Soapdish

I can´t afford to fly to the UK this year because Monarch and Easyjet are charging horrendous prices!
Ryanair are holding AENA to ransom because they don´t want to pay the cost of the airbridges so they think that Alicante airport/AENA will back down if they cut their flights by 80%. I don´t use Ryanair after having a few bad experiences with them in the past, I think that the way way they treat passengers is not even humane, rather like herding up sheep and putting them into pens. However, my son who is a Uni student in Madrid is able to come home quite often if he books his ticket in advance with Ryanair and usually takes hand luggage, sometimes it only costs about 10 euros.
What I find really disgusting is that Monarch and Easyjet seem to be cashing in on Ryanair´s absence at Alicante!

agoreira

That's life, that's business, it's all about maximising profit. They do it because they can, and in the same situation, we'd probably do the same. People here probably rent out their houses for holiday lets, charge more in school holidays, summer etc, because they can, their overheads are much the same, airlines are no different. Rentals around the London Olympics are through the roof, locals will be creaming it in, Wimbledon is the same. And of course, if there is no competition, whoa! they can charge whatever the market will stand. Hotels in Sevilla double during feria week, they are all at it, you have two choices, cough up or stay away. I absolutely loathe the airlines mentioned, but unfortunately they are no different to many other organizations. When airfares were reasonable we went to Spain at least 4 times a year, because of their pricing structure we now go much less, they don't get anymore out of me by bumping up their prices, probably less

Mitzyboy

Perhaps this illustrates to people, even if they dont like using them, how important Ryanair is for us in keeping prices down

Frankly you get what you pay for, so if you are paying €10 for a flight do you really expect first class service In my experience Easyjet, BMI & Monarch have nearly always much more expensive than Ryanair

jackytoo

Flights seem to have gone up everywhere, not just the airlines, blame European taxes which are usually higher than the airlines charge. Take a look at the breakdown for a flight cost.

agoreira

True, but despite it all the main players were still making more profit last year.
But that's what they are in business for, the day they don't make a profit, we're in trouble.

Mitzyboy

Thing is, I remember paying £200 or so to fly to Switzerland via Schipol in the 90's, and a similar figure to fly to Edinburgh from Birmingham. You have to ask yourself how much profit they were making back then if they can afford to do it at a fraction of the price now and still make good profits.

agoreira

True, I can remember paying crazy money to fly to Spain 25 years ago, but today I think they have economy of scale, the profits those two companies are talking about last year are derived almost totally from increased numbers of passengers. Better to get say a tenner from thousands of people than fifty quid from a handful. But without doubt, flying is much cheaper nowadays than it ever was, but then again so are a lot of things, remember your first video recorder?

Mitzyboy

I remember our first mobile phone in the eighties which was like a brick and cost around £2k iirc
But yes you are right, numbers have changed and I guess people go on holiday abroad rather than get wet in Ilfracombe

agoreira

Yes, but apparently "staycations" are shooting up in number in the UK, I'm out and about almost every day and already I'm amazed by the number of visitors about. I'm off in a minute, two nights in a 4* country hotel, breakfast, bottle of wine, instead of £300, £99, it's hard to say no!

Mitzyboy

Staycations
You watched SKY News this morning didnt you

Domino

recent flights on Ryanair were over 2 hours in a prison cell, grumpy staff from the moment you get in the boarding queue to the moment you are thrown off into the care (?) of Immigration and Borders. Shouted at and finger waving because you want to listen to an MP3 instead of their pa system rants, rudeness when you want to buy their overpriced wares from the trolley.

having just got off an Easyjet flight, I had to compliment the Cabin Manager, who was a ray of sunshine herself and it rubbed off on the rest of the cabin team. There seemed to be less tension in the passengers as well.

jackytoo

I saw it too

What is true is that more middle classes are taking summer holidays in the UK and having a winter one somewhere tropical. Centre Parcs seem very popular, as is Cornwall.

We had a 5* weekend in Brighton for a good price...it rained all the time. We got really good value out of the room Pampering breaks are popular too, I did one at Grayshott Hall, great in the day but the atmosphere at dinner resembled an old peoples home.

johnnyone

Has anyone had experience of Ryanairs reserved seating yet?
We are over in a couple of weeks and have booked reserved seats.
I just have my doubts we will end up in them!

Mitzyboy

I think you will!
A week or so ago I came back on the early morning flight and the plane was full. However, three of the seats that could be booked obviously hadn't, and a cabin steward stood in them to make sure no one got into them "illegally"

jackytoo

Does it really matter which seat you get for a couple of hours