George Nugent Travels

It’s the review that probably nobody has been waiting on. Europe’s lowest cost airline has a reputation with some of offering poor service, reliability and value for money. With this in mind I booked a flight to Charleroi (that’s near Brussels) and wanted to find out if this flight was good value.

Flight Details

Date – 10/05/2022

Route – Glasgow -> Brussels Charleroi

Price – £7.99

Aircraft Type – Boeing 737-800

Airport Experience

I arrived at Glasgow Airport by public transport at 0615 for a 0735 flight. I had already checked in online and saved my boarding pass to my phone. I entered the security hall and was greeted with a big queue. Despite the queue filling the hall, the teams had me processed and in Duty Free in just 18 minutes!

The airport was busy and there were plenty of options available to grab some food whilst waiting on the flight.

Our gate was displayed at 0705 and plenty of seating was available at the gate whilst we waited for boarding to begin.

Boarding Experience

Maybe it’s just me, but I have never had a Ryanair flight board the way they planned. For context, Ryanair offer priority boarding for passengers who have a wheeled suitcase. This means when asked to line up for boarding there are two queues, priority and non-priority. Despite this people still wait in the wrong queue and delay the whole process.

Outside of this regular issue the boarding for this flight took longer than planned due to face masks. At the time of travel Ryanair mandated masks on flights to Belgium and there were no exceptions. Despite this some passengers arrived without masks and had to buy one in the airport.

Boarding was via stairs at gate 27, you board via the door closest to your row.

Standing at the rear door was a member of the crew who greeted each passenger as they boarded the aircraft (say hello back). Despite what people say the legroom was fine for me at 6ft 3in.

As the flight was only half full I had my row to myself, meaning I could place my bag under the seat next to me increasing the room I had.

We pushed back from the gate on time and the crew carried out the safety briefing, listen to this regardless of how many times you have flown with them.

In Flight Experience

Unlike other airlines Ryanair does not offer seat back pockets for passengers. This means they do not offer a physical magazine or menu onboard. If you want to look at what is on offer you need to download the magazine to your phone on the ground as Wi-Fi is not offered.

The crew initially passed through the cabin doing a food and drinks service. You should note that cash is not accepted onboard and contactless is the preferred payment method.

Prices are reasonable compared to other airlines and the crew were polite and answered any questions passengers had.

When this service was over a duty-free service was offered onboard. Prices were once again reasonable compared to other airlines, and the crew once again assisted any passengers who wanted to know more about the products on offer.

As we began our approach the crew of course sold scratch cards to passengers to raise money for charity. I purchased 2, and won nothing, but it is for a good cause so I did not mind.

When we landed the standard Ryanair trumpet announcement was played to tell us we had landed on yet another on time Ryanair flight. After a very short taxi to the gate we were quickly off the airport and passing through the border. Ryanair staff were available at the bottom of the aircraft stairs to guide passengers who were not sure where to go.

My Final Thoughts

Regardless the ticket cost I would have been more than happy to receive that service on any flight. That said with the flight costing just £7.99 I can say that I received very good value for money.

I struggled to find something about this flight I did not like. If I had to say one negative thing Charleroi airport can be slightly off-putting for people who do not fly regularly as they may not feel confident landing away from the city, but even then the coach to Brussels is affordable and easy to find.

Relevant Link

To find out more about details about when flights to Brussels are available click here.