Ryanair

Ryanair is one of Europe's largest budget airline, a well known airline that carries travellers all across Europe for pennies. The budget airline strip down to the bare hence being able to offer such low pricing. I am going to take a look at what Ryanair has to offer and whether it is worth saving your wallet.

BERLIN TO ROME:

My first Ryanair flight took me from Berlin Schönefeld to Rome Ciampino, both are home to cater budget airlines. Ryanair has sent me an email 48 prior to departure informing me of online check in as they do not do check in at the airport, well they do but you will be paying €55 extra. You can check in through their app which will have the boarding pass right on the Ryanair app (or you can export it to Google Pay / and I am assuming it's the same for Apple Wallet/Pay), or through a desktop and print it out.

As mentioned above, your fare is the bare bone, you have a personal item that must fit under the seat, but that's all, the rest are additional add on which will cost you. Firstly let's talk about luggage, one of the add on that will cost you a lot. There are a few options that are available to you, you can either pay to have it checked, or carry on. Since I have 2 suitcases, I have opted to get a 20kg checked lugagge and a 10kg hand carry (which entitles you to bring a small cabin suitcase + a personal item and priority boarding since you will need to find space to place it in the overhead bin).

Seating is basically the same, you have extra legroom (front and emergency exit), front or regular sea. I have opted not to pay for a seat, although I can get a normal seat reserved for €4 (which only consist of a small number of seats, the rest are slightly more expensive), so I got assigned a middle seat which is definitely not ideal but I have been warned when choosing to skip seat select. The seat itself is small, thin, legroom is really small and to be honest I can't see myself sitting in it for more than 2 hours, it was torture to say the least.

They sell food on board if you decide to eat, or if you have pre-purchased then you will be getting one. There is a tray table in the front of your seat but no seat pocket. Individual air vents and reading light is available on top, which is a plus. I found one seat belt sign not working, not a big issue but probably might want to get that fixed before there are more of those not lighting up.

I tried to sleep as it was an early morning flight, waking up at 3am to get to the airport is not as fun. With the cramp leg room, unstable temperature and uncomfortable seat, an announcement came on and we are finally descending into Rome. In a true Ryanair fashion, we came down with a bang! Hard landing but glad it is finally over.

ROME TO MADRID:

This is my second Ryanair flight, and I feel like an expert already. Nothing much is different on this flight except that I have booked an emergency exit seat, which gives me ample of leg room to work with, although there would be no under seat storage which means I have to put both bags up to the overhead locker.

The emergency exit seat has a fixed armrest that stores the tray table, which is not good for people who want to put it up when there's no seat neighbour, but the plus side for the window seat is there's no armrest by the window, which increases your seat width. If you want the best value on an emergency exit seat, a window seat would be the smart choice.

Extra legroom seat on the front of the aircraft is about 6 euros more, but to be honest it may not be too much of a difference. You are paying the extra to get off the plane first, nothing more. If you are checking in luggage, it will not make your exit of the airport any quicker. Since people who travel on Ryanair would be more budget conscious, I would say that an emergency exit row on the middle of the aircraft would save you some extra cash to buy some drinks and snacks. 

After 2 hours, we finally decent into Madrid and come to the end of the flight, but not without some drama first. Firstly when we touch down, reversers were deployed, but only for 5 seconds and it was stowed while the aircraft is still travelling at high speed, give or take around 100 knots. That is definitely not a safe speed and using brakes will only cause hot brake which is a hazard, and given Ryanair have a rather short turnaround time as well, it is even more of a danger. After a few more seconds, the pilot redeployed the reversers for slightly longer this time. I do not know if it was accidental that they stowed the reversers, but given it is an essential part of slowing the aircraft down, this should not have happened.

After that very unpleasant landing, the crew started a special PA announcement with an anthem of some sort, followed by an announcement, then the passengers started clapping. Not sure what that was all about but it was not a good flight and also the anthem is the first I have ever heard of coming after the landing.

FRANKFURT TO LONDON:

This is a pretty short flight of around 1 hour 20 minutes, however I have decided to also pay for the emergency exit row to save myself from the suffering. Nothing new developed on this flight, it was very early as well so I supposed everyone was just trying to get some snooze. I actually forgot to take my suitcase after passing security and then realised it when I got to the boarding gate, luckily they didn't think a bomb was in it.

CONCLUSION:

I have found a few passengers who did not turn off their phone or switch it to flight mode, they were browsing on social media even after the plane have taken off. CAA regulations are that IFR flights cannot have electronic devices transmitting, since a large amount can potentially interfere with radio or/and navigation. If a few passengers are doing it, it might not cause any issue but when more devices are transmitting, it can become a safety hazard. The crew should pay more attention to passengers who are using their phones to make sure it is on flight mode.

The seat padding on Ryanair is very thin, which makes it rather uncomfortable for long period. Tiny legroom also causes an issue for people like me, I am 180cm and I couldn't fit my leg under the seat in front as the seat are much lower as well. There are no seat pocket or entertainment, the only thing that is present is advertisement on the overhead locker. So you might want to charge up your devices and prepare to suffer on a very long journey ahead.