All throughout my college career, I've been working on trying to budget my spending, or at least limit it a bit. When I went away to school, I was given the ability to order food/cookies whenever I wanted, an ability that I'm pretty sure I took advantage of a bit too much, a few too many times. So, when I was studying abroad in Rome, knowing that I wanted to travel more, I knew that I had to use the option that was a good enough balance between a plane that won't kill me and a ticket that won't send all of my money on its own little journey away from my wallet. I give you, Ryanair:
Ryanair was cost-effective and it got the job done. These flights being some of the first that I had ever taken in my life, I used them as a learning experience as much as I could. With the experience of a few flights under my belt, I give you what I learned about flying when it comes to Ryanair:
1. Not all flights give you free food and drink
When I was planning my first Ryanair flight, I had only been on a short connector flight and then the flight from Philadelphia to Rome. On both of those flights, I was able to enjoy not only a free snack, but a free pop/soda -- the flight to Rome even had free meals. I felt like a king on top of the world, getting free food, regardless of the quality. However, I learned that Ryanair doesn't have this complementary service. It was like they were taking my throne and robe from me while my subjects watched. It was probably the hardest point that I had to get past.
2. You might as well get a drink
Still, Ryanair flights are cheap. Their whole purpose is to get you on a flight with only what you need to fly somewhere for a visit. Anything beyond that, you're gonna get charged for. To make the cravings worse, they practically parade food and refreshments in front of you in the form of advertisements everywhere and literally moving past your seat with the food cart. It's absolutely merciless treatment, but it gets results: I got a coffee on the first Ryanair flight that I bought the ticket for directly. I just focused on the savings and sipped my coffee -- it helped the pain.
3. Duffel bags
Ryanair lets you have one bag on the plane with you. This one bag must be a smaller bag, too. The people checking tickets at the gate have a place to put your bag and see if it fits the proper requirements. If your bag doesn't fit, they will make you pay a fee of about $50 to check your bag on the spot without remorse and everyone will know you failed the whole flying thing. It's considerably less to check your bag earlier, but if finding savings is blood in your veins and the thrill in your heart, then testing your luck may be worth it...or you can just bring a duffel bag to be your carry-on. Duffel bags don't fit into their little box scheme because duffel bags in overhead compartments are like cats in anything: it'll fit somehow.
