A lot has been written about the European discount airline Ryanair. Based out of Dublin, this airline offers dirt cheap fares across Europe. People either love or hate them. People love the cheap fares but hate the lack of service. However, the airline only offers you one thing: space. Expecting more is foolish. At the prices they are charging more, they can’t offer you anything else. If you are looking for amenities, do not fly Ryanair. If you want cheap tickets, do. Ryanair is a great bargain and a decent airline to fly as long as you know what to expect.
In order to keep those fares cheap, Ryanair does a number of cost cutting measures. They fly out of secondary airports, offer no food or beverages, no in flight entertainment, and no service. But the main reason why everything is so cheap: high fees. You get the fare for free but if you want to make any changes or need a refund, the fees are so high, you are better off just buying a new ticket.
Moreover, Ryanair is the perfect airline for those travelers with no bags. If you have more than a carry on, you are going to be hit by a lot of fees. It is 24 dollars to check a bag and the more bags you put in the hold, the higher the charges. In the end, all those fees can add up to an expensive flight and make flying a normal carrier more attractive.
Yet Ryanair offers extremely cheap fares, sometimes a ticket is only the taxes. I flew from London to Holland for $50 dollars because there was no fare- only $18 dollars in taxes. The rest of the cost was the airline fees for my bag and check-in. Despite the fee, it was still cheap than my bus from Birmingham to Lancaster, England.
The cheap flights are generally offered early in the morning and later flights are almost never $0 dollars, unless there is a sale or it is booked far, far in advance. Moreover, if there is a fare, the taxes will be higher for that ticket.
Service on Ryanair is fine because there is none. At these prices, you shouldn’t expect any. Food and drink cost money. Flight attendants are just chaperons there in case of emergency.
Seats are pretty small and the décor of the interior is a little worn and drabby as the planes are old. However, as I said in the beginning, you are simply renting space on the plane and if you are expecting anything else, you should look elsewhere.
So who is this airline perfect for? The cheap budget traveler. If you have limited flexibility, or a lot of bags, or like your amenities, do not fly Ryanair. You’ll hate it. But, if you don’t mind flying out early, only care about cost, and just have one bag, this airline is a great way to quickly get across Europe. I don’t love flying Ryanair but for the price I am paying, I have nothing to complain about. All I want is space anyways.
I can live without amenities, but what I can’t live with is an airline that doesn’t actually get me there. Both times I have booked with Ryanair, they have cancelled my flight at the last minute (once I was already at the airport) and refused to offer any refund. Sure, it wasn’t much money, but a new flight on the same day sure was!
They also sell “gift certificates” to unwitting parents of budget travelers that can’t be used for booking online. Only by phone, to a pricey 1-900 number, and none of the low web fares are available by phone. As far as I’m considered, they’ve robbed me and my Dad.
I go with EasyJet all the time – better airports, and they actually take responsibility: ie, if they sell you a ticket, they actually put you on a plane. Low fares are no excuse for lying and theft.
One word about Europe’s budget airlines in general: before you book, find out about public transit to those secondary airports! Often, especially for the early morning flights that are the cheapest, there’s no way to get there besides a cab – which will generally cost you more than your flight did…
@Eva: I went looking on their website and there is a free number but it clearly says that flights are only available via phone and that “Web fares/discounts are available using voucher payment.”
This is what they say about flight cancellations “Ryanair does not provide monetary compensation under Article 7 of EU Regulation 261/2004 for flights which are delayed or cancelled for reasons beyond Ryanair’s control (extraordinary circumstances). You may therefore wish to ensure that you have suitable private insurance cover in force to cover such eventualities. Your rights under EU Regulation 261/2004 are unaffected, so in the case of denied boarding, flight cancellation or a delay in excess of two hours you will be provided with a written notice setting out the rules for compensation and assistance in line with such Regulation.”
Sorry you had a bad experience with them but this experience could be repeated with airlines like American.
But I do agree, check the airport transport! SO many airlines (not just ryan air) fly into secondary airports and transportation from them is sometimes expensive. I took Transavia to Bordeaux’s secondary airport in Bergerac and it cost me 30 euros to get into Bordeaux center!!
I’m not a huge Ryanair fan but they did force the competition to raise its game and lower its prices. As a result I got to travel to destinations in Europe I wouldotherwise not have been able to afford so my hats off to Ryanair!
Hey Matt,
Sounds like they’ve changed their system a bit since I tried to use those un-usable gift certificates (a couple years back). Glad to hear it, but I still won’t be giving them another chance!
I don’t fly American either, but I’ve never heard of a legacy carrier just leaving passengers completely adrift at an airport with no refund or alternate flight arrangement provided though…
I’ve flown ryanair and was mostly happy with my experience. Yeah, there’ s no service, but with the crabby, minimal service you get on the big airlines (mostly the American ones, I’ve noticed), you might as well pay less than half the price for what amounts to pretty much the same thing.
We planned and booked our trip to Italy in January this year, but then a last-minute wedding necessitated a change in plans. I tried to change our NWA tickets, but at $400/each, that was going to be too pricey. So hoping our kids were old enough to manage a hideous Seattle-Heathrow-Luton-Pisa routing we picked up some super-cheap 5am seats on a Ryanair flight. So far so good.
When my kids finally arrived in Lucca, we sat down for well-deserved sodas. In the ensuing silence, my 12-yr-old said “Mom, I never, ever, want to fly Ryanair again”. In his opinion, Ryanair is as close to utter torture as a person can possibly get while travelling. While I’m paying for tickets for all of us, my bet is he’ll be grumbling at least once or twice more as we take advantage of cheap seats. But, it does make you think, have Ryanair taken things to such a low level of non-service that it’s making other airlines start behaving in the same way ? That would be a sad thing.
I know this blog post was from 2008 but I had to leave a comment and disagree with you describing their planes as old… The average age of the Ryanair fleet is 3.5 years, the youngest of any airline. Im assuming you were onboard one of the older planes which are drab and run down but in fairness to ryanair the majority of their planes are new, with more new aircraft constantly being delievred!
ryanair are a small cheapish airline i mean what is the point in £1 to pee!! i am a ryanair fan but that doesent let me say things like this and see the song it can be realy cringy
A few extra thoughts on Ryanair or other low-cost airlines, and how tickets sometimes aren’t that cheap:
-the fact that they fly to secondary airports means flying to nearby cities far away from your destiny, which means there isn’t the regular direct train or shuttle downtown, and sometimes this could mean an extra cost to reach your destiny.
-it’s very common for these flights to leave/arrive very early or late, which could mean the only means to reach your destination is by taxi, an extra cost.
-when booking return tickets it’s very common to only find very cheap tickets for one of the trips