I’m not sure how best to describe Barcelona, either delight or disaster! Don’t get me wrong the city was a delight but the traveling part of the trip was a disaster. Before I tell you about my weekend I first must explain to you the phenomenon of cheap flights via the airline, Ryanair.
Ryanair claims that it is the best thing to happen to the British consumer since sliced bread. This is quite a strong claim by the company many hate but still fly. I am one of those people. I absolutely despise Ryanair but without it I would not have become quite the jet-setter I have the past year. Ryanair may have revolutionized the pricing of planes and therefore how we travel around Europe but it definitely has its downside. The truth is never quite what it claims and the prices are never quite what they seem. Pay 5 euros for the flight and the outrageous, rip-off of taxes, credit-card processing, and baggage handling will ramp up the costs before you can say 1-2-3.
As long as everything goes perfectly from the very beginning, the moment you choose your flight, then you can get from point A to point B easily and cheaply. I know this for a fact because I have successfully flown with Ryanair to London, Italy, Ireland, and Valencia. But as soon as you have a tiny problem (ie. you can’t print your boarding pass, you can’t fit all your luggage in a small enough carry on) then small fees start to incur. Basically the only thing they aren’t charging you for at this point is to pee during the flight but there is actually a rumor that the charge is being implemented. So what’s next? Paying for your seatbelt or oxygen mask?
It is not uncommon to be sitting at your gate for a Ryanair flight and seeing people all around you putting on 3rd and 4th layers of clothing just so they can get away with only having the one carry on luggage limit (I always picture Joey in the friends episode where he puts on all of Chandler's clothes and says "Could I be wearing any more clothes?"). On numerous occasions I have seen passengers have to fork over 35 euros at the last minute because their luggage exceeds the small luggage limit that is allowed. It is also not uncommon to see people lining up at the gate for their flight up to an hour ahead of time because it is first come first serve seating, similar to Southwest Airlines in the US.
I have to admit I have either fallen victim to many of Ryanair’s ridiculous fees or I have been seen wearing 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a winter coat, and 2 scarfs, just so that I can board the plane. But the worst thing that has happened to me when preparing to board a Ryanair flight is discovering that my flight number didn’t match the one that was leaving. When arranging my plans to fly to Barcelona my friend and I were booking our tickets online. Barcelona has one airport right in the city that is very convenient but more expensive to fly in and out of. Not only that, but Ryanair doesn’t fly into this airport. Ryanair uses the 2 airports Reus and Girona, that are at least 45 minutes outside the city. This doesn’t have to mean an expensive cab ride because there is also a bus into the city that directly correlates with the flights.
So let me put this into perspective for you. First, I found an incredible 5 euro flight to Barcelona and an equally incredible one from Barcelona back to Sevilla. After clicking on the flight I am immediately charged 15 euros for taxes. That is no big deal, 20 euros each way, 40 euros round trip. Still a better deal then I could find on any other airline. At this point as long as I check in online, on time, have all my information correct on my boarding pass and don’t have an oversized carry on bag, then I’m still only paying 40 euros. What they don’t tell you is that the bus each way from the airports out in the middle of nowhere are 10 euros. And in my friend and mines case, if you miss that bus in the middle of the night then you are stranded at a deserted airport or you are forking up 100 euros for a taxi.
Anyways, back to realizing I had the wrong flight number on my boarding pass. My boarding pass had been stamped and approved, I had been given the go ahead to make my way through security, when I realized my flight information was not matching up with my friend Katelyn’s. How did the lady miss this? I ask the lady at the Ryanair check in desk about it and she rips the ticket from my hand, yells at me that my ticket is for a flight that left that morning, and tells me I can’t get on this flight. That is another thing about Ryanair, they have no customer service. So I can’t get on this flight, I have a woman screaming at me, and all I can think about is how my sister will be waiting for me in Barcelona the next morning. I completely shut down. Luckily for me though, my friend Katelyn takes charge. We find out that NO I can’t just exchange my ticket for a different one, no I can’t pay in cash to book a spot on this flight, no I can’t give them my mom’s credit card number to pay for the flight....WAIT how much are you charging me for this flight? It turns out that the incredible 5 euro ticket deals are only offered for a limited time and can only be purchased online. If I want to get on this flight, I need to pay the full ticket price, which is about 15x what I originally paid. Katelyn and I take care of it. The ticket is paid for. I can’t not get on this plane.
Now supposedly what happened is I wanted to book at ticket for the 10pm flight to Barcelona but somehow booked the 10am one that had already left that morning. What’s completely ridiculous is after everything this year, living in a foreign country, dealing with the language barrier and getting by on my Spanish skills, what this error came down to was an error of numbers, which are the same in every language.
After having time to think about this and even researching into Ryanair a little online. I have read many horror stories of similar and worse situations happening to passengers at the last minute when they are attempting to fly Ryanair. Because when forced to make a decision at the last minute, who wouldn’t pay to get on the flight? Who would turn around, go home, and cancel all their travel plans? So I will never know if it was my error because I was rushed and nervous when booking the ticket or if I fell victim to another one of Ryanair’s schemes to get money from its passengers?
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