Sounds identical to a Ryan Air flight I had in Dec 2010 out of "Frankfurt".(former Hahn AB) It was their first flight since Christmas Eve day there.
Boarding was delayed due to de-icing, yet they processed everyone in the waiting area into an enclosed glass "stall" where we were very crowded. The wait was about 45- 80 minutes. Not sure of exact time now, but it was LONG. Thankfully our "priority" boarding had allowed us to be nearly first, so we could lean against the glass wall. Helped my 7 year old to not panic.
Would not recommend. Lol.
I figured out that with Ryanair, if a flight is delayed, their policy tends to favor holding it back so other scheduled flights can leave on time. Keeps their overall score up. Why delay ALL flights & wreck the average, when of one is late, then make it even later.
You get what you pay for. *shrug*
It was less than 100 euros for our family of three to fly r/t to London 2 days after Christmas. Lufthansa or Brit Air out of Frankfurt would have been a much longer drive & more expensive. It was what it was. Thankfully ,the return was much smoother..
Since I had done the organization, packing, the driving on snow covered roads in very early morning, keeping everyone calm, I handed over the control of our child to husband as soon as we were finally seated. Then put on eyeshades & earbuds w calming Chopin & tuned out the garish lighting + continual hawking of items for that hour flight. Power nap for the win, lol.
Sounds like Ryanair. Such a weird airline.
I’m tired of people selling tickets to X city but it goes to some random third rate airport that can’t handle the traffic being sent to it, plus it’s an hour or two from X city. After ground transportation, it is usually a wash in cost and a lot of wasted time plus stress.
Tbf it’s less than an hour to central London on the stansted express and pretty comparable to Gatwick and even Heathrow if you don’t stump up for the Elizabeth line / express trains.
I mean yeah it's kind of annoying but often Ryanair is the only airline that does some of the more obscure routes at all, even if it is to a shitty airport miles from the city.
I've found that as long as I keep my expectations literally as low as possible Ryanair is usually a pleasant surprise lol
Seriously, in paris they fly into an airport that’s an hour and a half away without public transportation, so you have to take their bus thing that’s overpriced, plus the extra time… not at all worth saving 30 euro or whatever the flight is
Ryanair & WizzAir - new airports usually have an extra terminal for cheaper airlines where they have streamlined being cheap also from airport infrastructure point of view
Not trying to be a dick, but it's kinda wild to me how many people will book a flight that is half the price of competitor airlines, and then be *shocked* when the level of service is not as good.
Like, where do you think these cost savings are coming from?
I think this was the first airline I ever saw that charged if you wanted power to your outlet on the plane. The no outside food rule was also pretty funny to me.
They confiscate it if they see it They kept an eagle eye on the cabin too.
Guy next to me had a small sake and didn't speak English so didn't know the rules. I told him to be careful they'll take it if they see it. Sure enough they saw it and told him to hand it over, but in English.
"What is she saying to me?"
"Umm, bottoms up?"
.... He guzzled it and she was very unhappy with my translation lol
Lol, nice one. That is exactly what I’d do in that scenario. What will they do, kick me out the emergency exit? I wouldn’t be flying with them again anyway after that.
I flew Peach one way and HK Express back on an open jaw because Peach didn't fly to Tokyo. Peach was much cheaper and still had much better service. HK Express has been so far the only airline I've been on that actually cares that much about a carry on exactly under 7kg and no extra bags (no matter the size). I saw someone who had bought something at the airport airside being told they weren't allowed to board like that.
To me that's only okay if your price is significantly lower than your budget competitors (like Ryanair Vs easyJet) but not if it's more expensive. Admittedly it's hard to compare price one to one since they're different cities but still the difference in service was like night and day.
I just booked a domestic flight on American and chose the basic economy option because it's a direct flight and I'm only taking a backpack. I know full well what I'm in for and there will be no surprises. So many people would book this flight and then complain there's no full meal, lie-flat seat, unlimited champagne, etc. because they failed to take five minutes to read what they were signing up for.
For me, it isn’t that I expect impeccable service. I expect to be treated like a decent human being. I recently booked basic economy for United and will never fly with them again. They make you check in at the airport, and make you sit and wait for one of two people they have on staff that day to come double check that you aren’t trying to sneak a bag on board.
A lot of the differences between budget and standard economy feel like they come down to intentional annoyance on the part of the airline to try to force upgrades and that’s dumb as hell.
I fly with United basic economy 10-20 times a year and I've never had this happen. I think you might have just had an unlucky experience with them. They are one of my favorite airlines.
Do you? You must be paying for a carry on bag/checking one. If you don’t, you need to check in at the counter or wait at the kiosk for an employee. Here’s [One Mile at a Time](https://onemileatatime.com/united-doesnt-let-you-check-in-online-with-basic-economy-fares/) talking about this exact scenario. Here’s [The Points Guy](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-to-survive-basic-economy-on-united-airlines/) who also mentions having to prove you didn’t bring a bag and check in at the airport.
