Brendan McConkeywonders if he's alone in having something good to say about Ryanair
"With reference to the (tongue-in-cheek, I hope) article lambasting Ryanair in Go (December 13th), I feel I have to reply (having never done this type of thing before).
"I am a male of a certain age, too. I have been lucky enough to have travelled on the Dublin-Malaga route two or three times a year for the past five years. Most of these trips have been with Ryanair. Many have been early-morning flights. My wife and I have never experienced any discomfort on any Ryanair flight.
"On occasion we have purchased the breakfast - not great value nor great quality - but who cares? The alternative, which we've done, is to make your own sandwiches: great value, and the quality is up to you.
"The flight is short, and there are plenty of opportunities to eat on arrival. I am glad to get to the mature age of 59 and not be obsessed with a particular meal or food in general. The overall experience of travelling and arriving at a destination is surely what it's all about.
"Last year we used Ryanair to fly to Pisa for a wedding. Due to my miscalculation of times, we missed the flight home - to be exact, we arrived 20 minutes before take-off. They were prepared to let my wife on (even at that late stage), but when they saw me with two suitcases it wasn't to be.
"Rebooking for the same flight the next day, I thought Ryanair would use this situation to charge what it liked. But no, it charged us €80 each for the return flight, which I thought was very reasonable.
"This year there was a problem with a return flight from Paris. We were told within 30 minutes of boarding that the problem was with one of the windows on the flight deck. There was no delay in disembarking. But thoughts of staying in the airport overnight were frightening. Ryanair, to its credit, after a short delay got coaches for everyone to take them to local hotels. Also, it provided sealable plastic bags for our so-called duty free, so we could bring these back the following morning. On disembarking, we were told the flight was rescheduled for 11am the next morning. It actually took off at 11.30am. Not bad.
"We flew to Malaga with Ryanair in October this year for €115 return for both of us - €0 for the flights, only paying taxes. At that price it's worth booking even if you don't go.
"I've heard stories about Ryanair's mistreatment of passengers, but, thankfully, we have not experienced anything but efficiency. If we had no Michael O'Leary (who, I accept, is not the most popular man in the airline business), we would not be in a position to take these frequent flights. Is there a kind of snobbery in admitting to using Ryanair?"
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