Aer Lingus and Ryanair

A Dub in Glasgo

Reclining without asking behind is the anti-social behaviour on flights. This is one of the bonuses of flying Ryanair.

As for your hand luggage, it is pointed out at every stage that the hand luggage includes everything - how could you not know that?

Terrontress

cson wrote: »

Don't agree with this tbh. Have you heard of EasyBus? I fly pretty frequently to London and generally due to my planning reasonably in advance I can fly to Stansted with FR for €30 Return and then a £2 each way EasyBus into London Victoria. If you're clever about it you'll only have an extra €20 max to add onto your fare to get into central London.

Remember; it ain't free into the City Centre from LHR and LCY either. If you pay for Stansted or Gatwick Express when time isn't an issue for you; you're an idiot imo.

If you go in to LGW, you can get a single with Southern Railway to London Bridge from £3.75. Or to any number of destinations if you change at East Croydon or Clapham Junction.

LCY is cheap to get to and from on the DLR but it is a fairly slow trek.

hurleronditch

gpf101 wrote: »

There was an offer in Cork and they had Tyrconnel single malt for €18. I have friends in Lanzarote and I thought they'd like it. It's very nice.

Apologies for the thread, Mods delete it if you like.

That was the 'free' duty free you bought in cork on the way out.

How much did the bottle of booze you bought in the canaries on the way home cost you? what would it have cost you in tesco when you got home?

Manic Moran

Tip re the reclining; I always feel it best to get my retaliation in first by reclining as soon as I get to my seat. Anyone who sits behind me can't have any excuses then. It has been a driver for a lot of Air Rage iirc.

On airlines with assigned seating, that won't wash. Plus the seat has to be raised for departure, and that re-sets everything back to square one.

I don't get what the issue is, everyone's paid for their seat so why not have the freedom to recline it?

Yes, I've paid for my seat, and that includes the cubic spaceage to my front where my legs go, as far as I'm concerned. At 6'5", that space is a bit of a premium for me. However, I will always request that the person in front not lean back when he/she tries, before making a physical defence of my legroom!
Out of deference to others, I don't recline without asking or unless the seat behind is empty.

I did strike one blow for tall people, however. The Army chartered an airplane for us to get to Kazakhstan, and I was the troop commander. I was told to identify a certain number of persons who would get to sit in first class. Obviously the officers and senior NCOs, but that still left three seats available. Instead of giving those to the next three highest in rank, I found the three tallest troopers on the flight (Two privates and a buck sergeant) and told them the seats were theirs. Nobody under 6'2 was to sit in an exit row either.

It's nice to be the king, sometimes.

NTM

dudara

Although Ryanair's limitations on cabin luggage are a bit excessive, they are on the right track. I regularly fly DUB > AMS > DUB with Aer Lingus. As this is a busy route, the load is often 90 - 100%. Because A.L. don't really have a luggage policy, there is very little room to be found in the aircraft for overhead stowage, particularly for cabin-sized bags. AND, despite the fact that the stewards tell people to use the coat hooks and underseat storage, most people will still stow that bottle of whiskey or laptop bag overhead where it blocks someone with a cabin-sized bag.

In short, I think more airlines need to limit cabin luggage - just in a sensible manner.

As for the non-reclining seats - that is the single best thing about Ryanair. I only wish more airlines would do it. On a recent Aer Lingus flight, a man (in a business suit) literally told a woman to "f*ck off" when she asked him to pull his seat forward. It shocked me.

A Dub in Glasgo

Manic Moran wrote: »

Obviously the officers and senior NCOs, but that still left three seats available.

If they were under 6 foot, they should have been told to sit in steerage :pac:

lord lucan

Lapin wrote: »

I mention the duty free in my post above because that is one of the downsides of flying Ryanair. The idea of having to pay €35 to check in hand luggage because you want to purchase something at the airport takes the good out of it.

I'm surprised the airports haven't lobbied Ryanair to protest against this policy as they must be losing out as a result. Especially the smaller ones who rely heavilly on such retail outlets for their survival.

That's were the DAA were cute and introduced the shop and collect system were you can buy stuff and pick it up when you return. Doesn't apply to duty free destinations though.

Nonoperational

hurleronditch wrote: »

That was the 'free' duty free you bought in cork on the way out.

How much did the bottle of booze you bought in the canaries on the way home cost you? what would it have cost you in tesco when you got home?

Jasus I even have to defend my whiskey purchasing decisions now! I see where you're going with it, that I should have left it behind but to be honest it was my camera I was more worried about squashing into the bag.

