Ryanair sucks – contrary to the recent pop-culture meme, “Everything Beats a Ryanair Holiday.” On Wednesday, September 11th, 2025, I took a direct Ryanair flight from Barcelona to Edinburgh, Scotland for the long weekend. Despite hearing countless negative reviews from the customers of Ryanair, I stepped into this experience with an open mind. Unfortunately, what came next was tremendously disappointing.
Ryanair — an Irish-based airline beginning in 1985 which is infamous for its relatively cheap prices — has had a history of uncomfortable customer experiences, including no free amenities, minimal leg room, aggressive sales during the flight, and poor customer service. Although these comments that I saw mentioned in various TikTok and online reviews of Ryanair weren’t the most enticing, my mother and I decided to book with them anyway because it was cheaper than most of the other air carriers — which I assume is the reason why the majority of their customers decide to continue flying with them. Not necessarily because they are a particularly good airline, but more so because the alternatives are way more expensive. Don’t be fooled, however. Just because they are affordable does not mean that they won’t try to make money off of you at any given moment during your experience flying with them.
Ryanair prides themselves on being “Europe’s Greenest Airline.” But after my experience flying with them, I can’t help but wonder: is this title due to their seat density and thus lower environmental impact, or because of their numerous attempts to cut corners wherever they can in order to make profit?
It was 19:00 on Wednesday and my mom and I had just gotten past terminal 2 security of the Josep Tarradellas El Prat airport in Barcelona. We started walking through DutyFree in order to reach the Customs and Border Patrol section of the airport, and eventually arrived at section F of the terminal, where the border check was taking place. The check was fairly quick and only took a few minutes. My mom and I thereafter went to find something to eat and somewhere to sit, since we hadn’t eaten dinner before leaving for the airport and it was still an hour before our gate was scheduled to close. I started listening to one of my Spotify playlists while eating a cold, overpriced piece of pizza from one of the shops in the airport food court. I finished the piece of pizza around 20:30 and waited, continuing to listen to my music. The boarding for our Ryanair flight was supposed to start at 20:50, but when that time rolled around, the flight’s boarding still hadn’t commenced. And so I waited, and waited, and waited a little bit more, until finally the airplane had arrived at the gate and the people from the previous flight started to disembark the aircraft. While the plane was supposed to have finished boarding at 21:00 and should have left for Edinburgh around 21:30 or so, in actuality, we didn’t even start boarding until 21:45.
Fortunately, the Ryanair staff dimmed the lights pretty early on. I put my earbuds back in, turned on some soothing jazz music, rested my head on the window, and closed my eyes. Not even two minutes after they turned the lights off, the staff announced that they’d be doing some sales, and the blinding lights were turned back on. Over 30 minutes of promotions happened with sales ranging from snacks, drinks and WiFi all the way to magazines, alcohol, cigarettes, and lottery scratch-off tickets. Finally, the lights turned back off and I was able to fall asleep. Except, in the span of the last 10 minutes before landing, the lights turned on to signal to the customers that we were landing soon, before being turned off, and then back on again right before landing. The lighting changed so frequently during the flight that I almost forgot I was on an airplane and not in a nightclub.
In addition to the below-par Ryanair experience, I also have some comments on the aircraft itself. Firstly, the ceiling of the aircraft was far too low for comfort. To put it into perspective: I am 173cm or about 5 foot 8, and I felt as though I practically had to duck in order to make it onto the plane. Additionally, the air conditioning vents — and the airplane in general — was really dirty. There was dust collecting in the crevices of the air conditioner, which made it look like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. I mean, I guess this wasn’t too much of an issue because the aircraft was freezing cold, but still – I expect an aircraft at a minimum to be clean. Throughout the whole flight, there was this unpleasant ringing that I believe came from the plane’s air conditioning or ventilation system. The seats were also extremely uncomfortable. Of course, I know it is a budget airline and the flight was only 3 hours, but the seats were so rough my glutes felt numb afterwards. Moreover, the speakers were really loud, and any time a flight attendant went to speak on the intercom, they were either mumbling, talking too loudly, or stuttering when speaking. The leg room was minimal, there was no place under the seat to charge a device, and there wasn’t a compartment or pocket sleeve in front of you to store your belongings during the flight — which also meant that there wasn’t a barf bag provided in case you felt sick. I wonder, would you have to pay for the barf bag as well?
Okay, now that I’ve written this I feel like a complete Karen. I don’t want you guys to read this review and think, “Jeez, Wiyot is such a complainer! Doesn’t she have anything more interesting to write about?” Granted, the entirety of this op-ed is mostly me complaining about Ryanair and the amenities and experience they provide, but not just for the sake of complaining. After flying with this budget airline, I simply felt like I could not keep quiet. Sure, Vueling, EasyJet, Eurowings and Jet2 likely all have their own downsides, but in this review I hope to inform everyone about the Ryanair experience and provide some previsionary details so you may think twice before booking with them. Because ultimately, it comes down to how much of the flight experience you are willing to give up for the sake of saving a few bucks. And in my humble opinion, Ryanair sucks.
Bibliography
“customer testimonials.” Ryanair,https://www.ryanair.com/tr/en/lp/explore/customer-testimonials. Accessed 17 September 2025.
@elmundo.es, and @eleenajaje. “Humor del azafato de Ryanair para vender lotería.” TikTok, 3 March 2024, https://www.tiktok.com/@elmundo.es/video/7342231583052549408 Accessed 17 September 2025.
Ryanair. “Untitled.” Ryanair | Investor Relations, https://investor.ryanair.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/HR-Brochure-print.pdf. Accessed 15 September 2025.