Congratulations to Ryanair for being the LEAST child-friendly airline in the world! If that's what budget stands for, thank you, I'd rather pay full price. They close down entire rows of seats for whatever reason (to keep them clean?) and they cram everyone in the remaining seats. HORRIBLE!

Z Karoly-Smith, Bristol, UK

Unlike most of today's spoiled generation (who've known nothing else and) expect to pay 10 quid for a flight to Spain AND get treated like royalty, I can remember the price of flying with BA and other big airlines in the days before Ryan Air. Perhaps they are cheaper than Ryan now and again but if it wasn't for the competition provided by Ryan Air the big carriers would still be ripping us off as much as they did in the dark old days. Get real.

Geoff Harrison, Birmingham, UK

Flying from Nice-Gatwick with Easyjet -female- single passenger, I noticed that all the people who had paid for speedy embarquement were herded onto a Bus and all the rest of us were herded onto another Bus, we ripped airport tarmac together, waited 30 minutes on the airport landing strips, ducking and diving our heads from planes landing and taking off, then the bus doors opened up together and naturally the fittest men lurched towards the plane and there was absolutely no speedy embarquement for those who had paid as they all had kids and prams to carry so they were inevitably the last ones on the plane, the rule should be, children and mothers first, then ladies, then the rest of human society who call themselves men. Lunchtime - sandwiches off the menu, only snacks which were pretzels, biscuits etc, all the sort of trash which you may get in a Platform vending machine, just a warning dont bother with the speedy tickets, its cheaper just to ask a single lady if she does not mind.

Jessica Toomey, Menton, France

Hi
I am currently trying to get a tax refund from Ryanair and have sent 2 letters (1 registered)to their head office in Dublin without the courtey of a reply.I have just spoken to Dublin's citizens rights organization who advised that the Irish revenue may have my money and they are not interested in refunds
I will be writing to my MP but Gordon Brown has made the right to return of tax exteremely difficult by allowing the airlines to charge unlimited administration fee's
I will also now try the small debt court in the UK to get some justice because I refuse to pay Ryanair premium phone rates I am somewhat at a disavantage
We pay enough tax without being robbed by this airline as well
Sincerely

J S Vallance, Glasgow,

I can whole heartedly join the ranks of those who cannot say enough bad about Ryan Air. Two years ago I was returning to Italy from a visit in London, It was a welcome break as I was in the midst of chemotherapy. I arrived at the airport and discovered that I was standing in the wrong queue for my destination By the time I got myself to the correct queue, I was told they had stopped allowing passengers to check in. it was 40 minutes before check in in stead of the required 45 minutes, I explained that i needed to return on this flight as I had chemotherapy the next day. I was sent to customer service and was told- "sorry the rules are the rules, Everyone has some ridiculous excuse. " I realise that Ryan air is clear about the 45 minute rule, But a little compassion? and PS the flight was 35 minutes late in departing

Peggy, London,

I had to laugh at Easyjet when travelling from London to belfast from Stansted with my six month old baby on my own without my husband. Easyjet said I should leave the baby's buggy at the foot of the steps going up the aeroplane at the time of borading which i thought was good. However, when going through the gate, I encountered two flights of fairly steep stairs! Duh.
It meant I and other people in the same situation who had been allowed to board first because they had young children or needed assistance in boarding, had to wait until other passengers came through to ask for assistance from some kind people to get down the flights of stairs. There was no staff around to help. In the meantime, of course, lots of people had filed passed us and onto the plane so it defeated the whole purpose of having priority boarding!

Onora, London, UK

My husband and I just flew Ryanair from Germany to France. Never again - not only are the staff arrogant, rude and unhelpful, the entire booking process is structured to be misleading and ultimately, we paid considerably more for our flights than anticipated. The attitude is that since they are a cheap carrier, they are entitled to be rough and unprofessional with customers - OK, but you can only do that to us once.

Heather Harteneck, Clearwater, USA/FL

my wife and i are retired and find that flying with the much abused ryanair allows us to enjoy many more short breaks to spain and italy than we could have were we to fly with the likes of ba etc. when you book with ryan you know excatly what you are going to get so why all the moans? if you want to be treated like royalty then pay the extra. by the way as an owner occupier with a university degree i object to guderian referring to me as 'lower order', shades of naziism there guderian. if pondlife of france does not want to go anywhere that ryanair goes to fine with me but that cuts out rome, seville, madrid, barcelona to name but a few of the great cities of europe.
one of the gripes that i do have and no one has mentioned is that with the new rules on entry into spain am surprised that ryanair did not allow me to fill in the form on line as other carriers do.

jolliffe, cheltenham, england

If Ryanair did ban families, I would always fly with them. The worst thing about any flight is being trapped for 2 hours with some screaming infant. Profit per passenger is (we are told) very low, and this would be offset by encouraging non families to fly with them. Would the net loss or gain amount to much?.
They may even be better off. I get tired of subsidising other peoples families. If parents have such a hard time, bear in mind no one forces you to have them and they are the very worst thing for the environment (over population). Never mind non smoking flights, we should have screaming brat/non screaming brat sections, with some soundproof barrier.

