I've read a few things about Ryan air that would make me reluctant to choose them as a carrier. A few years ago I was looking at some all-inclusive vacation that included air fare that were listed by a vacation broker. When I was looking at some of the reviews I saw numerous warnings about the broker using Ryan air after finding out that the carrier had maximum luggage weight of 22 pounds (or you pay a lot extra). I've also read that their agents are paid a bonus for catching passengers with oversized carry on baggage. Although I've yet to use them I've looked at EasyJet for connections within Europe to reduce the overall cost of a trip. For example, I found that flying r/t on a major carrier from NY to Barcelona, then using EasyJet to get to Rome as much less expensive than using the major carrier for all of the flights. Do you have any experience with EasyJet?
Ouch, don't you dare to tell me not to travel with Ryanair I've travelled more than 100 times with them! And never had any single problem. You only have to be aware that they set a maximum width&height for your luggage, and a maximum wheight. If you are within the limits, you will have no problem; if you are over, you have to pay 50 euro (which only happened to me once, and in the beggining because I was silly and unconscious ). Besides this, it's a very good airline, very punctual, good service and really, really cheap (easyjet and others are also very good, but not as cheap). Furthermore I'm lucky to have a Ryanair airport very close to home, and thanks to this I've been able to visit half Europe and lots of countries.
EasyJet is very good to, totally recommended. If you have any further questions I might help. I may not be good at lots of things, but I do lots of travel and know many things about airpots&airlines of Europe