Ryanair newbie - any tips for travelling with them with dd?

[duffybeatmetoit]

DD will be 3.9 when we fly to France later in the year and it will be her first flight. Haven't yet booked it but it is our only option if we are not to have long distances to travel at either end.

We will have access to a car out there as my parents are driving out for an extended stay and we will be staying with friends. Queries at the moment:

1. Do we both have the same luggage allowance?
2. Is planning to just have hand baggage for a week's stay realistic?
3. If I take a booster seat for use out in France does that come in the cabin or have to be checked in. If is in the cabin would that could as the hand baggage allowance for one of us?
4. Is a Trunki acceptable as hand baggage?
5. Any other tips? (will just be me and DD travelling)

Many thanks

Yes you have same luggage allowance.
Unrealistic to have only hand baggage with a child.
It may well hav to be checked in and you may hav to pay extra .
A Trunki is acceptable as child hand baggage.
Even only for short flight take some clean dry pants , just in case you hav a totally unexpected mishap, and she wet, soils them.

Duffy, I travelled with Ryanair ds4 and ds2 when ds2 was 13 months and ds2 was 10.
Unrealistic to carry handbaggage only, not because you will not fit enough in for a week but because you get very little assistance from Ryanair staff, some airports are not buggy-friendly and I found it hard to manage the buggy and all our handluggage, even with ds2 helping.
Crayons and a little colouring book for the flight.

They are very strict with bags (both the weight and size -check the website carefully for exact measurements).

They were even stopping some people as they were about to board the plane and getting them to put their bags in the frame thingy to check they weren't too big.

read the rules on the website and follow them closely. If you all want to sit together either pay for priority boarding or keep an eye on the board and get in the queue as soon as flight is called. Don't get on the plane last and then expect to all sit together (as I've seen several families do with young children on full flights)

If you haven't yet booked it I would choose another carrier rather than Ryanair. They are and can be truly awful!. Their fares are cheap but cheap does not always mean cheerful and their various charges on top can be eye watering. If you forget to print out your boarding passes for instance or if they cannot read it, they will charge you £40 for each new boarding pass!!.

Hand baggage for a weeks stay is not feasible particularly with a child in tow.

Attila - going with another low cost carrier would mean a 3 hr drive to get to the airport which I don't fancy.

Dreaming - Do you think I will need to organise priority boarding even with just DD & me? Mind you thinking about it when DH and I went with Easyjet on honeymoon we didn't have priority boarding and no one would let us sit together despite requests from the crew.

I think I would be best trying to get as much stuff as possible to my parents in advance so that they can take it out in their car to cut down on what I have to manage cart about when it's just me and DD.

we've used them on 2 holidays and on 2 of the flights we've arrived early and the other 2 on time. as long as you read the instructions and follow them to the letter they have been fine for us.

duffy - i don't think you need priority boarding. Just keep an eye on the board and make sure you get in the queue as soon as the gate is called. make sure its the right one as it wasn't that clear. the only people who came unstuck were those that joined the plane once everyone was seated and expected to be able to sit together - mad!!!- and i'm talking busiest flights of the year.

You still can't guarantee on sitting together even if you keep an eye on the boards and get there early.

On the way back from Tenerife we thought we were OK (arrived early etc) but when we went to get on the bus from the terminal to the plane the first bus was full so they put us on the second bus. What that meant of course was that we were first on the bus so therefore last off the bus at the plane.

Thankfully we found 2 lots of 2 seats so each of us had a child but you really got the impression the cabin crew just wanted everyone to hurry up, sit down and shut up. They certainly didn't look as if they would help you negotiate seat swapping with other passengers.

We bought one of those luggage scales before we flew with Ryan Air and it was a wise investment. In couples if one persons bag was 15.1 kilos even if the other person was say 14.1 kilos they still had to unpack so that both pieces of luggage were under 15k

Personally I'd pay the extra for priority boarding. We forgot to do this one time when we were flying back, as it turned out we were ok, but the people who had paid for it were I suppose quite rightly, making sure they were first and were uninterested in the old principle of letting people with young children go first and Ryan air attendants only cared about what was paid for.

But provided you follow everything to the absolute letter, then theyare fine and not that much different from most other airlines these days.

Don't., if you do pay for the prority boarding. Do not risk it.

i think it depends on how big the airport is and whether they have buses or not. Our local one is tiny and we tend to visit places with tiny airports. so it tends to be first in the queue first on the plane. If you use buses this adds another logistic i had never thought about and under these circumstances i would pay extra.

even if your children are older you still want one of the adults sitting with them - just in case there's an emergency...as i'd hate to think of my kids struggling off a plane by themselves. so i think you are being optimistic if you expect them to give up seats.