Domino

they are just making it harder and harder to get anywhere near the terminals now so you have to use their grossly overpriced facilities.

picking the BH up at Stansted at midnight, nowhere to park except at £1 for 15mins, I used to park up at a petrol station nearby and wait for a fone call to say she had arrived thru customs and pick her up on the other side of the coach park.

Lynn R

Manchester Airport now charges for luggage trolleys - you have to put a coin in to access one but don't get it back when you return the trolley. That's outrageous. I don't remember reading that airports were losing money before they started introducing all these nice little earners.

Countryboy1

Yes, that shocked me on my last visit there. Put in the coin for the trolley, but was then surprised to see no method to return the trolley and get my money back! I suppose they would argue that these trolleys have to be paid for by someone and why should they be provided for free?

IamStu

I´m with you on that one Biffta

agoreira

Noticed the same in Cardiff recently, so as a consequence, hardly anyone took a trolley.

agoreira

No, nobody is saying they are, that's why I put "bare minimum legal amount" but it seems to err on the side of safety, other airlines carry more. If several planes are diverted to the same airport at the same time and they have to stack, that's when the problems begin if they are all carrying the bare minimum amount. It's certainly no coincidence that RA are the one's issuing mayday calls, asking for emergency landings. In two months in Spain they had four such cases, I'd say that was cause for concern. Certainly that's what the Spanish authorities decided.
It reminds me of a few years ago, a friend and myself were returning to Málaga airport in separate cars. There was horrendous rain, floods and long diversions. My hire car was pick it up half full and return the same, his was pay for a full tank, return it empty. Outcome was I made the flight just in time, he ran out of fuel, missed his flight and had to pay for another flight to a different airport. Moral of the story, always have plenty of spare fuel, better too much than too little.!

Mitzyboy

I really don't understand why everyone jumps on the slag Ryanair bandwagon all the time.

Point 1. In 9 years of travelling to Spain they have been consistently the cheapest, and I check against other airlines most times.

Point 2. If indeed they are pushing the airports for discounts etc, then why do you think they do it. Why do you think I have found them to be consistently to be the cheapest.

Point 3. I have never had a serious issue with them on a flight, and they have always been on time. The queues are the same on Ryanair, Monarch and Easyjet ... they all just want a quick turnaround.

At the end of the day they are cheap and cheerful. IF you stick to their rules then you wont have a problem. More often than not its the person who brought an oversized bag through the gate and got charged €30+ that moans ... well, its their own faults, and they don't have a right to moan.

And as for the minimum fuel, well I guess maybe we can file it in the same place as the paying for the toilet rumours that were flying around some time back and never materialised. They are well aware, I am sure, that if ONE Ryanair flight were to crash because of a short fuel load, then they would be more or less finished. Would they risk it? I've not seen a substantiated report on this, other than newspaper talk as usual

Dick Dasterdly

Good factual post,

There's been no substantiated reports regarding the fuel incidents and no charges have been made which would surely have been expected if the facts were exactly as claimed in the media.

Remember that hulabuloo about sticky tape on the windscreen which turned out to be an approved procedure when the facts became established.

As I mentioned at the time there could have been more to the Mayday calls than meets the eye.
Unlike some of the cowboys who have tried to nudge their way into the budget flight business, Ryanair buys brand new aircraft and keeps it's fleet well up to date.

Countryboy1

Cheerful? How is a business cheerful? Only Michael O'Leary is cheerful, laughing at how much people are prepared to endure to save a few Pounds. Many of their travellers spend more on drink at the airport prior to travelling than they have on the cost of their flight. Budget airlines have been and are a curse. Many packed with stag & hen travellers whose priorities are just to get somewhere cheaply and to get drunk.
The last (and final) time I travelled with Ryanair, the food trolley was next to me 'serving' passengers, although throwing food many be more accurate. Someone asked for a cheese sandwich and the aircrew person shouted at the top of her voice back to the galley "any more cheese butties, any more sarnies"?
Classy! And as for the scrum for boarding and seating, a lot a people were expressing displeasure at it, but then followed up with "but it is cheap, so what do you expect?".
In the end, you get what you pay for and what you're prepared to accept.

Dick Dasterdly

No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to travel with them.

Find an alternative and pay through the nose for it if you prefer.

Far from true that all flights are full of boozy holidaymakers.

Only when you choose to travel to an airport close to a boozy resort district.



I think there's a lot of green eye, most especially in Spain, regarding how a company can run such an efficient modern airline with an excellent time keeping record and still make a comfortable profit.

Dick Dasterdly

If I was charged for a trolley with no refund, I think I'd be taking it home with me.
I could always claim I'd paid for it if challenged.

EMR

Bristol also charges for trolleys, plus side car parks are no longer full of them taking up parking spaces.
EJ now give you a seat no , if you want a particular seat or ensure that you want to sit with others in your party or family you can reserve and pay for one in advance.
You can reserve ( pay ) with RA.
If you do not want to pay with RA you join the queue.

agoreira

I think paying for toilets and issuing maydays for emergency landings are hardly the same thing. You are quite happy to triviliase the fuel problems, whereas I'd prefer to listen to someone that knows a bit about the job, like SEPLA maybe, the Spanish pilots union.
But what would the pilots of other airlines know?

agoreira

Certainly they have a modern fleet, but still have plenty that are 8,9,10 years old.

Mitzyboy

There we go ... again!
The scrum for boarding is the same with all the airlines, its just that everyone likes to point the finger at Ryanair ..... which, by the way, is not owned by Michael O'Leary ;-). On travelleing with Monarch I have experience the same thing. You just need to be near a screen when the time comes and go straight to the gate when called. I'm usually within the first 20 people.

And as for them being a curse .... well that really is ridiculous. Do you not remember what we had to pay back in the day to get anywhere? I've paid £200 from Birmingham to Edinburgh and well over that just to get to Switzerland in the past. Budget airlines made travel easily available for the masses, and without them we really wouldnt be able to travel as much as we can now!

Dont be daft, I'm not trivialising anything, and you know it. I'm making the point that some people seem to believe anything they read in the newspapers. Please .... show me a report indicating that the fuel thing actually happens, and if so is any different to any other budget airline. Please, show me where Ryanair are breaking the fuel requirement rules. I really do want to see something to back all this up that isnt in a newspaper report.