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Budget airlines - horror stories?

mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
in Countries and Travel
Do you fly? Do you use any of the budget airlines?

Apart from price, they often have drawbacks however. When you add up all the extras, they are not always as cheap as they would like to appear. I often flew with British Airways during the summer, as they were cheaper than their budget airline competitors and did not have all the annoying rules and inconveniences.

The latest news is that Ryanair has changed its rules yet again, so you can only bring in the cabin a very small bag, that has to fit under the seat in front. Otherwise you can pay extra for a cabin bag, which costs more too, if you forget to do this at the point of booking.

What are the budget airlines like in your country?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/sep/01/ryanair-new-hand-luggage-rules-carry-on-bags?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Guardian+Today+-+Collection&utm_term=284648&subid=11006640&CMP=GT_collection


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Comments

  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    I do use budget airlines, but you have to be aware of the drawbacks like you don't have a reserved seat and you might not get food or a baggage allowance. If you prepare for it, budget airlines can be a great way to travel cheaply.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    They sometimes offer great value especially off season @GemmaRowlands but high season are often more expensive than scheduled flights especially with all the added extras.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    They sometimes offer great value especially off season @GemmaRowlands but high season are often more expensive than scheduled flights especially with all the added extras.

    Yes that might be true, but depending on what you're looking for, you can often get some bargains.
  • VokVok Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭✭
    I always look out the cheapest option when it comes to travel by air. I prefer to travel light and not wait for luggage to be offloaded. So far I'm very pleased with no-frills airlines I've flown by. Among them are AirAsia and Ryanair. I would stand during a flight if I had a chance to buy a ticket even cheaper. Aside from usual delays and takes-off schedulled at some unearthly hour of the morning at remote airports, so the road there offset the cost of an actual flight, I think they provide a good value for money. You should be very careful, though, with the rules and not put a foot wrong because even a single oversight from your side can cost you dear.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    @Vok I usually travel light, so even Ryanair's new rules where you can only bring on a very small bag at no charge is okay for me. I find their website and that of other low cost airlines usually less user-friendly however, as you have to plough through so many added extras and be careful to check all the boxes in order not to have all sorts of charges added to your flight cost. (No I don't want to hire a car, no I don't need insurance, no I don't need to choose my seat....)

    The last flight nightmare was when someone smelled something a bit suspicious in the hold and so they had to unload all the baggage to inspect where the smell was coming from. They then called some passengers to go and identify their bags. I think it might have been some nail varnish, but the acetone smell could have signified something more sinister. We never learned who the culprit was, but it delayed the plane for 90 minutes. And to be honest, wasn't easyjet's fault at all.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    @Vok I usually travel light, so even Ryanair's new rules where you can only bring on a very small bag at no charge is okay for me. I find their website and that of other low cost airlines usually less user-friendly however, as you have to plough through so many added extras and be careful to check all the boxes in order not to have all sorts of charges added to your flight cost. (No I don't want to hire a car, no I don't need insurance, no I don't need to choose my seat....)

    The last flight nightmare was when someone smelled something a bit suspicious in the hold and so they had to unload all the baggage to inspect where the smell was coming from. They then called some passengers to go and identify their bags. I think it might have been some nail varnish, but the acetone smell could have signified something more sinister. We never learned who the culprit was, but it delayed the plane for 90 minutes. And to be honest, wasn't easyjet's fault at all.

    That sounds very annoying, but they did the right thing, they couldn't risk it being anything dangerous and flying with it!
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I suppose even the passenger wasn't really at fault, other than perhaps not screwing up the cap of the nail varnish well enough so it didn't leak @GemmaRowlands. I don't think anyone thought badly of the security measure and delay in terms of the necessity to check carefully.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    I suppose even the passenger wasn't really at fault, other than perhaps not screwing up the cap of the nail varnish well enough so it didn't leak @GemmaRowlands. I don't think anyone thought badly of the security measure and delay in terms of the necessity to check carefully.

    Yes, and I think everyone will have just been relieved that it wasn't anything sinister, so I'm sure they weren't too annoyed.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I have been looking for a cheap, off season flight from Nice to Kathmandu. Turkish Airlines have a special offer over December and January and I'm looking at Oman. I thought by travelling Christmas Day or New Year's Day I might find a bargain like the British Airways flight to Cape Town last year but I haven't seen anything from Nice. I might try flights from London or Paris but I'm not very hopeful.
  • VokVok Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭✭
    I don't think it would be easy to find a good offer for Christmas and New Year Eve as too many people want to be off these days @mheredge .
    Once in Warsaw on arriving to the international airport just after New Year's Day I was informed that an airline I was supposed to fly with had gone bust. Ironically, it wasn't a budget airline. So, you never know.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    No one likes flying on those two days and generally @Vok I find if you can book the return or outward leg more than two weeks either side of Christmas or New Year, at least in the northern hemisphere, this works as it's winter and most people don't take such long holidays then.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I saw this article about the things flight attendants wish passengers would stop doing. I have to say that I usually see at least one or two of these faux pas most times I fly.

    https://www.fashionbeans.com/content/16-things-flight-attendants-wish-youd-stop-doing/?rtg=2871-fsb-1000052&param4=fsb-fni-fbss-2871-eint-mo-ocpm-android&param5=10154383475281186&param6=23842965522550525
  • XanthippeXanthippe Posts: 2,089 ✭✭✭✭✭
    @mheredge, I usually choose budget airlines if possible but I have no horror stories to tell. Hm, one delay was no problem. It happens sometimes.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    Vok said:

    I don't think it would be easy to find a good offer for Christmas and New Year Eve as too many people want to be off these days @mheredge .

