Pay attention to the rules

Ok, Allan, I agree.

But I don't agree that

airlines benefit when passengers don’t understand their rights.

I think everyone loses. The customer loses money and time, the airline loses time and customer goodwill.

I do fly Ryanair, usually about once on a trip, and they do make it clear what the baggage limits are. People who get in trouble simply ignore them out of spite (I can get by) or ignorance.

Americans are accustomed to American carriers. They all have carry-on bag limits, most of us ignore those limits, the airlines don't bother enforcing. Not so in Europe, not only Ryanair, but as you mention, Easyjet, but also the flag carriers (KLM, Air France, Swiss Air, etc) will check and weigh bags.

Ryanair specifically, if someone on here asks questions, my advice is to always pay for a checked bag, the 20 kilo one, the total cost of the ticket will still be dirt cheap. Some may be able to travel for several weeks with a small bag and under 10 kilos, but I, and many though, will be pushing the size and weight limit with a typical carry on size bag.

Same goes for seats, you want a reserved one, pay for it. Make sure you have the app and a boarding pass before you get to the airport.

I think everyone loses. The customer loses money and time, the airline
loses time and customer goodwill.

What you wrote makes sense, sadly it isn't true. It's an old article, but it discusses a study done by the U of Nevada that showed that no matter how bad service was, people still buy tickets.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/10/07/this-is-the-real-reason-bad-airline-service-is-profitable/

• A new study by the University of Nevada, Reno, finds there's no link between customer satisfaction and an airline's financial performance.
• The research also suggests airlines can get away with offering bad customer service because you let them.
• The study reveals one of the most uncomfortable truths in the travel industry: no matter how much airline passengers complain about ridiculous fees, indifferent cabin service, or lengthy delays, they'll keep buying tickets.

Seriously? It’s biased to an extreme. If you are going to act that way, you sure better be correct; and he isn’t. Speaking of Ryanair and Wizzair he says:

• “Personal item is free (40x25x20cm)” nope, wrong size.
• “That’s a backpack, not a small suitcase” that’s an over generalization and not really true. I don’t use a backpack and what I use is legal (based on the correct dimensions not those he published).
• “Priority boarding adds a real carry-on for €15-30” Way off base. With Ryanair its about 45% of the cost of the base ticket. My trip to Chisinau the base rate is 24.390 Ft adding Priority adds 11.390 Ft to the cost of the ticket, but does indeed get a carryon bag added. But that’s dumb because they have a Wizz Smart category for 100 Ft more that adds the bag, priority boarding and a free seat. So his recommendation is just plain wrong.
• “Checking a bag online costs €25-40” I would count on the high end of that range. Doubt there are may flights where its 25€.
• “Checking a bag at the gate costs €70” The fixed price is wrong. With Ryan it can be as low as 45€.

I quit reading after this. Nothing reliable about it. Just someone too lazy to do good research but wanting to vent on a group he apparently has little or no respect for.

A new study by the University of Nevada, Reno, finds there's no link
between customer satisfaction and an airline's financial performance.

According to the Economist magazine, RyanAir is among the most profitalbe airlines. So I guess more like the airline and fewer think like the author above. https://www.economist.com/business/2026/01/26/ryanair-might-be-the-worlds-most-successful-airline

You know the most common complaint I hear about Discount Airlines begins with "I will never fly them because ..." That sort of sums up why the complaints are more about selling clickbait or having believed the clickbait ...

For my holiday this summer it’s £85 ($110) to check a bag - each way. That’s with EasyJet. Seat reservations and baggage fees can easily double the initial cost of the flights.

For my holiday this summer it’s £85 ($110) to check a bag - each way. That’s with EasyJet. Seat reservations and baggage fees can easily double the initial cost of the flights.

But then the question becomes, what would a comparable ticket on British Airways cost you with the bag?

Then of course, can you get by within Easyjet's "free" underseat bag limit for a holiday? (Or would you even want to)

Compare rail as well, and what is the cheapest, best option? My guess (Not knowing where you are going or when) is that 400 GBP round trip is still about the cheapest.

