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I'm back home in London now after a somewhat smooth trip. I suppose any trip would be smooth compared to the disaster of the outgoing journey. I'd like to share more about the trip itself but I will probably do one of those 2 thousand word 30 photos type post with all the fancy tags :)

A few snags on the way back. The first one was to do with the flight. It took longer than usual to let us on the plane. I was the very last person in, by which time they had reshuffled the seats and someone had been given my extra leg room seat that I paid extra money for.

They had to move some people around because they switched the aircraft in the morning so the seat numbers didn't exactly match the boarding passes. The problem was mainly with the emergency exit seats. Children are not allowed to sit there, so they had to move families who's seat numbers fell on the emergency exit rows. People that also had paid for emergency exit row seats, such as me, also had to be shuffled around to find them such a seat. This meant that someone had to willingly give up their legit seat, just because it now fell on the emergency exit row.

One of the stewardesses tried to be short with me, asking me to "just sit down" where she gave me. I politely pointed out that, actually, I had paid extra for the leg room. I did so because I have longer than average legs, and knee problems. I wasn't about to "just sit" any damn where. The problem was known since they switched the planes and already completed a journey. The incompetent higher ups, as usual, had left it up to the poor stewardesses to face the customers' anger. For that reason, I actively stopped myself from being angry, even though I was livid inside.

I eventually decided to be uncomfortable for the two-hour flight and pursue a refund of the extra I paid. I know it's going to be time consuming and cumbersome, with Ryanair attempting to wiggle out of refunding me, but I decided to channel my anger in the right direction. There were only 3 stewardesses on the flight. I remember there used to be more - probably some cost-cutting decision higher up. They looked exhausted. I figured they didn't need me making life more difficult for them than it already was.

As for Ryanair management, they're going to be getting letters from me. I've had a lot of experience dealing with corporate.

Peace & Love,

Adé