    Once in Warsaw on arriving to the international airport just after New Year's Day I was informed that an airline I was supposed to fly with had gone bust. Ironically, it wasn't a budget airline. So, you never know.

    I think if you book it for days like Christmas Day it is very cheap though, as there aren't many people who want to fly on those days.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    This clip showing a Dragon Air landing must have been terrifying. Fortunately no one was killed though there were some injuries.


    https://www.facebook.com/TimeNewsInternational/videos/2187809244837800/?t=0
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    This clip showing a Dragon Air landing must have been terrifying. Fortunately no one was killed though there were some injuries.





    https://www.facebook.com/TimeNewsInternational/videos/2187809244837800/?t=0

    I saw this video the other day, and I am shocked at it. I would have been so scared if I had been on that plane.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I was once taken up in a little Cessna two-seater where my friend almost did a loop the loop to test out my reaction. He was pleased that I saw it as quite 'normal' as it then gave him the confidence to hand over the joystick and let me fly by myself. I loved every second, but was very careful to fly straight!
  • amatsuscribbleramatsuscribbler Posts: 3,732 mod
    Wow @mheredge What an experience. I wouldn't dare as my left and right have always been confused! We might have ended up anywhere!
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I have to concentrate sailing @amatsuscribbler, so as not to mix up my right and left. I can never get used to pushing the tiller in the opposite direction to the way I want to go.
  • amatsuscribbleramatsuscribbler Posts: 3,732 mod
    rofl! Me too! I did a sailing course years ago and at the end of the week, we had a competition. I went second to skipper and we won. So they got me to do it again. I crashed into another boat disqualifying us. The reason? I couldn't remember which was right and left!
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    I was once taken up in a little Cessna two-seater where my friend almost did a loop the loop to test out my reaction. He was pleased that I saw it as quite 'normal' as it then gave him the confidence to hand over the joystick and let me fly by myself. I loved every second, but was very careful to fly straight!

    Oh wow, that must have been quite some experience. I don't know if I would have the confidence to do it myself.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    I loved the flying part @GemmaRowlands but landing for me is the nerve-wracking part.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    I loved the flying part @GemmaRowlands but landing for me is the nerve-wracking part.

    Yes, and taking off as well, those are the worst times for me. Though I somehow reason that the closer to the ground I get, the more chance I would have of surviving it.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    My friend has an early start tomorrow as she's going on a mountain flight to see Mount Everest.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    My friend has an early start tomorrow as she's going on a mountain flight to see Mount Everest.

    Wow, I would love to see Everest. In fact, I would very much love to climb it, but there is no way that I would be able to do that.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    My friend was delighted with her mountain flight. Though it was cloudy down below, she had great views above the clouds and was able to take lots of nice photos of Everest.

    @GemmaRowlands nothing would induce me to climb Everest. Even trekking to base camp is a bit disappointing as the views are not not that good. The scenery in the Annapurnas is much more beautiful.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    My friend was delighted with her mountain flight. Though it was cloudy down below, she had great views above the clouds and was able to take lots of nice photos of Everest.



    @GemmaRowlands nothing would induce me to climb Everest. Even trekking to base camp is a bit disappointing as the views are not not that good. The scenery in the Annapurnas is much more beautiful.

    I think it's more the idea of it that I'm interested in rather than the actual reality. I don't think I would have the actual staying power to do it, but I would like to see the top, and would like to be able to say I'd done it.
  • mheredgemheredge Posts: 44,388 ✭✭✭✭
    It seems flights to Lukla to go trekking up to EBC are full in the autumn @GemmaRowlands, but empty on the way back as increasingly people are hiking down. Unfortunately this is pushing up the price of the flights.
  • GemmaRowlandsGemmaRowlands Moderator Posts: 10,331 mod
    mheredge said:

    It seems flights to Lukla to go trekking up to EBC are full in the autumn @GemmaRowlands, but empty on the way back as increasingly people are hiking down. Unfortunately this is pushing up the price of the flights.

    Well perhaps I could fly up and then fly back down then, with no trekking involved at all! That sounds like my kind of activity!
  • JMAROUFJMAROUF Posts: 104 ✭✭
    the best airline in my country is royal air maroc but it is very expensive , especially in the internal flights
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