[SMHarman]

My opinions of these carriers.

Well flying somewhere will still to me come down to a balance of cost and convinience in terms of airport location, flight times and reliability.

So I've paid £180 to get to the south of france on Buzz (remember them) when I could have paid £150 to go on BA because the flight times were earlier out and later back and from STN not LGW (I live between STN and LTN).

I've paid £30 to go to Paris on BA from LCY rather than £28 on Ezy from LTN as this meant I could work in the afternoon rather than try to get to the airport (and a fantastic airport LCY is).

I'll pay £79 to go to Paris on Eurostar in First and have Champagne poured down my throat and a full meal, rather than £49 in standard or £45 on Ezy. This also has the benefit of dropping you right into Paris.

And my last trip to Belfast was EZY. I've no experience of RYA, but Mrs H does, this is a little old because they have had a lot of fleet renewal since then, so it is not fair to comment.

Annoyances with Ezy. Well the last time I flew their checking systems crashed delaying us for 4 hours, no fun, ususally, less so with a 19month old in tow.

Lack of allocated seating. With infants you can pre board. When the finally got around to announcing pre board, we were in the toilet changing his nappy, by the time we got to the gate most pax were on board. We had bought our infant a seat (rather than being a lap pax) and brought on board his car seat (as allowed by CAA regulations). The CAA require a car seat is put by a window, so as not to obstruct other pax in an evacuation. The trouble this seemed to cause the crew (being as every window was taken). They tried to challenge whether I could use the seat on board, chastised me for being late to board (well quiet infant or screaming one with ****ty nappy stinking up the plane - you choose). Went on to explain that they would have to fit the infant seat, then get in a huff when I offered to explain how you fit it "well every seat is different" - "I know, thats why I am trying to explain to you how this one is".

Flight itself fine, frequent flier Master H was asleep before we even left the tarmac, opened his eyes when we landed and fell asleep again until we got to the terminal. He's learning well.

Return. We did board on time, knowing we could not sit in the grey seats, confirmed we could sit in the row behind, a member of crew confirmed we could, watched me fit his car seat checked it and then said, oh you can't sit there either. Duh, what was the question I asked. Then being a domestic flight we had to wait ages for the gate checked buggy along with the rest of the parents as they could not be claimed by the plane (seems to be a problem perculiar to the route).

Jet Blue - fantastic low cost carrier. One day all air travel will be that way. If you are ever in the US needing to travel a route they serve, they come recommended.

Transatlantic American are fab, they have 36in of legroom in economy, compared to BA and Virgins 31-32 in. Make a whole world of difference. You do have to pay $5 a beer / wine / gin though, however they do give frebees to frequent drinkers (and frequent flyers).

Overall a great benefit that has shaken up the market. BA, AF and the like woud be charging sky high prices otherwise. Some room for improvement though.