Ryanair

Pros: none
Cons: Shocking customer service.

I arrived at the check in desk at Stansted airport 40 minutes before departure, having booked and paid for the Ryanair ticket the previous week. The Ryanair check in woman would not allow me to check in, as I missed their deadline by a matter of seconds ! There was not another flight to my destination until the following day. I asked for her Ryanair manager and he also was unhelpful. I had to buy another ticket to fly on a later flight. What a scam. Out of hundred of flights with different airlines over the years Ryanair is in a league of its own in being the worst.

Pros: Girona is a lovely city
Cons: Ryanair are extremely poor at providing information, and show contempt for their customers.

Having reserved 2 seats on Ryanair flight FR9805 from Girona to Stansted, due to depart at 14.30, it was depressing to find ourselves still in the airport at 20.00. We were told that the plane had technical difficulties, but were given no useful information about when we might be able to depart. People using their mobile phones to contact friends discovered that it was still on the ground in Bournemouth, but at no time did Ryanair send anyone into the departures lounge to speak to us. I don't know what time the flight left, because we walked out in disgust at 20.30 and stayed the night in a hotel. I can understand airlines having technical problems, but feel that people have the right to be kept informed of what is going on. We were disgusted with the lack of information, which showed a complete disregard for their passengers. I would advise people travelling on Ryanair to pack a supply of food, drink, and books, etc, especially if they have children with them, and to have their mobile phone charged so they can get their own information.

Pros: Usually cheaper than the other options
Cons: Unhelpful, unfriendly, will gouge you if at all possible

Ryanair is a perfectly good airline to fly if you book early, don't carry much luggage, have no special requirements, and you are certain that nothing will arise that will require you to engage with any aspect of the airline's "customer service".

One thing to be particularly aware of is your baggage allowance. It was recently confirmed during a court case here in Ireland that Ryanair's ground staff are set a monthly quota as to how much money they take in in additional baggage fees. Anything over the limit will be charged for, and it will often cost you more than your original airfare.

I've always suspected that Ryanair's customer service and overall flying experience didn't really have to be quite so unpleasant. Having flown on Jetstar, an Australian carrier operating an almost identical model, my suspicions are confirmed. Jetstar do almost everything the same way as Ryanair: unreserved seating, ticketless check-in, strict check-in closing times, pay for your food onboard, low fares etc. However they still manage to provide a comfortable flying experience and excellent customer service. I don't see any reason why Ryanair couldn't do the same.

Pros: Very inexpensive. On time. New Equipment.
Cons: Slightly chaotic at boarding (no assigned seats)

I just completed a vacation which included Dublin and Edinburgh. In order to minimize costs, I did a round trip from NY to Dublin using one of the major carriers and used RyanAir to and from Edinburgh. I was impressed by their prices but a bit concerned about the quality of their aircraft and pilots. I had also read some reviews complaining about cancelled flights and cramped leg space. I was actually very impressed with the overall service. The flights landed on time and were not particularly harrowing. They seem to use fairly new Boeing equipment. The leg space was not any more cramped than any other airline. They don't appear to have any first class accommodations. They also don't assign specific seats to passengers - instead, they assign you a number when you check in and let people board based on numbered groupings. On the whole, I would definitely recommend Ryanair. Using them enabled me to reduce my airlines costs by more than 50%.

Pros: Cheap, comfortable, friendly staff.
Cons: Cheap seats very difficult to get hold of.

I fly using Ryanair frequently and find them to be cheap, friendly and convenient.
The planes are all in good condition and are comfortable. The ease of booking is also a plus point for me.
It is disappointing how quickly the cheap seats go, but I guess that is to be expected.
All in all a good service though and few delays in my experience.

Pros: They have some good routes.
Cons: The have a Soviet style attitude to their paying customers.

I propose “A Ryanair” as a new type of award. Given to a company who holds its customers in utter contempt, and is bloody-minded above and beyond the call of duty. They have taken over from the much-lamented British Rail as the company most likely to make travel a living hell.
Ryanair’s customers fly with them because they have to. They need to travel, and Ryanair, by being entrepreneurial, have secured good routes. What we don’t see is the back room deals, that bar any competition. They criticise BAA as a monopoly, but only because they cannot be bullied by the likes of Mr O’Leary. They masquerade as being cheap, yet never tire of hidden costs or fakes taxes to rip off the unsuspecting.
It is a mark of true genius that Ryanair is hated equally by their staff and their customers. It is high time that the rest of the airline industry stopped be scared, and started taking them on for the cowboys that they are.

Pros: cheap
Cons: no support, limited weight restriction, no complaints procedure, unwilling to accept responsibility

On a recent business trip to Rome Ryanair lost my luggage for 2 days and as such I had to go out and buy some essentials so that I could go and do my customer training - I bought 2 x shirts 1 x trousers 2 x underwear 2 x socks, toothbrush and toothpaste and a deodorant (hardly extravagant) and the grand total was approximately 280 Euros. I reported this to both my insurance and RyanAir who would not process my claim as it was 2 days too late. They are not prepared to do anything even in good faith.

I would never fly them EVER again and I will recommend all my friends and colleagues to avoid such an ill-mannered, incompetently run, shambolic airline.

Its a disgrace that there is no other recourse than to keep sending faxes to a faceless non-person.

Roger

Pros: Ha! Well it was cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.
Cons: Disorganised, unhelpful and they don't seem to care about customers at all.

Our flight from Rome to Stansted airport was cancelled due to bad weather (actually told us why exactly but I just assume this to be the case). That obviously was out of Ryanair's hands as I'm not expecting them to be in control of Rome's weather system. However, I do expect a lot more organisation and information, none of which we received. The airport was extremely short-staffed and I do understand that it must be horrible to deal with hundreds of irate and very upset people but just some information goes a long way instead of being shunting people from one end of the "terminal" to another for no purpose whatsoever The way in which the re-bookings were made were a complete shambles; absolutely chaotic. The announcements were laughable and no help. It was only through word of mouth that we were able to get to the right place. Never, ever again.

Pros: Excellent value for money if booked in plenty of time.
Cons: Bad value if you want to travel at last minute.

I've travelled 6 times so far and will use them in future. No delays from Liverpool and no delays from Murcia (San Javier). Keep up the good work Ryanair, I like the fact that you can always choose your own seat on all my journeys so far I've been lucky to get the fire exit :)