Budget Airlines

[sobrique]

Anyone travelled via Ryanair/Easyjet recently?
I would imagine they enact all manner of shenanigans to reclaim some of their operating cost, but I have no idea quite what that would entail.
So opinions and suggestions solicited, for cost effective ways to get to other parts of the world.

Comments

[draconas-rage.livejournal.com]

ryanair to scotland about 2 weeks ago:

Everything is an extra:
Tickets: £15 each way
No taxes, surprise surprise!
£5 online checkin fee each way
£5 fee to take my money! There was no method of payment I could find that did not have a £5 fee!
More fees if you want hold baggage, I escaped this by just taking cabin baggage.

Generally fairly good experience though - no hold checkin, so straigth to being molested by security.

No pre-booked seats (unless you pay exrtra for prioirty passes). So the trick is to head to the gate immidately, queue as soon as it starts and keep an eye open for the fastest way onto the aircraft so you can get yourself to one of the emergency escape seats which have all the legroom :)

[xarra.livejournal.com]

I believe visa electron is the one with no charge - because they have to have at least one and it's an uncommon payment type. I may be wrong though!

[draconas-rage.livejournal.com]

Claimed to have a charge for me. I went down every option. Even the Ryan air card was a fiver.

The being able to get the leg room seats without specially booking them is the only thing i found without a fee

[cthulahoops.livejournal.com]

I travel with EasyJet fairly often and find them pretty good. They're a budget airline so don't expect booked seats or free drinks, but they are generally friendly, helpful and efficient. Be careful to check everything when booking to avoid being sold travel insurance etc which you don't want. You will get to see the total cost before you book. Check-in online to avoid queues in the airport.

I refuse to fly Ryanair. They have a policy of being as nasty as they can be to passengers to make themselves seem cheap, have a history of running scams, being nasty to disabled passengers, etc.

I've started using kayak.co.uk recently for routes I'm not familiar with. It does a good job of collecting prices from lots of airlines and letting you display your search results in any way you like.

[tya.livejournal.com]

Or as I've heard them called: RyanScare and SleazyJet...

[4givensins.livejournal.com]

Skyscanner.net is another website which is quite good, especially if you can be somewhat flexible about the exact dates on which you travel. I've found all the low-cost airlines to be much of a muchness, for short trips they seem to be ok. You know you'll pay for everything so you only ask for what you need. I guess I agree with cthulahoops that Ryan Air seem to make an effort to appear cheap, but they sometimes are the cheapest and I wouldn't make any massive effort to avoid them.

[ammos.livejournal.com]

It depends where you're wanting to go. I fly out to Germany quiet often as Neil is there. I guess it depends how cheap you want. I find that if I'm willing to take a transit flight it works out cheaper than a direct flight. So far I've used Lufthansa, can be cheapish if you book in advance or get one of there deals where flights are £49 each way. I've flown with German wings they can be quiet cheap but again charge for everything like was mentioned with easyjet. Swiss air are nice and this latest time I flew KLM, no charge for debit cards, charge for credit cards, hold luggage no extra charge, transited through Schipol(Amsterdam). I love flying just need more money so I can go to more places.

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

Haven't used them myself for a while, but as I'm told another extra they charge for is £20 to print your ticket out at the airport, so make sure you print it and take it with you before you go.