Don't you just love them. Never a day.

I'm going Bmi Baby next flight. Always found there boarding relaxing.

In the MSN News today

According to our users, Ryanair is the most stressful budget airline to travel with. Nearly 2,000 people took part in the poll, and the airline took 66% of the vote while Easyjet took 17% of the vote.

Ryanair's Head of Communications Stephen McNamara responded to the results by saying that the airline's high passenger numbers contradicted the findings.

"The number of people who travel with us speaks for itself - the high numbers indicate they prefer a service that had the least lost bags, the fewest cancellations and we have a strong reputation for flights that are on time," he says.

McNamara pointed out that the problem with polls is that they don't identify the exact issues people are voting on, but our Twitter users shed some light. @oonagh_s1 said: "You'd need a degree to work out the baggage charges," while @FeargusOSull said: "Because you have to go right up to the "click and buy" button before you get quoted the real price".

When MSN Travel pushed McNamara for a response on unnecessary credit card fees - a bugbear that resonates highly with our users regarding low-cost flights - he replied: "We don't charge passengers credit card fees. We have an admin fee which is for the development for the upkeep of the website."

Easyjet's Anna Knowles, Corporate Communications Manager, responded: "The results of this poll are disappointing and don't seem to correspond to reality. Not only are more people choosing to fly with us - we flew over 55 million passengers last year, but our research shows that passenger satisfaction levels are higher than ever."

Both airlines have highlighted the popularity of their service as proof that something must be right, so are low-cost airlines an easy target for our irritation? After all, doesn't the concept of low-cost indicate you get what you pay for, that is, not much?

Both airlines have hit headlines this week, however. The Daily Mail reported that Ryanair is being investigated by the Irish Aviation Authority over its policy of charging passengers an extra £10 to sit in emergency exit rows.

Easyjet also hit the news after it was revealed the airline is being sued by a disabled women because they did not consider her "sufficiently autonomous to fly alone". This comes after a public apology from the airline to a man for charging him £50 to carry his dialysis machine on board a flight.

Do you agree with the results? Tell us about your experiences.

MSN Travel readers' top 5 most stressful budget airlines:
1 Ryanair - 66%
2 Easyjet - 17%
3 Fly Thomas Cook - 3%
4 Monarch - 3%
5 Flybe - 2%
 

Just thinking add another 6 to Ryanair's rating and perhaps you get a truer statement. Better the Devil you know.

     ......................

 th bit about paying extra to sit in emergency exit seats is interesting as when i travel ryan these seats are always empty seems that for once they are shooting themselves in the foot and loosing 6 fares a go

Most stressful airline for me has been Monarch. Still not had a refund for 3 flights from the ash cloud fiasco 2 years ago. Haven't flown with them since!

It depends on what you are looking for.  Do you want the flying experience (5 star) or are you looking for a reliable mode of transport at an extraordinaryily low  price.  We have always found that if you play the game you have an unbeatable service running on time, with helpful staff, better than average legroom (husband is 6'2" and the newest planes.  We couldn't afford to travel as often as we do without Ryanair who cover the required routes.    People do however have to take personal responsibility.  The entertainment value of watching a family of 8 arrive last to board the plane and expect to be seated together and how well the cabin staff retained their professionalism kept us enthralled throughout another "ahead of schedule" flight to the Canaries recently.

I love Fly Thomas Cook, Monarch and Easyjet and have never had a problem with any of them. Only ever had one delay in my life and that was with BA to Florida. Without budget airlines the travel industry would go bust...and many holidaymakers would not be able to afford holidays abroad (In some cases that's a good thing). You get what you pay for and if it means a few less frills, so be it. People knock O'Leary but let's face it, he's still in business. AND probably will be for many years to come...he might come up with extra costs for this and that BUT that's what business men do!

The best in customer service award would go to Easyjet...always been easy to deal with and issues resolved with one quick call. They are also fab dealing with extra assistance enquiries.

