To have not known this about Ryanair?

[eastandwestand]

So, we’ve not flown for around 5 years.
Instead we’ve done ferries, a couple of cruises and U.K. holidays.
Booked our flights with Ryanair and booked 2 bags which could each contain 20kg.
Weighed them the night before. 1 bag was 20kg and 1 bag was 22kg. So 2kg over.
Spoke to a few people who said the person checking the bags usually turns a blind eye with a couple of kg extra weight. In fact I’ve never been charged for excess luggage, even when my bag was 29kg instead of 25kg EasyJet just stuck a “heavy” label on it.
Anyway, got to the airport and it’s self check in.
You weigh your own baggage and before the machine prints you a luggage label you have to pay on the card machine attached to the scales for any KG you are over.
So you can’t physically board a flight until you have paid £11 per kilo for anything over.
I paid obviously, as my case was over, but I never realised this check in system even existed!
Has it been around for long? Or am just not an airport pro these days?

We did the same with BA at Gatwick, DIY bag drop and label printing. Was nice and quick.
Easy jet was still a person at bag drop though.

20 years ago Air France made me take items out of my hold bag to put in carry on so I wasn't over the weight limit. I tried to protest the stupidity of it but failed. At least I was talking to a real live human, even if their instructions were of the 'computer says no' school of thought.

OP, did you not know that the CEO of Ryanair breeds horses that take part in the cruel horserace called the Grand National?

Try to make it more than five years before you fly with them again, if ever.

Why do people not read the t's and c's, tick the appropriate box, then moan it's all Ryanair's fault for applying the clearly stated rules??? We used them a lot and never had problems.

They were being super strict the last Flybe flight I was on. They had a metal box to check the size of the hand luggage and loads of people on my flight got charged £50 to put their bags into the hold, as they were too big.

Think of air travel as a test of following instructions, you win if you don't have to pay any unexpected charges, bonus points if you manage to exploit their rules to get one over on them - eg if you pay for extra legroom with Easyjet, it comes with speedy boarding, which allows you a second piece of hand luggage. Last time we did this, it enabled us to get away with one fewer hold cases, meaning that the extra legroom seats and speedy boarding were virtually free.

I did read the instructions! Even weighed them on my bathroom scales so knew they were over. But thought they’d turn a blind eye to 2kg. How wrong I was!!!

Of course the rules make no sense. When my hand luggage was a couple of kilos too heavy for Thomas Cook, I took my phone, purse and kindle out of my bag and put them in my coat pockets, thus coming under the limit. Of course I put them all back as soon as I was out of sight of the hold luggage drop off desk.

And no, it's not a H&S thing, as the TC hand luggage limit is 6 kg, which is less than most airlines at 10 kg and Easyjet's is unlimited as long as you can lift it into the locker yourself.

£11 a kilo sounds a bargain.

I recently flew with Tui and due to medical needs had been granted an upgrade from 20kg to 30kg. For both me and dd. Rang and checked the week before flying it was in place and told it was.

Now I packed 2x bags per person as you aren't allowed a bag over 23kg. My 2 bags only added up to 20kg but I still took 2 bags so I could bring some shopping back. DD's 2 bags were under 20kg combined.

Tui tried to charge me £190 excess baggage because the medical needs thing hadn't been put on. So I wasn't over the weight, but just £190 for having 4 bags between us instead of 2. This was one way, would have been the same coming back,I guess!

Thankfully they could see someone had tried to put a medical alert on so waived the charge.

Felt a bit uncomfortable opening up the cases in front of all the other passengers to find a beach bag and get stuff out.

Why, had you packed 22kg worth of dildos or something? What a bizarre notion, no one in the airport is paying a blind bit of notice to you moving some luggage to another bag and it would have saved you £22.

This has nothing to do with Ryanair, the machines you use for self service check in are for all of the low cost airlines not just Ryanair. You have to select which airline you are flying with and then weight your case.

I’m not sure why you seem to be confused about the fact you were charged for a case that was heavier than your allowance.

And easyJet threatened me with a charge for being 0.4kg over the limit, this was ten years ago. I repacked some stuff into dh's suitcase and it was all good!

It's a relatively new system, last time mine was over I took stuff out and put them in a hand luggage bag

A couple of years ago I worked for an airline handling company that's deals with a lot of the airlines mentioned. We were instructed to be extremely strict once you've put the weight of the baggage in the computer if it's over you must take payment. Baggage can be randomly checked for correct weight and if it's wrong you'd get sacked.

You were 10% over, and you knew beforehand. You might have been reasonable to expect a small discretion, but completely unreasonable to expect that amount.

Spoke to a few people who said the person checking the bags usually turns a blind eye with a couple of kg extra weight.
Ryanair never turns a blind eye

Ryanair is so cheap though.

Sometimes a flight on a normal airline is 5x the price. For example I flew from Manchester to Billund on Brussels Air for about £150 but on the way back I was able to get a direct Ryanair flight on the same route for £24. It's the bus of the sky and you'll get charged for everything, but it still comes out cheaper than the major carriers.

Maybe sue the few ppl who gave you bad advice?
Just one of those things. Win some, lose some.

Yes they have always been super strict. I remember about 4 years ago another passenger on our flight was told to fit their duty free bag in their hand luggage or they would be charged for excess hand luggage.

I always put cases on a spare belt at the airport to check the weight. And have a digital scale thingy as well. Belt and braces for me!

The irony is, if you can get priority on RYR (it's not always available though) you can take your bags on board if under 10k and they are not weighed. But if you have to check in the 10k bag, it is weighed either at a desk or at the machine.

I'm a great fan of RYR. Most airlines are similar now anyway. Just have to read the rules and regs.

My MIL got charged excess baggage by Ryanair when she was actually within the limit (she was flustered and paid, but when she checked her ticket, she was allowed more than they said). Never heard back when she tried to complain though.

I can't believe someone thought they would turn a blind eye .Ryan air charge for every thing all reflected in base price and you add on EVERYTHING .The only thing that use to piss my off is everyone had max size cabin bag and took forever with people pissing about putting them in o/h lockers . Thats why it changed people spoilt it and very difficult for crew to get away on time .

Yeah I wasn’t that bothered. £22 between 4 of us isn’t a biggie as the flights were so cheap. Just wondered if everyone else knew about the new weighing process!

I used to work on check in for Jet2 and upto 22.9kg (22kg allowance) is allowed to put through.

I had exactly this situation with Alitalia recently. Moved some books into my hand luggage and all was well.

Flybe most definitely are picky. And they certainly are with hand luggage at the moment. Although I think in part that’s because they’ve changed a policy without bothering to tell people.

Honestly, OP don’t be shy about opening your suitcase, everyone does it. Or just wear all your clothes next time.