In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Ryan Air Expensive cattle trucks
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 16:23In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I've boycotted Ryanair - fine for sheep and goats but not people. The rudest nastiest people AND they have so many ways to rip you off. BA pulled out of Genova a couple of years back. Every day there were queues being herded for Ryanair and fewer on BA. But EVERY TIME I checked, i could buy BA for less.
It's no so competetive, one can nearly always find a better price than Ryanair - and always better service.
We don't all have a choice
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 16:54In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Agree that given the choice British airways is better (providing you don't have luggage - not sure how with 4 hours in transit at Heathrow on our way back from Boston to Manchester one of our bags didn't make the connection - and this was 5 years ago) but we don't all have a choice. Great if you live in the south of England but if you live up north you're stuck with the low cost carriers or the thoughts of battling through Heathrow (& despite Ryanair being somewhat uncivilised they are no way as bad as Heathrow Airport - which adds at least 4 hours to a flight)
Chris
Other options
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 17:05In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Well, I live in Liguria and only go back to Uk on business, had to fly a lot but now sold our business there so taking it easier. However:-
BA have much better luggage allowances than Ryancattletrucks and shorter check-in times.
Many of their flights (like Pisa, Genova etc.) go from Gatwick - one of the easiest airports for transport and everything. Sometimes there are very good deals hopping down to gatwick and on - a colleague did this once.
I don't know "Up North" very well but it's also worth checking out Jet@.com- at least they let you book a seat and the service is good and the people pleasant. I've used them to/from Manchester.
Thomsonfly are OK, you can book your seat but they tend to use odd airports in the UK, like Coventry and Bournemouth
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Sorry - Jet2.com, not Jet@
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Hi
I am sure I am repeating myself but Ryanair are not always the best deal. Sure, it depends on the airports you can use, but here in Tuscany we have Pisa, now Perugia in Umbria and Florence itself.
Meridiana, Florence -Gatwick, full luggage allowance, civilised departure times and not treated as cattle - can be much better value than ryanair. Ok you have to book some time ahead but you have to do that for Ryan anyway.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Yes, Meridiana are a charming airline - I wish they would expand a bit. Maybe they will when Alitalia goes under.
The other one, oft forgotten, is Airone, particularly for London area as they use London City. Economy prices but can book your seat and all normal services.
Easyjet seem to be improving (a bit) but you still can't book seats, they allow "priority boarding" allow good cabin bags BUT, and it's a big one, if anything goes wrong (as things do when flying) they can just drop you in the lurch. I waited five hours for an Easyjet flight which was delayed and delayed to be told at the end of the day that it wouldn't leave and to sod off. Had they said earlier, it would have been easy to get a flight with another airline, by then it was too late. I had no option but to DRIVE through the night all the way to England. AND Easyjet wouldn't refund. They said I hadn't turned up for the flight!!!! gave up arguing, just boycotted them and now write posts like this.
But let's be honest. ANYONE is better than Ryancattletrucks.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Glad I've got EasyJet
"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"