Hmm, it's been a while since we last posted!! Well, needless to say, things have been busy, but I am now the proud owner of a very, very expensive degree.
Now that I'm done...I'm travelling!! Yes, very excited in theory, but to tell you the truth, terrified!!
I am scheduled for a 14 day trip to Europe, leaving tomorrow night. Toronto - Porto - Madrid - Barcelona - Madrid - Paris - Grenoble - Paris - Madrid - Porto - Toronto.
For much of it, I will be travelling on my own, while my friends are in school or at conferences in Madrid and Grenoble. Now, the issue is I'm not a very adventerous person, probably the complete opposite. I doing like going places by myself, I don't really talk to strangers, I get lost all the time, and I'm a tiny asian girl who probably looks bewildered most of the time. Heck, I don't remember the last time I went to a restaurant by myself. So this is a big step outside of my box...
Well, one challenge at a time right? To start..I'm going to bring a backpack, that's it. Since I'm used to bringing large suitcases everywhere I go, this will be interesting =P The clothes were the easy part...kinda. I spent a week finding a rain jacket...apparently places don't sell them under $60 very often, and if they do, then not in June. Ah well, that was kind of fun, planning/buying a minimal amount of clothing to bring, and switching things out for lighter fabrics for the summer weather. Also, the threat that I have to carry all my stuff with me all the time is a good way to convince myself that despite the fact that I like THIS sweater more, the other one is lighter and easier to carry on my back!
Anyways, I have to go out to buy a power adapter. Eeep, so it begins!
Showing posts with label europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label europe. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The perils of travelling with Ryanair
From travel books and well-travelled friends, I had heard of many European discount airline myths. Fly for a mere pound. Could this be true? Apparently it was, which was a concept hard to grasp as a person that hadn't even managed to take the Megabus for $1. At the heart of these myths was one name: Ryanair. And one year, a representative from Ryanair was on television, proudly announcing that it had made a decent annual profit. Cheap flights, but still making profits... it sounded too good to be true.
When I got to come to Europe for myself, I was finally exposed to real people that used this airline to travel. The most recent of these people was a friend of mine that I will refer to as "Neo". Neo is a seasoned traveller, having spent time in a large number of cities in three continents over the past year. However, even he was not prepared for Ryanair's little quirks when the time came to leave after visiting me for a day in Edinburgh...
1. Boarding pass
We had to fit in as much of Scotland as possible in a mere 24 hours, so naturally we forgot about printing Neo's boarding pass beforehand. Luckily, for most airlines, there's always the option of printing off the boarding pass at the airport. Ryanair is no exception... just with a catch.
"It will cost £40."
That's right, 40 pounds, spelt f-o-r-t-y, for a single sheet of paper. That's over $70, for you North Americans. The only sheet of paper I've seen that's more expensive than that is a university diploma. Being his student self, Neo wasn't just going to give into that. And the search for a printer in/near the airport began, so we could get Neo off to Frankfurt on his 11.15 flight.
Edinburgh Turnhouse airport does not have any printers available to the public, and our best bet was to go to the nearby Hilton Hotel, a 10 minute walk away. We took the courtesy shuttle, posing at first as travellers "flying in from Frankfurt", then as travellers "flying back to Frankfurt". In retrospect, it must have sounded mildly fishy, given that I wasn't even carrying any luggage on the way there. But that aside, the hotel trip did the job, and Neo walked away with a $5 boarding pass. A much more reasonable price to pay.
2. Check-in luggage
Before going off to search for printers, we had also asked about luggage policies. Neo had one backpack, a laptop bag, and a mini duffel bag of sorts, and was planning to check two items in. The initial assumption went along the lines of: 'I could probably check the first item in for free, and either pay for the second or haggle to get that in free too.' But who are we fooling. This assumption was far off what was actually demanded:
"£35 for the first checked baggage, £70 for the second."