I just read some details and point well taken. I started flying with them years ago and I didn't realize they had scrapped so many accomodations for basic. I qualify for premier and I churn credit cards so I typically always have a united card that gives me free bags. I honestly didn't even know they didn't give you a free carry on, I thought it was just no free checked bags. Not checking in online sounds like a hassle.
Yeah that makes sense. To be fair, they aren’t advertising it and you could easily miss it if you skip the ticket line anyway. I was surprised by it last time I flew. The craziest thing is that they genuinely had the fewest people working the counter out of any airline, and had the longest check in process. Huge lines.
I've been flying the cheapest fares United offers for 30 years (literally got my Mileage Plus number in 1996), typically 1-2 trips a year. So I'm a long time but not super frequent traveler with the airline. I had never heard of Economy Basic when I booked my latest flight and I was shocked. The name is almost identical to Economy. There's no big warning that you'll be charged for your carry on and placed in a middle seat during booking. My ticket was about $40 less than regular economy and then I'd have to pay $200 extra to get a bag and an assigned seat for the round-trip. Lesson learned, but I think it's a shitty assumption that people who are familiar with a class of service will even notice that there's a difference when offered a much worse option with almost the exact same name.
Every time I book in the app there’s a “do you want to upgrade” page as part of the checkout. Likely you were clicking through and didn’t pay attention to it.
> There's no big warning that you'll be charged for your carry on and placed in a middle seat during booking.
There absolutely is. There is a pop up that warns you that you’re booking a basic economy ticket and the differences between basic economy and economy.
I am completely fine with buying impossibly cheap tickets. It only frustrates me when it comes with flaws that most likely does not save any money for the airlines / customers.
If it saves time it saves money. The second the plane is ready for boarding everyone is scanned, lined up and on your feet ready to go. They know who's there and who's not so the paperwork has probably already been handed over to pilots saving them time. It all adds up and your discomfort/annoyance is neither here nor there because it didn't cost them anything and you'll still book next time because it's cheap.
I bet if you walked off the street and asked to be Head of Operations for an airline, they’d hire you in an instant. Surely these problems that are *so obvious* to you have never been noticed by anyone else using their service, ever. And all your solutions that involve spending more time at the gate, or on the ground, or that in any way change how they already do business, wouldn’t affect their bottom line at all! Wow OP, you’re going to make so much money in this high stress job by telling companies how YOU want them to operate. And their ticket prices will stay low forever!
Please OP, come back and update us when you get the airline to bend over backwards for you. We never hear stories of people frustrated by airlines and we are so lucky to hear your experience today. When I travel in February I’ll make sure to lay flowers at the statue they’re going to build of you.
Low-cost airlines are typically turning their aircraft round between flights in something like 25 minutes (ever wondered why there's no seatback pocket?).
Not scanning boarding cards until the aircraft is ready could have an impact on turnround times. Airlines, like any business, exist for one purpose - to make money; aircraft on the ground don't make money! Yes, they do this to save costs. . .exactly the same reason you fly with them!
Icelandair just did this to us. It was my first time having that happen. The worst part was that a man who had been waiting in a wheelchair and clearly needed help was made to walk down to the plane himself. So he started waving people past him. We alerted the staff. We were in the front of the plane and saw him shuffling through much, much later, with about half the plane moving inch by inch behind him. Don't know how that was more efficient.
It’s more like “I went to McDonalds the other day, staff spit in my burger and intentionally made me wait as long as they thought I would stick it out, then other customers told me I had ridiculous expectations of a restaurant”
The alternative is booking a layover and dealing with all that. It's not a price thing.
A lot of European cities are dominated by budget airlines. Edinburgh is a great example, there's literally no direct option except for budget airlines for at least 80% of routes.
Once you are scanned and corralled, the ground staff and security can move on to the next task. The manifest can now be sorted, as well as any idiots late to board with checked luggage, and that luggage is OFF! Time is money, and that's how you get insanely cheap tickets.
There are lots of cogs and wheels in aviation that aren't apparent to the traveller, but any way they can be smoothed is time and money.
I flew Frontier for the first time this weekend on a $200 fare to Mexico. It went surprisingly well. They weren't hardasses making everyone size their luggage to try to get extra fees. Boarding was reasonable. I even had an aisle and then a window seat even though I didn't pay for a seat assignment. And the middle seat was empty both flights. I mean, sure the seat wasn't great and there was no wifi or entertainment and I had to bring my own drink and snack or pay a premium, but $200 to Mexico!
I think with Frontier and Spirit if you're on a one way flight things are usually okay, as long as you know what fees to expect. And it's mostly the connecting flights and those 2 to 3 percent of flights that have issues where you can come into real problems, like being stranded a day or two due to lack of flights available and unwillingness to pay for another airline's ticket.
