• Home
  • About
    • Where has GhettoIFE gone?
    • For PR’s and Agencies (Changes and Corrections)
    • Privacy Policy
  • Snapshots
  • Trip Reports
  • Travel Plus…
    • … Technology
    • … Photography

Economy Class & Beyond

You are here: Home / Trips / Honolulu / Book it Danno! To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin

Book it Danno! To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin

10/02/2015 by Kevincm

 Book it Danno! To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin

Hawaii Tier Point Run Trip Report Logo

Index:

  • A Rock, A Hard Place and Tier Points
  • To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin
  • A morning around Dublin
  • Dublin Airport, BA4467 Dublin Airport to London City Airport
  • Travelodge, London City Airport
  • A Morning at London City Airport
  • British Airways BA001 London City Airport – Shannon, Shannon to New York-JFK
  • Über Takes on Manhattan
  • Holiday Inn Express, JFK
  • JFK T8, US Airways Flight US510 New York JFK to Phoenix, Arizona
  • US Airways Club/Admiral’s Club, US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu
  • The Aston Beach Waikiki
  • Travel Plus… Doing – Exploring the Diamond Head Trail
  • Travel Plus… Doing – Pearl Harbour and The USS Arizona Memorial
  • The joy of British Airways Rebooking
  • Honolulu Airport, American Airline Lounge, US693 Honolulu International to Phoenix
  • US425 Phoenix to New York-JFK, Economy Class
  • JFK Omnishambles
  • BA002 JFK to London City Airport
  • Involuntary Downgrade Chaos
  • BA4462 London City Airport to Dublin
  • A Five Hour Dublin Layover
  • BA0837 Dublin Airport to London Heathrow Airport in Club Europe
  • Homeward bound
  • Aftermath: Points and Reflections…

 

DANGER: THE FOLLOWING SEGMENT CONTAINS ME FLYING RYANAIR. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

The day of departure.

With a 7:50 pushback at the airport, I was awake at 5am sorting out the final bits and bobs. And loosing certain final bits and bobs to the point where I had to abandon the idea of catching the bus and train to the airport, but in the end catching a cab.

The bag this trip, anything to stay inside Ryanairs luggage limit
The bag this trip, anything to stay inside Ryanair’s luggage limit….

Well, I’m holiday – that’s the excuse isn’t it?

With my local taxi firm doing the best effort not to get lost around my local area, the driver was thankfully was in the mood to put pedal to the metal, and get me to the airport at 7:10.

Birmingham Airport
Up into security – the old EuroTerminal area – now dominated by Ryanair

With 20 minutes to go before boarding commenced, it was a case of rushing up to security and heading to the Ryanair gates in the old EuroTerminal at Birmingham Airport. This isn’t easy thanks to the enforced maze called a duty free shop

Two bags even on Ryanair
Although Birmingham Airport was happy to sell more stuff Ryanair passengers want… and reminding them they can take a 2nd bag.

Birmingham Airport Duty Free

And to stock up…

Thankfully, I made it to the gate at 7:20, and boarding had yet to begin.

Ryanair boarding
Queueing at Gate 1

Ryanair boarding
Depending on what you paid for is where you board. I was cheap and was in the “All other passengers queue”…

The queue begun to move after a couple of minutes – and the days of pushing and rushing seems to be over with Ryanair having assigned seating.

It’s almost like Ryanair is turning into a grown up airline.

Ryanair boarding
Through Gate Number 1

With my mobile boarding pass zapped, I was allowed down the ramp. A short wait at the top of the ramp (as passengers were getting off the previous service) and soon enough, both pens of passengers were allowed downstairs onto the tarmac and onto the waiting 737.

Ryanair 737
The waiting plane from the jetbridge.

Ryanair 737 on the ground...

FR693 Birmingham Airport to Dublin Airport
Ryanair, Seat 12E (selected by Ryanair)
200 miles flown (C’mon, a frequent flyer bonus? Only in Ryanair’s dim and distant past).

I headed aboard the plane, and was welcomed aboard by a rather jolly Irish crew – and was directed to my middle seat

Yes a middle seat. It’s the joy of Ryanair and a  45 minute trip. That, and I wasn’t prepared to give up £5 for a window seat, and £2 for priority boarding.

So is the plane yellow? Well, yes and no – the yellow appeared faded.