If your interested the booze was a Laphroaig Triple Wood Scotch. It wasn't cheap but it's not readily available here and I like Laphroaig a lot

Dacian

christy c wrote: »

I wouldn't, Aer Lingus represents a lot of what's wrong with our country, a board made up of cronies and idiots, and unions still trying to run the show. Don't get me started on the ownership structure.

Not sure what you mean by 'the ownership structure' Do you dislike the airline as the govt hold 25% of the share capital? Personally I like the airline that is the best value for money.

Are you aware that the EI board has been transformed in the last 2-3 years? I don't think there are any "cronies" (political appointees) there. Looking at their website the board members all have many years of experience in business. A far cry from the years of being all FF supporters.

EDIT to respond to Christy c- The govt doesn't have a rep on the board so they have no involvment in the actual runnning of the airline. Remember when EI stopped the SNN-LHR route? the govt very clearly stated that they would not interfere in a business decision. In relation to Mr.Begg, I can't see him having a major impact on the overall operational decisions. He is there as a nominal rep for the staff. EDIT

How is EI representative of the country? They lost 90M last year. A new CEO was appointed who took positive steps to address costs and improve revenue. Each employee group agreed to the required amount of savings and have delivered this target to date. Aer Lingus are now expecting to make a profit for 2010 with nearly a billion in CASH reserves. No huge debts there. If only the country could address its problems as easily.

Christoph Mueller for Taoiseach!!

dfx-

Manic Moran wrote: »

I did strike one blow for tall people, however. The Army chartered an airplane for us to get to Kazakhstan, and I was the troop commander. I was told to identify a certain number of persons who would get to sit in first class. Obviously the officers and senior NCOs, but that still left three seats available. Instead of giving those to the next three highest in rank, I found the three tallest troopers on the flight (Two privates and a buck sergeant) and told them the seats were theirs. Nobody under 6'2 was to sit in an exit row either.

:cool::cool:

My experience of the two airlines is that the cheapest is not always the one with blue and yellow interior. And at 6' 4", their seats are a no-hoper. Well they were the last time I had to fly with them, which in fairness was a while ago.

castie

cson wrote: »

Tip re the reclining; I always feel it best to get my retaliation in first by reclining as soon as I get to my seat. Anyone who sits behind me can't have any excuses then. It has been a driver for a lot of Air Rage iirc.

Seats have to be upright for take off.

christy c

Dacian wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by 'the ownership structure' Do you dislike the airline as the govt hold 25% of the share capital? Personally I like the airline that is the best value for money.

Are you aware that the EI board has been transformed in the last 2-3 years? I don't think there are any "cronies" (political appointees) there. Looking at their website the board members all have many years of experience in business. A far cry from the years of being all FF supporters.

How is EI representative of the country? They lost 90M last year. A new CEO was appointed who took positive steps to address costs and improve revenue. Each employee group agreed to the required amount of savings and have delivered this target to date. Aer Lingus are now expecting to make a profit for 2010 with nearly a billion in CASH reserves. No huge debts there. If only the country could address its problems as easily.

Christoph Mueller for Taoiseach!!

Government shouldn't have an influence in business matters because they don't have a clue. I think they have no place in business and therefore I wouldn't support a company they are involved with.

Ok the board has improved a lot recently but what the hell is David Begg still doing there? A company shouldn't be that closely linked to a trade union. Unions only look after themselves.

AL is taking a turn for the better but unions are still there trying to have things their own way. Like they are doing throughout the country with the crazy Croke Park agreement. That's where I see the similarity between AL and the country, but fair play to Christoph he's doing his best not to tolerate this nonsense.

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I don't buy into the argument that an extra bag with duty free goods takes up too much space on the aircraft. Even on a fully occupied 737 there is more than enough room for all 189 passengers to carry one piece of hand luggage and a bag containing duty free goods.

There is only enough room in the overhead bins on the 737 for 150 carry on bags.
So in winter with jackets stuffed in the overhead bins and under seats, dosent leave much room for surplus hand luggage.

Terrontress

christy c wrote: »

Government shouldn't have an influence in business matters because they don't have a clue. I think they have no place in business and therefore I wouldn't support a company they are involved with.

Ok the board has improved a lot recently but what the hell is David Begg still doing there? A company shouldn't be that closely linked to a trade union. Unions only look after themselves.

