To be confused about how to book baggage on Ryanair flight?

[SaltyCrisps]

I'm trying to book return flights for two people, Liverpool/Dublin. We spoke about the options and decided on the most expensive option to give us choices with amount of baggage (20k check-in plus small bag for cabin, I think) but when I got further into the process it asked what bags we were taking and appeared to be adding a fee for the option I'd already chosen.

I know they charge for everything, and I'm fine with that, but I don't want to pay twice for the same thing. Can anyone explain?

I think sometimes these flight booking sites give you multiple opportunities to add the same thing. I would carry on through the process and you should get a summary page with a breakdown of costs just before you pay.

Also, it’s really easy to add and pay for extras like baggage at a later date. In fact you will probably get emails trying to sell you extras. So if you aren’t sure the easiest thing is to not add them now and then go back and add bags later if they aren’t on your booking confirmation.

Thanks! I've been watching a YouTube vid, and it seems the way to do it is to go for the cheap option at the first opportunity and add the baggage later. I'll try that :)

Glad to hear it's not just me who found it incredibly confusing! Got there in the end and as PP said keep going until check out and then see if you have included what you intended. Good luck !

I travel a lot with Ryanair to Dublin and agree this is super confusing, you end up wondering what you've booked. As a PP says it will show at checkout though.

If you need to hire a car, their car hire deals are generally excellent value as long as you book ahead and aren't going at the peakiest of peak times

Thanks for that tip about the car. We will need to hire one but I wasn't sure whether to trust the Ryanair offering :)

@SaltyCrisps most recent hire (2 weeks ago) - pickup Thursday drop off Sunday - 5 door Skoda - £140

Cheapest ever (4 days in Feb) was £85 for a literally brand new Renault Clio.

I have my own insurance for the excess so I don't pay for the car hire company's insurance which is about £20 per day. They'll put a hold on your credit card for quite a lot (think £2k plus)

You'll have to pay extra if going to Northern Ireland - Brexit.

Road tolls are included.

Only ever had one pickup that took ages (ie 1 hr plus), if you come on Ryanair the car hire desks are right opposite arrivals. Sometimes you collect your car from the car park opposite the terminal, otherwise it's a short shuttle to the car park.

Car hire return is usually to the return depot, allow 20 mins for drop off and shuttle back to the terminal.

Thank you very much for this! I'll have a look. Unfortunately I've already booked flights but perhaps it's still possible. I checked prices quickly and it looked like about £450 at two places for Mon to Sun 😱

You can still add car hire through the Ryanair app, it's not a problem.

I usually book the cheapest fare (handbag only) then add in luggage later (cabin bags or hold luggage) when we decide what we want to bring. I don't think it is much more expensive than booking it all at the start.

Also it spreads the cost a bit, as not paying full amount in one go.

I just checked in for a flight tomorrow, and it is still showing options for adding car hire, so you can add it right up to checking in.

Thank you!

Just a heads up - in Dublin airport the Ryanair gates are a bit of a trek after security/shops and it can be really busy down at the gates. Allow time for getting down there (the recommended 2 hours is more than enough, just don't spend most of that wandering around shops 😉)

Many thanks to those of you who recommended booking a car via Ryanair, and reassured me that I can still do it although I've already booked the flights. I've checked and I think you've saved me a good £200! Thank you all again x

Hi again all. I have another question. Sorry to be so thick! I've not flown for almost ten years 😊

I'm now wondering how the check-in will work with Ryanair. I know about the app and that it offers me the chance to check in with that, but I'm travelling with my sister and she has a piece of luggage that has to go in the hold. Will we therefore need to do it at the desk?

If so, presumably I can check myself in on the app and then go with my sister to the check-in desk?

Also, does anybody know how long we need to be at the airport (Liverpool) in advance of the flight? I'm not sure whether this might be different from the norm because we have to put some luggage in the hold.

Many thanks again for any help.

You check in on the app then go to bag drop for the hold bag. Bag drop is either a ticket machine with scales that prints your tag (it will probably look weird to you as my brain always expects a green edged tag) or a person depending on which airport you're flying from.

What a star! Thank you x I've been through all the Ryanair help centre stuff and I found no reference to that.

Any idea what time we need to be there?

Thank you again!

I agree you still all check in on the app whether you have bags to go in the hold or not. They also advise to print the boarding passes which we did for out recent flights.

At Edinburgh Airport it was self service machines to weigh the hold bags and get the tag to put on the case and then you took the case to the bag drop conveyor belt. At Fuerteventura they had people on the Ryanair desks to do it for you.

We nearly missed our flight from Edinburgh as the airport was queued right to the outside of the building so don't take any chances with getting there too late

Thanks very much Pixie! I'm glad you mentioned about the queue. Have just suggested to my sister we should get there at least 2 hours in advance, just in case. Hopefully that'll be enough. It's a morning flight.

Thanks also for the tip about printing the boarding passes. I was wondering about that. I saw that they would send them to my phone, but I think I'll check in a few days in advance and just print them off so that my sister can hold on to her own.

Things have changed a lot, it seems, since I last flew :)