This meant that Neo would have to pay a whopping £105 (around $180-190 CAD) with his luggage the way it was. As he aptly put it, "it would be cheaper to buy a second seat or a new ticket elsewhere". There was no way Neo was going to fit everything in his hand luggage anyways (especially not with a bottle of whiskey), so there were two options: a) buy a small suitcase that would fit the contents of two of Neo's current bags, or b) "wear, like, 8 shirts".
Upon returning from the Hilton Hotel, Neo frantically rearranged his bags for a good half an hour, and ended up wearing 5 shirts and his newly purchased Scottish hat.
3. Delay
And as we thought everything was finally fine, we learned that there were problems, and that more details would be announced at 11h. At the airport, it sounded like the problems were due to inclement weather - the people at the desk didn't really know. Yet when Neo got on the plane, apparently a different reason was provided by the pilot, which had to do with air traffic, rather than bad weather.
In the end, Neo was able to reach his destination at a reasonable time, but only after hours of unnecessary hassle right before his flight. Nothing we can do about different reasons given by different sources for the same delay, but save yourselves any additional trouble by printing your boarding pass beforehand and minimizing the number of bags you travel with!
When I got to come to Europe for myself, I was finally exposed to real people that used this airline to travel. The most recent of these people was a friend of mine that I will refer to as "Neo". Neo is a seasoned traveller, having spent time in a large number of cities in three continents over the past year. However, even he was not prepared for Ryanair's little quirks when the time came to leave after visiting me for a day in Edinburgh...
1. Boarding pass
We had to fit in as much of Scotland as possible in a mere 24 hours, so naturally we forgot about printing Neo's boarding pass beforehand. Luckily, for most airlines, there's always the option of printing off the boarding pass at the airport. Ryanair is no exception... just with a catch.
"It will cost £40."
That's right, 40 pounds, spelt f-o-r-t-y, for a single sheet of paper. That's over $70, for you North Americans. The only sheet of paper I've seen that's more expensive than that is a university diploma. Being his student self, Neo wasn't just going to give into that. And the search for a printer in/near the airport began, so we could get Neo off to Frankfurt on his 11.15 flight.
Edinburgh Turnhouse airport does not have any printers available to the public, and our best bet was to go to the nearby Hilton Hotel, a 10 minute walk away. We took the courtesy shuttle, posing at first as travellers "flying in from Frankfurt", then as travellers "flying back to Frankfurt". In retrospect, it must have sounded mildly fishy, given that I wasn't even carrying any luggage on the way there. But that aside, the hotel trip did the job, and Neo walked away with a $5 boarding pass. A much more reasonable price to pay.
2. Check-in luggage
Before going off to search for printers, we had also asked about luggage policies. Neo had one backpack, a laptop bag, and a mini duffel bag of sorts, and was planning to check two items in. The initial assumption went along the lines of: 'I could probably check the first item in for free, and either pay for the second or haggle to get that in free too.' But who are we fooling. This assumption was far off what was actually demanded:
"£35 for the first checked baggage, £70 for the second."
This meant that Neo would have to pay a whopping £105 (around $180-190 CAD) with his luggage the way it was. As he aptly put it, "it would be cheaper to buy a second seat or a new ticket elsewhere". There was no way Neo was going to fit everything in his hand luggage anyways (especially not with a bottle of whiskey), so there were two options: a) buy a small suitcase that would fit the contents of two of Neo's current bags, or b) "wear, like, 8 shirts".
Upon returning from the Hilton Hotel, Neo frantically rearranged his bags for a good half an hour, and ended up wearing 5 shirts and his newly purchased Scottish hat.
3. Delay
And as we thought everything was finally fine, we learned that there were problems, and that more details would be announced at 11h. At the airport, it sounded like the problems were due to inclement weather - the people at the desk didn't really know. Yet when Neo got on the plane, apparently a different reason was provided by the pilot, which had to do with air traffic, rather than bad weather.
In the end, Neo was able to reach his destination at a reasonable time, but only after hours of unnecessary hassle right before his flight. Nothing we can do about different reasons given by different sources for the same delay, but save yourselves any additional trouble by printing your boarding pass beforehand and minimizing the number of bags you travel with!
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