Ryanair or aer Lingus!!

My rule of thumb when comparing Ryanair and Aer Lingus is to add in the cost of a 20kg suitcase and priority boarding per person, or in AL's scenario it's the 20kg case and prebooked seats.

I do this because obviously when travelling with a child you want to be sat together.

It means that you take the price displayed before you proceed to book, ie the price with taxes, but not the extras then add €70 per person on Ryanair and €50 on Aer Lingus.

Obviously, if you're not going for long enough to warrant a larger suitcase per person or just don't need the larger allowance, you can shave a few quid off the Ryanair additions.

If the prices you've got at the moment are about the same, it'll probably be a little cheaper to fly Aer Lingus.

jacko1 wrote: »

not only should you book aer lingus but if you are bringing a bag then pay the €25 extra for the flexi ticket - it includes a bag but also seat selection which means you can get row 1 or one of the emergency rows which is well worth it for a 4 hr flight to Lanzarote

Cant get emergency rows with a child I don't think.

@ OP, I'd pick Aer Lingus for a flight to Lanzarote - I flew Ryanair a couple of years ago with a child and every time she dropped a toy I couldn't bend down to pick it up because of lack of room from the seat in front.

I don't know if it's true or what, but I felt that the Aer Lingus seats were slighty further apart - maybe that's just me.

Ryanair is fine for a short hop to London or something - but not a four hour trip to Lanzarote. IMO

Aer Lingus all the way. It's the stress-free option.

Cienciano wrote: »

Bag size/weight flexibility depends on the individual staff at the the gate.
From my experience the only advantage aer lingus was getting a seat number. Now that costs money they're both the same.

For the outbound flight you can do an online check-in with Aer Lingus starting 30 hours before the flight and select your seat(s) for no charge.

Unlike Ryanair, Aer Lingus allows you to elect to print your boarding pass from one of the green kiosks in the airport or if you're dropping in a bag you can do the bag drop and collect the boarding card from an agent at a check-in desk.

Aer Lingus gets my vote op.

Every Aer Lingus flight I took in the last few years had delays. The Ryanair ones I took always arrive on time or even early. For me Ryanair all the way if the price is the same.

Watch out for Aer Lingus new carry on baggage rules now in force.

The bag size gizzmo at the boarding gate measures if your cabin bag is within 55x40x24 cm. No change here.

The new 'laptop' carry on size bag must not be greater than 33x25x20.
Will they have a second gizzmo to check the carry on size bag?

I don't think there is a huge difference between them anymore, there was little between them pricewise this summer for us, chose AL because flight times were better plus the extra 5kg baggage allowance per person, other than that??
Never had any hassles with either to be fair

bewhiched wrote: »

Guys think I will fly aer Lingus as the flight is going out earlier than Ryanair 3hrs before Ryanair thanks a million your great

I agree that Aer Lingus is the way to go! I usually go Ryanair purely because they tend to be cheaper, but if the prices are the same... I'd definitely choose Aer Lingus! You just get treated that little bit more like a human being instead of cattle :P

I dont mind Ryanair for a short hop to the UK at the right price but thats about it, and even at that...

Last month I was flying to Stansted for work , as AL dont fly there I have not much choice who I fly with but I was at the gate in the Q, departure was due in 5 minutes, no aircraft on stand , no passanger announcements. About 8 Ryanair staff huddled around the gate yacking away, all of a suden they break into life and start flogging their wares to the assembled passangers, tube tickets, calanders whatever... I politely suggested to the guy he might be better off putting his energy into making an announcment and advisng what was happening, he told me he did but that I had been too busy listening to my MP3 playing which the headphones of were clipped to my shirt, only for the entire Q to rear up on him and tell him that was BS to the extent that an Airport Cop wandered over to see what was happening. Earlier in the year I flew AL to Nice and Ryanair back due to economic reasons more crap with them there too but it was a good comparisson to see the levals of service.

I will admit Ryanair are generally better than AL in terms of on time departures, although last time into Edinburgh we were 30 minutes late and they still played that on time jingle to many boos from the passangers. Too many horror stories, I'll take Aerlingus any time over Ryanair, a bit more expensive, maybe even a slight delay but at least they treat you like a human being.

AER LINGUS =comfterble, reclining, assigned seating. Free airport check in, and self service check in. Better value for luggage. Not as strict on hand luggage as Ryanair. Better crew, not trying to sell you things the whole time. Service with a smile.