Caitríona Redmond: The Ryanair hand luggage rule you need to know
If social media is anything to go by in the past fortnight, Ryanair is allegedly duping flyers into paying a €75 fine.
In the past week, Ryanair joined the Prime bandwagon. Their new travel membership club costs €79 annually and gives the subscriber exclusive access to discounted flight sales, free seat reservations, and travel insurance. Considering that the best airplane seats can cost as much as €33 to reserve, this could be a bargain for regular flyers.
As always, I have investigated the small print and there are some caveats.
The free seat reservations are limited to 12 per person plus 12 for their designated ‘prime companion’ which is only beneficial for those who travel and book in pairs. Families or groups larger than two will need multiple memberships or still pay extra for additional seats. These can also play seat roulette by not booking or selecting in advance, but this will be problematic if you need to sit together. The travel insurance is for Ryanair flights only, meaning you will need more global travel insurance for any trip.
There are no benefits or additional baggage allowances for Ryanair Prime and this key area is probably omitted on purpose. When we budget for our holidays and start booking flights, we figure out whether we can fit all our bits and pieces into a small carry-on bag. If we’re flying with Ryanair, or any other airline for that matter, paying extra for a bag in the hold or in the overhead luggage racks can make a dent in our holiday spending.
If social media is anything to go by in the past fortnight, Ryanair is allegedly duping flyers into paying a €75 fine each way for bags that still fit into their luggage sizer. Travellers are upset, and understandably so; €150 is a lot of money. Is this really the case (pun intended)?
It’s a little more nuanced than the upset photos and videos of people fitting their travel bags into the cardboard luggage sizer at the departure gates and being asked to pay more. To their eyes, their bags do fit, but if you look at the baggage sizer images shared, these show luggage sitting over the marked size limits we all sign up to when we book a flight.
For example, did you know that the size of a wheeled cabin case should be 55 x 40 x 20cm but that includes the wheels and the handles? That’s an easy mistake to make.
It's simply not the case that staff in Dublin Airport or any other airport worldwide have been instructed to select passengers with large bags and arbitrarily mark some as too big and charge them to meet a quota. It is the case that Ryanair seems to be tightening compliance with their rules in recent times.
Where slightly oversized bags may have been overlooked, now those bags are being tested. The bag sizer at the gate has an obvious striped line around the interior. If a bag goes over this line, then it’s oversized. Being told that a bag is too big, plus that there’s an extra charge to take it on board, in front of all the other travellers is embarrassing and upsetting. Especially at the expense of your holiday budget.
Ryanair is a low-cost/no-frills airline and will do everything they can to make their profit margins higher. Whether that’s strictly applying their booked luggage rules or charging for families to sit together, there are no limits so long as passengers are prepared to pay for the privilege.
Some people will be annoyed and share pictures and videos online of their hurt and insult, in the hopes that they can get the charges reversed. Unfortunately for those passengers, Ryanair doesn’t care, and in fact they’re probably hoping many more people fall foul of those pesky bag sizers at the departure gate.
Passengers who do mention their ire online run the risk of having their complaints speared by the razor that is the Ryanair social media team, and still not have their issue resolved.
I imagine there’s probably an accountant rubbing their hands together like Fagan in a dark room somewhere, reviewing the situation, and chuckling with glee as they see the receipts for oversized carry-on bags roll over their desk at the end of each working day.
Maybe it’s time we all started going to the Airport dressed like Forty Coats and his forty pockets ahead of our flight, instead of buying bags that may just cost us more money in the long run. Maybe we should just pay for a checked bag when booking our flights as these can be considerably cheaper than the oversized or post-booking fee charged at the airport.
Personally, I’d rather have more space in my luggage for books to be read on holidays on the way out, than money and space for souvenirs on the way home.
Read the luggage size that you have booked and make sure it complies with the rules before going to the airport. If you think you need more space then pay for an additional bag. You’re a captive audience if you get charged extra at the departure gate.
I budget for a full wash and dry of all the holiday clothes in a local laundrette on the last day of the holidays.
Picture this, you arrive home from your lovely break away and then place all the clean and neatly folded clothes straight back into your wardrobes and put the suitcases away immediately.
There are no extra loads of washing to contend with and you can sit down with a cup of tea in peace.
If fitting all your travel needs into one bag or travelling light sounds unachievable to you, I recommend you look at the Reddit – r/HerOneBag which has a beginner’s guide, how-tos, and details of what you should include in your bag.
Follow the template and ask questions or simply read what others have to say, to learn how easy it is and save the baggage fees for holiday spending instead.