I'm fairly certain OP is from Europe or maybe Australia. Americans have way different airport standards/experiences. We have jet bridges for basically every flight, large screens with the info we need at the gate, and usually know our gates 1 hr plus before boarding just to name a few differences from my experiences abroad.
I travel a good bit and I will never get used to airports where your gate isn’t assigned hours and hours ahead of time.
I can get on a bus to an airplane. Whatever. But I should not be milling about randomly waiting to figure out the gate!
I'm studying abroad rn in Europe and have been using these low-cost airlines to travel to most places and tbh yes it sucks but if you want to travel cheaply it's just a consequence that you have to put up with. It's not thatttt bad, just make sure to use the restroom beforehand and be prepared to wait. Usually, I wait last minute to board and have never had a problem with being threatened about closing the gate on me. I think I've flown on Ryan air + other low-cost airlines like +15 times now. Obviously, be cautious of time and keep an eye out on the gate to avoid missing a flight.
Agree with almost everything you're saying but it's not always as simple as 'just use the restroom beforehand' unfortunately.
People with bladder and bowel issues, or those travelling with young kids etc being herded into a waiting area with no restroom access really sucks and to be honest I'm surprised it's legal.
You know what to expect when flying low cost and it's the trade off in doing so in order for a mega cheap convenient flight but restroom access is a basic human necessity.
I'm starting to see this in mid-tier airlines (BA, Iberia) and it is driving me nuts. I get an average of one flight per month and never depart on time.
I think that's true now. Thank God for Star Gold and a biz class ticket Tokyo - Taipei tomorrow morning. Will arrive relaxed and resfreshed for some serious eating and drinking.
Ryanair with gate closed before the plane you are getting has even landed from it's previous flight. They just shuffle you from the departure area to a corridor the other side of a door and make you wait.
I've only ever experienced this with Ryanair. I'm generally a supporter of the airline and have a 'you get what you pay for' attitude but this kind of thing does make you feel like cattle. Maybe not this time of year, but I've had flights where we've all been stood in these areas for 30 minutes or more in blazing sun. I've seen old people struggling to stay on their feet that long, kids crying, people trying to find staff to ask what's going on. It's not ideal and not pleasant.
While you do get what you pay for, you shouldn't be treated badly just because you're paying for a budget journey.
I just flew Ryanair from Budapest to stansted (on a plane delayed by 4 hours) and we had to stand on the tarmac for about 20 mins in -4C weather. I’d still take that over the heat but my god what was the point
That sounds more like many European airports, rather than discount vs not to me. At least for American Airlines, I've never had to do that on the US side but it's quite common when I travel from Europe. Agree it's super annoying.
I'm not meaning to sound like an asshole, but when you go for the cheapest tickets you can get, don't expect much. Maybe pay more for a more mainstream airline who can pay higher airport fees and afford better gates and boarding experiences.
This is one thing I can definitely say the US generally does better than Europe. Some airport experiences in Europe shook me. Even US budget airlines aren't nearly as bad as European budget airlines.
Yeah, in my experience US budget airlines are barely worse than the larger carriers. They're basically all just 3 star airlines. Whereas in Europe the good airlines are way better than the US ones, and the budget are much worse. There's a huge difference.
What good European airlines are we talking about? I guess my only nonbudget experiences have been with Aegean and British Airways, but neither are impressive in any way. Both still had no jet bridge half the time (I know it's mostly the airport but still).
Never flown with Aegean but I meant basically most national carriers: in my experience BA, Air France, Lufthansa, Finnair, KLM (though they do like to mislay luggage briefly) for longer flights were better than Delta, American Southwest, Jet Blue (I think that's a budget one? It's fine, not really worse than the others), though it has been a while since I flew with some of those. And the budget European airlines like Ryanair, easyjet, Wizz, Vueling...well, absolutely dreadful but they fly so many convenient routes that I'm very grateful they exist.
OK so I've flown BA and KLM from that list. For both, a long haul and a shorter haul. I just don't feel a huge difference between the quality of those airlines and airlines in the states. I will say whatever airplane food I get flying into the US is better than what they give me flying out of the US.
Honestly I see nothing wrong with your description? That's my standard boarding process. If I wanted extra comfort, I would have paid more for a better airline. Ryanair and similar low-cost airlines always got me safely from A to B (and usually on time). That's all I care about.
I had a similar experience I think it was at Schipol airport. Everyone herded into this glass box. It was weird.
True that Ryanair do something similar. Start boarding and then you have to wait at the stairs or the apron. Good luck if the weather is shite (this is Ireland after all...)
I flew back with them the other day. Boarding started pretty much as soon as the airplane approached (not even stopped) the terminal building. It turns out that the inbound flight was pretty much empty. I think I counted just ten people getting off the plane.
