I recently took a flight from Trapani to Dublin with Ryanair.  For those that don’t know, Ryanair is the low-cost airline of choice in Europe.  They started out many years ago selling flights for 1 eurocent, an absurdly low cost.  Most flights cost you only the airport fees and taxes.  They have since changed into a still low-budget airline that does things a little differently than their competitors.  Here is how.

Although flights no longer cost a cent, they are still very cheap, and among the cheapest in Europe.  I paid 35 EUR for a 3.5 hour flight from Trapani to Dublin.  Most of my payment was for the airport taxes.

So what does this all mean?  It means that we have to rethink airline travel, if we want to save money.

Read on to see what my experience was like.

My experience on Ryanair was certainly a new experience for me.  Although I had traveled the world over, it was certainly different to what I was used to.

A week before my flight, I received an email from Ryanair stating that I could begin the online check-in process.   I just had to visit the Ryanair website, and follow the directions given in the email.  At the end of the process I had to print a paper ticket on my inkjet printer.  Apparently there is an additional €40 charge per passenger for doing this process at the airport.

Ryanair has a strict policy with the luggage.  The prices listed on the web are not inclusive of the €15 luggage fee.  That is, a standard ticket does not include any luggage allowance, and you need to pay extra for it.  The fee for checking in luggage is €15.  You can check in up to 2 bags, but you are still limited by the weight allowance, which is 15kg.

Ryanair wants you to do this all online, and the only way to pay online is to use a credit card.   There is an additional €5 fee for paying by credit card, so make sure to add that to your budget.

An interesting thing I noticed at booking, was the option to do priority booking.  Those who opt-in for priority booking will pay an additional fee, but are let onto the plane first.  Although they aren’t let off first, it seems to be a perk that people are willing to pay for, mostly because there is no way to book seats.  That’s right kids, Ryanair seating is on a first-come first-serve basis.  For that reason alone, it feels like riding a bus.

During my flight, I had to take a moment to adjust too.  The first thing I noticed was the seat.  The seat would not recline at all.  In addition, the standard under the tray table magazine pocket was also absent.   Instead of the familiar emergency landing card, it is embedded onto the seat in front of you.(quite an eyesore to look at the whole flight)

First off, your ticket does not include any kind of food or beverage.  The flight attendants come around to sell you water, coke, even spirits, all at a price. The prices reflect those of an airport terminal, with sweets and bottled water starting at around €1 and sandwiches going for about €5.  The attendants come around frequently and even do some in-the-aisle advertising.

The over-head luggage storage has advertisements for other destinations(but I have a feeling that this will change as soon as advertisers sign on)

Read on to see how the second part of my flight was.

As far as in-flight entertainment goes, well don’t be too surprised to hear that there isn’t any.  No personal TV screen or even headphones to plug into the in-air entertainment system.  Instead, early on in the flight, a flight attendant comes around with a color pamphlet advertising all the snacks for sale and a magazine with articles about their destinations.  The magazine also has a full shopping section of items available for sale duty-free.

A flight attendant regularly goes up and down the aisle selling raffle tickets for €2 a pop.  In a truly unique move, the head attendant made an announcement over the intercom(it sounded more like an advertisement however) about smokeless cigarettes.  You don’t light it like a regular cigarette.  Instead, it is meant to be held between the fingers and sucked just as a regular cigarette. It passes on 8 mg of nicotine to the user, and thus the user doesn’t suffer from the usual nicotine deprivation.  As I am not a smoker, I am unable to comment on its effectiveness.

Near the end of our journey the flight attendant sells bus tickets for the transfer from the airport to the city.  In this case tickets cost €7 from Dublin Airport to Dublin city.(I later found out that the same trip using public transport costs just €2.20)

You are permitted to use your cell phone in-flight(but not during take-off or landing).  Your cell phone connects directly to a cell-site on the plane and bills you accordingly.  Costs are deducted at €3 per minute.  You can even send text messages for a fee.  Costs end up being charged by your carrier so you will see it on your next bill.

Next, lets take a look at some tips for flying Ryanair.

