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Comment by ggambetta | Hacker News Reader

More generally, "booking a Ryanair flight might hold a nasty surprise".

Ryanair have a bad name but I've flown with them possibly as many as 50 return flights from STN to wherever.

I don't /love/ flying with them but it's cheap as chips, never an issue, never a delay longer than an hour. Emirates first class it ain't, but they always get the job done for me.

I went to see my friend in Denmark the other week for £40 return! Beat that!

Most people who make jokes about ryanair are just mad that everybody can afford to fly now. They yearn for the days when flying was an exclusive activity and only they could do it.

I am too very happy with cheap airlines including Ryanair. It is true that their customer service may not be brilliant but they make it more affordable to travel. I think it is a reasonable compromise that benefits us all.

Some people are also mad, because flying is somewhat bad for a stable climate.

It sucks to be treated poorly, and to get nickel and dimed on every little thing until you just end up paying more than flying a less shitty carrier. Framing it as the petit bourgeois are mad that the proles can afford to fly ignores who loses in a the race to the bottom, and the misery it begets.

Which is why you can pay more to be treated better. But some are upset that paying more isn't the only option.

It's not really that simple. When standards go lower paying for the old standard often becomes much more expensive. There aren't really ideal economic markets so choices are not on a perfect spectrum to match consumers, rather aspects of production or in this case limited route rights mean a low price option eliminates the choice one wants.

> Which is why you can pay more to be treated better.

Being treated with respect is now a premium service? And how exactly does a company profit from acting like an asshole?

I fly exclusively on low cost airlines, and Ryanair is the only reason I use the "exclude airline from search results" feature. Their labor practices are also abhorrent.

I don't think thats true, what jokes are you talking about specifically?

I always used Ryan Air a while back when I didn't have much money and needed to get somewhere. I dislike them now because of the removal of hand luggage by default. Additionally I find they're not even that much cheaper than alternatives nowadays which makes it harder to put up with their smaller seats and in general worse service.

I think it's generally accepted in business that the people who complain the most are those that pay the least.

We've had a few low cost carriers go out of business in the UK with a significant number of comments remarking on how these airlines were 'ripping people off' despite the obvious evidence that they were not charging enough.

Having charges dripping in by letting you pay for every little extra is a good way to extract money from people, but makes it easy for them to feel ripped of. Paying 150€ for a ticket with 50€ upfront and the rest done through fees will probably feel more expensive to attentive people than a 200€ ticket with everything included. It's easy to seem expensive this way without actually being profitable.

I use cheap airlines and they are bargain in most cases.

Sometimes you get a problem, extra luggage fees, unplanned check-in at the airport etc. so that you are forced to pay much more. But counting all together they are still cheaper and more affordable.

People complain when they have to pay but forget to mention those times they paid much less.

Or maybe those people have higher needs, more luggage, less experienced with online bookings etc. Well, they are not happy that they have to pay more but for those who travel light, book, check in online and go, can still benefit. Why should we force them to pay more by forcing airlines to provide services that they don't really need?

Most trips I don't buy extra luggage, a 30L bag under the seat in front is plenty. I don't care where I sat or if I sit next to my partner. So why should I pay £200?

Another thing I like with the discount airlines like Ryanair and Wizzair is that, because they are dirt cheap and point-to-point, I end up visiting places on a whim.

For example, a couple months ago I noticed I could take an affordable weekend trip on Wizzair to Cluj-Napoca in Romania (never heard of the place before); I booked the flight, visited, and found it a very lovely little city that was perfect for a 2 or 3 day weekend trip.

The caveat of course is that they nickel and dime everything, so if you need hand baggage or don't want flight attendants trying to shill perfume mid-flight, they are annoying to fly with, but on the other hand you pay much less so if those aren't big issues, then the deals are great.

i remember flying Wizz from Cluj-Napoca to Barcelona, and having to go through an 8 hour delay. Wizzair are renowned for that.

Yeah I definitely have experienced more delays with them than with Ryanair. I rarely experience any meaningful delays in arrival time with Ryanair, so I'd say they are the best deal to service ratio.

Wizz cancelled a flight, gave me an advanced warning 2 days ahead, cancelled also all future flights on that route. Since I booked through an agent, didn't offer anything beyond monopoly points. Ended up going through my credit card company to get it refunded. It was quite a hassle to find a replacement flight flying reasonably close to my destination. That one was with Ryanair and everything worked out excellent with them.

Ryanair is great if you’re an armchair lawyer and only use them for short, no-layover weekend trips where you only need a backpack. It takes a little extra research on where you’re going when booking too, one of my more infamous experiences with them was booking a flight to “Brussels” and ending up in Charleroi

It can backfire on them every so often. I took a Ryanair flight for a short hop when on vacation in the eu back before COVID. My son had the vomits as the plane was set for landing. Apparently one of the “cost saving” measures was eliminating the seat back pocket and the barf bags.

Well, Ryanair, jokes on you - vomit ended up everywhere in the aircraft cabin due to you saving a few cents.

However, jokes on us as they saved much more replacing the comfortable breathable cloth upholstery with the plastic non porous, sweaty but much easier to wipe seats.

I actually like that change. The seats are so thin that there's actually "a lot" of leg room now.

I seen person defecating into "breathable cloth" on public transport. I will take plastic seats anytime!

Similar with Wizzair.

I fly Wizzair at least a couple of times every year, and while both it and Ryanair are categorized as budget airlines, there are clearly two levels of budget airlines: WizzAir’s management has never pursued cutting every possible cost as singlemindedly as Mr. O’Leary famously has, and there is more flexibility possible, albeit at slightly higher fares.

Ha, just last week I was on a Wizzair flight that had a one-hour delay.

Because of the delay, rentalcars automatically cancelled my (already paid!) car rental booking and their agent tried to extort 400 (then later, 500) euros from me.

In the end, my family and I, were left stranded on the airport, on a Sunday evening and had to pay double for another car rental.

Of course, neither company wants to refund me, not to mention pay the difference of cost between the two rentals.

I filed a complaint via ECC, let's see how it goes.

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