Ryanair Boeing 737

Ryanair Boeing 737
Boarding in progress

Ryanair Boeing 737
That cabin is looking awful faded… 50 shades of yellow there?

Meanwhile, the safety card was glued to the back of the seat.

Ryanair Boeing 737
Well, at least safety card thieves can’t make off with this one… mainly as it’s glued to the seat back, as well as an advert.

Legroom wasn’t ample, but was bearable for 45 minute trip to Dublin.

Ryanair Boeing 737 seat

Ryanair Boeing 737
The worst I’ve sat in? I’ve sad in worse for longer… normally when the person behind hits the recline button.

Safety demonstration was dispensed with in a quick, yet careful manner (with particular note to keep window shades up), and soon our 737 begun the taxi out of Birmingham Airport, and a short taxi to the runway where the engines powered up.

Now thankfully, you won’t get to see a takeoff and landing window (because recording over someone’s shoulder isn’t fun and more importantly, the seat alignment had gone to pot at row 12.

Ryanair Boeing 737 on Taxi
On taxi.

Ryanair Boeing 737 on climbout
The cabin during taxi. Rather serene almost.

The engines spooled up, and soon our fully laden Boeing 737-800 took to the skies.

Ryanair Boeing 737 on climbout Ryanair Boeing 737 on climbout

The cabin itself was still during climbout… and after a short while, the sales patter when into high gear.

Ryanair Boeing 737 on climbout
Climbing.

And so the lights came on for the full sales. And there was a reasonable trade in drinks and snacks first thing in the morning.

Ryanair Cabin

And of course, there was the scratchcard sale. Well, this is Ryanair. US Airways hawk credit cards, Ryanair hawks its Scratchcards.

Ryanair Scratchcard! Scratchcard!
Scratchcard? Scratchcard! Scrathcard? SCRATCHCARD!!!!

The flight times were padded (Aer Lingus quotes an hour for this segment with a 45 minute flight – Ryanair quote 1:10 for the same segment), so the plane was booked to land rather early at Dublin Airport.

Ryanair overhead panel
A densly packed overhead panel.

And like that, the flight time was ending. The cabin was cleared down, magazines collected (or given away for those who were mad enough to take one) and we lined up for Dublin Airport.

Ryanair nearing Dublin Airport

With a heavy thump, we landed safely, and peeled off the taxiway. And of course, this being Ryanair there was the arrival fanfare. And I didn’t record it. Thankfully there are plenty who have on Youtube.

The plane taxied over to the far 100 Gates, where our plane came to a stop at a hard stand, and it was a mass exodus to the door.

Ryanair Disembarkation
I did say it was an exodus!

Ryanair Disembarkation
And my turn too.

Overall: As a method of getting from A to B, and at the price paid (£10.19), I think the airline may had made 20p out of me if that. It wasn’t state of the art luxury. But then – any flight in economy isn’t.  The seat was reasonable, leg room was passable for the segment length, and when you learn to block out the announcements (or use good headphones) it not that bad.

Does the “friendlier” Ryanair work? There were plenty of warnings about extra fees, the assigned seating worked, and the only reason to get to the gate early is to secure the precious overhead bin space, so to a point – yes. There was minimal baggage weighing and bag fittings, boarding was organised and not a mass sea of panic – so in this experience, it worked for and my circumstance

Did Ryanair annoy me me off?  Apart from being auto-assigned a middle seat… nope. They did the job.

Would I rather had been on Aer Lingus? You betcha. Less annoying baggage regulations and slightly easier ground handling. However, Aer Lingus weren’t worth £55 on this 45 minute flight. For £10.19 Ryanair did the job.

And with Ryanair, that’s all you can hope for – anything else is a bonus.

Next: A morning and a bit around Dublin


Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates!

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European readers.

Related

Filed Under: Honolulu, Trip, Trip Reports, Trips

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Mastodon
  • RSS
  • Threads

Recent Posts

  • Cathay Pacific introduces new ‘Chinese Classics’ dining offerings for Business class customers
  • Eurowings to introduce a Business Class Seat for Medium Haul Services
  • Thai Airways to use the Recaro R3 seat for their upcoming A321neo aircraft
  • Data Storage Adventures with a UGreen NAS – Part 2: Which NAS to go for?
  • Air Niugini adds a further two Airbus A220 aircraft

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates daily and to hear what's going on with us!

Privacy Policy
Copyright © Economy Class & Beyond All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Economy Class & Beyond with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.