It was back to work today but a little different, the flight wasn’t until five this afternoon and from Leeds Airport to boot. So it was one of those rare chances that I was still at home at midday on Tuesday. It’s been a while since I have flown from Leeds and there has been some update work done at the airport and it is a nice place to fly from, plenty of places to shop and get some refreshment in pleasant surroundings without the hussle and bustle of a large airport and a place I wouldn’t mind flying from again and as it’s convenient and overall very good.
Now it has also been some time since flying on Ryanair. I chose Ryanair this time as there are not alot of options without changing planes to get to Vilnius, infact none that I could find, so it was Ryanair. The last time we used Ryanair was as a family when the kids were young and to give some idea of how long ago that was, my youngest has now just left school, today was actually his last day. But back to the story. At that time it was great because if you had young children you would be offered to board the aircraft first and you could be sure of getting seats together, so much so I often thought of renting the kids out to couples waiting to board so they could board first and make a few quid out of the bargain and I wasnt always sure I wanted to sit with them on the plane. Gillian never went for the idea But that seems to have changed anyway now as you only board first if you have paid extra and the queue to board was stuck with families struggling to get pushchairs to the aircraft steps. Does seem a shame as when you have kids it is another thing to struggle with. Anyway once on the plane it seems even that has changed, the seats are definitely smaller than on a conventional airline or even Easyjet which I flew with only a few weeks ago. There was the usual scrum as people tried to put suitcases into the overhead lockers as the charge is quite substantial to put them in the hold, an example is my flight cost £52 quid return and the price for a bag in the hold for both ways was £50 and that was for the lightest option. So you can see why people will struggle and not do that.
So the plane took off and the friendliness of the crew is really nice, firstly the pilot came over the tannoy, hi ladies and gentlemen and hi kids, my name’s Dave and my first officer is Jim and were going to take you to Vilnius, really upbeat and jolly. After we had been going about 30 minutes the first sale item came, it was the snacks and drinks, which is perfectly normal, even some main airlines now don’t include meals with the tickets and sell drinks etc en route. Then after the drinks, came the scratchcards which again I saw with Easyjet. Then came the shock, they actually sold smokeless cigarettes or whatever they are, for £5 a packet and as they are not proper cigarettes you are allowed to smoke them on the plane, but I didn’t see anyone buy any so maybe they are not much of an alternative to having to wait until you get to the other end. Then it was the shop with the duty free that came down the aisle and the snack wagon again. To be honest it seemed to be one long procession of selling things. But at least it gave you something to watch as my book was in the overhead locker and about twenty seats in front of where I was sat as that was the only place left free when I boarded the plane. The next journey down the aisle for the crew was the rubbish bin and then we started with the snacks again, I think I have all that in the right order.
The final different thing was that as we landed a trumpet fanfare sounded over the tannoy followed by a pre recorded speech about another Ryanair flight on time and that they were the best airline in the world for punctuality (I think, or Europe anyway), everyone clapped and all the people on board were happy bunnies, it is alot more fun than the business trips I normally go on to Brussels, where no one speaks and the crew are very efficient but there is no fun. So while it may be a bit annoying for some, kids crying and alot more people talking alot louder, at least it seems nice and friendlier.
The one criticism I would have and that is the seating, if Easyjet can do seats numbers on the ticket then why cant Ryanair, it doesn’t seem hard for Easyjet and none of our party sat together even if we did book at the same time and maybe if Ryanair get smart, they could find another extra to charge for by giving people a chance to sit together for a few extra quid and it would avoid the scrum when you are queuing to get on board.
So I arrived arrived in Vilnius and I didn’t see much of the area as you can imagine as it was gone 10.00 p.m. and although not quite dark it was getting there. The outside area going toward the centre looked very Russian or as you could imagine Russia to be, but the centre looked very nice what bit I saw, some lovely buildings and a big square outside of the hotel which I will start to investigate tomorrow, but as it is now almost midnight and I need to be up at six I will bid everyone
Night all.
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