So, I cannot grumble about any budget airlines...a happy flyer all round  :)

I still don't know why Ryanair get such bad press all the time.  I've have flown with them loads of times and only ever had just one delay.

I don't really find the experience with them that much different to any other budget airline.

I would watch out with BMI Baby.  In August 2010 they left a full flight at Malaga airport all night and a total delay of 22 hours.  When trying to claim compensation, having written to the MD, they declined.  After complaint to the Spanish authorities they say they should pay comensation of 400 euros each under Regulation EU 261/2004 but I doubt whether that will happen.  In fact after nearly a year they didn't even reply to the Spanish equivalent of our CAA.  Had an overnight delay with Jet 2 at Malaga and they couldn't do enough for us.  Also had a three day delay with Easyjet, due to the snow, and couldn't fault them.  They both put us up in hotels on half board.  Would NEVER fly with BMI Baby again after this experience.  Easyjet for us.

Easyjet are trialing a seat allocation on some flights at the moment so all being well this will come in on all flights reducing the problem.  They are also trialing two pieces of hand luggage as well.  At least they are looking at makig the whole experience pleasant.

 flew back from prague on bmi fags stolen from suit case after check in not so much the theft but makes you wonder what might have been put in the case drugs explosives so beware bmi of course bmi were not interested so neither shpuld anyone have an intersst in bmi

The most frustrating thing about Ryanair is when you're searching for flights on the website and you have to keep putting in the stupid codes that half the time you can't even decypher. I no longer fly Ryanair solely because of this!

It has to be Monarch for me everytime.   I really do believe we have all forgotten what quality and service is all about, and are willing to travel cheaper whilst at the same time foregoing any notion of qualiry or service.    We are off to India this year and agan ir will be Monarch.  I would never ever dream  of using Ryannair for far too many reasons in the past.  And not one of those reasons is for unreliability.  It's because they are rude, unprofessional and are known in the industry for "cutting corners".  I have said it before their turnaround at airports is dangerously fast, their pilots appear to be trained to be rude/arrogant to air traffic control and when they don't get what they want they raise their voice.  Have we become a society that whilst being desatissfied at the same time continue to use it, weird.  As far as Ryanairs response to polls, well Ana Knowles and the rest of them just plain lie, simple tried and tested response lie through your teeth and everyone will believe it, NOT lol.

We travel back and forth from Spain on average every 6 weeks and when we can we always use Ryanair and  find them to be great. We do get annoyed with them during the Winter months as they stop flying from our local airport and we have to travel with another airline from another airport. Because they fly from local airports it usually means less people to contend with so less stress.

 The website could be a bit clearer to use as you have to keep checking boxes to say you dont want things like car hire insurance suitcases etc but their charges are clear. If you want to avoid the admin fee then you can use the Ryanair prepaid credit card which is free, the only problem with this is the £150 minimum load which seems extortionate especially if you are just a few pound short for booking a flight. This is something I think they need to revise. 

The main stressful thing is Malaga airport with the new idea of not informing passengers of which terminal let alone which gate until about 15min before loading. Hearing conversations its something that everyone finds stressful especially the older passengers as it could mean a long walk if you are not near the right terminal. 

I have booked a flight from Malaga to Bournemouth with the worlds worst airline, they quoted me in € which I accepted, then when the confirmation came up they converted it to GBP at a rate of £1 = €1.12, on the day it was 1,17 tourist and 1.20 Bank, so I used their online complaint form, only to get a reply that I had to Fax or send a letter stating exactly what they had read in my on line complaint.

After several more emails to them with read receipts requested they acknowledged receipts electronically, but no reply.

So for €1, I sent a fax refereeing them to their terms and conditions section 4.3 which clearly states they will bill in the currency from where the flight originates, and  being Spain is the € !  is the currency ,and they are Irish  so they also use €. 

However they eventually replied referring me to a totally contradictory term stating that as the Master Card is on a UK Bank, (but a Spanish address), they had the right to convert to GBP at whatever rate they felt like.

