My first Ryan Air flight

[Virgin Bart]

Hi all

Am currently at Birmingham airport having a beer at the "lounge", waiting to board my very first FR flight, to Dublin.

Shall report back within 24 hours.

As to why I'm on FR? Well, it cost me £15.98 return. No brainer.

I checked in with 55 hours to the flight and was already sequence number 136! The £65 airport check in fee may explain that! Interestingly, I have been "upgraded" to a priority seat (rows 1-5, normally £8) and priority boarding (normally £2)! I guess this is due to my "late" check in.

This should be good!

 

[Virgin Bart]

Completely acceptable.

So flight was 30 minutes late, and we were kept on aerobridge for 30 minutes, but again for the price I paid that's fine.

On board: lots of ads. I counted many attempts to sell us five different products including F&B, perfume, transfers, duty free and something else.

Crew not the most pleasant. Again, ok. Any small items placed in overhead are removed and "who's is this??? Please place under seat". fair enough again.

Crew spoke English with very strong accents (I think they're polish, which is my heritage).

Interestingly, to speed things up, their 738 had stairs built in to the plane! Love it. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3pbicGaVXQ

Now on the 747 scheduled public transport bus to the LUAS tram system.

Would I fly Ryan Air again? Absolutely, if not in a rush.

 

[Virgin Bart]

no seat pocket - makes cleaning a lot quicker.

interesting - above head life jackets, more room below

 

[RooFlyer]

Fair 'nuf. But as with any LCC (and according to many reports, more so with Ryan Air), its OK until something goes wrong. Then the £15.98 would get expensive in terms of inconvenience and time costs.

But well done if it all goes OK. I too would have no problems with the 'service' you experienced, at that price, as long as the actual flight completed close to time.

 

[opusman]

I'm not sure I would be happy being kept in an aerobridge for 30 minutes no matter how cheap the flight was.

 

[Virgin Bart]

I'm not sure I would be happy being kept in an aerobridge for 30 minutes no matter how cheap the flight was.

True, was a bit of a shock. But, given the price and newspaper in my hands I was ok with it (for leisure only).

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm not sure I would be happy being kept in an aerobridge for 30 minutes no matter how cheap the flight was.

True, was a bit of a shock. But, given the price and newspaper in my hands I was ok with it (for leisure only).

Reminds me of the time in Bermuda when we had to wait 15 mins on the tarmac for the plane to be ready! This after we waited at the bottom of the escalator to the tarmac for 15 mins, after being 'boarded' and leaving the gate lounge. Yes, it was hot. And it wasn't a LCC.

 

[Limewood]

Reminds me of sitting in a very old PAL plane in Y after arriving on CX in J from HKG, and not one spare seat, sat on Manila airport tarmac for an hour, and was it hot, once up in the air they had no soft drinks just water, tea/coffee only, lunch was a packet of peanuts the size of a 20 cent piece, but arriving at my friends private island we soon forgot about that flight quickly as we launched into some very fresh seafood

 

[Blackswan]

Interesting to see the life vests overhead. I'm guessing it has more to do with preventing theft than saving room.

 

[Jabiru]

Thanks for the TR. Watching the video of the built in stairs being lowered bought back fond memories of the TAA and Ansett DC9s. I haven't seen a B737 with this feature before. Makes lots of sense for LCC and other airlines that don't always have access to aerobridges. I release it would be an extra cost to have installed, but given the savings in not paying someone to drive or push the stairs into place, and not waiting, I do wonder why we don't see this more often?

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Love them or loathe them, Ryanair is the biggest European Carrier for total number of passengers carried , beating all the legacy carriers by a country mile.

They are certainly experts at raising massive sums of ancillary revenue & have plans to one day fly the Atlantic routes.

The Ryan family dynasty apparently had ( and may still ) have a financial interest in tiger air ( Asia) & has trademarked ' Ryanair' in many countries for possible expansion.

They are certainly experts at being a successful LCC.

 

[Duffa]

Hi all

Am currently at Birmingham airport having a beer at the "lounge", waiting to board my very first FR flight, to Dublin.

Took exactly the same flight in October past.
Lounge access with Citi Priority Pass
Flight arrived on time

No expectations No worries

p.s. They tried to sell you Lotto tickets too!

 

[opusman]

Have they started charging for the loos yet?

 

[Virgin Bart]

Have they started charging for the loos yet?

Nope. All free.

I'm even more impressed, my flight back landed 20 minutes early, on Christmas Eve too.

 

[slc767338]

Thanks for the TR. Watching the video of the built in stairs being lowered bought back fond memories of the TAA and Ansett DC9s. I haven't seen a B737 with this feature before. Makes lots of sense for LCC and other airlines that don't always have access to aerobridges. I release it would be an extra cost to have installed, but given the savings in not paying someone to drive or push the stairs into place, and not waiting, I do wonder why we don't see this more often?

Most 737s are built with airstairs. You just don't get to see them

 

[seanpodge]

Thanks for the TR. Watching the video of the built in stairs being lowered bought back fond memories of the TAA and Ansett DC9s. I haven't seen a B737 with this feature before. Makes lots of sense for LCC and other airlines that don't always have access to aerobridges. I release it would be an extra cost to have installed, but given the savings in not paying someone to drive or push the stairs into place, and not waiting, I do wonder why we don't see this more often?

The mysterious case of DB Cooper may have something to do with this.

D. B. Cooper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Scarlett]

Nope. All free.

I'm even more impressed, my flight back landed 20 minutes early, on Christmas Eve too.

VB, you do realise of course that FR pad their flight times significantly? They were the first to start doing it and most other airlines now copy to some extent but not as much as FR as yet. ISTR comparing an FR flight with another airline, probably EZY, a few years ago and the FR flight was listed as taking 20 or so minutes longer for the same sector. It's all about the marketing of being able to say that its an 'on time' airline.

 

[Virgin Bart]

VB, you do realise of course that FR pad their flight times significantly?

Hi Scarlett, no I didn't realise that actually. Thanks for the info! Note that they have scheduled 25 minute turnarounds too.

 

[24601]

I flew Ryanair in early 2000 London Gatwick to Biaritz for £4, total including taxes and booking fee. Flight was fine, but budget blew out because the train to Gatwick cost £12...