Ryanair Luggage Changes

I will get in before the "Ryanair haters" do, but I always check a bag anyway on Ryanair. Even with the cost the total flight cost is cheap and since flights are point to point, and airports smaller, baggage issues rarely happen.

I always fly Easyjet not Ryanair, as Gatwick is my closest airport that Ryanair don't really use. Unless going on a 5 day city break, I always check a bag in as I don't want to be spending my holiday doing laundry. However, I usually also have a larger piece of hand luggage than will now be permitted by Ryanair.

Easyjet to date haven't changed their policy, but some of their flights that I have used recently have had too much luggage for the small overhead lockers to cope with, so it's probably just a matter of time until they change too.

It takes so long to get through passport control that the bags are often at the carousel at the same time as the passengers, so it often doesn't take any longer.

not a ryanair hater, just a "told you so". Their policies are going around in circles. Not so long ago they were putting up checked luggage charges and their odious CEO was saying people shouldn't take luggage on trips, they should buy cheap clothes when they arrived. Then they announced the 2nd cabin bag when everyone who travels on any european airline knows what chaos that causes. And now we go back 15 years! I would like to think that common sense has broken out but I fear this is a result of crunching numbers and they think it will raise more revenue overall. But it will make boarding less of a hassle so let's be thankful for that.

Not sure about buying clothes when you get there, but I agree that 99 percent of travelers overpack and 85 percent way overpack. For many their luggage is defined by how much they are allowed to bring, stuffing more things to take up every available ounce, rather than bringing what they really need.

These changes are not yet on their website rules. So here is a thought-question regarding this.

The news release specifically mentions a wheelie bag and a smaller item. Any guess as to what the policy will be regarding one regular non-wheelie pack and no additional item? We travel with one convertible RS bag each, and nothing else. We do not need anything in our laps for shorter flights. FWIW, the one time we flew Ryanair we booked so far ahead at such a low price that it was worth adding the priority boarding in order to sit first row by the door.

The maximum onboard that will be allowed is 35x20x20, so a wheelie bag will need to go into the hold free of charge according to the press statement.

I have never had an issue with Ryanair. I book on a checked bag if I am going on a long trip instead of trying the squeeze into a small bag and being charged at the airport because it wont fit in the basket. If you think your bag maybe to big to carry on either reduce what you take or pay to check the bag as it is significantly cheaper than paying at the airport.

I have an upcoming flight on the airline in mid-October. Currently, this is the policy as received in an email to me from them.

One cabin bag, not exceeding 55cm x 40cm x 20cm in size and 10kg in weight, plus One small bag e.g. handbag, laptop bag etc. not exceeding 35cm x 20cm x 20cm can be carried per passenger who has purchased priority booking or a Plus/Flexi Plus ticket.

The later dimensions are well within the limit for roll on bags.

Technically, a RS Civita bag is too big for the free allowance.

We took Ryanair in May from East Anglia to Dinard. My wife reads the fine print. I often gloss over it, preferring to wait for bridges to appear before crossing them. That is the right attitude. Ryanair had all kinds of warnings about baggage wait, baggage size, blah blah blah. We got to EA, put our bag on the belt, no one said anything. I carried on stuff, again no comments. They spend a lot of time warning people about stuff, but they don't seem to enforce much. I guess they figure that if they can scare people into paying the bag fee, they get free money. That was under the old policy, but I wonder if that approach will change.

Paul

I have seen the budget airlines sometimes check bag sizes and also weigh bags for those with weight restrictions. Travelling in May isn't peak season and flights to the more popular destinations maybe a different story. If you are caught oversize, it costs more to check the bag in at the airport than in advance at the time of booking.

What they really need to do, though, is simply ban hand baggage apart from minor things like a book or a small handbag and bottle of water.

Not going to happen because:

1. Concerns over lithium battery fires. Cabin crew can catch the fire caused by a laptop battery gone bad in an overhead bin, but a fire that starts in the hold is an entirely different story. Fire concerns are what got the EU to effectively kill the American TSA's attempt to ban laptops and other electronic devices in the cabin for 'security concerns' earlier this year.

2. The airline doesn't want to have to deal with additional damage or theft issues for high value and possible fragile items placed into the hold. It's really easy to put together a $10-15K camera kit if you're serious about such activities.

3. Business and government travelers are often not allowed by their employer to be separated from computers that may contain sensitive proprietary information. So an airline who tried this would lose to much high value business revenue.

given that Paul doesn't even know which airport he flew from I wouldn't put a lot of faith in his advice......

The new policy as mostly a return to the previous approach and puts it on the same page as other no-frills airlines, particularly easyJet. That airline is strict enough that the several easyJet flights I have taken all involved passengers sitting on the floor at the departure gate stuffing items into a single bag; "one" actually means one. Is that robbery? Nonsense, flame-thrower. Proof is that Ryanair now carries a million passengers a month. Unless the continent is full of suckers, they recognize they are getting what they pay for.

In regards to checking bags for weight and size, Budget Airlines certainly do check. However, while I would not depend on it, the amount of checking varies by airport and Country. In general I found that in Northern climes they tend to check just about every bag, if not them all. As you go South I recall an eagle eyed gate attendant in Germany picking people out of the line, Spain it really had to be obvious, In Croatia, I do not think a single bag was checked. The rules are not difficult or need be confusing, the information is clearly presented when buying tickets and there is much discussion on-line about what to check for.

My wife reads the fine print. I often gloss over it, preferring to wait for bridges to appear before crossing them. That is the right attitude. Ryanair had all kinds of warnings about baggage wait, baggage size, blah blah blah.

I think SD Paul is trying to troll/get people in trouble at the gate.

While RyanAir doesn't always weigh your luggage or follow all their fine print, they certainly CAN. In one particularly stupid morning for me flying out of Baden-Baden, my bag was a kilo over and I was told I would have to lose the weight or check the bag (threw out some toiletries and put a couple things in my husband's bag which had been .5 kilos underweight). I also somehow missed my printed boarding pass (but not my husband's) so I had to pay the boarding pass printing fee which by the way was about double the cost of my flight to Thessaloniki.

I've also done the shoving my messenger bag or sometimes even my PURSE into my carryon with EasyJet flights. They are strict about that one piece rule.

It always behooves you to follow the fine print rules when flying low budget carriers because otherwise the trip can quickly become not so low-budget!

I am just fine with all the budget airlines I've used regularly - Euro/German Wings (nicest probably), Easy Jet, RyanAir... when you follow the rules you get amazingly cheap flights. That's all that matters. I went to Venice for 34 euro round trip. Can't beat it.

My daughter has a very heavy school backpack. Every morning when she leaves I tell her the same joke. You know if you take Ryanair you're going to have to buy another ticket for that backpack.

I considered taking Ryanair once. My kids both play the violin. At that time both of their violins together could fit under a single airplane seat. Regardless, Ryanair would have made me pay a instrument fee and the fee for each violin would have been more than the ticket itself.

What they really need to do, though, is simply ban hand baggage apart from minor things like a book or a small handbag and bottle of water.

There are a lot of travelers this simply will not work for and with good reason--Parents with babies, people with children, folks with a lot prescription medication, photography equipment.