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Original poster

Flying iwht Ryannair - what do I need to watch out for

21 replies

potplant · 05/05/2009 14:17

I'm going to book a flight to Spain with Ryannair. I remember reading in the press about people be stung at the airport for excess baggage that wasn't and check in fees etc etc.

Can anyone give me some tips to watch out for and hopefully avoid paying when I don't need to.

tia

OP posts:

DLI · 05/05/2009 18:31

my parents flew with ryan air last month and it cost then an extra £20 at the airport! i think it was something to do with checking in because they decided to check in at the airport rather than online. they had already paid £6 each to do it!

squeaver · 05/05/2009 18:35

If you check in online, make sure you print out your boarding pass and take it with you or they will charge £10 per boarding pass they print out at the airport (this might have been what happened to your parents DLI).

Weigh your bags at home and make sure they're within your allowance - they are ruthless about this.

If you're traveling with los, they will not allow you on the plane first (don't know if they do speedy boarding like Easyjet or not).

Best advice is to read their website really, really carefully before you book so you know what you're signing up for.

moonmother · 05/05/2009 18:39

We've just booked flights to France with Ryanair.

To check in at the airport it would have cost us £80 extra(£20 each return). To check in online costs nothing.

You can check in online upto 15 days before your flight .

The cost for baggage is extortionate too, for 2 suitcases it would have cost us another £80 (return).Luckily we have family driving down, so they are taking our suitcases down the week before we go.

We last flew with them 2 years ago and was shocked by the amount of hidden charges they try to get you to pay for.

Sadly they are the only airline we can use, otherwise I'd have gone with someone else.

mogwai · 05/05/2009 18:41

their express boarding is worth the money - straight to the front of the queue, no scrambling.

The food is very expensive - take your own.

the cabin crew look particularly thick- I should say that surviving any sort of accident (under their guidance) would be your main concern!

Directskiandsun · 05/05/2009 20:37

I have a deep dislike of Ryanair and it's most unlikely I would ever use them again. We have booked flights with them twice - both times they changed them months after being booked and paid for, and very close to departure. The first time, we worked around it, but the second time, the changes meant we lost 1.5 days on a 3 day trip, so had to cancel hotel, transfers etc. No apology, no explanation and nearly a month to get the money back.

A friend was stung for massive excess baggage charges despite challenging their decision that the bags were overweight - they weren't. These aren't isolated incidents, so if you have any choice of airline, perhaps look at those options. OK - rant over, feel better now

castille · 05/05/2009 20:44

I actually pay more to travel with FlyBe than give any more money to Ryanair these days, having seen their "service" go from cheap and basic to expensive and downright outrageous over the years.

But if you must, like others have said, be really careful about what you sign up for when booking - a lot of the time there is an expensive default option that you must deselect (like insurance).

Don't expect any help, or even a smile sometimes, from cabin crew either. They probably aren't paid enough to want to be helpful or friendly

Hassled · 05/05/2009 20:49

You need to watch out for the fact they are a shower of shites. They will sting you for anything.

15kg baggage allowance - use your bathroom scales and woe betide you if you go over. 10kg for hand baggage (NB - check this before you go).

mogwai · 05/05/2009 20:59

The cabin crew I saw actually shouted at a group of middle aged women who were not paying adequate attention to the safety briefing.

One of them was very surly and complaining she had not slept the night before.

Dreadful.

MissSunny · 05/05/2009 23:48

Message withdrawn

MissSunny · 06/05/2009 01:00

Message withdrawn

DadInsteadofMum · 06/05/2009 12:07

"Do not go over the limit and do not put 2 peoples allowance into once bag as they can and sometimes do refuse to handle bags over 20kgs for health and safety reasons " - its even worse than that with Ryanair - they specify (in the tiny print) no pooling of luggage allowance, so if there are two of you that is two bags of 15kg each, if you take one bag between yoo of 20kg then that is one person with a 5kg excess baggage charge.

