Ryanair

Of course on arrival We were hit with a $100 fine. The Ryan Clerk in Glasgow had 2 minutes to check our bags. She did, of which we are grateful and we ran to pay to fine in cash. Solution: why the secondary check in? Who dreamed this up? If necessary, change the font where 1's look like 1's and I's look like I's. IE: I or find a way to leave the I's out to eliminate confusion with the 1's. We were so offended with Ryan and Ireland. We stayed one day in Dublin and flew Aer Lingus out to the IOM then took the ferry to England to avoid Ryan. Marketing, seems geared to young "I" phone Euro set, not easy for other travelers like seniors. Final Comment: "You can shear a sheep many times but you can only skin them once!" Let's call it an old Irish saying.

Whilst the family were visibly upset and complaining the queue was extremely slow to move as one of the two check-in staff were obviously pre-occupied with sorting this awful situation. Eventually we were checked in and waited to board the plane. On boarding again there was more chaos as another young family had been split up with their four year old daughter booked to sit by herself. In order to sort this problem some of the other passengers including us rearranged seating to allow the young family to sit together. We had seats 22A, 22B, 22C & 22D booked but my wife agreed to swap 22D with the young mum (Janaya) to be with her four year old daughter. Whilst we all settled in there was talk of how badly the young family had been treated at check-in as they eventually boarded the plane.

I was sitting in 22C with my young daughters aged 8 and 13 in 22A & 22B respectively. As we ordered food we opened the trays to find dirt, magazines and food remains falling out onto us and on the floor. I cleaned the trays myself (having never used budget airlines before I thought maybe this is the norm) and proceeded to wait patiently for our food to arrive. As we waited my youngest daughter suddenly wanted to go to the toilet. If any of you that have children will understand there is no waiting as children often leave it until the last minute to tell you and they cannot hold on.

The toilets at the front were not working so only the back ones were available. As I got up to take my daughter to the toilets the seat belt lights came on and I was told very sternly to sit down by the steward, I tried to explain that my daughter was desperate but I was ignored and just told to sit. At the same time the mum Janaya seated at 22D also had to take her four year old to the toilet. I told her that they would not let me go but her daughter was getting distressed, she got up carrying her daughter to go to the toilet. She was swiftly blocked by a stewardess (Ellie) who totally ignored the mum’s pleas and grabbed the mums arm to force her back into her seat.

The mum shouted to the stewardess not to touch her but the stewardess just ignored her and hurried past without listening or caring. We were all so shocked about this treatment, her partner seated in 22F in total anger stood up, picked up his young daughter and marched to the toilet without anyone stopping him. The seat belt lights remained on and my daughter was still desperate to go toilet and I tried everything to get her to hold on. Then suddenly a pilot wearing sunglasses, hands in pocket calmly walked out and proceeded down the aisle smugly towards the back toilets. As soon as he finished using the toilets and returned to the cockpit the seatbelt lights were turned off. Everyone realised and it was so evident that the only reason the lights had been put on was to give the pilot clearance to use the toilets leaving desperate young kids and their parents in despair.

As soon as the seatbelt lights were switched off I quickly took my daughter to the toilet. On returning I saw the mum (Jayana) from seat 22D with her partner arguing with the stewardesses about their treatment. I was not witness to what was said then but apparently the couple returned to their seat complaining that the stewardess denied touching the mum supported by another stewardess Jana and they accused the couple of lying. The couple asked me if I had seen it and I confirmed I had so they asked for my details as a witness.

As soon as the couple told the stewardesses that I had witnessed the young mum being physically forced to sit down I noticed that the stewardess’s treatment of me and my daughters changed and we were given dirty looks every time they passed. The other stewardess Jana then approached the young mum to apologise for her colleague (Ellie) but the mum by this time having been manhandled and told was lying was not accepting any apology. She turned to me and said to Jana that I was witness to the incident.

Jana looked at me and although I was trying to be supportive to both parties and asked the mum to accept the apologies, she refused. Jana then turned to me and said that she would need more witnesses and proceeded to ask all surrounding passengers if they had witnessed anything and none of them had clear view apart from me being directly next to it. Jana then requested the mum’s details plus mine for their records but refused to give the offending stewardesses name until the mum repeated asked. Eventually the name was given as Ellie. Ellie continued to give me and my daughter’s dirty looks every time she passed.

