Ryanair

Thirteen years ago, a Ryanair flight took me from the riads of Marrakech to the apple orchards of East Anglia despite my best intentions. Like now, I guess my only excuse is that the airline gave me an offer that I could not refuse. Checking in at Arlanda tonight, I got to witness first-hand the insane amounts of “ancillary revenue” that Ryanair is able to collect as almost every other passenger had to pay for checking bags or having boarding passes printed. 

Having booked ten months in advanced, our tickets on the other hand were obscenely cheap at about 400 SEK per person roundtrip. Considering that Lufthansa would have been about six times that, I guess it just shows that, at the end of the day, everyone has a price. Though Ryanair has clearly done a lot of good in terms of European integration, their hostility to labour unions and shady airport marketing contracts are two of the reasons that I dislike them, not to mention that in case of any IROPs, you are definitely on your own. Yet, despite their dreadful contracts, the cabin crew seemed so much happier than your regular SAS crew, and the Latvian flight attendant and I had a good laugh when her Maltese colleague asked me if I wanted a glass for my white wine.