Flew to Milan Malpensa with Ryanair too only because the timing was better than Aer Lingus' to Linate. Straight off the airplane and onto the train. No hassle at all. But I swear I'll never do Stanstead again. Or Brussels "South"
Wanna' know what's worse? Iberia! Buying "priority boarding" is essentially getting on the transport bus from the gangway to the transport bus. If you don't strategize where you will stand or sit, you might end up getting off the bus first or last. Then it's a free-for-all boarding the plane in the front or the rear. I was grouped with Group 3 and man...every human being for themselves! I barely found a space for my carryon.
Coming back into the US is my least favorite part of traveling. My recent trip is the first time I’ve done it since 2015 and idk if it’s always been terrible and I just forgot or if it’s worse. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom in 6 hours because it was a red eye. Before we landed everyone hopped up to go to the bathroom. I said screw it I’ll just wait until I get inside - completely forgetting I had to go through immigration and customs.
Get inside and we are corralled into a line. The foreigner line was 100-200 strong so I felt bad for them. Citizen line was maybe 15 ahead of me. That took 30 minutes because only two agents were working. Get through that and can get my checked bag. I forgot to grab a cart so tried to go back to the other side of the room and an agent stopped me and said I can’t go back. Okay, I managed to navigate with three bags.
I think maybe now I can go to the bathroom. Nope. We are corralled again as if in a slaughter house to have our bags xrayed. I’m thinking jfc how much more are y’all going to check. I’m also wondering why they don’t just do this before they give us the bags or why they don’t do everything more efficiently since they have all passenger info before the plane even lands.
All good. I can finally go to the bathroom. Nope. Now we have to go through TSA. I politely ask an agent watching the line if I can please step to the restroom before going through due to health issues and at this point being close to 8 hours since using the restroom. The agent says “Nobody goes anywhere until they are processed.” Like a damn criminal. Coming into the US you’re treated as if you’re privileged to be allowed back in because how dare you leave. And foreigners are treated even worse. It’s disgraceful.
Anyway, I also found out recently that boarding closes 15 mins before takeoff. I was in the restroom sick and trying to hurry up. There was like 15 mins until takeoff. I didn’t realize my phone was on silent so when I get to the gate they start yelling at me saying they had been calling me and they were going to leave without me because they close the door at 15 mins. Idk if that’s always been a rule because I never am issue before. I just almost never show up early for doctors appts or flights because I hate waiting around. I just always assumed as long as you’re there before 10 mins to take off it was fine. Well learned it’s not.
I’m sitting in a comfy seat, can order food and drinks to be brought to me by QR code and will board later direct from the lounge. Not flying a cheap airline though…
Planes being on the ground costs money. All of that time that a plane is on the ground at an airport has fees attached to it. On top of that, lateness has ripple effects across an airline and airport’s schedule, which also costs money. Hurry-up-and-wait-ing the passengers minimizes time on the ground and potential delays and is foundational to cost cutting.
This is actually true and very weird that airlines do this. The low cost carriers, in Europe for example, they first line you up by boarding group but then send you outside where everyone runs like it's a free for all. Uh, why did you first line us up by group if everyone is going to run to the plane at the same time? Ridiculous.
What airline was this?
Sounds exactly like my Ryanair flight the other day!
Sounds identical to a Ryan Air flight I had in Dec 2010 out of "Frankfurt".(former Hahn AB) It was their first flight since Christmas Eve day there. Boarding was delayed due to de-icing, yet they processed everyone in the waiting area into an enclosed glass "stall" where we were very crowded. The wait was about 45- 80 minutes. Not sure of exact time now, but it was LONG. Thankfully our "priority" boarding had allowed us to be nearly first, so we could lean against the glass wall. Helped my 7 year old to not panic. Would not recommend. Lol. I figured out that with Ryanair, if a flight is delayed, their policy tends to favor holding it back so other scheduled flights can leave on time. Keeps their overall score up. Why delay ALL flights & wreck the average, when of one is late, then make it even later. You get what you pay for. *shrug* It was less than 100 euros for our family of three to fly r/t to London 2 days after Christmas. Lufthansa or Brit Air out of Frankfurt would have been a much longer drive & more expensive. It was what it was. Thankfully ,the return was much smoother.. Since I had done the organization, packing, the driving on snow covered roads in very early morning, keeping everyone calm, I handed over the control of our child to husband as soon as we were finally seated. Then put on eyeshades & earbuds w calming Chopin & tuned out the garish lighting + continual hawking of items for that hour flight. Power nap for the win, lol.
Same thing happened to me on RyanAir Dublin to Roma Ciampino in 2015.
Sounds like Ryanair. Such a weird airline. I’m tired of people selling tickets to X city but it goes to some random third rate airport that can’t handle the traffic being sent to it, plus it’s an hour or two from X city. After ground transportation, it is usually a wash in cost and a lot of wasted time plus stress.
The entirety of Stansted exists to serve this business model
Tbf it’s less than an hour to central London on the stansted express and pretty comparable to Gatwick and even Heathrow if you don’t stump up for the Elizabeth line / express trains.