Eventually as the seatbelts lights came on to for the landing Jana and Ellie approached everyone to collect rubbish. When it came to us Ellie asked for our rubbish and although we had none she pointed below the seats and asked my young daughters to pass her the magazines under the seat that had dropped out when we first opened the trays along with other rubbish from the floor which was already there when we boarded. Although she could clearly see my daughters struggling to pick everything up with their seat belts on I did turn to Ellie and said that all of that rubbish was already there and I even had to clean the trays myself.

She was completely emotionless and unresponsive continuing to stand over us gesturing to my daughter to hand her the rubbish. My youngest daughter actually had to undo her seat belt and reach below our seats to pass everything. My daughters are very obedient and were so upset when they thought they had done something wrong and started to cry. I later asked Jana why Ellie had treated us so badly and to my amazement Jana swiftly replied that she was witness that Ellie acted rightly to ask my daughters to pick up the rubbish although neither asked any of the other passengers to do the same.

I told Jana whether she calling us liars and she said yes. Witnessing this the mum (Jayana) next to us and her partner having already had an ordeal with these stewardesses proceeded to tell Jana she was out of order and the partner in the heat of the moment ended up swearing at her. Jana then pressed the security button and the young couple were taken away on landing by security.

I am a respectable professional and actually work within the customer focus training area and Ellie firstly over exerted her authority by pushing the young mum (Jayana) back to her seat. However instead of apologising at the time to defuse the situation let it affect her behaviour and proceeded to collude with her colleague Jana by initially accusing the young mum (Janaya) of lying but then trying to apologise after the damage had been done.

They then proceeded to conspire to take it out on me and my family as we were witness to the original incident. They purposefully tried to provoke a reaction from us so they could report it to security on landing. I have never seen nor been treated so badly in all the years I have taken flights although this is my first flight with Ryanair or any budget airline. I am so shocked that this sort of treatment of customers is allowed.

I immediately called Ryanair, but they did not answer the phone, I also tried their live chat, which was down. Within twenty four hours, I called again and still nothing. I did a live chat, and the agent said there was nothing she could do about it, she could only help with something else, but not adjusting the luggage fee. So I wanted to check in to save forty five euros, and ended up paying an extra forty six euros for a second piece of luggage I didn't have. The agent also told me that their website does not work well with Safari or Internet Explorer, or Firefox, but only with Google Chrome. This was why I'm had the problem. So Ryanair knew it had problems with its software, and did nothing about it. I guess this is how they make their extra money. I hope it's worth it for them. I will never fly Ryanair again, and hope they go bankrupt. I cannot see how else they'd be, with this kind of service.

However in both our flights in May and June we have checked in exactly the same way we did all these years but the company randomly allocates our seats, meaning in both times we have had to seat separately. This is happening with everyone on board, people are complaining inside the aircraft and swapping seats inside the aircraft in order to be able to be together with their kids, spouses, etc. As part of this great business plan the company is willing to offer you an EXTRA service where you sign in to pay 20 in some cases per person, per trip, to have your desired seat next to your partner, which by the way is available and someone else will get it "randomly" if you don't pay for it, but yet the company cannot "ensure" both of you sit together unless you pay for this brilliant service.

For people fearing to fly alone, people who get nervous and suffer from anxiety in these situations, they will end up forking in this money and this extra will generate millions in revenue for the greedy company that sells tickets as cheap as 9.99 but seats as expensive as 20. Be aware that this will happen to you and your family too. This company is not interested in providing you good customer service, they're interested in squeezing your pocket as much as they can before you reach your destination, and squeeze it again on your return.

That was a big mistake. It was impossible to get through to an agent via live chat. Their phone hotlines for Germany and Belgium (Luxembourg was not available) cost over 1€ a minute hence I didn't even try to call the hotline. I decided to sleep over it and retry the next day. The live chat was busy as usual so I opened a ticket, explained my situation and asked for a full refund. The customer service replied: That I will have to contact an agent via live chat or phone hotline.

I tried it again but gave up after about 45 minutes in the queue. It was impossible to change flights during the busy end of year period. Long story short, now 10 days later after 17 pages of emailing back and forth. Completing the complaint form and live chatting I still have no refund. According to Ryanair I have not provided sufficient information - I took screen shots of the error message that keeps popping up and every step involved to get the refund. I am now considering taking legal steps through a German website that specializes on cheap airlines. It is not about the money but the principle.

