Experiences with Ryanair?

I know they get a very, VERY bad rap in the press, but we're considering flying Ryanair over to visit my family in the west of Ireland around Christmastime.

Anyone have experience with this airline...good or bad? Especially with young kids?

I'm not looking for a luxurious holiday trip, obviously, just a convenient way of getting from Point A to Point B.

My husband and I had a 'Ryanair Relationship' when we were dating. He was in Dublin and I was in Bath, so we became quite familiar with them! They're no frills, you get what you paid for. If you're not looking for flying in the lap of luxury, you'll be fine. You pay for all snacks, drinks, etc. And no, they haven't started charging for the loo even though they proposed it! The one good thing about them is it is VERY rare for your flight to be delayed. Their turnaround time is fantastic.

My main complaint with them is their hand luggage restrictions. They're very strict. You get one bag and that includes your handbag, so if you're carrying on your luggage this is a big time pain. I'm a cheapskate, so I hate checking a bag especially if it's just for a weekend.

I've never flown with children, but they're always on the flights and I've never heard anything particularly negative. For such a short haul flight, you'll be fine.

I am the same.  Bring your own food and it is fine for a flight for a few hours.

The only thing you should know is that they don't let people with kids go on first.  So you have to get priority bookings. 

Good to hear.

I'm totally willing to shell out the extra fee for priority boarding in order to get to sit next to my son. Not a problem at all.

FWIW, we heard plenty of negative stories about EasyJet too and DH and I had a great experience this summer on a flight to/from Copenhagen. I get the sense that if you go into it with no high expectations, and have paid your luggage/whatever fees ahead of time, it should be o.k.

I suppose anyone can survive an hour-long flight if it's that yucky.

That was always my opinion.   

I fly budgets all the time, I don't have an issue with them.
I particularly hate Ryanair because navigating their site is a pain, and they have that non-EU passport charge thing, but other than that, I've never had an issue actually on one of their planes.

I like easyjet actually, they are no frills but have always been fine

We fly Ryanair at least once a year.  Everyone else basically said what I was going to say (it's a real huge pain if  you've got a musical instrument, etc but other than that I have no major complaints).

Where in the west of Ireland is you family?  We visit friends in Kilfenora Co. Clare and we'll be going over at Christmastime this year, too!

ive flown ryan air each time i have visited the uk.........really have no complaints........you get what you pay for.........if i had to fly for several hours there is no way i could do it........we grab two back packs and fill em up........set for a quick weekend getaway.

Thanks again.

We're heading to Co. Mayo, so it'd be nice to take advantage of the London-Knock flight-route.

My husband was on a Ryanair flight a few years before he met me where smoke started to fill the cabin before they even left the tarmac. Masks fell down, announcements, the whole nine yards... AND THEY WOULD NOT LET ANYONE OFF THE PLANE. They made everyone sit there while they opened up the doors to let the smoke out, then carried on with the flight like nothing happened.

Since that point, he's never, ever flown Ryanair again, and never allowed me to, either. It is the single cause of him being a really, nervous flier, and understandably so.

My husband was on a Ryanair flight a few years before he met me where smoke started to fill the cabin before they even left the tarmac. Masks fell down, announcements, the whole nine yards... AND THEY WOULD NOT LET ANYONE OFF THE PLANE. They made everyone sit there while they opened up the doors to let the smoke out, then carried on with the flight like nothing happened.

Since that point, he's never, ever flown Ryanair again, and never allowed me to, either. It is the single cause of him being a really, nervous flier, and understandably so.

Oh my goodness, that's horrifying- no wonder he's a skittish flyer- I can't say I blame him!

I've taken around 35 or so flights with Ryanair over the past few years...and took them to Ireland for Christmas last year which was fine. In my experience, I've usually found:

-Ryanair are fine if you play their game, read the small print and adhere to their policies. Their baggage policies are pretty strict but they enforce them different at different airports. For example, at Glasgow-Prestwick there is a scale to see if a carry-on is over 10kg, but in Berlin they're concerned if it fits in the cage and it's the size that is important, not the weight and in Edinburgh last year there were no checks at all for weight or size. It's really confusing. I was 2kg over once and had to pay £35 (I couldn't throw anything out sadly) but that was my fault I guess. And since I had paid £8.99 with tax for my flight I wasn't really terribly bothered.

-Non EU citizens have to have the 'visa check' which no other airline really does...it's pretty easy, you just pop over to the dedicated desk and get a cheesy Ryanair stamp on your boarding pass.

-Onboard food is quite pricey, get some snacks in the airport if you can!

-Announcements are made constantly (food/drink, duty-free, scratchcards, smokeless ciagrettes, phone cards, and transfer bus passes to name a few) and on a few occasions they woke me up to see if I wanted to buy something lol.

I've never actually been on a full flight, but whilst I prefer EasyJet, I would have no problem going with Ryanair again, especially on a short flight. I think the worst-case scenarios occur when they can't operate a flight (either because of a strike, weather related issues, etc) which is outwith their control and you get stranded in a random secondary airport in the middle of nowhere. If you're going to visit family, presumably you'd have a place to stay if that happened and it's very unlikely anyway, but I think that's one of the main complaints. I've personally never had that happen, once we were delayed a few hours in Liverpool but that was about it.

They used to have an annoying 'theme' song they would blare after takeoff sometimes but thankfully this has ceased lol. It got stuck in your head for ages!

Ryanair has really opened Europe up for me, I actually *have* in the past, got flights for 50p or £1 each way with tax, so it is possible. Anyway, as long as you're not expecting much you will be pleasantly surprised. I do prefer Easyjet as they seem a bit more professional in how they handle customers, but would take Ryanair if the price was right and they went to where I wanted to go.
 
BTW: here's a song about Ryanair I found pretty funny (be advised that there is a bit of strong language in it, but it's SO true!): FASCINATING AIDA - Cheap Flights

My cousin sent me the link for the Fascinating Aida song...Hilarious!! And seems to be quite true! 

We're prepared to pay our fees and play by the rules if I know I'll get to where we need to go. All the other unpleasantries I can deal with for a hour-long flight

Thanks again!

As others have mentioned, if you follow their rules to the last dotted i, they are fine. My objection to them is that it is a clear business practice to have rules and regulations  structured so that they know a subset of passengers will trip over them, and then charging them an arm and a leg for doing so. That's obnoxious, imo, and the reason I now only use them if I have no reasonable alternative. I would much rather give my business to easyJet.

Another problem - and this applies to other budget airlines as well - is that they frequently use small out of the way airports that can't cope with the volume of passengers now being imposed on them, and that are difficult to get from/to.

Finally, someone mentioned priority boarding. From reviews I've read, this is sometimes a complete joke in reality.

I agree with Giantaxe on both accounts. Yes, I hate that the default is always for you to spend more money (i.e. adding a bag), when I think the default should be zero extra cost, giving you the option to add things. I think that's really cheeky.

And yes, you have to be aware of the airports that they fly into. They'll say they fly into a city, but in fact you need to take a 2 hour bus ride to get to the city center. They're notorious for that one!