS1) in response to Lesley's anxiety about using ryanair for the first time, but is it because Lesley is anxious/nervous because of ryanairs reputation? which despite following rules can still lead to the scenario described by Judith.

there are fantastic deals that you can get by using ryanair, but you do need to be fairly savvy to avoid some of the pitfalls and excessive charges , and i'm sure most people who do their research on here are well informed of avoiding these extra costs , but the average traveller can fall into some of the traps that ryanair make so much money from, thats why they have a poor reputation in the eyes of the media. I have used ryanair once, booking flights a long time ago for my parents to fly from stansted to newquay and they cocked that up so i wouldn't trust them to fly me over water, i did look recently at their prices to lanzarote and they were very good and also good flight times to boot, but ultimately i would probably choose another airline, thats my choice and loss if you think that way. my personal opinion is i just don't like the way and the manner in which michael oleary conducts his business and i think this is what puts a lot of people off using ryanair, along with the fact of being charged £5 to use your own computer and sometimes being dropped in a random airfield. I know the final cost is all you should be worried about but the list of extras is getting never ending and the great deal at the beginning becomes less appealing. I agree they operate a successful basic operation and if that suits you then great, you've got yourself a bargain as long as you understand all the rules.

Judith,

I asked because I was interested to know if you had used them. Did you have any problems with your flight ?

Regards, Chris

In all the years we have been flying with them, we use them nearly every month, I have never had any bad experiences or delays. I appreciate we may have been lucky - we go to Spain next week so maybe my comments could be a little more critical on our return if we do have problems.

Chris

Chris
No I didn't apart from it being two hours late, which can happen to any flight.
It was a very elderly friend who had a very bad experience with them, she asked me to help sort things out for her as she was becoming very upset at the rudeness and total lack of care that she had received. When I tried to help I also received the same level of 'customer service'. At this time I discovered pages and pages of negative reviews on the web in regard to Ryanair flights. As I stated in my original post I realise that most people have uneventful and successful flights with Ryanair but to me how an airline deals with problems when things go wrong shows their calibre and this airline failed miserably in my eyes. Ryanair don't fly to any of the destinations that I normally use so luckily they aren't my airline of choice, though in any case I would be loathe to use them other than in an absolute emergency.
Judith

Can any body tell me when summer 2010 flights will be on sale. Looking for school summer holiday dates. Thanks

Maxine

I have flown with Ryanair over 70 times now and I haven't had as much as a glitch with them.
I too have heard some horror stories about Ryanair, but in comparsion if you think of how many flights they operate per day the chance of something going wrong is very slim. Remember that in most cases it is only the horror stories that come to light, never the thousands of flights they have operated without a problem - I have also heard plenty of similar horror stories with the likes of British Airways, Iberia and United.

Andy66, I fly the NQY-STN route quiet often, so just out of interest if you don't mind me asking, what happened in your experience?

Adam

I think that I'm with Judith and steve8482 on this one. My mother needs disability assistance now and after our experiences with Ryanair on their Liverpool/Aberdeen route (note the plural - this wasn't a one off) we would now only use them if there really was no alternative. Having lost the court case re charging for assistance their tactic now seems to be that they will comply with the bare minimum that they can get away with under the law and make it so awkward for you to fly with them that you will be deterred from trying to do so.

With every other airline we have used, both charter and scheduled, the process is that you book the ticket and then phone their customer service desk and request the assistance. Job done and we've never had problems with the assistance being there and expecting us. But not with Ryanair - they will only take a maximum of 4 people needing assistance on each flight so you cannot book over the Net. Instead you have to check out your flights and prices etc on the website, then phone to confirm that they still have 'room' for another disabled passenger. But the people who do this for you can't actually then book the ticket over the phone for you - no, you then have to book it on the website and then phone them back to confirm that you have booked onto the flight - all on a premium rate tel no. And if by some chance the flight has booked fully booked in the meantime or the price has gone up and so you try to get on a different flight for the original price well the whole palaver starts all over again.

