Europe group posting on GLOBOsapiens

Ryanair

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bootlegga Premium account Joined: Jul 04 Points: 15194 Posts: 124 Posted: 2005-01-19 16:21:00    I'm in the middle of planning a trip to Europe and we are thinking of using Ryanair to get around. The prices are unbelievable! For example, a flight from London to Eindhoven is .49 pounds, with 13.99 pounds in taxes and service fees. Converted this works out to only $33 CDN!!!! The only catch I can see is that they fly from Stansted and Gatwick instead of Heathrow. Call me a sceptic, but why are the prices so good? We have discount carriers in North America, but nothing like this. Are those rates only for EU citizens, or is there a catch you don't see on their website? Or is my seat in the cargo hold? It just seems too good to be true, and you know what they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is... Has anyone flown Ryanair and have good/bad stories about them? --- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." – Mark Twain Reply    Reply with quote    Contact bootlegga   britman Premium account Joined: Apr 04 Points: 17984 Posts: 83 Posted: 2005-01-19 18:05:00    Hi James, No you are seeing the correct fares. It is incredibly cheap these days for we Brits to travel by air from regional UK airports to regional airports throughout Europe. There are several carriers and their websites I list below – all have cheap pre-bookable seats and are what we call – no frills airlines – so don’t expect champagne or food for your ticket price! www.bmibaby.co.uk www.easyjet.co.uk www.ryanair.co.uk www.cheapflights.co.uk www.airlinenetwork.com The entire range of cut price no frills airlines are good if you adhere to their terms. Never turn up late for them otherwise the penalties are high. Similarly, if you are overweight <well your luggage> they will charge phenomenal rates for that too. All these carriers take advantage of flying from regional airports – but this is good because you get a chance of seeing some incredible parts of the British Isles instead of being in London throughout your UK stay. You can pre book these tickets and frequently print out your own tickets at home by buying online. Hope this helps - - -and enjoy your travels! Cheers, - Brit --- Cheers! Reply    Reply with quote    Contact britman   chefbakker Joined: Jan 05 Points: 16 Posts: 3 Posted: 2005-01-19 19:41:00    Ryanair is everything it advertises itself to be. The only hook is that, as you've already said, they don't fly from or too the major airports. Don't get me wrong Stanstead and Gatwick are both large airports, but be sure you look up the exact location of the destination airport. You could find yourself booked to fly to say, Paris, and when you get there you've actually landed 200km from the Eiffel Tower. You also need to be sure you have enough time to make any conections, they will not forward your baggage and if you are so much as a second late for check-in you will have to buy another ticket, no exceptions. When you get to Stanstead make sure you check out all the pissed off people at the ticket office, I'm sure this is how the actually make their money. --- bakker Reply    Reply with quote    Contact chefbakker   magsalex Premium account Joined: Sep 03 Points: 8701 Posts: 69 Posted: 2005-01-20 01:58:00    I just returned from a trip to Germany. I used Ryanair to fly from Stansted to Hamburg-Lubeck. Total return cost was about £26. I had no problems and the return flight was actually early. Some of the airports are a bit out of the way but there was a bus from the airport to the centre of Hamburg for 8 Euros. Have to say i found the bright yellow cabin a bit hard on the eyes!!! --- Enjoy it while you can! Reply    Reply with quote    Contact magsalex   rangutan Premium account Joined: Aug 04 Points: 34752 Posts: 1044 Posted: 2005-01-20 11:55:00    I sometimes use the "discount" airlines. They have very limited amount of destinations but between ALL of them cover europe extensively. Sometimes only the first reserved tickets are the "special" price, so you might have a passenger seated next to you that payed half or double than you! Also, one must often be prepared to sacrifice fancy service and even pay for on-board drinks and sandwiches. Further, they ensure that the plane is FULL, so do not expect too much comfort. Legroom is not that of international carriers. For me, thats all OK for the price! For some more very cheap flights on the same principle, see: Air Baltic, Air Polonia, Transavia, Germanwings, Air Berlin, dBA, Condor, LTU, Eurowings, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Helvetic, InterSky, SkyEurope, Germania Express, Smart Wings, Virgin Express, Windjet, Wizz... For a full list of all european discount airlines and their destinations see: http://www.billig-flieger-vergleich.de/ http://www.billigflieger.de/home.htm http://www.de.lastminute.com/ Sorry, these three are in german but most links to the specific airlines are multi-lingual. [ This Message was edited by: rangutan on 2005-01-20 12:02 ] --- Rudolf "Rangutan" Graspointner Reply    Reply with quote    Contact rangutan   ta-shy Joined: Jun 02 Points: 4110 Posts: 170 Posted: 2005-01-20 17:19:00    wow!! makes me wish I lived in Europe!! It costs over $600 rtn to fly from Edmonton to Toronto.. up to $1500+ from Vancouver to NFLD!! even our local airlines are in the $100's of dollars! --- LIFE IS AN ATTITUDE! ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU WISH YOU COULD! ALWAYS! Reply    Reply with quote    Contact ta-shy   meka98 Joined: Jun 04 Points: 150 Posts: 5 Posted: 2005-01-23 08:00:00    Yes .. the early bird discounts are genuine and are also too good to be true so you have to book them early. I've booked gofly (now part of easyjet) easyjet and airberlin from Australia and never have a problem apart from late flights. Why so cheap? Many cities actually provide incentives to these airlines to deliver tourists to their city/region. Hence the airline makes money just by delivering you to their airport. I believe Ryanair is currently under threat of prosecution for getting too much of a "good deal" for the Charleroi airport in Belguim. It's a bit strange .. as everyone seems to be doing it. But the consumer is happy .. the councils are happy .. the hotel owners etc etc. It is a good idea to book early as there is a limited number of the cheap seats and I have seen the price increase whilst booking a seat as the clock ticked over past midnight in the UK. Most mid-range flights actually cost about 100-140 € if you wait. At worst .. you lose say 20€ for a flight if you decide to miss it. Reply    Reply with quote    Contact meka98