Looking at their baggage rules, I think anyone who paid for a cabin bag gets priority by default?
Priority & 2 Cabin Bags: This allows you to carry a small personal bag (40x20x25cm), which must fit under the seat in front of you and a 10kg bag (55x40x20cm) onboard, to be stored in the overhead locker. It also allows you to board the plane first using the Priority Boarding queue at the gate.
Yup, they've grouped the two for years.
Yeah they try and force it on you so your £40 fare is in reality £70. I visited my parents with just a small rucksack and had to lol at now apparently not being allowed to use the overhead bins.
Is it formally not allowed, or is it just those are for all the dickheads with the wheel on luggage as a practicality policy? Don't think I've been on Ryanair for almost a decade now.
I know this is completely irrelevant to the point you're making, but thinking about how much value is provided in that £40 (or £70) is really hard to fathom. The engineering, infrastructure, fuel, safety, service, taxes, profit etc. that goes into putting people into flying steel tubes to shuttle them around the world. All for the same money (or less) as a fancy restaurant meal or a seat at a sports game.
Yeah, low cost flying is basically an economic miracle and Michael O'Leary is unironically one of the greatest agents of human happiness this century.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Yup. I'll take almost any level of discomfort, grief and shithousery to keep flying just about anywhere within a three hour radius for less than £100. It's insane.
The ultimate irony being that one of the reasons they can offer cheap flights is that they're running old Boeings which are far more safe than the new lot.
Ryanair placed, I think, the world's biggest order (at the time) for 737 Max 8 aircraft during the period that aircraft was grounded – that's the Lion Air / Ethiopian Airlines crash one. They managed to get it under the radar by referring it to the 737-8000 or something like that. And they've ordered more since. I don't know if they have any 737 Max 9s (the Alaskan Airlines door blowout one). I think Tui has a few, and one of the Scandi carriers (Finnair or Icelandair).
Ryanair's fleet compared to a lot of others is relatively modern. Also, there is absolutely no chance the 737 Max will be killed off by all these incidents. The order book is still for thousands of them, and the issues will always get fixed. Modern aviation is absolutely reliant on there being competition between Airbus and Boeing.
EDIT: They called it the 737-8200. And they ordered 210 in total, a first order of 135 and another for 75 in Dec 2020. So both orders during the grounding.
Last edited by Clunge; 27-01-2024 at 10:55 AM.
I will never understand how black cabs stay in business. Not only are they about double the price they should be, but you can pretty much do any journey across London by bus, tube, foot or a combination in less than an hour.
I was pretty pissed and got on wrong tube to go back to hotel and couldn’t be arsed trying to rectify the mistake.
Stansted to Victoria was ridiculously easy though and was much less of a ballache then I thought it would be compared to Heathrow. Definitely just book there in future unless Heathrow have dirt cheap flights
I wouldn't call that easy but then I'm not used to ScotRail, jesus what a disaster that is.
I kinda love black cabs as an institution, despite (or perhaps partly because of) them really not making much sense on a logical/economic level. There's a young black cab lad who runs an excellent YouTube channel where he just does videos of his shifts, explains his routes, talks about the economics/admin/history of it all. It's really interesting, and it is genuinely fucking impressive what they can all do, yet it does still seem a bit pointless. He's done a couple of videos along the lines of "why still get black cabs" or "why are we worth using instead of Ubers" and it basically just boils down to "well we'll usually be a bit quicker because we know little short cuts and more aware of typical traffic rates/road closures that Google maps/sat navs don't really manage " and "well if you have a few of you it's basically as cheap as getting a train ticket each, and a much nicer journey ".
On the first point, yeah I spose. The second point is absolutely true though, and is with taxis generally. Big advocate of sharing taxis over multiple people getting tickets for stuff. Did my fucking head in when we did the fringe a few years back, and would constantly be late to the first show of the day cus my spazzy mates insisted on the 1 hour unreliable bus for £3 each or some shit, Vs all putting in practically the same amount into a taxi. Wankers.
Yeah, I follow a black cabbie who puts out a lot of videos too.
I watched one where he explained the whole queueing system at Heathrow. Really interesting shit but he sat around for like five hours to get one job into the city. There is literally hundreds of cabs in this queue all to make, what, £50 tops?
Yeah I did think that. Plus when he breaks down the costs, hours, and general lifestyle it sounds pretty rubbish to be honest. Sounds quite patronising, but sometimes when he goes on about the "freedom" and other advantages of the job, I kinda think it's probs more a reflection of a lack of stuff to compare to. IIRC his only other job was working in topman or some shit. Still, good luck to him or whatever.
Anyone done Legoland Windsor? We're in London (Brentford) for a wedding at the start of April, and I'm considering doing it on our free day. Seems like there's a decent enough route out via Elizabeth Line, but we have to be back in the Ealing area for 5ish, so I'm wondering if 11-4 or thereabouts is enough time to make it worthwhile.
