booking with ryanair... WTF?! you pay to have a bag checked in? and you have to know in advance how many bags you'll have? me no understandy. can anyone help?

[AitchTwoOhelicopterfraek]

is 15kg a small suitcase (not filled with bricks)?

are there any good rules of thumb? will they still let you take hand-luggage on board?

can you tell i haven't been abroad in ages and never with dd?

They used to put a call out for people with young children and families to come forward but they dont anymore.

Hi, I just flew with Ryanair (to Seville, weird coincidence Rusty); the 15kg is a good size bag, but not a ramjammed bag with three people's things in it. At Stansted they didn't give a toss that our bag was overweight, but at Seville they did. As someone else said, you can't spread your allowance over two bags, each bag must be under 15kg. We had a lighter holdall and we had to repack at the check-in desk and queue again, so we were the very last people to board the plane. They do this to make you feel pressurised into paying the excess, which would have been 100 Euros for us!

On the way to our holiday, with all the airport stress I was "why do we do this to ourselves, it's not worth it"...then on holiday, I was "This is so great and totally worth it" and then at the airport coming back I was all "not worth it" again. Add to this the eco-guilt of flying short-haul and I'm thinking hols in England/France by train in future. (We have to fly long haul once a year or dd wouldn't see her dgps).

Better that you know these rules in advance and pack accordingly, saving hassle and expense at the airport...

OH, and don't forget to put nappies in your carry-on luggage!! Yes, I actually did this, then dh thought it would be a good idea to buy swim nappies at the airport instead. Swim nappies don't absorb water...so it was a lap full of pee for dh, wet clothes for dd and a session in the toilet trying to stuff the swim nappy with toilet paper and fashion trousers out of dh's underpants for dd before I finally had the genius idea of asking another parent on the plane for a nappy.

Sorry for long post and thread hijack, but thought you might like some light relief from your packing worries!

I did online check in for everyone else which means that you print out your boarding card before you go and then you dont have to go to the desk unless you have baggage to check in, you can just go straight to the security and then to departure lounge. But it wouldnt allow me to do online check in with the baby which is stupid.

Why is pre-boarding good? Doesn't that mean you just have to sit on a cramped plane for longer?

ah right, dd is 2, so i think i'll be paying for priority seating. although i can see it may be a lost cause...

Obviously, no need for nappies on the plane if your dd is potty-trained! Ha ha.

PS my eco-conscience is clear. last time me and dh were on a plane it wsa five years ago. the planet owes me a short hop to roma.

They may well weigh your hand luggage. Because if it's an ounce over the 5kg limit (or whatever they allow) they will make you check it through.

nightmare and eeeew about the swim nappy btw. and no, not potty-trained, at least not all the time, which is a crucial distinction.

unless everyone pays for priority

what would they do then?

I nearly had a heart attack trying to book flights online with ryanair.

Plus after i recently took a case weighing 17kg to Spain for 3days/2nights, I am thinking that there is no way I am gonna meet the 15kg requirement when going for a week

do you know how much it costs for ONE 15kg bag? £18. i can't believe it, really i can't. no wonder i never fly, ffs. so that's 36 quid for all three of us, but i think it is better to do all three, don't you? we'll need it, by the sounds of things.

yesterday i went on ryanair to book flights from belfast to east midlands and was delighted to see they would fly me for free - just had to pay 4.99 taxes.

delighted i proceeded to book dh, myself and 10 month old ds. so for dh and i in total return flights were 19.98!

then i had to pay £10 each way for ds - thought kids under 2 who sit on your knee are meant to be free??!! then £12 each for dh and I to take 1 bag each. babies dont get a luggage allowance - as we all know they travel light??!!!

then £6 each for the pleasure of checking in.

another £12 for a travel cot as you are only allowed 1 buggy for baby equipment.

so my bargain 4.99 flight ends up at £88 quid for the 3 of us. i know it is still reasonable but it is the feeling of being robbed blind at every turn that gets you.

£18 for one bag???? It was only ("only") £12 in January.

I hope his dick drops off.

FWIW we flew with easyjet a couple of weeks ago - they don't pile on any extra charges except hold baggage and that's only £5 each bag each way, but with an allowance of 20kg, not 15kg, and unlimited weight in your cabin baggage as long as it was small enough (not 10kg like Ryanair).

They do do priority boarding, that was £5.50 per head one way and £6 per head reurning, as we were 5 adults we didn't bother although with a small child obv it matters more.

Anyway the whole experience was actually as pleasant as a budget flight can be so I would def fly with them again - I suppose you couldn't use a different airport and go with them, Aitch?

nope, easyjet don't fly to rome from here any more. gah.

it deffo said £18 but that is now sounding from what you've said like i've read the site wrongly, so thanks for that. i'm goiing Back To THe Beginning... aaargh.

I have booked hol today to spain in june and the flight is with ryanair. The flights cost £283 and we are allowed 4x 15kg luggage and 4x 10kg hand luggage which i thought was pretty good seeing as dh only ever takes 2 pairs of shorts and 2 t shirts and 1 pair of tropusers for dining.

The ryanair booking we made in January (for 2 adults) went:

flights: £7.96
check-in: £12.00 (ie £3 each, each way)
debit card fee £4.00 (ie £1 each, each way)
baggage fee: £24.00 (ie £6 each, each way)
taxes & fees: £60.38

total: £108.34

It's still v cheap (this is Liverpool to Pisa in July) but to call it £7.96 for the flights is insulting our intelligence.

it's definitely eighteen quid, the robbing bastards. is it possible that they are charging MORE online than in the airports?