Ryanair, London Stansted to Malaga

If you can get away with hand luggage, you'll avoid both Ryanair's hefty luggage surcharges and the stress of dealing with this airline's infamously unhelpful staff, until you reach the departure gate. If you check-in online and print your boarding pass, you can go straight to security. Ryanair insists you get to the gate well before the flight is due to depart, meaning you end up in a succession of queues, as people jostle for the best seats on the plane. Once on board, the seats are cramped, the food and drink are expensive and there is a steady stream of sales pitches for lottery tickets, duty free and the like from the cabin crew. As you would expect, the early morning and the evening flights are the cheapest, but you end up coming and going from Stansted at some ungodly hours. Still, you'll maximise your time in sunny Andalusia. 5/10