At the end of July, we wrote an article titled "10 Reasons Why Flying Ryanair Isn't As Bad As You Think." Indeed, there are many great reasons why travelers should choose the Irish low-cost carrier for intra-Europe travel. But today, let's look at the other side of the coin and the reasons why Ryanair's low fares may not actually be worth pursuing.

5 Remote airport locations and obscure flight times

One way Ryanair keeps its operating costs low is to fly to smaller airports which charge lower fees. When it comes to larger European cities, the carrier is likely to opt for a secondary airport - one that is not only located far from the city center, but is poorly connected to the city as well. In fact, when it comes to these larger cities, the airline's airports may not even be considered part of the main city's metropolitan area, and clever marketing and branding might fool travelers into thinking otherwise.

Examples of this include:

• Paris Beauvais
• Brussels South Charleroi Airport
• Milan Bergamo Airport
• And, of course, London Stansted and London Luton

Connected to keeping operational costs low, the airline often chooses less popular times of the day for many of its flights. While there are many reasonably-timed services across the Ryanair network, there are also plenty of flights that see travelers arrive at their destination in the middle of the night, when few transportation services are available.

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4 Relentless advertising

It's bad enough that Ryanair is trying to continuously 'upsell' you on travel extras during the booking process, but you're also likely to have ads at the bottom of some of your Ryanair email confirmations and reminders. From additional baggage allowance to car rentals, to hotel packages, and more, there's no shortage of opportunities offered by Ryanair for you to spend more money.

The inflight promotions top off the experience, with promotions on seatbacks and on the overhead locker/bin doors themselves. In addition to these visual adverts, flight attendants may or may not be selling lottery tickets and duty-free items on your flight as well.

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3 Fees for everything

Somewhat related to the high number of advertisements is the fact that Ryanair's published airfares include very little. Indeed, the basic fare includes your seat and the allowance of an item small enough to fit under the seat in front of you.

As a result, you'll be paying extra for everything else: A bag to go in the overhead locker, any checked baggage, seat selection, and more. Perhaps the most despised fee is the one charged for not checking-in online. For those who miss all the warnings for this fee, it will come as an extremely unwelcome surprise when approaching the check-in desk one or two hours before the flight.

Connected to the prevalence of 'fees for everything' is the fact that those unwilling to pay for seat selection will be allocated a seat at random. Some travelers swear that this isn't fully random, and that middle seats are assigned to those who choose to take their chances. What do you think is going on there?

2 Other little things

Perhaps less minor is the fact that Ryanair has extremely basic seats. Onboard its Boeing 737s, the airline's dark blue seats lack the ability to recline, and exclude any seat-back pockets for convenient storage of small electronic devices or books.

For those who may not appreciate standing around in cold temperatures or extreme heat, or rain, the airline's common method of boarding via air stairs can be another unpleasant experience.

1 Rolling the dice

Finally, it would seem that if you can endure all of the above, there's still the chance that something will go wrong with your flight. And whether or not it's the fault of the airline, it sometimes seems that Ryanair's customer service and communication in the face of operational challenges can be lacking.

Whether it's an airport strike or a major storm, customers may be left waiting around for hours without being updated by Ryanair on the status of their flight. Thus, on the rare occasion that something goes wrong, it seems to really go wrong with Ryanair.

The airline's reputation for hard landings aside, many of the issues we mentioned aren't actually exclusive to Ryanair, and are actually become quite common among low and ultra-low cost carriers around the world. Oftentimes, however, if you know what you're getting into, then the extremely low fares will make all of it tolerable.

But what do you think? Is there anything we missed? And what is your opinion of the airline? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

• 

  Ryanair

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  FR/RYR

  Airline Type:

  Low-Cost Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Dublin Airport, London Stansted Airport, Milan Bergamo Airport

  Year Founded:

  1985

  Airline Group:

  Ryanair Group

  CEO:

  Eddie Wilson

  Country:

  Ireland