Post RS Adriatic Tour - flying from Dubrovnik to Vienna

There is nothing wrong with Ryan. They now lead the pack in the number of people moved. I have flown them on a dew ocassions ... simple. And it'd a short flight. Just bring a snack.

Oh, and I flew Austrian Air about a week ago from Sarajevo to Vienna. Wasn't overly impressed. WIZZ Air would have been as good.

The last hotel will arrange a taxi in advance for you to the airport. Your tour guide will check in advance to see if anyone else needs to leave at the same time and if so, you can share a taxi. The airport itself is not large.

I would go with the morning flight. You will have said your good byes the night before.

I've always given considerable weight to flying early if at all possible and selecting an airline that has later flights to my destination the same day in the event of issues. Not much of an option outbound Dubrovnik. Ryan is early but no real back up. Not to jinx you but we got stranded in Dubrovnik for a day due to weather and light schedules. I suspect Austrian being part of Lufthansa might give you more options if things go south. I take it you are ticketed from VIE back to the US on a another airline and your primary point in transiting to Vienna is to catch that flight home. Ryanair is fine as others have pointed out but your actual cost to fly might be higher if you are looking to check bags and reserve a seat. Just saying the differential might not be as great all things considered. Id go Ryan probably to catch the early option but fully map out your alternatives in advance and be ready to go online and book a replacement flight if Ryan has issues. Either way, hope you have a great tour. The Adriatic tour was one of our favorites.

On a random date next month Ryan is about $50 for bare bones and $90 for checked bag and reserved seat.

Austrian Air is about $200 for their ecomony with a checkd bag and a seat reservation.

The issue with Ryanair is not safety or reliability, it's the nickel-and-dime pay-for
every-little-item-and-its-more-if-you-dont-do-it-online approach to gettng their
money, amongst other things. Seat selection, space, snacks are other issues,
I suppose.

But for a short flight, some of those concerns go away.

In addition, the opposite concern about getting to Vienna could apply - if you take
the later flight and there is an issue, you have fewer backup options, and it appears
you need to be in Vienna that evening.

If you have miles on a Star Alliance airline (even a small # of miles), check how much
it would be to book the Austrian flight using miles. Miles are an entirely different
currency than $.

You don't say how much the cost differential is for the date you need to fly, but in
the bigger picture of the overall cost of your trip, how big a deal is it, really?

The beauty with Ryanair is not just convenience or schedule, it's the you-only-pay-for-what-you-need-and-want-approach, amongst other things. Seat selection is available, seat pitch is the same on Austrian and on Ryan. Snacks arent much of an issue on a 80 minute flight, but Ryan and Austrian will sell you something if you want more than a free cookie and 250ml of water, Neither has free food.

You are travling on a Saturday and in the Summer there are two or three Austrian Air non-stop flights but in the Fall, just one and if thats full ............... ooooops.

The airport is a 30 minute drive from Old Town. So, leave your accommmodations about 6:00 am for a 8:10am flight. For me that would mean packing the night before waking up at 5:00 am. Not terrible and gives you more time to poke around Vienna.

Thank you, everyone, for the quick and helpful responses! I really appreciate y'all. Yes, we are flying back to Vienna (our starting point before the RS tour) because that's what worked for us to get mileage tickets to and from the US -- so unfortunately, leaving a day later from D would be a big problem. We don't care about a lack of service or nickel and dime approach of Ryanair in this case, given the short flight; it was more about whether Ryanair would be more likely to get cancelled than Austrian, and getting up very early in the morning and then arriving in Vienna in the morning, unable to check into our hotel. From your comments, it seems that Ryanair isn't more likely to be a problem than Austrian. We are willing to pay a premium (for our date, Saturday, September 28, the fare for Austrian has fluctuated from mid-$300 (which seemed high initially) to over $480 when I wrote my post if there is value in that. In general, I like to take an early flight as well so all in all, I'm leaning towards purchasing the Ryanair tickets to give us a bigger cushion of time if there's a problem with that flight. Thank you again!.

I've done that trip so can appreciate the situation you're dealing with. As I recall I was heading for Zürich and used Croatian Airlines out of Dubrovnik, and had to change planes once. You may have to depart for the airport very early, but your guide will set up the taxi or shuttle for you. Unfortunately there's not a lot of choices for direct flights so you might have to just pay a higher fare and get it done.

If you decide to take RyanAir be sure to read their Terms & Conditions carefully, especially related to luggage rules.

Ryan air is fine. No one can find complaint for their ability to get you from point A to point B in a manner better than the average in the industry.