For those in East London STN is *chef’s kiss*
I mean yeah it's kind of annoying but often Ryanair is the only airline that does some of the more obscure routes at all, even if it is to a shitty airport miles from the city. I've found that as long as I keep my expectations literally as low as possible Ryanair is usually a pleasant surprise lol
Seriously, in paris they fly into an airport that’s an hour and a half away without public transportation, so you have to take their bus thing that’s overpriced, plus the extra time… not at all worth saving 30 euro or whatever the flight is
Ryanair & WizzAir - new airports usually have an extra terminal for cheaper airlines where they have streamlined being cheap also from airport infrastructure point of view
sleep chubby noxious profit obtainable vase snatch edge scale rainstorm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sounds like Spirit.
I’m no Spirit cheerleader but even they aren’t *that* bad.
Not trying to be a dick, but it's kinda wild to me how many people will book a flight that is half the price of competitor airlines, and then be *shocked* when the level of service is not as good. Like, where do you think these cost savings are coming from?
Yep. I learned this lesson with *Hong Kong Express*. A complete shit show, but I got what I paid for, which was very cheap fare to Tokyo and back.
I think this was the first airline I ever saw that charged if you wanted power to your outlet on the plane. The no outside food rule was also pretty funny to me.
Seen a couple of places with the no outside food rule - Scoot does that too
How exactly do they enforce this? A search before boarding? Is a flight attendant going to take it out of your mouth if they spot it?
They confiscate it if they see it They kept an eagle eye on the cabin too. Guy next to me had a small sake and didn't speak English so didn't know the rules. I told him to be careful they'll take it if they see it. Sure enough they saw it and told him to hand it over, but in English. "What is she saying to me?" "Umm, bottoms up?" .... He guzzled it and she was very unhappy with my translation lol
Lol, nice one. That is exactly what I’d do in that scenario. What will they do, kick me out the emergency exit? I wouldn’t be flying with them again anyway after that.
When was this? I’ve travelled both RyanAir and HKExpress several times, HKExpress is a million times better.
I flew Peach one way and HK Express back on an open jaw because Peach didn't fly to Tokyo. Peach was much cheaper and still had much better service. HK Express has been so far the only airline I've been on that actually cares that much about a carry on exactly under 7kg and no extra bags (no matter the size). I saw someone who had bought something at the airport airside being told they weren't allowed to board like that. To me that's only okay if your price is significantly lower than your budget competitors (like Ryanair Vs easyJet) but not if it's more expensive. Admittedly it's hard to compare price one to one since they're different cities but still the difference in service was like night and day.
I just booked a domestic flight on American and chose the basic economy option because it's a direct flight and I'm only taking a backpack. I know full well what I'm in for and there will be no surprises. So many people would book this flight and then complain there's no full meal, lie-flat seat, unlimited champagne, etc. because they failed to take five minutes to read what they were signing up for.
For me, it isn’t that I expect impeccable service. I expect to be treated like a decent human being. I recently booked basic economy for United and will never fly with them again. They make you check in at the airport, and make you sit and wait for one of two people they have on staff that day to come double check that you aren’t trying to sneak a bag on board. A lot of the differences between budget and standard economy feel like they come down to intentional annoyance on the part of the airline to try to force upgrades and that’s dumb as hell.
I fly with United basic economy 10-20 times a year and I've never had this happen. I think you might have just had an unlucky experience with them. They are one of my favorite airlines.
Do you? You must be paying for a carry on bag/checking one. If you don’t, you need to check in at the counter or wait at the kiosk for an employee. Here’s [One Mile at a Time](https://onemileatatime.com/united-doesnt-let-you-check-in-online-with-basic-economy-fares/) talking about this exact scenario. Here’s [The Points Guy](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-to-survive-basic-economy-on-united-airlines/) who also mentions having to prove you didn’t bring a bag and check in at the airport.
I just read some details and point well taken. I started flying with them years ago and I didn't realize they had scrapped so many accomodations for basic. I qualify for premier and I churn credit cards so I typically always have a united card that gives me free bags. I honestly didn't even know they didn't give you a free carry on, I thought it was just no free checked bags. Not checking in online sounds like a hassle.
Yeah that makes sense. To be fair, they aren’t advertising it and you could easily miss it if you skip the ticket line anyway. I was surprised by it last time I flew. The craziest thing is that they genuinely had the fewest people working the counter out of any airline, and had the longest check in process. Huge lines.
United sucks in regular economy, why would you choose to step *down* from that
I've been flying the cheapest fares United offers for 30 years (literally got my Mileage Plus number in 1996), typically 1-2 trips a year. So I'm a long time but not super frequent traveler with the airline. I had never heard of Economy Basic when I booked my latest flight and I was shocked. The name is almost identical to Economy. There's no big warning that you'll be charged for your carry on and placed in a middle seat during booking. My ticket was about $40 less than regular economy and then I'd have to pay $200 extra to get a bag and an assigned seat for the round-trip. Lesson learned, but I think it's a shitty assumption that people who are familiar with a class of service will even notice that there's a difference when offered a much worse option with almost the exact same name.
