Hello,
My plans are coming along and now I need to consider two flights and I would appreciate your help:
London (staying at the Blackfriars Premier Inn) to Gdansk. RyanAir looks the best/fastest/cheapest, but I have never traveled with them and their extras seem so complicated. We will each have check-in luggage (under 44lbs) and one carryon bag, so the Flex Fare seems the best deal. What else do I need to consider so that my ticket doesn't have an expensive surprise ending?
Gdansk to Rzeszow
To get to Rzeszow, you have to fly from Warsaw Chopin Airport on Lot Polish Airlines. Or Ryanair f!he's from a number of English airlines there.
There won't be an expensive ending. You've seen the price and that's what you pay. There are usually three prices, the 'Standard' which is carry on only, no priority boarding and no choice of seat, 'Plus' which gives you 20kg of checked luggage, priority boarding and seat reservation and finally 'Flexi Plus' which is the same as 'Plus' but with flexible tickets, fast track and airport check in. Personally I don't see the value in Flexi Plus considering it is typically double the price of 'Plus'.
As you complete the booking you're usually offered the opportunity to purchase travel insurance or car hire etc but there's nothing hidden or deceitful about this, you either accept or decline it.
Ryanair are providing a service that suits a variety of traveller. Some are happy with just a carry on, getting on the plane last and sitting anywhere because quite often the price of that ticket is £9.99 (as is the case from London to Gdansk). Others prefer to check their luggage as they like/need the extra storage and prefer the convenience of priority boarding and seat selection but this costs £31 for the same Gdansk flight which is still a fantastic price and one I'm happy to pay because it suits my requirements.
I've never booked with Ryanair and then discovered I'd been stung by some hidden fee, why would they do that? It's not exactly a good business model.
Is Gdansk a destination for you in itself or merely a transfer as Ryanair fly direct from Stansted to Rzeszow?
We did not encounter any last minute surprise fees either. They sent a lot of emails before the flight and one offered early boarding for €4.00 which was a great value as it was packed.
The only negative was the seats were hard molded plastic and the bsckfid not recline at all, hard on a two hour flight.
Hi,
A good friend of mine flew from London to Gdansk a few years ago. She flew with Wizzair, which you may want to check out as an alternative to using Ryan.
The only negative was the seats were hard molded plastic and the bsckfid not recline at all, hard on a two hour flight.
That doesn't compare with my experiences of them. The seats I've had on flights were no different to those on Easyjet or BA, certainly not hard plastic with no cushioning. True they don't recline but that's a good thing in my opinion. There's no need to recline on a two hour flight and it avoids the aggravation of someone selfishly reclining whilst the person behind does not want to or can not do likewise.
We are staying in Gdansk for three nights. I think it is the only time I will ever get there and we want to see Malbork. Thank you for the encouraging words about using Ryanair. Some people write such horrible reviews for it. I can handle hard plastic seats and no food for 2 1/2 hours...I can even handle surly flight attendants. I just want to get from London to Gdansk and my needs are few. I'm usually surprised at how nicely people treat me, even when I travel "steerage" on cruise ships. I'm easy to please.
Be sure you check in online and print your boarding pass before heading to the airport. I believe RyanAir charges a great deal of money if you do not complete those steps ahead of time. I've also read about needing to go to a hard-to-find RyanAir passport-verification desk at the airport, but I do not know whether that applies to flights from the UK to Poland.
(Sorry to post second- or third-hand information, but I believe it is reliable and might be helpful to you. )
The check in online and printing boarding pass before arriving at the airport are the two big considerations with Ryanair but this is made clear during the booking process.
My last flight with Ryanair was in June, Bournemouth to Palma. No issues whatsoever. Dropped bags off at the easily identifiable desk and to my complete surprise they even checked in one of our bags for free as we thought we'd paid for three but actually only paid for two. The aircraft was clean, the seats were not hard plastic, all Ryanair's fleet have padded seats, I can't think of an airline that provides hard plastic seats, and the flight was uneventful and on time. The cabin crew came around offering to sell food, drink, scratch cards and duty free but it certainly wasn't a hard sell and no different to any other airline.
Ryanair has a reputation as a bad airline and certainly my first experience of them was not great however they have improved considerably since then. Many people, myself included, dislike the CEO, Michael O'Leary, and that can tarnish the impression of the company. There is also a tendency to use more regional airports that are often a considerable distance from many peoples destination so it's worth checking what airport the flight uses. Personally my worst experiences have all been with American carriers most notably Delta. I recall a particularly sketchy flight from Charlotte to Hilton Head Island in an ageing twin prop with a leaking roof.
