TRIP REPORT: Ryanair, London - Zagreb and back
Airline: Ryanair
Equipment: Airbus A320 (Operated by Lauda Europe)
Route: London Stansted - Zagreb - London Stansted
Date: 20th November - 24th November 2021
Since I haven’t been back to Croatia in over a year, I was looking into taking a short break mostly because the PCR and antigen tests were scrapped for vaccinated passengers. The second prevailing reason for taking a trip was the fare of £16 for the return flight. I thought I got the deal of the century when I found out a week later the same flight would cost me a whole £10. I guess I overpaid £6. Knowing about the strict basic fare bag policy I’ve ordered a small sports shoulder bag from Decathlon for £5 since it was the exact dimensions stated by Ryanair. It was a bit of a challenge stuffing everything I needed in it for the five-day trip, but I managed!
Left our East London flat for Stratford bus station at 03:45 to catch the National Express coach departing at 05:02. I haven’t flown from Stansted before and never used public transportation to it, so I made sure I left plenty of time for the commute. The coach ride took around 45 minutes, mostly because of no motorway traffic that early Saturday morning. The return fare for the National Express coach cost £13.90 and I bought it directly from Ryanair’s website.
Arrived at Stansted Airport a bit before 6 AM just to run into a huge crowd at security. I’ve heard about those and that some would buy a Fast Track pass, but it turned out that the crowd was passing through quickly and it took around 20-25 minutes to go through the gates and the security check. At that time, I had more than 2 hours left for the flight departure. The gate was announced some 50 minutes before, but the Ryanair app notified me some 15 minutes before which gate will probably be used, so I decided to head to it a bit earlier, so I managed to get there first. At that point, I thought the flight would be mostly empty because only the two of us arrived at the gate even after it was announced on the flight information screens. Several minutes later people started flooding in and since I was standing right in front of the gate desk, I saw on the computer screen saying that there will be 140 passengers on today’s flight. Of course, there was a couple of passengers that showed up at the non-priority line with the regular cabin bags, just to be smacked with a £47 fee for the bag that doesn’t fit the basic fare bag allowance. There is no chance in the world they couldn’t know what the bag policy with Ryanair is since it literally asks you a few times during the booking process and sends you an email every several days prior to your flight. That’s on them.
Boarding started on time and because they let us down the jetbridge too soon, all of us had to wait on it for the next 5 or so minutes until we were let out onto the tarmac. Once on board, it was clear that the flight was almost completely full. I was seated at 11B, which means I got the middle seat, but that didn’t really pose a problem for a two-hour flight. Zagreb flights are operated by Lauda and the cabin looked well maintained, but without any visible branding, except on the floor carpet. The flight departed on time and was for the most part quite uneventful. The cabin crew were offering food, drinks and some luxury goods from their catalogue. We landed in Zagreb also on time. The passport control took some 20 minutes to go through and I found out I don’t need to fill out the Croatian passenger locator form since I am a citizen. I just had to present my NHS app QR code with the proof of being fully vaccinated. After that, I went to the car rental desk and learned that next time I should pay for the additional car insurance at the desk and not through Ryanair’s website since it would be a bit cheaper.
The return flight was early in the morning, at 06:45 to be exact. Several other flights were scheduled around that time, so the airport was slowly filling up after 5 AM. Security was practically empty when I went through with one visibly irritated ground staff barking orders at passengers that wouldn’t remove all of their belongings and put them in a tray. I knew I was still in the Balkans.
After the passport check I went to Cafe Nero and after paying the bill for a cafe latte, a small bottle of Jana water and a carrot cake, I thought I was already in London. Almost an hour before the scheduled departure I went to gate 28 and again ended up first in line. When boarding started, the ground staff asked us to show the NHS vaccination QR code and the locator form. I completely forgot about preparing those on my phone and had to dig for a minute in front of a lady which felt like hours.
Once all of the passengers boarded, it seemed the flight was around 90% full. This time I was seated next to an aisle, in row 20. The couple next to me was going through the Lonely Planet London booklet, so I guess there are some tourists visiting London. This flight also took off on time and for most of its duration, passengers were sleeping or trying to.
We landed at Stansted a bit ahead of time, disembarked at the tarmac next to the terminal building and walked to the e-gates. There were already hundreds if not thousands of people slowly moving in line and it seemed like I’ll be stuck there for the next hour or two. Surprisingly after a while, the line started moving slowly and I was through it maybe 20-25 minutes later. I was out of the terminal building and managed to catch the departing National Express bus as soon as I reached the parking bay.
This was my first trip with Ryanair and from what I’ve been hearing and reading, I was prepared for the worst, but in the end, it ended up a very pleasant and cheap experience. If I’d manage to catch such cheap tickets in the future, I wouldn’t think twice about purchasing them.
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
0 Response to "TRIP REPORT: Ryanair, London - Zagreb and back"
Post a Comment