Can they not offer a parachute drop over the Midlands? I need a midlands - basel flight (no luton doesn't count)

I know Ryanair used to do B'Ham - Dublin though

You can fly with Swiss to birmingham....
but maybe you are looking for a cheaper option??

Thats exciting! Thanks for the info.

I could for £220, go Bham Zurich Basel. Or a variety of other options.

Seems I could now go via Dublin for £100 quid return.

I'm awaiting the day that the North gets a decent connection from Zurich...right now the only one I can find that goes to Leeds is KLM for over £300...I'm going to Newcastle mid September for a friends birthday, cheapest flight I found so far was around £250....Bristol in October to meet up with old friends from university, £260...

...it's madness that for all of the above, it's cheaper to fly to London and then get internal flights and/or trains to my final destination, than it is to fly directly there (!)

how can they be rude? when do you NEED! to talk to them?
stuff your shit in the lockers, fasten seatbelt and say what drink and/or food you like when asked. unfasten seatbelt, get your belongings, leave the plane.

easy as checkers, spoken words to the staff: 5-8.

Same prob I have.... I feel your pain

why dont you go to geneva and drop at east midlands with easyjet?
why dont you choose air berlin to manchester from zürich?

ok, you have to go 3hrs by train to geneva first and maybe from manchester
it takes sometime to get to newcastle, but you wont spend 300pounds
or what have you...

Yep - it's a company culture thing I think, comes right from the top. The message is that passengers a just stupid cattle who will continue to fly with the company simply because they are the cheapest. Easyjet definitely have happier, more helpful staff and seem a little more inclined to provide a nice experience to the customer.


The thing is that Ryanair aren't always so cheap. Try flying somewhere popular at a time that is convenient to you and see what sort of a bargain is available. You can often pay more than a regular airline (goes for Easyjet too).

I was recently able to fly to Switzerland and back from Dublin for a total of 190 GB pounds, including taxes. That was with Aer Lingus and represents pretty good VFM in my opinion. Apart from crappy facilities in Dublin Airport (temporary terminals in prefabs as there's major construction work going on!) the experience beat Ryanair hands down.

Depending on when you want to fly but there are fantastic deals with Swiss from Basel to Manchester! Be sure when you search to use the +/- 3 day option which will search around the dates you want to fly for the cheapest flight!

I flew Swiss with my girlfriend in June from MAN-BSL and we got the return ticket for 100 quid for the both of us!

air berlin last time I looked Zurich to Manchester only did a one way flight, very confusing

You can do Geneva to Newcastle easyjet in the winter

I've found that Swiss do some funny one-way-only flights, which means I shan't be going with them to see a friend of mine if I ever get the cash together...

Yes! Cheap tickets to Stockholm - eventhough it is not really Stockholm....hm...I'll definitely going to try it out anyway!

Don't know if it is to any help...but there is a shuttle (http://www.flygbussarna.se//tidtabeller/skavsta_s.pdf) going every now and then between SKavsta and Stockholm City and ends up just next to the main station, so you could actually just pop on a train to Västerås right after that... don't know if it is worth the hassle though...
...would rather stay in Stockholm

Heh, that's an hour to Stockholm and then another hour to Västerås, plus another 20 minutes or half hour to my friend's apartment...aaaaaaah, could walk there in that time!

I love Stockholm, but I've lived in Västerås, so that's going home for me

Okay heres the problem.

You're at work Mon-Fri you leave work at 5pm Fri night get a flight to england then + 3 hrs travel or vice versa via Geneva.

The problem is a time + cost issue. It means if I need to return home for a wedding or some other event I affectively only have one day in the UK.

If I could do this in 3/4hrs that would be awesome, seems I could now go via Dublin, which I reckons possible to fit into the time frame. However you start to work out x over in waiting for planes/trains etc and it soon stacks up.

I guess walking would be the safest bet to get there on scheduled time...

Story here.

read this earlier .... another example of you get what you pay for with the budget carriers - SFA

Hmmm, I'm not one to defend Ryanair (as I hate them with a passion) but this seems like a sensible move so long as the online checker-inners actually get their flight 4 quid cheaper than they otherwise would have done.

I suspect that this will not be the case and it will be just an excuse to milk more cash from the flier whilst keeping headline fairs low.

As a person who always tries to fly with only carry-on baggage I have to say that online check-in is the best thing to have happened with airlines in a long time. I have been stuck in long check-in queues behind complete morons so many times you wouldn't believe. I'd actually pay extra for online check-in so I'm happy that it's at least nominally cheaper.

For me, check-in goes something like this.

Tell clerk where I'm flying and give them my passport.
Answer 'no' to 'do you have baggage to check in'.
Answer 'no' to all security questions.
Get boarding card.

Takes about 2-3 minutes max.


Goodness knows what some other people do but it never seems to be straightforward. Groups of people, usually families, are the worst. They usually have masses of heavy baggage and act surprised when they 'find out' that there is a weight/number of bags limit on it. I've also seen one of a group turn up without a passport on more than one occasion.

Even singles seem to often take ages. What more is there to discuss than the procedure I outlined above?

Gav, I fly very frequently & rarely do I have hold luggage, even when I do I have already printed off an e-ticket or used one of the new machines where you can verify by credit card.
Point being, normal carriers wouldn't charge me an additional £4.00 to go to the check-in desk, but Ryanair thinks thats ok.

Now flying trans-Atlantic, now thats another barrel of fish : BA / Virgin