Ryanair

Sure. All airlines have cancellations, especially for weather.
Ryanair is making a conscious effort to become more customer friendly than in the past. I am just thankful that they laid the groundwork for budget airlines that has come to the U.S. We couldn't make it to Europe so often If the legacy carriers didn't have competition.

It is safe. But you should look at the route. Ryanair uses airports that are not as conveniently located to where you are trying to go. I would look at the route so the $100 is for more convenience.

We have flown three times with Ryanair and have had good experiences. As long as you realize the way services are priced such as paying for seat selection, luggage, etc. it still comes out as a bargain. Our last flight Ryanair was very good about communicating via email about our upcoming flight.

Ot is totally safe to use Ryannair, based in Ireland. We feared flying with Ryannair but booked flights with them when they were the only non stop to our next destination, Krakow to Rome. They were fine, no problems. They sent a lot of emails in advance and a few days before the flight sent a €4 offer to borad early which we did. It was a god send. We left the crowds and boarded comfortably. We landed in Rome after two hours at the small and closer to the city Ciampino. We were happy with Ryannair just don’t like the rigid plastic seats. We would dly them again, hopefully on a shorter flight.

Is it better to be safe and pay an extra $100 for a flight?

Only if you're extremely risk-averse. I wouldn't pay $100 extra personally, my peace of mind doesn't require it.

I've only had good experiences with Ryanair.

Have only had good experiences.
They fly out of Frankfurt International now for many of their flights, though some are still from Hahn. Will be using them for round trip flights from Frankfurt to Porto in April.

I've flown them and like them just fine. Make sure you follow their rules - not just the basic ones but some of the ones that flummoxed me a bit - for example, flying out of Barcelona, because I did not have an EU passport...I had to find a window somewhere near the check in lines to do a "Passport Check". I was aware of this before we went to the airport and I STILL had a hard time figuring it out. For Barcelona, it was not at the bag check line or check in line - it was at the ticket purchase counter and there was no signage telling us this! And if you forget to do this and go to security, they'll send you back to the start;)

It's the only airline I refuse to patronize after three miserable experiences. Don't get suckered in by Ryan Air's base price. When you add-up all their extra fee$ and the potential expense of transport to and from their out of the way airports, using the flag carriers is more or less the same price unless you book way in advance. Plus you get the additional benefit of not being sticklers about boarding times, slightly overweight luggage, free food/beverages, more leg room, and being able to get your boarding pass at the airport without penalty.

http://www.ellecroft.com/blog/2015/02/23-reasons-why-ryanair-sucks/

Sara,

It would help to know where you're flying from / to. I always like to look at several flight options on the routes I'm travelling.

As the others have mentioned, RyanAir sometimes uses out-of-the-way airports such as Beauvais (Paris), which means the time and cost of getting to & from the airports has to be considered.

My preferred budget airline in Europe is easyJet, and I always try to use them whenever possible.

I, too, have been very pleased with Easy Jet. I have not used Ryanair.

. We were happy with Ryannair just don’t like the rigid plastic seats.

I've seen this reference to rigid plastic seats before. Are you suggesting that the whole seat is plastic with no amount of padding or material covering? If so I have never been on a flight, Ryanair or other that has such seats. All airline seats are rigid, the Ryanair ones consist of a yellow plastic bucket style seat but with a padded cover. It's not as if you're seated on hard plastic

Ryanair are fine, as far as cancelled flights go there was a period recently when they cancelled a significant number of flights which they blamed on poorly planned pilot holiday rosters however the rumours circulating on a number of travel forums suggested that it was more likely due to a large number of pilots defecting to airlines such as Norwegian. It appears that they have resolved this issue and the only cancellations they seem to experience are no different to many other carriers and are usually weather related.

The other consideration as another poster has pointed out is to make sure you know which airport the airline is using. It's rarely the major airport of the destination and can often be much further away from your destination than you realise, sometimes it's closer so that $100 saving might be consumed by additional traveling costs.

The other consideration as another poster has pointed out is to make
sure you know which airport the airline is using. It's rarely the
major airport of the destination...

I think this criticism is probably overstated. Of course you CANNOT just assume you'll be using the main airport location for a given Ryanair flight. Some of the places are really in the sticks. I hate London Stansted. Munich MUC is accessible on Ryanair from DUB, but otherwise you fly into distant Memmingen. But Ryanair does use major airports in Dublin, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Budapest, Krakow, and the main airports of many less popular destinations as well. In more minor destinations, they of course use the main (only) airports.

I've used them for Dublin DUB, Brussels Charleroi, Krakow, Stockholm NYO, Pisa, Düsseldorf Weeze, and Frankfurt Hahn (and I've never experienced a cancellation.) The smaller airports are often much easier to negotiate than than the big ones and you tend to get out much more quickly. And sometimes they are closer to my targeted area of travel than the major airports. But you cannot assume that public transportation will be available, especially on weekends or at odd hours of the day. You must do your homework. Of course the same applies to EasyJet and other airlines that serve less popular airports. Flying Ryanair has generally been much the same as flying EasyJet or Norwegian, IME.

A plus for Ryanair is that it handles some routes that other cheap airlines do not.

My current travel plans include Ryanair to Porto and Luxembourg. We'll see how that goes, but if it goes like it has previously, all will be fine.