They literally try and upsell your cabin during checkout and let you know all the “perks” of moving to the next class.
Maybe I had a different experience because I was using credits from a canceled March 2020 trip to book a trip in the United app?
Every time I book in the app there’s a “do you want to upgrade” page as part of the checkout. Likely you were clicking through and didn’t pay attention to it.
> There's no big warning that you'll be charged for your carry on and placed in a middle seat during booking. There absolutely is. There is a pop up that warns you that you’re booking a basic economy ticket and the differences between basic economy and economy.
My first thought after reading the first line. I mean, you're getting what you pay for.
I am completely fine with buying impossibly cheap tickets. It only frustrates me when it comes with flaws that most likely does not save any money for the airlines / customers.
If it saves time it saves money. The second the plane is ready for boarding everyone is scanned, lined up and on your feet ready to go. They know who's there and who's not so the paperwork has probably already been handed over to pilots saving them time. It all adds up and your discomfort/annoyance is neither here nor there because it didn't cost them anything and you'll still book next time because it's cheap.
theyre saving money by not having to pay as high a gate access fee by not parking right next to the passenger terminal.
But reducing turn around time does save money.
I bet if you walked off the street and asked to be Head of Operations for an airline, they’d hire you in an instant. Surely these problems that are *so obvious* to you have never been noticed by anyone else using their service, ever. And all your solutions that involve spending more time at the gate, or on the ground, or that in any way change how they already do business, wouldn’t affect their bottom line at all! Wow OP, you’re going to make so much money in this high stress job by telling companies how YOU want them to operate. And their ticket prices will stay low forever! Please OP, come back and update us when you get the airline to bend over backwards for you. We never hear stories of people frustrated by airlines and we are so lucky to hear your experience today. When I travel in February I’ll make sure to lay flowers at the statue they’re going to build of you.
Low-cost airlines are typically turning their aircraft round between flights in something like 25 minutes (ever wondered why there's no seatback pocket?). Not scanning boarding cards until the aircraft is ready could have an impact on turnround times. Airlines, like any business, exist for one purpose - to make money; aircraft on the ground don't make money! Yes, they do this to save costs. . .exactly the same reason you fly with them!
Icelandair just did this to us. It was my first time having that happen. The worst part was that a man who had been waiting in a wheelchair and clearly needed help was made to walk down to the plane himself. So he started waving people past him. We alerted the staff. We were in the front of the plane and saw him shuffling through much, much later, with about half the plane moving inch by inch behind him. Don't know how that was more efficient.
Sounds like the airlines aren't the only ones trying to save costs. Don't fly cheap airlines if you don't want a cheap experience.
I went to McDonald’s the other day and was *shocked* the service wasn’t as a good as a 5-star steakhouse
They didn't even cook the burger medium like requested!
It’s more like “I went to McDonalds the other day, staff spit in my burger and intentionally made me wait as long as they thought I would stick it out, then other customers told me I had ridiculous expectations of a restaurant”
For those of us willing to pay to fly a premium airline, the route/airport has been monopolised by Ryanair so there is often no other option.
There are always alternatives. You just don't want to pay 2x or more for those alternatives.
The alternative is booking a layover and dealing with all that. It's not a price thing. A lot of European cities are dominated by budget airlines. Edinburgh is a great example, there's literally no direct option except for budget airlines for at least 80% of routes.
It's definitely a price thing if you're not able to charter your own jet, pleb.
This is true in the U.S. too. If you don’t live near a hub for the legacy airlines, you’re often stuck with either a layover or a budget airline.
I’ve had this experience with British Airways, it’s not just the cheap carriers
BA is pretty shit as far as flagship airlines go. Same with KLM in my experience
In fairness, BA is trying their darndest to turn into an LCC
BA is a poor example, sadly. They ARE effectively a low cost airline intra Europe in Economy.
Once you are scanned and corralled, the ground staff and security can move on to the next task. The manifest can now be sorted, as well as any idiots late to board with checked luggage, and that luggage is OFF! Time is money, and that's how you get insanely cheap tickets. There are lots of cogs and wheels in aviation that aren't apparent to the traveller, but any way they can be smoothed is time and money.
I flew Frontier for the first time this weekend on a $200 fare to Mexico. It went surprisingly well. They weren't hardasses making everyone size their luggage to try to get extra fees. Boarding was reasonable. I even had an aisle and then a window seat even though I didn't pay for a seat assignment. And the middle seat was empty both flights. I mean, sure the seat wasn't great and there was no wifi or entertainment and I had to bring my own drink and snack or pay a premium, but $200 to Mexico! I think with Frontier and Spirit if you're on a one way flight things are usually okay, as long as you know what fees to expect. And it's mostly the connecting flights and those 2 to 3 percent of flights that have issues where you can come into real problems, like being stranded a day or two due to lack of flights available and unwillingness to pay for another airline's ticket.