The nights I have spent jumping on and off the bathroom scales and repacking bags to balance the weight off. Unfortunately, they are the only airline that fly the routes we use.

eltham · 21/05/2009 08:44

sorry to hijack but bit confused now..we're just taking hand luggae (me and two kids) bt dh who's travelling with us is taking checked in baggage and he's opted for speedy boarding to get us all seats while we wait back with the scrum. We've paid for airport check in for him cause I'm sure I read that he had to do this if he had hold luggage. Am I wrong in thinking this?

Bucharest · 21/05/2009 08:50

No, if you have hold luggage you have to check in at the airport.
Unfortunately, if you're flying from Stansted, the "speedy boarding" means you are the first to board the wee bus that takes you to the plane...not necessarily the plane itself. Once the speedy boarders are all on the bus, they will then let the scrum onto it as well. So even if you pay for the "privilege" you still might not get on first....

Tbh, when Lyingair are good, they're very very good...(I've just spotted they are dirt cheap for the last week of June,dd and I can both fly for 70 euro and that's with all the add-ons. ) When they are bad, they are indescribably bad.

eltham · 21/05/2009 08:55

flying from Newcastle - to Bremen so hopefully won't be a dirty scrum (you never know but can't imagine there's many people who opt for Bremen as a hol destination)
Thanks for the clarification re luggage

MissSunny · 21/05/2009 09:48

Message withdrawn

Bucharest · 21/05/2009 09:59

Oops sorry! Didn't use to be able to.

PacificDogwood · 21/05/2009 10:11

I fly Ryanair all the time - in fact going to Germany today with 3 DSs on my own, sob!

The baggage thing can be misleading: no matter how many bags you have booked AND paid for on-line, the weight allowance is still only 15kg per paying person. Depending who checks you in they can also be real fascists sticklers for the rules about not being able to share the max allowed weight between all the bags in your party, ie 2x15kg is ok, 10kg and 20kg is not ok. This has only happened to me once, but was v v annoying , my blood still boils when I think about it.

The website changes all the time, I think now you have to give advanced notice when you are booking if you are planning on taking a buggy/car seat/other child paraphanalia.

Infant (under 2) has no baggage allowance.

Ok, you lot, wish me luck. I am about to take 2 trains to the airport with DS3 strapped to my back, carrying 15kg bag, handluggage with lots of sweets snacks for DS1 and 2 and them "helping" me.... If you never hear from me again, it was lovely knowing y'all..

connie101 · 25/05/2009 01:28

Hi Miss Sunny

You wrote on Tues 5th May:
Remember infants (under 2) get no baggage. Buggies are taken on free of charge.

I've heard that Ryanair will only take a pushchair free of charge if the child is under 2 years (an infant) and will charge for buggies for children over 2.

I can't find anything on their website about this - have you heard anything? I want to take a buggy for my 5 yr old little lazybones.

connie

AitchTwoOh · 25/05/2009 01:44

they took my dd's buggy last year when she was two and a half. they were very good, tbh, took the buggy at the last minute so she could sleep in it. we paid for speedy boarding, it's worth doing imo, although there is a case to be made for only paying for dh while you and kids stay in airport and saunter up to avoid queueing and general scrummage.

eltham · 31/05/2009 21:50

okay we're back from flying with Ryan air..it was okay...bit of a rugby scrum when they announced priority booking as all non-priority bookers of which we were included got up too and formed a chaotic queue. Anyway, it was all fine...apart from air checkin desks at bremen was in fact a shed and I got told off by the woman taking the online boarding papers off us cause I'd already ripped the 'passengers to retain' section off---but apart from that, all okay. Oh, and they're currently featuring a page 3 style cabin crew calendar (this month's was female..no surprises there) in their in-flight mag. Actually, she was wearing both bits of a bikini..but still...a bit 70's Sun newspaper....staff very nice actually. They didn't weigh or measure our hand luggage.

Tn0g · 31/05/2009 21:54

You do need to watch out for hidden charges, which include levies on oxygen and loo usage.

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