To add to that - RYANAIR have just opened a second Spanish hub at Madrid Barajas (from 22Nov) and are offering good deals to many European destinations (UK airports from Madrid are Bournemouth and East Midlands).
Dublin Eindhoven Faro Porto Marseille Paris Billund Brussels East Midlands Oslo Bournemouth Gothenburg Malmo Shannon
The difference between both airlines has already been discussed on these forums, however I find RA offer cheaper flights than EJ if you book enough ahead (I can see flights to UK in a couple of weeks currently at £0.01p plus tax ), and RA staff are more unhelpful/a pain in the ass (not at Iberia level though!).
OMG! I have been looking for a way to get from Madrid to Provence without paying 1000 euros (Iberia) or going by way of Brussels (Vuehling) and this is AMAZING. I just played out a Madrid-Marseilles round trip in January and it costs .01 EURO each way. Of course, there is airport tax of 9€ on each flight-but it totals less than 20 euros. ESTUPENDO! Thanks!
azucar!
Posts: 321 | Location: NYC to Paris to Madrid!!!!! | Registered: 21 August 2003
I concur with markinmadrid as far as Ryan Air is concerned, as I too have been scooping-up handsful of free tickets off of them over the last year or two, with only Tax & other charges to pay for, like the on-line card payment fee of £3.50 and the baggage charge of £5 to £7's, Aviation WCHR Levy, travel Insurance of usually about £10.00, but thats all. I have had a lot of flights out of Stansted Airport, over to Zaragoza, and also to Santander mostly over the last year, with no problems. The only time that Ryan Air has ever upset me was one Christmas, when for the reason that it was too foggy to land in Zaragoza, and I eneded up being dumped in Girona, which meant a 7+ hours ride in the back of a packed-with-kids Bus/Coach, all the way back to Zaragoza, but other than that Ryan Air still seems to be more in control than EasyJet often is, they have a reputation in the U.K. (especially at Luton) of messing things up for a lot of people. But anyway, as mark said, now is the time to check out Ryan's website, as it has been brimming with special offers all this year. They do Valladolid and Santiago de Compostela as well you know, which could be very useful, to some I'm sure.
yeah we just picked up cheap flights to Nottingham (East Midlands) 50 euros for 2 of us over Christmas. We looked at the long weekend in December (6th) but flights were 300 euros for 2 of us.
formerly timhortonsman
Posts: 386 | Location: Tres Cantos | Registered: 29 June 2006
I personally won't fly Ryanair on principle, even though they are usually the cheapest. Their fees and charges are cheeky, sneaking up on you as you click through to make your payment. Why does their Insurance & Wheelchair levy have to come as a 'charge' and not into the price of the ticket itself?
Be careful - don't think "wow, these fees are high, but I imagine they'd be the same for any airline" - they're not.
i flew ryanair once from london to blackpool (within u.k.).
had a miserable experience, boarded 2 hours late.
not that the plane was late, it was there waiting, just that they had us all get up to start boarding and then 2 hours later we were still not on the plane
they did not even have the decency to tell us to have a seat as they would be a few hours, instead they kept us in limbo.ç
a few other things went "bad" on the flight as well. damnn pilot may have been a student, at one point we dropped altitude so fast that i nearly puked and the landing was CRAP!!!
i fly easyjet when i go to the u.k. and will continue to do so as ryanair is not an option for me.
We went with ryanair as they fly direct into East Midlands. I'll have to figure out the wieght limits etc. When did they start charging for checked luggage, we had family fly this year and they didn't mention anything about fee's for checked luggage.
formerly timhortonsman
Posts: 386 | Location: Tres Cantos | Registered: 29 June 2006
They started charging extra for luggage late last year, I first realised that I had paid this extra charge last December coming back from London to Zaragoza, then it was £5.00, and I only had one small Samsonite case, and at that time thought they were taking the peewee, but then remembered that the total cost of the flight, cost me about the same as a short journey in a London Taxi, so what the hell I thought, I figure that so long as they keep down their prices, as they have been doing for a long time now, I'm not going to complain about it.