Paul Gaynor, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

We flew with Ryanair last September because they were the only airline available. Never again - they were expensive, with poor baggage allowances and brusk unhelpful staff.

Last February we flew Easyjet - a far better experience. The staff on the Easyjet flight said that they would never work for Ryanair because Ryanair demanded much longer hours from their staff with lousy pay and less turnaround time. Maybe that is why they are so unpleasant.

Jean Taylor, London, UK

I have flown with Ryanair on several occasions and will never again, I've never experienced a normal landing with them, in fact everytime I've flown with them the landings seem to get worse! The Captains' habit of slamming the plane on to the tarmac is really quite alarming!

Michelle, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Yes Ryanair service at times leaves a lot to be desired but you pays your money and takes your choice. We wanted to go to London (from Manchester) for the weekend with our two children - Virgin wanted over £300 so we went to Italy with Ryanair for £72.50 (including all the add ons) - for me it's a no brainer.

If people want to go back to the good old days of national carriers charging £600 for a return ticket within Europe if you don't have a Saturday night, fine. To many people remember the service levels but not the prices we had to pay for it.

Chris, MAcclesfield,

I only use Ryanair to places where I have no Option eg Lodz in Poland . EASY JET IS A MUCH MORE USER FRIENDLY BUDGET AIRLINE.
It is incredible that queing and boarding with Ryan air brings out the worst in people.How sad!!!

Max, London,

I don't fly Ryanair because the thought of travelling with the lower orders fills me with dread. However I admire Mr O' Leary for his egalitarian attitudes. However if you pay peanuts expect to be treated like monkeys.

H Guderian, London,

I agree, I often fly ryanair & easyjet to Spain, but after a 5 hour delay with easyjet with no compensation despite having 3 small children with us and similar bad experiences with ryanair, I looked at BA. funny enough our flights in both july & Oct this year are cheaper through BA than either cheap airline??? Plus the service is better & baggage allowance so much better!
Now ryanair charge for priority boarding,OK. Why should I pay for what was a free service when I flew with my children & makes no difference to the boarding itself with the staff allowing no time for parents & children to board before the flood of everyone else shoving from behind?
Wonder why no one has a good thing to say about budget airline's who really aren't that cheap?

Klaire Loughran, Leigh on Sea, United Kingdom

I have never wanted to travel to anywhere that Ryanair flies. I doubt I'd choose them because of the complaints I have heard & read over the years from a great many travellers and also comments made by the MD himself.

However I am somewhat disappointed to see that Easyjet is always lumped in with Ryanair whenever there is a critical article on "no frills airlines": I regularly fly between Geneva and different UK cities, using Easyjet, and have used them flying to Budapest, Prague and Rome from Geneva. In my opinion they beat British Airways hands down, and only BA have ever lost my luggage... it ain't rocket science.

You get what you pay for and I don't mind paying a lot less for not having an allocated seat, or a meal.

Pondlife, France,

I've flown hassle-free with Ryanair for many years now. Read their terms and conditions before booking a ticket with them. I think that a lot of people condemning them will end up flying with them again. After all, who else will sell you a return ticket for 2p!

Paul Borger, London, UK

I agree with Barbara (Farnce? France?) that with carriers like Ryanair you get what you pay for. I have travelled by Go and Meridiana, both foreign (to the UK) economy fliers and it's certainly true! But the flights were cheap and affordable.
I, personally, hate the lack of space and the costly drinks and food available and so, pay the "excess" for travelling by one of the "flag-carriers" (Alitalia, my preference, or BA) from Naples whenever I return to the UK. I have never found the aircrew particularly rude or uncooperative (my luck?)...
My criticism would be that, when last travelling from Rome to London the cabin temperature was set to very cool (it felt about 10 degrees, but I am sure that it was nearer to 18! However, Rome was 36 degrees that day- making the flight extremely, and unpleasantly, cold!), and this was with Alitalia.

tim, Naples , Italy

The previous writer is entitled to her gallant defence of Ryanair. Yes, there are a lot of'whingers' all over the world and we are good at it! She is also right in that all the small print in the world read by all the pasengers who have flown and will fly with Ryanair , will not make the airline passenger friendly, caring or ethical. They are a ruthless business man's dream of profit and money alone. Since we are not cattle being transported we would not in principle fly with this airline again............once was enough.

Jyotish, Hildenborough, UK

Come on moaning minnies - you get what you pay for. Ryanair is a fantastic commuter airline. We live in France and last year used Ryanair twice per week every week, we still fly with them on a regular basis, as do our visitors from the UK. We have NEVER had a problem. Read their terms and conditions before you choose to do business with them and if you don't like what they offer don't book. Otherwise accept that they do exactly what is says on the tin!!!

Barbara, FARNCE,

I quite agree with the comments made above. Ryanair is definitely an airline I avoid on principle. The owner does not care about his customers. The airline makes money out of those flying with them in whatever ways they can think up - remeber them charging people £10 for a hweelchair from the terminal to the aircraft. We were charged £60 excess baggage while Easy-Jet charged us nothing for an oward flight with the same baggage. I too find it hard to see why people continue to fly with them.

