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?

Good luck to you barbara and fingers crossed you never have a complaint.

Living in the north of England, my choice is more or less Ryanair, Jet2 or Easyjet.

The flag carriers rarely go where I want to go, but on the odd occasion I use a 'proper' airline, I've suffered strike action (Air France), overbooking (KLM), a 2 hour delay causing me to be late for a business meeting (Aer Lingus) and lost luggage (KLM again).

I'll give up the free coffee and cheese sarnie for a much cheaper flight that goes somewhere I actually wants to go and provides a perfectly satisfactory service in my experience.

You brought the entire situation on yourself, a small overage will usually be let slide to allow for scale calibrations etc but very few airlines will just wave off 10% excess weight for cases. You knew it was overweight before you got to the airport so you took that risk. When you saw the bag drop system you could have watched people using it and then moved to a quiet corner to rearrange your cases.

I have just come back from a month working in Spain flying Ryanair. The return flights cost me £150 including 20kg bag and priority boarding (aka 2 cabin bags) because I booked months in advance. At Manchester airport I had to use the new automated bag drop but in Madrid they only have the full service counters. I knew my case was fine going out as I had weighed it and it was 20.1kg and they usually dont flag that but I still put my jacket in the front pocket so if there was any issue with it being 0.1kg over the 20kg I could just pull it out quickly to comply.

Coming back my bag was lighter as I had used up resources that I had taken for work and wasnt bringing home but I had forgotten to pack my scale and had picked up some souvenirs I didn't want to lug around and wine that had to go in my hold luggage so wasnt 100% sure of the weight of my case. I distributed my stuff between my 3 bags as best as possible and then just found an unmanned check in desk that had the scale turned on to test my case. Turned out it was only 17.5kg so I moved over to a quiet corner to move some stuff from my hand luggage to my case so I had less to lug through the airport. Not a single person gave a damn, in fact there were a few other passengers doing the same thing and other than making sure we gave each other enough space to open cases without bothering each other, nobody batted an eyelid at the sight of open cases.

As for the cabin baggage, Ryanair both put the priority boarding conditions on your boarding pass and in their app/website. They also send an email to the booking email address a couple of days before your flight outlining their cabin bag policy of priority being 2 bags per person with a 10kg limit for the larger piece and non priority getting one item, including the dimensions allowed. The fact you weren't aware of the policy is your issue not the airline's, they have the information readily available.

nobody batted an eyelid at the sight of open cases

It's a good job the OP wasn't me at Malta airport last year, where the hand luggage search people took exception to the camera case I use for diving which is a great big lump of perspex with a load of switches to operate the buttons and an attached weight so that it is neutrally buoyant in water.

They had me unpacking my wheelie case that contained the camera case protected by a week's worth of dirty washing and they had no idea what they were looking for, just that there was something odd in my bag so the contents were pretty much all out there.

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!!!

If they turn a blind eye to every passenger though and it becomes the accepted thing to have a suitcase weighing a few kilos over the limit, flight costs would increase to cover the extra fuel needed due to the extra weight on board.

Never fly Ryanair.

You might think you’re getting a cheap flight when booking but they are outrageous in fees. Absolutely shocking service.

I just flew Easyjet for the first time and was pleased with the price and the clarity of the rules..AND that they enforced them. People were hauled out of the boarding line and made to check their bags or pay for an extra carry on.

I'm getting sick of people flaunting the carry on rules and not being called on it. I have one little carry on bag and there's often no room in the overhead bins due to oversized "carry ons", plus it takes forever to board.

Air France is super strict on carry on weight - I think it's 12kg combined items. I had to pay 90 euro to check my carry on (15kg combined weight) and almost missed my plane in the process. They had looked the other way on my 3kg overweight checked bag, though, so it could have been worse.

Now I read rules very carefully and carry a handheld luggage scale to alleviate the anticipatory anxiety.

I go away several times a year now because of cheap airlines make it possible and even being restricted to school holidays it is cheaper than an overpriced holiday cottage or resort in the UK. I have sourced £8 flights this summer but I read the terms and conditions. Honestly every bad review of ryan air/easy jet/wizz etc is about turning up to the airport and being suprised to be charged for check in and luggage. This is how it works and if you stick to the rules is is generally trouble free and gets you there in time. Like a previous poster stated our national airline only flies from Heathrow and they now charge extra for hold luggage etc .