Can you believe there are two terms which completely contradict each other. I know they think they are very clever, and I guess they are, but it is no way to gain friends and customers.

I have taken it up with Halifax Bank ,Master Card, department as a complaint, as I use the same card a lot here in Spain and pay in € and Halifax convert at the going rate normally tourist rate

Has anyone else had this happen and did you get them to cough up, or evven admit they were wrong?

This message was last edited by brickwork on 14/04/2012.

Yep this happened to friends of ours as well.  Which is yet another reason why i would never use them.  I wish you the best of luck but would say our friends gave up as it was not only time consuming and stressful, it was costly too.  O'Bleary and his outfit are scroundrels and use every legal loophole they can muster up.  I really wish people would see them for what they are, which is in my opinion a bunch of conniving, unprofessional, salacious, deceitful, devious,  crafty villains - just my opinion and thousands of others too.

We travel a few times a year Liverpool (preferred) or Manchester to Malaga.

Usually Ryanair as Easyjet have very early departures needing 03.30 start from home.

Ryanair is chosen in particular as the times  allow us to use public transport to Marbella and Estepona. Very important to us being 100 kms from airport and extortionate taxi fares.

 However in last 2 years , having already booked, we have received 3 notifications of flight time changes which in each case meant we either missed the last bus from Malaga or needed taxis to/ from Marbella. Most annoying to say the least.

This has just happened again for our June flight booked from Liverpool and more by luck than anything we've managed to switch to a Manchester flight which does link in with bus services.

As for Easyjet after a 3 year break from their flights for departure time reasons as stated, we booked on the 23.55 return flight to Liverpool in early April only to discover on arrival at Malaga the flight was delayed until 02.15 !! So we resigned ourselves to at least enjoying a nice meal only to find the restaurants closed at 10.00pm.

Daytime flights only from now on insists the boss!

Jonni it's so reassuring to know that there are still some of us bosses left with wisdom lol

Hi Jonniereb

If you prefer Liverpool and are travelling to Estepona you are better flying into Gibraltar. For one thing its always cheaper than Liverpool to Malaga and only 25 mins to Estepona by Taxi . There is also a bus  from La Linea Bus Station to estepona but you may have to wait around depending on landing times.It takes 1 hour and only costs 3 to 4 euro . The only thing they are always early flights same as Malaga but that might change in the next year when the new airport terminal becomes fully operational at the moment you fly out of old terminal and into the new terminal. Hope this helps we live in Duquesa Estepona and never use Malaga now if we can help it.

Susan  

Susan,

Thanks for that. We've thought of Gib and indeed our daughter visited us last year returning to Manchester via Gib. Monarch I believe although E-jet do L'pool -Gib.

Gib can be affected by sea fog when flights are then diverted to Malaga-!-chance you take

Jonniereb

I can i agree  with  what you are saying and the easyjet pilots seem to be the ones that dont attempt to land in fog or winds whilst other airlines do , but i have to say we have had approx 5 lots of visitors this year  totalling 10 flights both inbound and outbound and we have gone back to Liverpool  at least 4 times so 8 more trips in and out  and of  all these flights  3 have been diverted to Malaga and whilst its a pain i would say 85 to 90 %  everything goes smoothly . it is the luck of the draw and as you have said doesnt always run smoothly via Malaga  but i still would choose Gib over Malaga because as you say its a pain travelling from Malaga so 8 out of 10 times you wouldn't have to and the other couple of times its  just sods law hey !!!  you cant live life expecting the worst to happen chin up . The worst part of being diverted is  when going back to Liverpool  because you are in their hands waiting for transport to Malaga and then a slot to depart but coming in to Gibraltar  if they cant land at Gib you end up in Malaga not   the and of the world hey  .I can honestly say i would always book Gib and if diverted to Malaga would just consider myself unlucky i think because its a rock and not a great place to land you will always be subject  to weather conditions .

Susan