Dave T-S

I use the airport every day.

Short Term car park is right outside the terminal. £15 per day.
Mid Term car park is five to ten minute bus ride away. £10 per day.
Long Term car park fifteen to twenty minute bus ride away. £6.50 ish per day.

Re you running late, if you arrive at the last minute you will miss your flight - GUARANTEED. The security has obviously been stepped up since 11 Sept, and depending on your flight (early morning flights are worst) it can take one hour or more to check in/get past security. This airport is NOT run efficiently and there can sometimes be an half hour wait just to get through security.

Ryanair (sic) are hard nosed and wait for no-one. They don't hold the gate open if you are late, 30 mins before flight SCHEDULED departure it is shut - they aren't going to miss ATC slots/run behind their schedule/have crews run out of hours. As far as they are concerned they are a point - to - point airline and if you don't turn up on time it's your fault - be warned!

You should read their terms and conditions at www.ryanair.com - it is an eye opener. For example, if you should decide to use them for a ski holiday - and they actively advertise this - they discourage the carriage of skis (their words) and charge an extra £15 per pair in each direction . And don't even ask me about when they/Servisair lost our skis for 12 days last year - they didn't want to know, just said fill in a lost baggage form, thereafter it's not our problem, claim off your travel insurance....and wouldn't pay our resultant ski hire costs

Oh, and lastly, if you should decide to use the train from Liverpool Street instead, it is notoriously unreliable and you should aim to get a train that leaves at least 2.5 hours before your flight!!


[Edited by Dave T-S - 12/2/2001 9:14:07 AM]

Hos

iTrader: (1)

[Edited by Hos - 12/2/2001 12:39:38 PM]

Dave T-S

I applaud Ryanair boarding children first - they have done it on all their flights I have been on - it means when I get on I can check out where they are and sit as far away from the screaming little snotboxes as possible

[Edited by Dave T-S - 12/7/2001 8:09:07 AM]

melpaul2002

Can anyone tell me if Ryan air send out tickets ? or do you just book in with a booking reference, also any ideas of car park fee at Stanstead Airport

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Ryan Air

No tickets, just a reference number, which, together with your photo-id (Driving Licence/Passport) gets your seat on the plane on check in.

Parking?

Long Stay (Pink Elephant) at around £8/9 per day AFAIK

melpaul2002

Cheers for that puff wheres pink elephant, i wanna park as close to the entrance as possible as i know i will be running late

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Pinks is a couple miles away (J8-Towards Airport, 1st r/bout TL & just past hotel on LHS) but has buses every 5/10 mins & takes 5/10 mins.

You can park o/s airport but x2 or x3 ele rate

GaryC

Word of warning - Ryanair's security is crap. My wife flew with them, x-ray machine operator asleep, no-one checking passengers hand luggage (my wife had a small knife in her hand bag) and then to cap it all, they let someone come on the plane, sit there for 10 minutes, then get off because she was on the wrong plane!!?? she could have left anything on the plane!

I would rather swim to ireland!

Huge

I think Dave omitted to mention that he just parks at the airport every day to catch the train into Liverpool Street - he doesn't actually commute to work by plane

There again, two Scoobs in the family & living in a palace....

Hugh

PS It isn't really Ryanair's fault that security is suspect - security is provided by BAA, owners of the airport & therefore affects all passengers using flights from there.

GaryC

My wife's flight was 3 weeks ago If that's 'stepped up', I hate to think what it was before!

Marc W

I love Ryanair - we've flown to Italy 3 times and Scotland once this year for a total fare of £40 plus taxes for the two of us.

That is top value!

Dave T-S

Yep, but you get what you pay for. Wait until something goes wrong......

melpaul2002

Flights were fine, £ 49 , 1 hour flight time Vs an all day drive and more £ in petrol.

security seemed ok to me no better or worse than any other flights ive done.

I would reccomend flying Ryan air and will defo travel with them again.

One moan about other travellers, Ryan air calls anybody travelling with small kids to come to the start of the Q for boarding, which I think is a nice touch.

now the amount of people that you see shaking their heads and grumbling under their breath as we walked past was amazing, they really did not like it at all.

I would be happy to Q till our turn but something very small like that can make the trip so much easier when you have a 2 year old with you, why would people begrudge that.

Are these the same people that would not give up a seat on a train or a bus for a frail old person and those in more need.

Thanks for your replys before we went, especially to Gary for the words of encourgement. LOL

SimonD

Since Ryan Air stopped allocating seats there always seems to be a scrum of disgruntled people trying to get on first and get a decent seat.
This is probably where the objection to anyone being allowed on before them comes from.

This is why I no longer fly Ryan Air (and the fact that they are always the worst hit in bad weather).

devils_ad69

SimonD

You don't fly Ryan Air because they let parents on first with their kids? Talk about cuttng your nose off to spite your face. Do you now fly with a larger carrier paying x3 the price?

I have no idea why people dash to get on the plane. They'll all get a seat. All the sets are the same - there are no 'decent' and 'non-decent' seats.

camk

I travel twice a week most weeks to cities in Europe from Frankfurt Am Main on business using BA,BM,Lufthansa or SAS. I use Ryanair personally for home trips and find then faster,cheaper and therefore better(personally) than flying from more crowded airports like Frankfurt Am Main.
Usually when going home I have my wife and my 3yo daughter and or am alone and as yet I've not seen any disgruntled punters. Security is on a par with other airports/airlines and I've actually once arrived 10 minutes before departure and checked in and still got on, possibly Stansted is different from Prestwick and Frankfurt Hahn but given the price differential its a real bargain.
BTW all airlines are monitored independently for safety of their aircraft and adhere to similar maintenance schedules so don't fall for that propaganda crap put out by the more expensive airlines about safety=high prices. Also airport security is run by the Airport not the airline.
The fact they use less crowded airports and therefore landing and takeoff sectors are quieter then they are possibly safer in that respect than using say Heathrow or Frankurt Am Main which are the 2 busiest airports in Europe.
Paying more does not always mean its better...especially when your paying for it personally.

Regards
Cammy

SimonD

DA 69
Fair comment, and you're right about the seats - probably unimportant on short haul flights anyway, particularly when travelling alone.
In recent years I have used Aer Lingus/Cityjet in preference to Ryan Air. They have cost just under twice the price of Ryan Air but beat them for convenience and at least I can be sure that I can sit with my wife (who is nervous of flying) without having to shove my way through a mass of people.

The troubles that Aer Lingus / Cityjet have got themselves into probably say all that needs to be said about the future of short haul air lines though!

Simon