British Airways come almost as far down the list for customer satisfaction (3rd from bottom) as Ryanair (2nd from bottom) for short-haul economy flights, according to the latest "Which" survey. Jet2.com is second from top, followed by Norwegian in 3rd place. Musician friends recently used Norwegian to fly from Edinburgh to Spain, simply because they had a more accommodating attitude to taking musical instruments.
Have flown Ryanair on a number of occasions, and not really had any major problems, tho it did seem a bit ludicrous in Rome being told our hold bag was overweight: we then took out various items, strapped them around ourselves: the bag was then OK weight and we were rather warm but no excess charge! Total weight on flight - THE SAME!
As for long-haul from Edinburgh, I would avoid like the plague going anywhere via Heathrow, whih is what some travel agents seem to regard as the be-all and end-all. Flew Crossair and Swissair to Hong King and back some years ago. Air France to Buenos Aires and Singapore (on different occasions) with just one change at Paris CDG.