Ryanair to abolish check-in desks

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:52:23 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

There are vanishingly few "plum seats" on modern airbus/737/777-style
aircraft

There's 18 on a Ryanair 737-800 (the 6 at the front and both exit
rows), if you count the middles.

Not as good as the ones on the EZY 737-700s, though, in which there is
the one exit seat with double legroom. This is surprisingly easy to
get, and I've had it even without speedy boarding before.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On 26 Feb 2009 19:26:33 GMT, pete wrote:

I think cruises have moved on a bit since that view was formed. Some friends
went on one (with their kids) a couple of years ago and reckoned they were
the only ones on the whole ship without tattoos and piercings. If that is
the what these cruises are like, all you'd need clothes-wise is a change
of shorts and a couple of t-shirts.

easyCruise?

My parents go on cruises quite often, and they still talk of the
formal side.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

In message , at 20:36:26 on Thu,
26 Feb 2009, Neil Williams remarked:

Though there's also under the seat for soft bags.

I think you'll find that trolley-bags which meet the size restrictions
will also fit under a seat.
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:36:20 GMT, Air wrote:

Not for a cruise no. My cameras, laptop etc take up the hand luggage
limit.

Maybe you need smaller ones, then? A small compact camera can just go
in your pocket (and thus doesn't form part of any luggage allowance).
My laptop is roughly A4 form factor and will fit nicely in the back of
the rucksack I use for hand luggage, a 35-litre Karrimor[1], with
enough space for 5 days worth of (informal) clothes with it.

If you are properly into photography and so have an SLR with a
selection of lenses, fair point. But that's by no means typical - the
quality of photographs from a mid-priced compact digital camera is by
far sufficient for most people. Huge laptops are also fairly common,
but smaller ones are also widely available and aren't *that* dear.

[1] which is about Ryanair-sized, co-incidentally also the right size
to fit in the rather small overheads of a Fokker 50 and avoid the need
to gate-check it.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

In message , at 20:42:25 on Thu,
26 Feb 2009, Neil Williams remarked:
On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:52:23 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

There are vanishingly few "plum seats" on modern airbus/737/777-style
aircraft

There's 18 on a Ryanair 737-800 (the 6 at the front and both exit
rows), if you count the middles.

They aren't plum by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing they
don't allow under-seat luggage.

Not as good as the ones on the EZY 737-700s, though, in which there is
the one exit seat with double legroom.

No under seat luggage, and what about a tray table (OK, maybe there's
one in the seat arm...)

--
Roland Perry

In message , at 20:38:41 on Thu,
26 Feb 2009, Neil Williams remarked:
I fail to understand why (unless travelling with very small children)
anyone can't do a weekend away in a hotel hand-luggage only. I pretty
much always do.

But don't you find that your formal dresses get crushed when packed into
such a small bag?
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:21:59 +0000, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

When I did Sardina - Luton on the orange airline, it seemed the SLF just
wanted to get from A to B on civilised holidays or visiting family, and
so the "hey, look, we are chavs, innit great?" passenger experience was
completely inappropriate to them

Do you find EZY like that? I know they're informal, but they're also
very professional when they need to be. The friendly crews is one of
the many things I like about the orange team over other airlines.

"Chavs" are probably most likely to be found on Ryanair, anyway, as it
is usually vastly cheaper than easyJet, which these days appears to go
after a very different market.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:55:53 +0000, chunkyoldcortina
wrote:

That is a real problem in the event of severe turbulence, and I would imagine
that loose/flying objects are the main cause of injuries in such situations.

Probably less of an issue than it used to be, because the bins are
larger and designed to take more weight. Though how often does it
actually happen? (Not to me in a year of twice-weekly flying, for
certain - I had a few rough flights, but none enough to cause anything
to leave the overhead lockers, though one or two did cause flying
drinks and a bit of broken glass[1] rolling around on the floor).

I'd say it was an acceptable risk, just as having unrestrained luggage
in sensibly-sized overhead racks[2], standing passengers and no seat
belts is on trains. Evidently a very large number of airlines agree,
such as easyJet and BA which have no weight limit, and KLM who do but
never enforce it.

[1] Drinks glasses, not anything serious, though if it had itself
started flying around rather than just down to the floor it might not
have been fun.

[2] Fortunately, the crappy design of the late Mk2, *star, Voyager and
158 units has not found its way onto things like Desiros, Eurostars
and Pendolinos, where there is enough space for fairly big bags.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:37:20 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

And the bins have allowable weights marked on them, much greater than
6kg per passenger. As for seat belts, airlines are very conservative and
insist they are worn even in very slight turbulence, or when turbulence
is predicted (but doesn't happen).

Then it happens as soon as the light goes off, IMX

You also get the ones that put the belt light on for the entire
(long-haul) flight[1] and thus discredit it completely. AA did that
to me once, and after an hour or two people just started to ignore it
as you can't realistically prevent people using the bog for 6 hours.

[1] The only sensible explanation I could think of was that he didn't
want to wake people up with repeated "pings" turning it off and on,
but it did make a mockery of it. There was frequent slight
turbulence, but it wasn't any rougher than your average train journey
is.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:50:21 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

They aren't plum by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing they
don't allow under-seat luggage.

If you get on first, you've got time to grab some space in the
overhead.

No under seat luggage, and what about a tray table (OK, maybe there's
one in the seat arm...)

There is one in the arm[1], but I just put my coffee on the floor (or
hold it, if I'm not reading), stretch out and enjoy the journey
Best seat on the plane in my view (barring, I guess, the one up front
) and I'm quite happy if others don't want it so I can have it!

[1] Actually that's the only slight disadvantage - to fit it in the
seat is slightly narrower than normal ones.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.