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Let’s Go The Social Distance

Jesus wept — tell me social distancing and the lockdown aren’t screwed.

And thousands, even millions of us in more danger than ever.

Say hello, second wave, goodbye!

We who have managed to escape the Covid-19 thing and maybe will not be as lucky this time, beseech you

Tell us … me … we’re not going to muck it all up now.

Second wave … third wave … how many waves building as we twitter and tweet…

RYANAIR, SHMYANAIR

When going on a trip and choosing to travel by plane, more precise choosing to go with the airline company Ryanair, there are some things about this company you might want and need to know.

Yes, Ryanair definitely is an airline offering cheap flights to many destinations in Europe. It's also a worldwide hated company (there's even a blog where you can do that). While attracting a lot of clients thanks to cheap flights, the company also tries to sell you a lot of things YOU DON'T NEED. Next to the flight(s) itself, Ryanair offers you insurances, rental cars, "appropriate travel bags", etc. You. Don't. Need. That.

Booking your flight

Okay, deciding to fly with Ryanair means that you'll have to book your tickets online and a little help and explanation with that might come in handy. Let's start with this "travel insurance" Ryanair offers on its website.

If you're going to pay for your flight tickets by for instance Mastercard, you don't need a travel insurance, that's already guaranteed by your credit card company. Still, the Ryanair company will try to convince you to buy one - or more - of its insurances. If you're sure you already have an insurance or that it is guaranteed by the way you pay, just click away. Even if a Ryanair pop-up appears saying that "a lot of passengers flew without insurance and all have regretted it", just ignore it (there's always a click away button, but the Ryanair ICT team did a good job on trying to camouflage them). 

One thing you might do need to pay for: your luggage. Depending on what you're going to take with you and how much, you have to pay a certain price. Ryanair also asks you to pick a seat, as you can see on the picture above. That is not necessary, but it doesn't say anywhere. If you want to reserve a seat, you have to pay for it. If you don't want to, you just skip this option and the cabin crew will point you a random seat once you're actually getting on board.

Checking in online

While booking your flight, you might have noticed that the Ryanair website is a mess (and full, but really full, of spelling flaws). The ICT team did that on purpose, so you can get easily confused and mislead when booking the tickets. Always pay attention to what you're including in your plane trip.

When the time arrives for you to check in online (confirme your flight online and print your boarding pass, something you have to do at least a few hours before your plane takes off), the Ryanair website will again try to convince you to buy certain insurances, get "appropriate luggage", book a hotel, rent a car, etc. Because of that the company placed a frame on the right side of the website in which you can see the price of the tickets going up or down, according to what you're (not) adding to your trip.

DON'T BE MISLEAD BY THAT. Your flight is booked and the price is paid. The only reason you might still have to change or add something is when you take more or different luggage with you than you first thought you would, or if you do want to reserve a seat (but once again, that is NOT mandatory). 

The actual flying

If everything eventually went well - tickets booked, boarding pass printed, luggage checked in - and you're flying high in the sky, the trip with Ryanair isn't that bad. The cabin crew offers you from time to time something to eat or drink, for which you have to pay as well, but that's standard policy with low-cost airlines.

The only - yes I'm going to say it - ridiculous and irritating thing about the Ryanair flight is the following: at the end of the trip the cabin crew let's you hear a bombastic, with trumpets filled tune for telling you that "this was another Ryanair flight arriving on time" and that "Ryanair holds the record of most flights arriving on time in Europe."

So, beware when you book flights with Ryanair: in a lot of cases the company really offers the cheapest deal, but you have to pay attention to what you're including in your trip.