I actually haven't flown on many of the low-fare European airlines. I have flown on Ryanair, and though I certainly agree they won't win any prizes for service, I wouldn't call them spectacularly unpleasant, just unpleasant.
I would probably fly them again if they were significantly less expensive than the alternative, or flew to an airport that was actually convenient to where I was going. But I would definitely look at other airlines before I went ahead and booked.
I think of Ryanair as a lot like Spirit Airlines, who seem to think innovation consists of devising new and more cunning ways to levy fees. Both their CEOs have historically shown a certain amount of contempt for their passengers.
I didn't have any particular problem on easyJet, who I think are the number two low-fare European airline. I actually rather like them, and would fly them again.
But as far as I can tell there's no European equivalent of Southwest, who actually appear to have some very customer-friendly policies--their flight change policy is very generous even by network airline standards--which appear to be in keeping with their general philosophy.
As I said, all low-fare airlines are pretty much okay when everything goes right. But when things go wrong is when you find out how much they suck.
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Date: 2014-04-28 10:38 pm (UTC)I would probably fly them again if they were significantly less expensive than the alternative, or flew to an airport that was actually convenient to where I was going. But I would definitely look at other airlines before I went ahead and booked.
I think of Ryanair as a lot like Spirit Airlines, who seem to think innovation consists of devising new and more cunning ways to levy fees. Both their CEOs have historically shown a certain amount of contempt for their passengers.
I didn't have any particular problem on easyJet, who I think are the number two low-fare European airline. I actually rather like them, and would fly them again.
But as far as I can tell there's no European equivalent of Southwest, who actually appear to have some very customer-friendly policies--their flight change policy is very generous even by network airline standards--which appear to be in keeping with their general philosophy.
As I said, all low-fare airlines are pretty much okay when everything goes right. But when things go wrong is when you find out how much they suck.
(Edited to reduce repetition.)