Flying RyanAir out of Paris Beauvais Airport: $0

Besides the fact that RyanAir is the lowest ranked airline in all of Europe, understand that Ryan does not fly out of Paris. Beauvais IS NOT PARIS, it is far from Paris, and you have to leave a suburb of Paris by bus over three hours before flight time.

I realize Beauvais is quite a bit north of Paris. But the shuttle bus leaves from just west of the Arc de Triomphe at Porte Malloit. We would start the leaving "process" about 3 hour 45 minutes before our flight time. Even if we were going to CDG or Orly we would start our way there about 2.5 hours before flight time. So it's only an extra 1 hour and 15 minutes in travel time.

The part about RyanAir having poor service is concerning though, not that any airline has "good" service. If something does go wrong this really could put a huge wrench in our whole trip. Is RyanAir truly a problem or are they just like all the other airlines?

Aside from having to get to the outlying airport, you probably won't find Ryanair any better or worse than any other airline. Their carryon limit is higher than some others, too. Just be sure you pay attention to their check-in time requirements and get there in plenty of time. In my experience, Ryanair is fine. There was no delay in my flight, it was comfortable, the staff was friendly, and my checked baggage arrived with me. You'll have to pay for anything you want on board, so you might want to take a snack with you, but that's a minor inconvenience if you know in advance.

Thanks, Nancy. It sounds just like any other airline. Now I just need to decide if getting way out there is worth the savings or paying a little more to fly EasyJet out of Orly is the smarter decision.

Easyjet....you can take the RER to Orly and not have to worry about missing a shuttle bus.

Ryanair is great. Mind the baggage rules. They fly one of the newest fleets in the world,and have a 925 on time record.

Thanks for the endorsement of Ryanair, Chris.

It's looking like this:

Ryanair (Beauvais): 81 euro, 3 hr 45 min from hotel to flight time, shuttle bus

EasyJet (Orly): 204 euro, 2 hr 30 min from hotel to flight time, train

Is ~$180 worth 1 hr 15 min and having to depend on a shuttle bus?

Mike, thanks for the thorough description. I travel a lot for work and would classify myself as one who doesn't expect a lot out of the airlines. Get me there safely and timely, I don't need a lot of extras. And I now understand that they are going to nickel and dime me for every little thing, which is fine because I anticipate it and it still will be the most economical. The only part I am worried about is things out of my control, namely the shuttle bus. It says it leaves 3 hours before the flight time, but then I am at their mercy whether I get there, get checked in, and board the plane on time. Paying a little more to fly EasyJet out of Orly lets me take the train and then I am on my own schedule to get there early.

At first you said Easyjet would cost a little more which is why I endorsed them. But if it's 180 Euros more, then stick to Ryanair.

Hi Kyle, I've travelled with Ryanair a few times (not on the Paris route though) and they've been fine. Just make sure you read the rules carefully. They mean what they say!

We used Ryanair to fly from Paris to Rome, and because we understood all the facts about where the airport was and luggage prices, we were very satisfied with the whole process.

It is cheaper to pay for your luggage fees while making your reservations. You can't go back later and add it. I also bought our bus tickets to the airport online before we left home (on a different site).

We had our hotel order us a taxi the night before because we had a 9am flight and needed to leave Paris at 6am. The taxi was there right on time --about 5:15. That turned out to be a little early because it didn't take long to get to the bus stop from our hotel on Rue Cler. We actually were able to get on an earlier bus since we got there so early.

A lot of people complain about the bus ride to the airport but who wouldn't enjoy a ride through the French countryside? Since we didn't go anywhere in France but Paris and Versailles, we were glad to get to see it.

You will be dropped off right at the terminal door. If you decide to wait until you get to the airport to pay your luggage fees, as you go in the small terminal, go to the window at your far right. You will need to pay your luggage fees first before going to the ticket window. Even though you have bought your airline tickets, you will still need to go to the ticket counter but you can't do that until they list it on one of the overhead signs above each counter.

You will have time to kill and they have a nice coffee shop right by the ticket counters. You will check your luggage (unless it's tiny and you can carry it on) and you will show your luggage fee receipt at this time. Now you can go through security to the gates.

There are only 4 or 5 gates--it's a really small airport-- so everything is easy to find and close. There are a few shops, restrooms and a coffee counter in the gate area. You will watch the signs over each door to know when to board your plane.

Hope this walk through helps.

Skytrax ranks airlines by stars. You can read the list of 2-star airlines here. Most American airlines are 3-star; Europeans airlines like Lufthansa, Air France, and British Air get 4 stars; RyanAir and BMIBaby are in a short list of 2-star airlines.

Read customer comments here. Lots of unhappy customers.

The main things to remember about RyanAir is that they will charge extra for almost everything, including check in at the airport, bags, etc, and you cannot miss your flight, for any reason. If you are not checked in 40 minutes before flight time, no matter if you are still standing in the queue because it was long, you lose your ticket.

Kyle - The best thing I can tell you about Ryanair is to know yourself. The more you need or want as a traveler the less Ryanair will appeal to you. Ryanair is shameless that they want to make money. They will serve you only to their ends to make money.

The beauty of Ryanair is that if you don't want service from them they won't pass the cost on to you and you can fly really cheap.

And that why it is important to know yourself. Are you going to be bothered when the gate check in person tells you that you need to pay a surcharge for the 2 kg extra you are carrying? Are you going to be bothered trying to find your seat in a mass rush to the plane? Are you going to be bothered as Ryanair plugs every single promotion they have over the PA during the course of the flight?

or are you the type that doesn't care where they sit and will just flip open a book and get off the plane when it's done.

One person above thrives with Ryanair, the other is horrified by them. :)

Kyle -

I can't say this for certain. But I would think a lot of the people for a given flight are going to be on that shuttle bus. That might be enough to get some action.

Other than that you seem to have the right profile for Ryan Air. Just know what they are about - they considered charging a pound to use the toilets for instance. They also just got rid of a plan for charging if you weighed too much (only because it would have slowed down check-in).

I used Ryan Air a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and nice it was. So what if you have to ride a shuttle bus an hour or 2. We got round-trip tickets to Rome from "Frankfurt" Hahn for 35 €. Thats it, no other charges except for the shuttle bus. (12 €) Brand new plane, same seats as in any other plane. I can stand to go a couple of hours without drinking anything, so I didn't really care if they were charging for drinks. Once we got to Rome, took another shuttle that dropped us off at the Termini. Seriously, I have no complaints. It is amusing that the names they pick for their airports are nowhere near the cities they are named after, but that is their marketing strategy, and it seems to be working. If they want to call an airfield 120 km away from Frankfurt, "Frankfurt Hahn", who am I to stop them? Paris is probably the same way. People just need to be informed. The last time I checked, there was a map on the Ryan Air website that shows you where the airports are, so it shouldn't be a surprise to people when they land out in the sticks, though it often is. I have many friends who fly Ryan Air all the time, any time they can get a ticket to Ireland for a pound or one cent, or off to Riga to shop for the weekend. No complaints from any of them.