This is the first time in years that I consider flying with Ryanair. The main reason was that we did not need any baggage and the price was much more competitive than the other airlines. However I will never ever fly Ryanair again even if that means that I have to pay the double price or even more. Or stay at home. If you have the opportunity to afford a more expensive flight, please do it. Don't choose Ryanair as it is only ripping-off its customers. I read the reviews on Glassdoor. Apparently their crew also gets treated pretty badly. Nobody should support this business. Hope this review helped someone not make the same mistake that I made.

Second of all, the seat was not only dirty (oily stains) but it had a gaping hole superficially sown, right in the middle. Third of all, the flushing system for the toilet bowl was dysfunctional and a horrible stench was permeating the entire bathroom. Disgusting. Besides the money issue which was clearly an act of thievery, the lack of a decent level of maintenance on board turned out to be a totally disappointing experience. No way would I ever recommend it to someone. Instead, use Easy Jet or Wizz Air. A lot more decent and honest.

I telephoned Ryanair again, but after some attempts they said that there was a problem with their computer systems and they could not make a booking, and I should call back in an hour. I called again, knowing full well that I had spent a fortune already in phone call charges. Of course, time had passed and the flight was not available anymore, even though they told me I would find a seat when they asked me to call back in an hour.

I am completely disgusted with Ryanair and vowed never to fly with them again. Their booking system, either via the web or telephone is hopeless. There are 2 important points to be made about this unfortunate experience. One is that they may well NOT WANT to sell me the tickets and just pretended that my cards were not accepted. When there is a great demand for some last moment seats they may have promised them to specialist travel agents at higher prices. The other point is the particular travel time, 3:15 pm is unique to Ryanair. No other airline has this option which may make it very difficult to book. This seems to be a very unfair lack of competition. How come Ryanair have the monopoly on this flight?

15 minutes before departure, the ** agent tells me that I need to go to their office and get a print out and have a Ryanair official graciously place a stamp on my boarding pass! ** I ran my heart out but the airport was too big and the ** at the Ryanair asylum was stupid to waste another precious 5 minutes staring at my wrong visa that I was 2 minutes late and missed the flight. The next flight costs an additional 100 Euros. RyanAir is the only airline that has this crazy policy. When they print visa/passport check on their cheap ** boarding pass, most people misunderstand it for the normal immigration process. I mean just say that 'It must be stamped by their honored stupid staff' and it supersedes the routine immigration process.

No matter how much more I have to pay to any other airline, I am never flying this crappy airline ever again. It's bad enough that they have this way to rip off people; even worse is how they treat the customers. If that stupid ** hadn’t asked me to wait and the other stupid ** hadn’t wasted time skimming through my passport as if she has never seen a passport with multiple visas, I would have still made it. But then no, in that case, how do they rip you off? Another incident I got to witness while this was going on was another girl who couldn’t check in online as the site was 'temporarily unavailable’. I mean she was standing right in front of the agent and showing him her cell phone but he wouldn't budge. He was like pay me 70 Euros. She totally lost it and threw her credit card at the agent asking him to make it all go away.

I booked through Ryanair because I have never flown with them. I wanted to try it and am glad I did. This is a lesson I would never forget and they do set a new low for the saying - you get what you pay for. Is it even legal they do this? They are not trained professionals to validate the visa or immigration procedures. How can it be justified that they do not let someone fly who had a valid passport, visa and boarding pass by not just some cheap stamp that no one else validates?

We complained to Ryan Air management at the Airport and they were absolutely rude and unsympathetic telling us they never waive this penalty. We were told that this information was given to us upon booking. We showed them the electronic tickets where nothing was mentioned. Apparently, it is okay for Ryan Air to send an email three days later informing you of that fact. Unfortunately, by that time we were on our way and we don't bother to check our emails while on vacation. The next shock that occurred was that as we were boarding, I was pulled aside telling me that my regular (on the small side) handbag is also counted as a carry-on. If I could not put it into my standard size carry-on, they would charge us an additional 35 Euros.