AL is taking a turn for the better but unions are still there trying to have things their own way. Like they are doing throughout the country with the crazy Croke Park agreement. That's where I see the similarity between AL and the country, but fair play to Christoph he's doing his best not to tolerate this nonsense.

In order to get the best from a business you need a happy workforce, happy customers and happy shareholders. I thinl having a union member on the board is a good idea. Especially as the actions of his union can be challenged by the representatives of the business.

christy c

Terrontress wrote: »

In order to get the best from a business you need a happy workforce, happy customers and happy shareholders. I thinl having a union member on the board is a good idea. Especially as the actions of his union can be challenged by the representatives of the business.

Most unions won't be happy no matter what they get, they are a major headache for any business which recognises unions, hence why so many don't e.g. Ryanair, most American multinationals in Ireland.

Having Begg on the board didn't stop EI staff threatening strike god knows how many times since he started there in Jan 2008.

Hannibal

castie wrote: »

Could always chance asking...I had to ask some guy to move his chair forward and he apologised and did it right away. No need to be rude about it.

if you pay for your seat your entitlled to recline it whenever you want, except in landing/takeoff or when meals are been served!! if you dont like it all you can do is recline your seat back aswell.
And yes Aer Lingus has more legroom than Ryanair, a few years ago Ryanaor had the idea of shifting all the seats a few inches closer together to make room for a few extra rows. I wouldnt fly Ryanair any longer than a 60min flight its highly uncomfortable. Aer Lingus is rarely dearer and even when they are its only a minimal difference which is worth it for the comfort and customer service on offer

A Dub in Glasgo

As I only book Ryanair tickets during their always on sale, I have found that Ryanair is significantly cheaper than Aer Lingus.

I have to say I haven't found ryanair to be that much cheaper than AL, and their flight times are more awkward.
I also found travelling with them very unpleasant and I would almost always fly AL.

Blut2

I'll almost always pick Aer Lingus over Ryanair as long as the price difference is less than 50e. A combination of having to pay for transport from out of the way airports (ie Charleroi), the lost time from that extra travelling, the ability to pick seats on Aer Lingus in advance and not have to que/rush for seats at the gate and a dislike of Ryanair's general pettyness make it worth that much to me not to fly with them.

Though having Ryanair as an option can be good for when your destination is actually closer to one of their small airports. Or when they have a sale and their price is significantly cheaper than Aer Lingus. Its probably a good thing we have both, more options.

jay93

we saved over 150euro by going with ryanair to lanzarote on the 29th of last month first time flying with them in fact wasd my first holiday in 6years :eek:
anyway ryanair is only a 737 aircraft which is obviously going to have less leg room than an A320 or A321 aer lingus craft..staff were nice on ryanair flight was grand very good pilots the wind when we landed in lanzarote was completely terrible winds were nearly at hurricane force just after we landed we had to circle the island for 20mins before landing to try and slow the plane down we landed very very fast was quite scary but cant blame them for that as it was the weather at least we landed alive :D just to note ryanair is also a low fare airline which is why there is less comfort on them and that mixed in with the smaller aircraft..the only problem ive had with ryanair is that the seats do not recline even one tiny bit left sitting up straight for the whole flight i didnt like that part of it .i was on a futura 737 (spanish airline) in 2002 and the seats were the same..in 2005 i went with monarch airlines (uk) to lanzarote again was on an Airbus 300-600 was very very nice plane excellent if ryanair had bigger planes they would be fine

Terrontress

Jay, Futura is, or was, part of Aer Lingus.

People complain about the airports that Ryanair use but there are many identical routes, eg DUB - LGW and there are also major disadvantages to using major hubs like CDG and LHR, especially when travelling with luggage.

The bottom line is that Ryanair and Aer Lingus both try to be low fare, low service and Ryanair fulfil that model better. Success either comes from being cheaper like Ryanair or offering a better service eg Cityjet on the Dublin London route. Aer Lingus are neither the cheapest nor the best service.

highlydebased

jay93 wrote: »

anyway ryanair is only a 737 aircraft which is obviously going to have less leg room than an A320 or A321 aer lingus craft..staff were nice on ryanair flight was grand very good pilots the wind when we landed in lanzarote was completely terrible winds were nearly at hurricane force just after we landed we had to circle the island for 20mins before landing to try and slow the plane down we landed very very fast was quite scary but cant blame them for that as it was the weather at least we landed alive

Theres an entire 2 inches of legroom difference between Ryanair and Aer Lingus! Also the B738 is in fact larger both in length (about 5m in difference) and in capacity- Ryanair carry 189 while Aer Lingus' A320's carry 174.