I guess I look at what I need, what is the cost, what are the other options, and go with what seems best.

Paul, I have flown Wizz and Ryan quite a bit. Never flown EasyJet. I almost always pay for the full size carryon. With that the ticket that was half the cost of the legacy carrier on the same route becomes just 35% cheaper. Throw in a checked bag and we are taling 25% cheaper. My hint with Ryan or Wizz is to go through the purchase process buying the base fare then price the bits and pieces you want (carry on and checked bag, maybe priority boarding, seat cost). Then go back and compare it to one of the packag deals. The package deals almost always come up better. So if the checked bag was $110 each way, maybe the package deal only cost $90 more each way and came with a checked bag and a free seat. Yes, its a game. But to be fair to them, they hide nothing you just have to go throught it slowly and work the best deal for yourself.

Oddly incorrect things:

we assume European airports are like American airports where water fountains don’t exist or are broken

Huh?

Minimum connection time....Paris CDG: 3 hours (not joking)

No, this is like 65 minutes (Actually booked on Delta, BUD>>MSP, and yes made it)

Security doesn’t care about food like TSA does.

Huh? Bring food through TSA literally every flight.

And Toby he said something about missing a Rysn flight because of passport control. What American arrives from outside Schengen then connects to Ryan tgr same day? Nonsense

Reading the rules isn’t optional...

My default position is that failure to read "the rules" or the "terms and conditions" is what leads to most of the Tourist Scams I see posted on this Forum.

And Toby he said something about missing a Ryan flight because of passport control.

The part I was referring to was official minimum connection times for connecting flights on one ticket.

Like a lot of travel articles it's very light on facts and research.

I didn't get that far. So much was false I quit reading. Pure hype.

Here's a new example of the need to read the rules/fine print carefully. Apparently American Airlines runs a bus service on some routes. AA insists it's clearly laid out on the website, while some passengers said they had no idea. Some said they were even offered 1st class upgrades.

https://www.gbnews.com/news/us/american-airlines-passengers-furious-flights-bus-replacement-service

Paul - BA don’t fly from my local airport and don’t fly at all to a lot of destinations that low cost carriers serve. Apart from that, BA now has the same pricing structure on short haul flights. You do get a large cabin bag included but that’s it. A checked bag or reserved seat is charged extra.

Bundles don’t usually work out cheaper for us as you have to add the bundle for all passengers. We only check one suitcase for the whole family. We don’t need one each.

Here's one I just saw on one of the Iceland groups on Facebook the other day about Icelandair—and all the complaints were by the same person.

So first, this woman said that Icelandair wouldn't accept her carry-on because it was too big, and she had to pay to have it checked. She was angry because "every other airline in the world had accepted her luggage" and yet Icelandair decided not to and then didn't tell her about it. Yeah, because why would an airline publish their luggage rules? 🙄

Next she launched into a diatribe because she bought Icelandair's cancellation insurance. She assumed it was "normal" trip insurance like a "cancel for any reason" policy. And then later she discovered it only covers illness and fires. The nerve of Icelandair!

And then she launched on a rampage because flights were being delayed due to difficulty getting to the airport. She wanted Icelandair to re-book her flight instead of waiting for the delayed flight, and they said they couldn't do that at that time, and explained that this is their policy, which is in all of their information that she received.

Needless to say, she got slammed by pretty much every response. I sat on my hands for that one, but I did enjoy reading the responses to her. She pretty much asked for it.

What American arrives from outside Schengen then connects to Ryan tgr
same day? Nonsense

Is it something about in particular about Ryanair or budget Airlines in particular? In the Fall of 2024; we landed in Barcelona from Calgary and 3 hours later caught an EasyJet flight to Lisbon.

Sure, I bet it happens dozens of times a day, but its not the norm that this article portrays it as. Few tourists will do it; not that its bad but the real caution should be flying on two tickets or flying on two tickest so close together that a little extra time in the passport line makes a difference. You did it 3 hours later. For passport control a long line is 30 minutes 99 out of 100 times.