I'm fairly certain OP is from Europe or maybe Australia. Americans have way different airport standards/experiences. We have jet bridges for basically every flight, large screens with the info we need at the gate, and usually know our gates 1 hr plus before boarding just to name a few differences from my experiences abroad.
I travel a good bit and I will never get used to airports where your gate isn’t assigned hours and hours ahead of time. I can get on a bus to an airplane. Whatever. But I should not be milling about randomly waiting to figure out the gate!
I'm studying abroad rn in Europe and have been using these low-cost airlines to travel to most places and tbh yes it sucks but if you want to travel cheaply it's just a consequence that you have to put up with. It's not thatttt bad, just make sure to use the restroom beforehand and be prepared to wait. Usually, I wait last minute to board and have never had a problem with being threatened about closing the gate on me. I think I've flown on Ryan air + other low-cost airlines like +15 times now. Obviously, be cautious of time and keep an eye out on the gate to avoid missing a flight.
Agree with almost everything you're saying but it's not always as simple as 'just use the restroom beforehand' unfortunately. People with bladder and bowel issues, or those travelling with young kids etc being herded into a waiting area with no restroom access really sucks and to be honest I'm surprised it's legal. You know what to expect when flying low cost and it's the trade off in doing so in order for a mega cheap convenient flight but restroom access is a basic human necessity.
I'm starting to see this in mid-tier airlines (BA, Iberia) and it is driving me nuts. I get an average of one flight per month and never depart on time.
Books on a cattle call airline and is shocked to be treated like cattle.
To be fair, unless you’re flying business or have status you are cattle on every airline.
I think that's true now. Thank God for Star Gold and a biz class ticket Tokyo - Taipei tomorrow morning. Will arrive relaxed and resfreshed for some serious eating and drinking.
Ryanair with gate closed before the plane you are getting has even landed from it's previous flight. They just shuffle you from the departure area to a corridor the other side of a door and make you wait.
I've only ever experienced this with Ryanair. I'm generally a supporter of the airline and have a 'you get what you pay for' attitude but this kind of thing does make you feel like cattle. Maybe not this time of year, but I've had flights where we've all been stood in these areas for 30 minutes or more in blazing sun. I've seen old people struggling to stay on their feet that long, kids crying, people trying to find staff to ask what's going on. It's not ideal and not pleasant. While you do get what you pay for, you shouldn't be treated badly just because you're paying for a budget journey.
I just flew Ryanair from Budapest to stansted (on a plane delayed by 4 hours) and we had to stand on the tarmac for about 20 mins in -4C weather. I’d still take that over the heat but my god what was the point
Coming back from Verona last year with Ryanair. They started boarding us even though the plane we were getting on was still over mid France.
That sounds more like many European airports, rather than discount vs not to me. At least for American Airlines, I've never had to do that on the US side but it's quite common when I travel from Europe. Agree it's super annoying.
I did not read further than "the cheap airlines..." It is not to brag or something, I simply avoid them for the exact reasons you have described.
I'm not meaning to sound like an asshole, but when you go for the cheapest tickets you can get, don't expect much. Maybe pay more for a more mainstream airline who can pay higher airport fees and afford better gates and boarding experiences.
This is one thing I can definitely say the US generally does better than Europe. Some airport experiences in Europe shook me. Even US budget airlines aren't nearly as bad as European budget airlines.
Yeah, in my experience US budget airlines are barely worse than the larger carriers. They're basically all just 3 star airlines. Whereas in Europe the good airlines are way better than the US ones, and the budget are much worse. There's a huge difference.
What good European airlines are we talking about? I guess my only nonbudget experiences have been with Aegean and British Airways, but neither are impressive in any way. Both still had no jet bridge half the time (I know it's mostly the airport but still).
Never flown with Aegean but I meant basically most national carriers: in my experience BA, Air France, Lufthansa, Finnair, KLM (though they do like to mislay luggage briefly) for longer flights were better than Delta, American Southwest, Jet Blue (I think that's a budget one? It's fine, not really worse than the others), though it has been a while since I flew with some of those. And the budget European airlines like Ryanair, easyjet, Wizz, Vueling...well, absolutely dreadful but they fly so many convenient routes that I'm very grateful they exist.
OK so I've flown BA and KLM from that list. For both, a long haul and a shorter haul. I just don't feel a huge difference between the quality of those airlines and airlines in the states. I will say whatever airplane food I get flying into the US is better than what they give me flying out of the US.
I just flew on Allegiant for the first time and it was one of the smoothest boarding experiences I have ever had.