It was like this 20 years ago, I flew long haul a lot, legacy airlines and people repacking cases was a common sight. It's always been strict. The cabin bag situation is the only thing that's changed in the last 5 years with Ryan air

I've booked a Ryan Air flight - not used them for about a decade... So when you check in online do you have to have weighed your bags? With EasyJet it all seems relatively simple - you check in online and use the scanner code on your phone for the gates and carry on. We usually just use carry on (this time only going for 5 days and just me and dd). Am I silly to think the carry on size in the same standard size as EasyJet?

We (a party of4) recently flew from Manchester to Barcelona on Ryanair and we had to go through an automatic check in. We checked in 4 suitcases and 3 were under and one was over by 2 kg. We didn't pay any extra - I assumed they averaged the weight out between the 4 cases.

My goodness my brain was spinning - I haven't flown for over 20 years and had no idea what was going on. Thank God DD3's friend was with us to help.

I can dispel the rumours that Ryanair are low cost. The flights were not cheap - and on top of that check in bags were £40 per case per flight so a total of £320 just for suitcases I'd have been a bit miffed if they had charged more.

Ps print your own label was at stansted 3 years ago, not sure if any longer because that was for first and hopefully last time there, horrible airport

I've never known an airline NOT charge excess baggage. We've just flown with TUI and my partner wouldn't have it that they'd sting him for being over. There was quite a bit of reconfiguration going on and he wasn't the only one.

Ryanair look for every excuse to make up the difference in their prices..

Keep that in mind :)

Am I silly to think the carry on size in the same standard size as EasyJet

You tell me. What does it say on the Ryanair website about what their hand luggage allowance is and what sort of hand luggage have you paid for?

I know that I have two wheelie cases and one is suitable for just about all airlines, but the other is too big for Ryanair, Flybe and any airline that uses small turbo props.

angelina

Did you really need four check in bags for your Barcelona trip? Unless you are taking sporting equipment etc, surely one or two for a party of 4 is ample?

I can dispel the rumours that Ryanair are low cost. The flights were not cheap - and on top of that check in bags were £40 per case per flight so a total of £320 just for suitcases shock I'd have been a bit miffed if they had charged more.

That's oddly expensive. Did you not book them when you were booking the flights?

I love ryanair sales.
Because I don't expect much.
They are cheap and get me from a to b. That's all I need.

I am old enough to remember when there wasn't a weight limit!
If you could fit it in your case and carry it, you could take it. My mum used to take a kettle and an iron! Plus towels with blow up pillows in them.
I also remember people smoking on aeroplanes and duty free was much better value than any UK shop.
Oh for the good old days.....

This has all reminded me of that evergreen Cheap Flights song by Fascinating Aida - a good excuse to enjoy it again :-)

Should have watched it before booking OP!

I'm with stucknoue
Nearly 20 years ago I remember reconfiguring bags in a hurry at the airport because each one had to be under 15kg. I had thought we'd get away with and average over 2 bags.

With Ryanair, like every other airline, the ground crew seem to have different levels of adherence to the rules at different airports. Flying out from Ireland, you'd be fine with slightly oversize cabin baggage or slightly overweight check in luggage. But coming home from Spain, for example, the Spanish ground crew were total sticklers.

Self check-in is very normal now. Even on international flights with United. And most airports I've been to recently have a 'luggage repack' area with a scales and benches specifically for checking weights. Like most people at the airport, I checked my bag at the re-pack area before even going to the drop desk.

Why would anyone these days pay £50 to check-in at the airport? Surely even if you somehow forgot to/didn't read your confirmation email telling you to check-in online, you would just check-in on your phone rather than hand over money for this?

Also none of this paying to reserve a seat business. You turned up at the airport and seats were allocated so you say next to the people you were travelling with.

I had to pay excess baggage when I flew with Ryanair to my hen do..... in 2004!

I wouldn’t fly with Ryanair if they gave me the flights for free, let me bring my wardrobe and let me sit in the cockpit with the Pilot for the journey...#aer lingus

In my experience most airlines will weigh your bags. Sometimes they will waive an overweight charge but I wouldn't count on it anywhere. Especially not a budget airline.