Any other advice on navigating London with a 4yo and a 6yo very welcome. Or better options for a fun day out than trekking out to Windsor.
Can't go wrong with the Natural History Museum.
11-4 is plenty for Legoland. It's great for those ages, but it's not an American style theme park spreading out over 5 million acres.
My 2 were underwhelmed by Lego Land. I'd go to Chessington or Thorpe Park instead.
Those hours would be fine, just be wary of the traffic down to Legoland as you'll need a bus from the station. Sounds like you're there during Easter holidays so it could be particularly busy.
I always wanted to go to Legoland because I liked the idea of that driving license bit. Then I saw video of it years later and it looked total shit.
Legoland is alright but you want to get there when it opens as otherwise it can be pain to get to and they day just goes. Those q-bot things they do [and you pay for] are well worth it imo, particularly if it is likely to be busy when you go.
I've also only ever been when you got cheap tickets from the newspaper or train, so not sure if it's value for money at the full sticker price, whatever that is now.
Went to the museums in Greenwich Park recently, although not great for Brentford-way. The maritime one was decent but the Royal Observatory has gone to shit since I was last there in the 90s, there's nothing in it. Kind of explains why an annual membership is basically the same price as a family entry. They know you're not coming back.
Science museum is alright, but I didn't like the entry system when I went where they basically guilt you into donating. Just charge a ticket price if that's what you plan to do. You can bypass that at the Natural History Museum by pre-booking admission, maybe that's available at the science museum as well now.
I think a daytrip to legoland when you need to be back in London/Ealing for 5ish sounds a bit like a recipe for disaster.
How about the zoo? Zoo's are great.
If London Zoo was where Legoland is, and vice versa, they would both be far better attractions.
I don't think I've ever been to a zoo.
I don't even know how that's possible? Getting dragged round one once a year as a kid was basically law when we were kids.
I haven't been to one for years. Have they gone all woke now with plans to return the captured animals to the wild etc? Sustainably caught tigers.
Most of them have just followed the trend of trying to bankrupt their customers by hiking their prices to ridiculous levels. £33 a ticket these days. Piss taking bastards.
And that's before they try to sell you a subpar burger and chips for £20.
I took my mother to Windsor Castle last week, and, whilst the castle is well worth a visit, I was surprised how crap Windsor is. I expected a posh little cathedral city-type of place, when in actual fact it's like somebody dropped St. Paul's Cathedral in Nuneaton.
Jersey Zoo did this. Rebranded itself "Durrell" and had all the animals in enclosures where they were entirely invisible. They seem to have gone away from that now though and have let all the tamarinds and little marmoset monkey things run loose which is quite cool.
I went to Whipsnade Zoo quite recently which was ok, but seems to be some sort of Amazon fulfillment centre for other zoos, chiefly London Zoo or ZSL as I think it likes to refer to itself. Has a car route around it as well which was a bit .
Last edited by niko_cee; 13-03-2024 at 05:13 PM.
Can't remember the last time I went to a zoo but I have been to Woburn "SAFARI PARK" a lot and I love it.
Nothing like having a pride of lions run towards your car or having monkeys finger their arseholes on your windscreen.
Don't the little fuckers just strip your car of all seals and other rubber parts?
Last few times I went in a 9 seater. They usually just sit on the front taking out red berries which have collected in the cracks around the bonnet.
Although one time they were lounging on the roof and took some rubber parts from up there. I think they're just plugs for the holes for a roof rack.
I went to Lincoln Park Zoo last year and it took a surprising amount of time to find any animal. First thing I saw was a depressed Polar Bear pacing back and forth.
When I went to London Zoo I saw an African woman give her kid the hardest slap I've ever seen. He was mewling and pulling her jumper, and she turned round and belted him across his chops in a single movement. I was almost as astonished as he was.
https://www.jet2holidays.com/search/...order=1&page=1
That first deal (was apparently only £150 last night too). You're basically gonna come back well in profit over your day-to-day living expenses in UK. They should advertise it to the boat folk.
Cheaper than one of RL’s tasting menus. (Not including alcohol)
Gonna be rife this summer with Jet2, Tui and easyJet holidays kicking the shit out of each other. There's record package capacity in the market this year. Could be some insane deals.
I did wonder why my holiday last year was so expensive compared to this year. Can get 14 days AI at 5* resorts in Mexico for less than £2000pp in July. No idea if you’re meant to go this time of the year or not.
"The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th."
Mexico's hurricane season is from May through November, with most storms developing between July and October. Hurricanes and tropical storms can cause life-threatening flash floods, dangerous winds, treacherous surf and rip currents, and other hazardous conditions.
Just another day in Dundee.
Touché.
I looked at Cape Verde but it just looks a bit, well, boring.
Windy as fuck too.
The American Holocaust Museum was pretty sobering. Very effective when the yanks shut their traps for a few minutes and the whole room falls silent.