Amanda Shanks, Belfast, UK

We had the misfortune of flying with Ryanair 3 years ago and have no intention of ever flying with them again. I should have known from the start it was a mistake, they got my husbands names the wrong way round on the booking and when I pointed this out and asked if this would be a problem as it differed from his passport they said that it would be a problem, and charged us almost as much as the flight itself to change the booking details!
Despite being at the front of the queue for boarding and explaining that we wanted to sit together as a family we were made to wait until last because they didn't know if they could accomodate the buggy (the check in said the buggy could be stowed in the cabin!) and so had to sit separately. This also happened on the return flight.

We did get our own back though when our son was copiously sick on the stewardess who said she couldn't warm up our daughters milk for health and safety reasons but would be willing to sell us a soft drink instead!

Sam, Sheffield,

I travelled to Bergerac with Ryanair on my own with a one year old in a buggy. It was a truly awful experience. I had to carry the buggy, hand luggage and baby down the stairs to get to the plane and only managed because another passenger helped. The buggy was chucked onto the tarmac at Bergerac breaking the parasol. When we arrived at Stanstead on return journey the Ryanair staff stood by watching or should I say smirking whilst I struggled up the stairs and a passing policeman helped me back to the terminal. Cheap doesn't excuse such appalling customer service and I would never use Ryanair again. Have since travelled with BA to Bordeaux and Easyjet to Amsterdam on my own with child and both were fine - in fact Easyjet couldn't have been more helpful.

Tracey C, Milton Keynes,

Having only flown with Ryanair once, but will be doing so in September, I have only one complaint. I had no choice but to purchase the priority boarding as I wasn't taking any luggage. My husband, however, had the one bag and we were unable to board together. It was also a struggle to try and reach the priority boarding 'gate' on both legs of the journey. I found the staff quite helpful. Hope this continues.

Lorraine, Preston, United Kingdom

When you fly with Ryanair or any other airline from Bristol you do not get priority boarding with youngsters. You may be called first but you get on a bus to be moved out to the aircraft but you are followed by other passengers on the same bus. As a result when you get to the aircraft they are always first on board.

Gerry Crossman, Bristol, UK

I would have asked the stewardess for her name and told her I was going to report her for discrimination. Outrageous.

Oonagh, Hong Kong,

I will never fly Ryan Air again. Rude, arrogant and inefficient.

richard, bangkok,

I regularly used to fly with Ryanair until I got so fed up with the attitude of both the check in staff and the stewards which was, frankly, appalling. Also, with the out of town airports and additional charges, Ryanair is no longer a much cheaper or faster carrier.

Ruth, Paris,

Of course Ryanair does not particularly want parents. Other customer groups suit its business model better. It's a free market - get over it!

Some customers regard the fact that we are not surrounded by parents and kids as a big plus.

Vicky, London,

I fly Ryan air as they are the only airline who fly from my closest airport in France. The statement from Ryan air that families are delighted to be offered the £2 priority ticket is absolute rubbish.
When I started flying Ryan air it was families board first for NO CHARGE, now it is all about those people who have bought priority boarding tickets who in general are not family people, what will happen when everybody buys priority tickets, will they will have to think of another scam. Roll on the day a rival airline gets into Dinard.

edward chalkley, Corseul, France

It always amazes when I read the complaints of those who travel by allegedly low -cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet.
They continue to buy their tickets and support the airline. Why don' t they vote with their feet?

John Doe, London,

I think its a shame that many people mention Ryanair and Easyjet as similar products. I fly with Easyjet regularly an think they are excellent

Alan Wan, Richmond, Surrey

We also had a lot of problems with RyanAir with our child. When they first introduced the priority seating we asked if it applied for children and the attendant told us that we would be boarded just after the priority ticket and to wait on the side with other parent only to refuse us entry later on by another attendant and having us wait at the end of the queue.
Another time as we got into the plane our boy needed a nappy change and we were not allowed to use the changing room until up in the air (we had plenty of time as we were priority boarding) and then refuse to take the nappy in a nappy sack in their bin!!
Compared to Easyjet or bmi, where people we fantastically helpful and do prioritised you, the servise is night and day. I guess RyanAir is the real cattle class.
One more rant, I took a RyanAir credit card as I was told I would get free flight only to be told that it could not be used for anyone else in my fanily but me which makes booking a nighmare (I cancelled the card).

Buche, Reading, Berkshire

I tried Ryan Air once but not twice.
If i want to have a fight to board a conveyance I can go by tube.
Amazingly, however, there appears a sufficient number of people willing to put up with being treated like a second class citizen on a regular basis.
Ryanair lead the aviation world by being cheap. Efficient and professional they are not.
Incidentally I am neither pregnant nor a family.

Stephen Cantle, London, UK

i HATE ryanair the world's least favourite airline. They really do delight in treating their passengers like absolute dirt. Just as well their tickets are cheap because I don't think anyone would ever fly with them given another option...

elemjay, london,

I never fly with Ryanair, as I don't like the attitude of the owner. Most news and travel articles mentioning Ryanair report problems, and I would rather not line the pockets of a man who has customer comfort low-down on the list of priorities.

Jen, London,