Some friends of mine in London, just scooped up tickets to come over to Zaragoza at Christmas, on Ryan's website, on Saturday, for £15.00's return, each person, of course, not including Tax, fuel, luggage, travel Insurance, extras, etc, but once again, the total cost of each flight (from what they told me) was no more than about £55.00 mas o menos, so once again, no big deal, when you consider that you're flying hundreds of miles from one country to another, direct from Stansted to Zaragoza, and British Airways is charging between £260.00 and £400.00's for the same trip, and that's via Barcelona, at which point you get to wait 6 hours at Barca Airport before being taken on to Zaragoza, and as far as I'm concerned, BA can go & boil their heads, and so can Iberia who do the same thing as BA but hide behind the name Iberia!!
Just take a good look at some of the prices that they are asking on this website, - www.onlinetravel.com - on Saturday, one BA flight to Zaragoza was listed as over a £1000.00 + (pounds) Via BCN!! That really is taking the peewee. I guess that they figure that there will some people out there who are desperate enough for a ticket to Spain for Christmas, who will pay that kind of money. It would be cheaper to rent a one-way car in Calais and drive down through France into Spain, and drop it off there, thus saving yourself several hundred pounds!!
That's exactly it, I mean we are flying to the UK for a pittance, 50 euros, less than a nights hotel or taking a taxi to and from the airport. So you can't exactly complain about it.
formerly timhortonsman
Posts: 386 | Location: Tres Cantos | Registered: 29 June 2006
Yes, it's a pittance, but as it as so cheap, why can't they be more honest about things and tell you up front the entire fee?
Ryanair are empowering people who wouldn't normally afford to on holiday abroad, but the hidden costs mean that they actually end up spending than they would expect. There is a difference between us expats who want want/need to fly regularly and appreciate the lower costs, and people that can't really afford to go abroad but do so because they are getting a cheap flight.
If what they were doing wasn't dodgy, they wouldn't hide it. Why an 'Ins & Wchr Levy', which makes no sense to anybody?
And did you know that while easyjet charges 7.50 per overall booking for the use of a credit card, ryanair charges 2.50 per person per flight - a family of four will pay 20€ just in credit card fees.
Not only are the fees hidden, even once you have paid for everything the costs can still escalate.
If a family of four flies to Barcelona with Ryanair and don't read everything properly and overpack their suitcases by, say, 2kg per person (not a lot, really) they will each have to pay 16€ extra per person each way, plus 8€ more each way per person to get to Barcelona from Reus & Girona than it costs to get from BCN airport to Barcelona. That means that a family that may well have spent just 100€ on the tickets will have to pay an extra 192€ just to cover the the baggage fees and transport to Barcelona. This is not on.
Three cheers for Vueling, that shows ALL INCLUSIVE prices and Fly Niki/Air Berlin who show the full price at the bottom of the screen, as well as easyjet who, while far from perfect, at least have sensible baggage policies and fly to where they say they are flying.
Cervantes, I think there are loads of airlines that don't show the total fare upfront!!!! Yes, some make it easier to see your final price a bit earlier on in the booking process, but all the flights I have booked online will not let you proceed until you tick the box saying you have read and agree to the T and C's. Yes, it is tedious reading, but everything is there if people can be bothered to look!
I fly between here and the mainland, mainland and UK or Ireland, the cheapest way I can, and as long as the plane stays in the air once it gets up there, I couldn't care less which airline it is
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
Yeah, I know, which is why I congratulated the few I know of that do announce what they charge. But no airline other than Ryanair charges QUITE so much extra, in particular on luggage (which can sting you after you think you've finished paying when you get to the airport) or implies it flies to a city that it actually does not (as is the case with both Barcelona and Bilbao).
Yes, "if people can be bothered to look" they'll find out the truth, but it is still sneaky if you ask me.
I booked a flight this week to Nottingham with Ryanair for the 24th of December for just 14 Euros. So I'm definitely not complaining, even though 4 Euros of that was to cover the credit card transaction. I can defend part of their pricing policy. They offer extremely cheap flights. Extra costs such as taxes are not their doing so they itemise them separately. Plus if you're taking baggage (I accept normally people always take baggage) then this is charged extra to the flight. I must admit that they don't get any credit for charging so much for the money transaction. I'm sure it only costs Ryanair a few centimes to accept a payment by card.
MrMark
Posts: 121 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 23 April 2004
), and RA staff are more unhelpful/a pain in the ass (not at Iberia level though!).
and the landing was CRAP!!!
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