Although flying low-cost can be a bit of a drag, and many would prefer to avoid it, sometimes it is the only choice.  In my case, there was no direct flight from Palermo to Dublin, so I was obliged to do Trapani – Dublin.  In light of this, if you do find yourself on a Ryanair flight, here are some useful tips to help you get through the low-cost blues.

1) Don’t overpay – Because of the nature of such a low-cost carrier, just because you pay 200 EUR for a flight and your neighbor pays 30 EUR doesn’t mean you’ll get better service.  Everyone gets the same service no matter what they paid.  The person who paid €200 might feel cheated.  Best solution, pay little for the airline that will give you little.

2) Bring your food – I know this may be a bit of an inconvenience, but bringing sandwiches in your carry-on is a good idea.  At €5 a sandwich, it could cost a family of 4 over €20 for a quick bite.

3) Weigh your luggage – Ryanair allows you to pay €15 for a maximum of 15 kg to be checked in.   You can still take two bags, just as long as the weight is less that 15 kg(for both).  Try to respect this limit as closely as possible, or be ready to pay for overage.  Sometimes you can get away with a little more. Read on a little later to find out how.

4) Size of luggage limits – Ryanair has baggage size requirements.  The sizes are printed on your ticket, so make sure you stay within the limits, especially for hand luggage.  Needless to say, there is an additional fee for checking in luggage at the gate.

5) Ship luggage if possible – In many cases, you can ship suitcases for less than that cost of a ticket.  It’s also convenient as the suitcase arrives directly to your destination(and you don’t even have to carry anything) .  Royal Post, Deutsche Post, and Poste Italiane all allow you to ship suitcases(although they may require you to wrap it in plastic.)

6) About Hand Luggage – Hand luggage is generally not weighed.  Although the limit is stated to me 10kg, you can easily get away with more, so long as you suitcase is of the right size. So go ahead and load your hand luggage full of books, but please do remember that you will have be able to lift it into the overhead storage compartment.  Please see the exception below.

7) Bring Entertainment – effectively, there is no entertainment on this airline(unless you count the cheesy promotional spiels they give over the intercom)  My suggestion is to bring a book, ipod, laptop, Gameboy or whatever you can to entertain yourself.

8) Complete online check-in – About a week before your flight, you will get an email from Ryanair informing you of online check-in.  At the end of the process, you will be asked to print out your boarding card. You will need your printed boarding card and ID(the same one you used to complete the online check-in) at the airport.  Failure to perform online check-in will result in a €40 airport check-in fee(per passenger)   Also, failure to bring the same ID that you used for the check-in process will prevent you from boarding the plane.

About tip number 3.  If your airport has staff to do the check-in for Ryanair, then the staff-member doing the checking in will likely not be bothered about being a kilo or two over the weight limit.  If, instead you have staff that is directly employed by Ryanair(as is the case at Stansted) then they will call you for every kilo over the limit.

If you are flying out of Stansted(in London) airport you can scrap tip number 6.  Stansted security staff weigh your hand luggage before you go through the security check.  If you have over 10kg, they send you back to check-in your luggage. I don’t know of any other airports that do this, but if you do please let me know so that I can update this tip.

Finally, here are my final thoughts on Ryanair.

Depending on who you speak to, uttering Ryanair might give you a smile, a sigh, or a shriek.  I am a firm believer that those who smile knew what they were getting into.  Those who sigh, didn’t enjoy their experience.  Those who shriek, well, they were just unprepared for what awaited them.

My biggest disappointment is the over the intercom announcements.  They are plentiful, and sound much more like radio commercials rather than your typical airline babble.  At one point, the flight attendant got on the intercom and said “Ok guys, so maybe you weren’t so good on your holiday.  Well why not make it up to your loved one with a new ring”. From the selling of raffle tickets, food and beverages, smokeless cigarettes, bus tickets, alcohol… it’s hard to get some decent sleep on a flight with so many obtrusive announcements.

Personally, I am a fan of the airline, and I understand the cost-cutting and advertising schemes that they do.  And although there is a lot missing from this airline, the cost of the ticket(usually less than €100) is truly justified. To put it plainly, just don’t expect too much from this low-cost carrier.  That way, every little thing that they give you seems like something nice.

So to sum it all up, flying Ryanair, simply put, is like flying a commercial.

I hope you enjoyed this article and find another one to enjoy in my blog.