Earlier in the year I (rather smugly) wrote a piece saying I had put my money where my mouth is and paid extra to book with BMI Baby rather than fly with Ryanair.
So was it worth it?
Well, No.
Firstly, the check in, where my 18kg allowance caused a problem as I was 0.6kg over. I had to move a few things into my hand luggage. What is the point of this when I weigh 90kg and far more than 90% of the other people on the same flight anyway?
Secondly, the two flights should have gone out at similar times heading towards Malaga. The Ryanair one sailed off bang on time, whilst I faced a two hour plus delay. Not a good start.
Getting on the plane was a bit easier with a numbered seat, but did have me (traveling alone) sitting next to a guy trying to cope with a screaming toddler. The seat I was allocated would have been tight for Ronnie Corbett, but for me was just ridiculous. I was bent double trying to fit into it. Once we were airborne I moved to an empty seat on the front right row which was slightly better. The stewardess wouldn’t let me move to the empty ones on the front left as they were charged extra!
Coming home on Monday 3oth, I was with my family and back to Ryanair. No queue for check in. A slight disagreement about moving things around to make sure all the bags were exactly 15kg – even though we had one bag less than we had paid for.
The flight went off on time. Landed on time and we had extra legroom seats by the wing exits.
It wasn’t too bad. A bit like National Express coaches used to be in the 80’s, but on balance, better than BMI Baby. I think the new MD of BMI Baby, Julian Carr, has some work to do.
If Michael O’Leary changed Ryanair’s company attitude and kept the same company punctuality, they could be likable as well as cheap.
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 
John
I have to agree – I have never had a problem with Ryanair. And have never managed to get a ‘budget’ ticket price from BMI Baby.
http://spuddey.wordpress.com/?s=ryanair
It’s bizarre really, they could be brilliant if they just stopped being quite so unpleasant and thought about the effect of what they were saying.
An offer to customers of the cheapest prices, perfect punctuality and a smiling greeting would be hugely hard to beat by anyone entering their market and would put them streets ahead of their competitors.
Mr O’Leary. If you’re reading this, call me.
John – even better news – here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7981643/Ryanair-boss-says-air-stewardesses-should-be-allowed-to-land-planes-in-an-emergency.html I guess you have figured out what this is about from the title. Yep – lets save money by getting rid of one of the Pilots! Brilliant. Worrying, but brilliant. What about offering discount to those of us with Pilots Licences? Just in case!!