Also, with all other airlines, they usually ask you to wait until everybody else has disembarked but the assistance is ready and waiting at the plane door for you because the airline has booked it in advance. Not so with Ryanair, they only phone for the assistance once the plane lands - this avoids them being charged if you don't show - this can mean considerable delays while you wait for someone to be sent over with a wheelchair or whatever. The final straw for us was the time I was travelling with them (thank heavens) and we reminded the cabin crew that we'd booked assistance, waited as usual for everybody else to get off, to then have one of them come up to us ask why we hadn't got off! On being told that we were waiting for them to confirm that the assistance had arrived for us they then told us that it hadn't even been ordered yet - that they'd forgotten to phone through on landing! Not only did we not get an apology but they made us get off and wait at the bottom of the aircraft steps because the outbound passengers were queuing and couldn't be loaded until we got off!

If it had been my decision alone I would have sat tight - it wouldn't have been our fault if they'd lost their take-off slot - but by this time my mother wanted to get off because she was starting to get distressed and was anxious about my father - who by now had already got off to go to baggage reclaim because he was anxious that the cases might get removed because of the usual delay in us getting there. And too right he was anxious, standing alone with the suitcases long after everybody else had disappeared, wondering what had happened to us when we eventually caught up with him in the baggage hall after the assistance arrived very late. The man concerned was very apologetic but it was clear that this sort of thing was regarded by him as very much the norm for Ryanair. He kept stressing that it all ran much more smoothly when the airlines gave them advance notice and that they'd been caught on the hop by the late request long after the plane had actually landed.

We've never used them again, my parents come up by train to see me now and we would prefer if necessary to pay more to travel with an airline that doesn't regard disabled or frail elderly people as a burden that cuts into their profits . They usually have to change trains twice on the journey but at every stage of the way the assistance has always been there and the system works like clockwork. It might take them longer but it's a trouble free way of doing it and far less stressful for them as a result. If you have no special needs and just want to get from A to B at the cheapest price then Ryanair 'does what it says on the tin' but woe betide you if you are not a standard passenger but who still asserts their legal rights.

SM

Hi Adam, as i said the flights were a while ago and i booked them because my dad was unwell at the time , he was suffering from spinning attacks and had just been diagnosed with menieres, they had already booked a hol to newquay area and to save him driving the long distance i booked them flights , i drove to stansted , my brother picked them up on return , if i remember rightly the flight there was ok but on the way back they were delayed over 2 hours , so with them being there in plenty of time for check-in and the wait and the drive back from stansted, the old man was giving me earache about the fact he could have driven back in less time and why didn't i book them onto the BA flight because that was on time!! the bottom line was he kept on getting more and more stressed which wasn't helping his illness he had, and still has today, although i don't blame mr o'leary for that , by the time they got home the holiday rest was a distant memory.
Now ok i know flights get delayed and its not always the airline fault either, but the idea of a shuttle service is to get people there and back quickly and if you can use another mode of transport to do it quicker it sort of defeats the point of it.

As you point out, other airlines have their problems but generally their customer services dept. will try to sort out these problems, while with ryanair their attitude seems to be , you got it cheap so what are you complaining for! take the incident at stansted just a couple of weeks ago , people watching as their planes take-off and nothing they can do about it, that is just shoddy service.

Booked flights yesterday on behalf of my niece and her family. She got married a month ago and I booked her flight in her married name However she informs me today that her passport is in her maiden name as it still has several years left to run, they fly in just over 2 weeks.
I've looked at the Ryanair website and can't find an exact answer but am I going to have to pay to change the name on the booking ? Is this the only option other than attempting to have her passport amended in the next 2 weeks ?

Just a quick and happy update. Having spent a small fortune on their premium tel number we finally got sorted yesterday. We had to fax a copy of her marriage certificate and they changed the booking into her maiden name for £10 I couldn't believe it, a result.

When I think about it though we weren't actually changing the name as in the person so all fair I think due to a genuine mistake.

Excellent news
David

Miss Chief, i'm glad you got it sorted out for a reasonable amount compared to what you thought it might have been a few days ago !
i'm sure you're relieved at what was a genuine mistake.

Andy I am sorry to hear about your experience.

I do agree with you regarding Ryanair's customer service, and whilst I haven't (touch wood) had a problem with them, I do prepare myself that in the event something goes wrong it could very well be a case of every man for himself.