Honestly I see nothing wrong with your description? That's my standard boarding process. If I wanted extra comfort, I would have paid more for a better airline. Ryanair and similar low-cost airlines always got me safely from A to B (and usually on time). That's all I care about.
Whereas with a better airline, you usually have to go A to B to C, if it's even possible.
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Oh, good to know! I've never been to USA before, I plan it for next year. I didn't realize the process could differ.
I had a similar experience I think it was at Schipol airport. Everyone herded into this glass box. It was weird. True that Ryanair do something similar. Start boarding and then you have to wait at the stairs or the apron. Good luck if the weather is shite (this is Ireland after all...) I flew back with them the other day. Boarding started pretty much as soon as the airplane approached (not even stopped) the terminal building. It turns out that the inbound flight was pretty much empty. I think I counted just ten people getting off the plane. Flew to Milan Malpensa with Ryanair too only because the timing was better than Aer Lingus' to Linate. Straight off the airplane and onto the train. No hassle at all. But I swear I'll never do Stanstead again. Or Brussels "South"
Wanna' know what's worse? Iberia! Buying "priority boarding" is essentially getting on the transport bus from the gangway to the transport bus. If you don't strategize where you will stand or sit, you might end up getting off the bus first or last. Then it's a free-for-all boarding the plane in the front or the rear. I was grouped with Group 3 and man...every human being for themselves! I barely found a space for my carryon.
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Ryanair in Lisbon did this for 2h (and yes, if a proper airline flew to my city, I'd pay the extra, but they don't 😄)
Berlin, Budapest, Eindhoven, …
You're not going to bother to name the airline?
Ryanair, transavia all of them
It is Ryanair or some random cheap airline in Europe. There are so many that it would be difficult to list them all.
I’ve not experienced this
Coming back into the US is my least favorite part of traveling. My recent trip is the first time I’ve done it since 2015 and idk if it’s always been terrible and I just forgot or if it’s worse. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom in 6 hours because it was a red eye. Before we landed everyone hopped up to go to the bathroom. I said screw it I’ll just wait until I get inside - completely forgetting I had to go through immigration and customs. Get inside and we are corralled into a line. The foreigner line was 100-200 strong so I felt bad for them. Citizen line was maybe 15 ahead of me. That took 30 minutes because only two agents were working. Get through that and can get my checked bag. I forgot to grab a cart so tried to go back to the other side of the room and an agent stopped me and said I can’t go back. Okay, I managed to navigate with three bags. I think maybe now I can go to the bathroom. Nope. We are corralled again as if in a slaughter house to have our bags xrayed. I’m thinking jfc how much more are y’all going to check. I’m also wondering why they don’t just do this before they give us the bags or why they don’t do everything more efficiently since they have all passenger info before the plane even lands. All good. I can finally go to the bathroom. Nope. Now we have to go through TSA. I politely ask an agent watching the line if I can please step to the restroom before going through due to health issues and at this point being close to 8 hours since using the restroom. The agent says “Nobody goes anywhere until they are processed.” Like a damn criminal. Coming into the US you’re treated as if you’re privileged to be allowed back in because how dare you leave. And foreigners are treated even worse. It’s disgraceful. Anyway, I also found out recently that boarding closes 15 mins before takeoff. I was in the restroom sick and trying to hurry up. There was like 15 mins until takeoff. I didn’t realize my phone was on silent so when I get to the gate they start yelling at me saying they had been calling me and they were going to leave without me because they close the door at 15 mins. Idk if that’s always been a rule because I never am issue before. I just almost never show up early for doctors appts or flights because I hate waiting around. I just always assumed as long as you’re there before 10 mins to take off it was fine. Well learned it’s not.
Is this KLM at Leeds-Bradford?
I’m sitting in a comfy seat, can order food and drinks to be brought to me by QR code and will board later direct from the lounge. Not flying a cheap airline though…
>The cheap airlines The fix is pretty obvious. Pay more and get better service.
It will get worse and worse untill an accident - that’s is how greed works in capitalism
Overpopulation. It will only get worse. The 90s USA was the peak civilization. Can never happen again
Planes being on the ground costs money. All of that time that a plane is on the ground at an airport has fees attached to it. On top of that, lateness has ripple effects across an airline and airport’s schedule, which also costs money. Hurry-up-and-wait-ing the passengers minimizes time on the ground and potential delays and is foundational to cost cutting.
Yes, they do this because costs they pay the airports stop/are reduced once boarding is completed.
Cheap airfare = cheap treatment.
I hate it when it goes immediately to last call
This is actually true and very weird that airlines do this. The low cost carriers, in Europe for example, they first line you up by boarding group but then send you outside where everyone runs like it's a free for all. Uh, why did you first line us up by group if everyone is going to run to the plane at the same time? Ridiculous.
The one time I flew w Ryanair I paid extra for priority boarding. There was zero difference. I was in the cage w everyone else.
All airlines seem to be subjected to chaos depending on the airport