An extra 60-70 people added to the bunfight for the best seats. Oh, joy!
They only do allocated seats
I have and will never fly on Ryanair. Ever. Even if the alternative involved the most horrific things I could think of.
No issues with Easyjet. Always sit in the window seat one row forward of the over wing exit. Never run out of food/drink going to/from Gran Canaria. And quite happy to be last on, even if it means kicking someone out of my seat. And will wait to be last off because running off a plane to join the queue into the building/immigration etc is retarded. And having worked with the assistance people, I usually get a lift all the way through anyways
Expecting food on the aircrafts fourth+ sector is madness... Get there early enough to use lounge/leisurely breakfast cost of either is the same by the time you have eaten and had a few drinks. If you don't want to do that, go to Boots and buy a sandwich meal deal or two for the flight.
Remember that Speedy Boarding = Speedy Queuing and you won't go far wrong, Certainly not worth paying for and if your carry on won't fit under the seat in front then check it in.
This travel malarkey doesn't need to be stressful or complicated
No way I'm checking £10K+ of camera equipment. It's coming into the cabin and going in the overhead lockers. Hence you need to be amongst the first 50% of people onto the plane otherwise you risk not getting overhead locker space.
Everything goes as hand baggage. Any truck with the cabin crew trying to force me to check it in, then everything comes out and goes into my pockets. They can then put the empty bag in the hold if they want - I'll just abandon it at the other end and buy a new £10 bag. Yes you end up looking like the Michelin man, but that's safer than airport handling.
On arrival the pi55hole of an airport at the other end (and 99% of Ryanair destinations are pi55holes), first to passport control means first to the car hire desk. Since many of the airports only have one or two car hire companies, and almost everyone on the plane will be hiring a car, this can save over an hour. Particularly if you are unable to pre-book with a hire car company that isn't affiliated with the airline you flew with. Once got stuck for over 2 hours at Milan/Bergamo when the idiot that pre-booked everything chose Hertz.
Uk regional airports are much better than the biggies. Again, first to passport control means you waltz straight through, and hand baggage only means straight to the car. Bristol is great - less than 20 minutes from thumping into the tarmac to being out of the car park. Stansted can be 2 hours if it's busy, and Gatwick once took me over 3.
Heathrow for me this weekend. LOT Polish - I won't fly BA.