For the price you pay they are not going to fly larger aircraft just for pax to feel more comfortable.

The bit about landing fast is placebo

Pj!

I travelled on holidays, outbound with Ryanair and returned with Aer Lingus.

I found the whole Ryanair journey very stressful. Uncomfortable. The Aer Lingus flight was miles better.
The Ryanair flight was cheaper.


Before I would always take the cheapest flight available. Having experienced the difference on the same route (like for like) I would now think twice.

If I was making the same journey again it would be Aer Lingus any day. Yes it is more expensive. But what you get for that little extra is huge (in my experience).


We're humans. We like comfort when we travel. Look at our cars. When buying one we don't just look for the cheapest.
We get buses and taxis instead of walking.
The buses and taxis are great quality and comfortable.


Ryanair have some great marketing teams. Cheaper is better they tell us.

Not really.

jc84

Ryanair is the worst airline ive ever dealt with, aer lingus isnt that much more unless your booking last minute flights but even if it was 300 more i still wouldnt fly with ryanair, they are SO rude too

dudara

Dotsey wrote: »

if you pay for your seat your entitlled to recline it whenever you want, except in landing/takeoff or when meals are been served!! if you dont like it all you can do is recline your seat back aswell.

You remind me of old lads who shout "I pay my road taxes, I'll drive whatever way I want, shure they're my roads".

If you recline in my face, my reaction will be to ask you to un-recline. It will not be to worsen the situation by passing on the misery to another passenger. I had hoped that kind of selfish action would have left Ireland at this stage.

pclancy

But why should I have to put my seat back up just because you ask me to? Its not your place. Its no way the same at all as breaking the rules of the road just because you pay tax either. There's no law or rule being broken, if you're not supposed to recline your seat, why do they give you the option?

I don't see it as being rude or anything, its just the way aircraft seats have been designed and theres nothing at all stopping the person behind me from reclining. Its not a selfish Irish thing either because i've flown all around the world and every nationality on every airline will recline their seats in front of me without saying a word.

dudara

You can do what you want, just remember that you are taking space from the passenger behind.

I genuinely think that there is a real risk of a serious air rage incident happening over this. Put the wrong combination of people together at the wrong time and there will be a problem.

homerjay2005

i fly somewhere be it for work, holidays or sport on average of about once a week and i trust ryanair to get me there on time and cheaper more than i do for aer lingus. the only thing i like with aer lingus is the headrests and their less commercial stance (i.e. ryanair constantly selling s*ite when i want to sleep) but the flights are cheaper so that does me.

to see a need to reference whether the fact the staff were irish or foreign is baffling to be honest, irish people can be pig ignorent alot of the time. ive never had a problem with ryanairs foreign staff and they are, only doing their job. terms and conditions are there to be read when booking, but nobody bothers to read them.

PrinceMax

I've flown Ryanair loads of times, and Aer Lingus once or twice. Have had nothing but problems with the latter. Their online check in system is very unreliable. I'll never fly with them again.

dolihalix

my 2 cents on Ryanair. I was meant to fly to Bratislava with Ryanair on 24th. They let us on board at half 6, were meant to take off at 6:45. About that time Ryanair decided to destroy Christmas for me and a couple of hundred other people. I'd go on the rant, but what's the point really, so I'm just going to throw a couple of facts at ya. We were waiting onboard for 6!! hours, watching Aer Lingus planes landing and taking off, after 4 hours the crew(they didn't get paid btw) said they got an OK from Ryanair to SELL!! food and drinks. there was about 12 planes lined up waiting for deicing, our plane was the only one left on the ground. no explanation, just a simple announcement that a police was called in case we didn't want to leave the plane. I felt horrible for most of my countrymen as they've traveled from the other side of the country just to get on the plane, had to spend Christmas in hotel room because there was hardly any chance they were going to get back to wherever they came from. Mind you, airport was fully operating, sky was crystal clear and it hasn't been snowing or anything, but the problem was that Ryanair prob has only one deicing vehicle available.
My community is not that big, so I was actually thinking about tracking people down and just try and do something about it, I can't get my head around the fact the Ryanair will pocket 20 grand or whatever while not paying their staff and/or providing any service. I'm not even talking about the fact that the delay was caused by them, not the weather or anything else. They didn't provide us any information, food, not even a simple sorry from Ryanair's management. How am I supposed to get up and go about everything as usual if that can happen without any punishment for the company? It's very frustrating..