Another tip: If they put a yellow tag on your bag to make you check it in the hold, either quickly rip it off between the gate and the plane, or hold your bag so they don't see it. Cabin crew don't know who's bag has been tagged.
But do you actually mean Ryanair or do you mean Air Europa, whom Ryanair seems to be a reseller for (transatlantic flights)?
Recently my flight to EDI didn't leave until it was due to arrive, an hour waiting at the gate itself with no staff to update on anything (the price you pay for barebones staff on no-frills
They get charged for using the gate, once they are on the tarmac "waiting for a window" they don't suffer additional costs.
It's not that they decide to "park the plane on the tarmac" it's that the interaction of various airport operational procedures make this the chepest option in certain scenarios, which is what they'll choose every time. Passengers bedamned.
In fairness though, I think though they've decided not to pursue this particular type of "cost saving" more recently.
Nonsense, the crew has limited flying hours, and sitting there will burn them up. I can assure you they don't want to have to cancel or delay a flight because the crew can't fly anymore.
* Moscow 2013 to Heathrow -- 4 more hours in the lounge, got €600 compensation.
* Heathrow 2014 to Bangkok, 5 more hours in the lounge -- got €600 compensation.
* Toronto 2017 -- delayed Delta flight to New York to catch a Virgin flight to Manchester so was downgraded and rerouted on KLM. No compensation as it was a U.S. airline. Lesson learned. (No lounge access either so cost me several beers)
I wasn't flying during the Volcano incident.
I do remember being delayed overnight with ryanair due to weather, but that was c. 2003. They wouldn't reroute me on the next morning flight to Anconna (rather than my original Forli flight -- only 50 miles away), so I had to buy a new ticket. It's attitudes like that which is the reason EU261 came in.
I recently had a friend visit me in Spain from the UK and he is a very nervous flyer. The way they treat him was absolutely commendable. I doubt he'd of even got on the plane with some other airlines.
The lowest I'm willing to go is Norwegian, and I'll absolutely choose a provider like SAS or Swiss or Lufthansa, if the prices are even remotely close.
Swiss has by far the best chocolate on their flights, BTW :-)
I was speaking more in the context of other carriers competing with Ryanair on routes.
I just now have a personal rule to never fly with a North American carrier.
Fly BA instead.
I've got a flight coming up next week with them to Nairobi, on a tired old 747, which I'm not looking forward to. In years past I'd paid a fortune for such a flight, now unless BA is at least £400 return cheaper than someone like Lufthansa, I won't fly them.
I did fly BA in January (again to Nairobi), was amazed how empty the plane was.
However even up front their experience is lacklusture. I'd rather fly business on Qatar than First on BA, and certainly rather business on Qatar than business on BA. It's a tired product on tired planes and tired crew.