Can you really fly Ryanair for £5 all-in? And would you want to? I try it out. (Part 2)

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• IndiaCharlie says:

  10 Feb10 February 05:31

  I play the ryanair game semi regularly for shorter flights when there is a significant price difference AND the timings work in my favour. With Balearic residents discount I’ve had a trip from PMI-BCN price in at 2€. I have however “lost” twice – once when accidentally booking two tickets in my name instead of one in my OH name (damn you auto fill) – spotted morning of flight and choice of 130£ change fee or £90 new booking. 2nd time I inexplicably forgot to check in, realising 2 mins too late and had to fork out 55e for airport check in.

  Otherwise I find you get exactly what you pay for. A-B with zero frills and annoying scratchcard announcements but saving on occasions over £100 to next cheapest flight and very occasionally better flight times plus an excellent safety record and new planes. I don’t care where I sit (check in just over 2 hr before and tend to get better seats), have lounge access through PP and pldpnt mind paying the same for a coffee/beer as I would on the high street. I’m always confused by those who pay next to nothing but expect a QR experience.

• Sandgrounder says:

  10 Feb10 February 06:44

  I fly MAN-RIX quite regularly to visit the in-laws. I used to refuse to use them without booking 1A. Since the seat recline was removed I tend to just take the random seat. Economy is economy, the seat is fine, it’s just the extra queueing that really annoys me. I occasionally use Wizz from DSA if the dates require it, not much difference really, but the two page code of conduct issued to you in the lounge is a little scary.

  • Lumma says:

    10 Feb10 February 12:46

    Problem with row 1 on Ryanair is that you often end up having to put your bags a fair few rows back and have to wait for everyone to deplane to retrieve them

• Richard says:

  10 Feb10 February 06:50

  I don’t see what the fuss is about. FR these days are a perfectly fine airline and really do have a better on-board menu. You have to get used to their quirks, ie. paying extra for everything, but once you do it’s fine. Advanced seat allocation has helped a lot by removing the scrum on board the plane. In many ways, BA’s seat pitch and on-board experience has moved down to meet FR’s, necessarily so given fare competition from them and Easyjet. The only problem I see is brand confusion: everyone expects something really terrible, but in fact it’s comparable to most other short-haul carriers in Europe and, in some respects, is better! So actually Mr O’Leary could probably charge a bit more than £5 to Porto!

  • Shoestring says:

    10 Feb10 February 07:08

    they know how to play the pricing/ load factor game pretty well, eg on our route Bristol—>place in the sun, you *never* see a £5 ticket, generally lowest would be >£25 but on very rare Sale occasions about £15 – though that would always be a midweek off peak timing

    for peak, ie school hols, you’re looking at getting lucky with a Sale and paying £60-80 EW minimum, (often a fair bit more), which with Priority to get the 2 cabin bags, means £70-90 ie c.same as BA RFS but without a checked bag

    they can do this because they have a monopoly on the route and don’t even fly every day

    I’m using Ryanair to fly back to Bristol at the end of the summer hols (ie wife can pick me up but didn’t fancy driving to LHR) – and watched the prices pretty carefully for a few weeks, eventually getting the lowest going which was north of £100 (and lucky to get it that low!)

• Polly says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:03

  Now looking for Warsaw and Sicily deals. Am sure we will find them, as flexible when we fly.
  Always use FR from STN for Bergerac, flights often as chap as 18 but always need to add priority for a wheelie, as it’s for 10 day trip. Security not been too bad last few times. Plus, usually get into the Escape lounge. Food does us fine.
  Know we will have an enjoyable meal locally evening we land.
  Play by o Leary’s rules and it’s just fine. He’s very entertaining really in interviews…

• Alice says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:10

  Now do the same from Berlin, where they fly from SXF. Ideally on a day where there’s almost no trains running to the airport.

  I will say though, they did ignore the cabin bag restrictions at the gate.

• Matt says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:14

  I hope you claimed the tax back for your ‘missed’ return flight!

  • kk says:

    10 Feb10 February 18:02

    They impose a fairly high admin charge to do that, so in most cases you get nothing back, especially when flying back to the UK (since taxes and airport fees tend to be lower than ex-UK).
    It should be noted BA (and most other airlines) do the same – an admin fee from €10 to €30.

    It would be worthwhile for Rob to write an article about these fees, and list carriers on whom buying a cheap ticket (£1 fare + £60 or more in taxes) could be a good “option” (i.e. not fly, forfeit the fare, but still get half the money back, or more). Alitalia used to be like that, especially during their 20% off sales, where they discounted the whole ticket, not just the fare part yet they would refund 100% of the taxes (so you’d pay £100 for a return ticket but the taxes would be around £70).

• filipino_chino says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:40

  When i was single, i used to book flights like this… now i have a wife and child, I now always pay for set reservations, as they put my daughter next to me, but my wife about 20 rows ahead…

  If you can get Ryanair for a cheap quick trip, it’s good, but i feel sorry for the people who pay £300 for the same seat!

• Richard M says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:40

  Flying on them to Beirut via Paphos for £70 return later this month, something I would not otherwise be able to do. BA or MEA would be £250 minimum. Love them or hate them, otherwise you’d have to invent them.

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