[Anonymous]

[CityRiskBoy]

Taking in to account they are both considered low cost carriers with a “pricing first” model…What one would you choose to fly with and what is your reasoning behind it?

[sparkyflier]

Generally prefer BA or a national carrier for shorthaul, but to answer your question, easyjet by a mile. They at least have some sense of service culture, fly to better located airports, do not mislead and make a booking a marathon effort, etc etc but above all I personally do not trust Ryanair safety standards.

[CityRiskBoy]

Totally agree… Ryanair have No fleet investment and No people investment, Have flown twice with them over the past 12 years and it was like their cabin crew were recruited that morning!

[flier74]

Easyjet all the way compared to Ryanair. Also prefer full service carriers but if I go low cost it would be definately Easyjet. Friendly staff, you know what you get, clean planes and professional Crew.

[LuganoPirate]

I’ve avoided both but if I had to choose it would be an easy answer, easyjet. I get a better feeling about them plus you can pay for priority boarding, seat selection and buy tickets giving a degree of flexibility in the event of needing to take an earlier or later flight.

Another important factor is safety. Again my perception is that easyjet is a safety conscious airline, but listening to O’Leary and his “bus” concept gives me the jitters.

[MartynSinclair]

Easyjet

[FormerlyDoS]

“Totally agree… Ryanair have No fleet investment and No people investment, Have flown twice with them over the past 12 years and it was like their cabin crew were recruited that morning!”

No fleet investment? they have around 300 737NG with an average age of under 5 years.

Compare that to the average age of BA of nearly 13 years. (That is no problem, BTW, just chose BA as a very safe legacy airline to make the point)

As to the question, U2 every time.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Easyjet anyday. Would not touch Ryanair at all. Wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw Michael O Leary – which isn’t far!

[sparkyflier]

I have no problem with the LCC concept and model, indeed I would like to check out Vueling, germanwings & JetBlue, but Ryanair just seem to me to be unpleasant in everyway.

[westie11]

Having both fly out of Bristol, my holiday choice airport, to, in some cases the same airports in Europe, I would choose Easyjet every time as it can be for an LCC experience quite pleasant. With Ryanair, you get what you pay for and as long as you know that you are about to spend 2 to 3 hours with at times, pretty awful conditions but, each time I have been with them, we got there safely and in most cases, early!

[SimonS1]

Indeed Westie. Horses for courses.

I wouldn’t travel with Ryanair by choice, but the ultra low fares sometimes available appeal to some travellers. And yes I know people who have travelled to Dublin and back for less than the cost of the train ticket to LGW.

Easyjet I am happy to use for leisure or business, and now a handy way to redeem my EK miles.

[westie11]

Simon, I had forgotten that. As a EK gold cardholder I have a large amount of Skywards miles and at last I can do something with them without having to resort to the very overpriced(in miles terms) items in their store.

[Flyingsoldier1993]

I generally travel BA in Europe but if I had to choose. Easyjet, any day without a doubt. Would not fly Ryanair if you paid me……

[MarkCymru]

Easyjet. The legroom is truly awful but, as others say, they are usually pleasant and the Easyjet Plus card gives you fast check in and priority boarding. They allow any weight of cabin baggage and have changed to allow the same size of cabin bag as major legacy carriers (although — be warned — they do obsess about you only having one item)

Ryanair specialise in Gotcha pricing. Is your bag 10.2 kg (instead of the approved 10kg)? Is it 1cm bigger than their size guide (which — obviously — differs from any other carrier’s)? That will be £50. Did you forget to print out your boarding pass or lose it? Another £50. Have you made a minor mistake in entering your details online? At least £50. Do you need to contact them for any reason? The call may cost more than your lost baggage cost in the first place.

Ryanair give incentives to pilots who land early or on time and thus penalise those who are late for any reason (including a safety reason). This poses obvious risks to best practice (although the flight will still be much safer than the trip to the airport).

Ryanair is really a very last resort

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