With all the delays, they started to close the doors and because I could not put my handbag in my carry-on as it would not close, we were charged the additional 35 Euros ($45.00) if we did not want to be left behind. There was absolutely no attempt of trying to help a customer. If anything, the staff was belligerent, hostile, nasty and harassing. They, again, wanted to see our passport asking for our visa to enter Spain. We explained that we had been in Spain for over a week and isn't it up to the Spanish Customs Officials upon entry to check on these things. In addition, Spain does not require a visa from visiting Europeans or Americans.

I arrived at Madrid airport just before midnight on April 4. I caught a brief nap and then lined up at the Ryanair queue at 4 am for the 6:15 flight. After weighing my bag and checking my printed boarding document, the agent told me that I needed an exit stamp. He directed me to another agent at the end of the same counter he was working at who was supposed to help me. This was the first misdirection since he should have told me to go to the office which was on the opposite side of the hall.

I went to this person and asked him for the exit stamp. He told me that I might or might not need the stamp but should go to the gate and would find out there. Of course, this is all nonsense in retrospect but having slept little the previous night I was tired and simply accepted this second misdirection. I went to the boarding gate around 5:30 am. This gate was quite far from the security checkpoint. By this time, there was a large line in front of me. The agent checked my boarding document and said I needed an exit stamp. I asked if I had enough time to make it back for the flight and he said he wasn't sure but I needed the stamp.

I rushed back, quickly got the stamp, rushed through security and ran most of the way but the same agent said it was too late to board the flight. I went back to the office and another agent told me that I could have received the stamp nearby the gate. So it seems I was misdirected a third time.

I spoke with your manager, Javier ** afterwards and he was embarrassed that this had happened. Although the agents involved had finished their shift by the time I returned, he helped sort out their names. The first person was Pedro **, the second was Mori ** and the third person at the gate refused to give me his name but instead provided his official number (although I noticed the name Tariq on his identification badge).

I not only lost the flight but also the first night at the hotel I had reserved in Tenerife. Furthermore, I had 2 Ryan Air flights which I couldn't use from Tenerife to Madrid and Madrid to Trapani, both on April 16. I went through a great deal of mental, physical and emotional torment as a result of the action of Ryanair staff and rushing frenetically around the airport, which itself is dangerous at my age. Not only did I endure a horrible experience but my vacation plans were ruined. I think the least Ryanair can do is compensate me for the missed flights and hotel charges. However, they refused to acknowledge any responsibility.

My understanding was that airlines could not simply cancel a flight just because it was unprofitable. Ryanair seen to be adopting a policy of accepting reservations (AND your money) until the level of reservations justifies or not the flight in question. Is this legal? I imagine that this has affected not just myself but the 100s of customers who have bought tickets in good faith to travel from november to march inclusive, & not just on this route. Irish citizen resident in Spain

When i got there, i explained to the Ryanair assistant all of the above. She proceeded to have a whispering conversation with her colleague, which i timed. This went on for 1 min, 45 sec. Then she spoke. She explained that tere was no record of the conversation i'd had with the call centre on file, therefore, she could not prove i did speak to them. Then came the sting. She said, regardless of the issue concerning my little boy, i should've have checked in on line. Failure to do that meant a penalty of 20. Coupled with his name change, and inability to check in on-line for him, meant another 70. 90 in total.

I strongly protested and she reluntantly, as she said 'waived' the costs. But insisted i checked in on-line for the return flight. No reference was made to terms and conditions of this. On my return, i tried to check in on-line. I was one minute over four hours prior to departure, and was told to check in at the airport. When i arrived and tried to do this, i was charge 20 for my ticket and 20 for my little boys ticket, penalty, for failure to checkin 4 hours prior to departure.

I queued up at the reservation centre. There was around 30 people in front of me, and more behind, all queing for the same reason. Of course, failure to pay the penalty, meant no permission to fly. I asked the assistant why i was being penalised for this and he said it was purely a penalty so that people would remember to check in online four hours prior to departure!!!! 600 was taken by Ryanair in 15 minutes flat for this!!! Surely, this is illegal?

I was so frustrated, having a little boy with me who was bored queing, i started to cry with humiliation. The assisiatant said nothing. I was made to feel as if i had been stitched up, for i couldnt travel Without paying the penalty. The assistant was cold, un reassuring and totally used the power of this situation to his advantage. When i told him i wouldnt be using Ryanair again, he just said 'up to you'.