dand99

I am flying Ryanair for the first time soon.

IIRC for the LCCs I have flown there is usually a hand luggage "checker" (those metal frames your bag has to fit inside) at check-in, so you can verify your carryon is fine.

I am wondering is this is the case with Ryanair (flying from BCN) or do they let you get to the gate, to maximise revenue from oversize bags....

MHG

They do have these metal frames at all airports but they still check hand luggage size upon boarding and depending on location even in between (e.g. at security check points)

elexianyx

Most of the Ryanair flights I've been on, they literally maximize revenue by checking your hand luggage at the gate. So you don't even have time to throw away stuff, they'll tell you to pay the extra or just not get on the plane.

yurtripper

An awful lot of the people who fly FR don't check bags, as the extra cost eliminates most of the reason for traveling on such airlines in the first place. So the only place they're going to have their carry-on checked is at the gate. When I check bags on the likes of FR and W6, the check-in agent generally checks the carry-on as well.

In my experience FR are a lot less stringent than they used to be, whereas W6 are very tough (especially with their ridiculous small bag vs large bag policy, which constantly catches out the unwary). I actually prefer the attitude of W6 as I notice that with the new, more liberal, approach of Michael Ryan towards hand luggage, many FR pax have really started taking the mickey with some of their oversize bags. On W6 I never have a problem finding overhead space; on FR I sometimes can't even find any space to put my coat!

Alsacienne

Be aware that LCC tend to change their baggage sizes and weights at short notice. In particular, be aware that many of the Ryanair bag size cages show the 'old' sizes rather than the actual allowed measurements. Sometimes there's a label to remind you of this ... sometimes not. And wheels have to fit within the sizing cage too ....

As Ryanair have limited locker space - 90 bags for 189 seats - gate agents are watchful for oversized hand baggage, but they do offer the option to put baggage in the hold free of charge at the aircraft steps, if you volunteer at the right time.

TravelingNomads

I can only speak for our experiences over the last 10 days, but DUB - Edinburgh and Gatwick - DUB were easy as could be for carry on luggage. They didn't even glance at anyone's and we saw people carting on ridiculous amounts. That being said, they were brutal at the Visa check/Checked baggage area for weight. We had to wait forever to get our boarding pass stamp because someone kept going over. They eventually just paid and we made our flight by minutes. Just check to see if you need that stamp!

farci

Good point - assuming you have a non-EU/EEA passport.

You can't use the app to create a boarding pass online which saves time. You must print this from the web before coming to the airport to avoid a large surcharge. The BP will then be stamped at the Ryanair ticket desk at check-in

TravelingNomads

Yep, we were 2 hours early and barely made it to our RyanAir DUB -Edinburgh flight. It was 4:30am, so we expected the airport to be empty, but instead it was packed, the lines barely moved, people were overweight on their luggage, etc. Also, DH forgot to put his cologne in a bag and just took it out of his luggage. It literally took them 20 minutes (not exaggerating!!) to rescan it. If we hadn't known about the Visa stamp ahead of time, it would have been impossible to make our flight.

Every flight is different though. The RyanAir Gatwick to DUB flight was the exact opposite. It was a 2 pm flight, but everything moved quickly and efficiently. Also, if you are worried about sizing, you can buy one of those multi compartment vests that will fit a laptop and other items. DH had one just in case, but didn't need it since they were being so flexible. I think he bought his on Amazon Warehouse for about $12 - $15.

dand99

I was looking at the "personal item" dimensions today:

35x20x20 - which is smaller than most laptops.

I assume they are as strict in this as well ?

bacchus85

Here's our recent experience:

We just flew BGY-HAM on Sunday and nobody seemed to care about hand luggage / personal items. My wife and me had a backpack, a small trolley case (which was checked in for free at the gate) and a large purse.

As you can imagine, the overhead lockers were overflowing.

stut

IME, very variable according to airport, ticket purchased and what is something of a pendulum swing when it comes to enforcement, generally, within the airline.

For example, I find STN strict, but LTN less so. I find the smallest and largest outstations stricter, and the moderate ones less so. I've found them more tolerant when you're on a 'business plus' fare or have priority boarding, but again, that's variable. I find they rarely check large backpacks when they're being strict about rollaboards. At the moment, they're on a something of a charm offensive, so are being more lenient across the board, but this will stretch locker capacity, and the pendulum will begin to swing the other way again.

dand99

...and reporting back.

Flying Rynair from BCN was fine, hand-luggage wise.

No one glanced at carryons at checkin. At gate - nothing either. My rollaboard was within limits, my laptop bag not so.

It might have had something to do with the flight coming in late and teh crew rushed to get everyone on board and away, plus the fact we were 1/3 empty or so.

elexianyx

Good! Glad it went well

markle

delete3d

TravelingNomads

They didn't check when we flew out of Gatwick. The only thing I saw them be 100% firm on was the weight for checked bags. Choosing priority just gives you a better chance of the bins being too full for your carry-on. I've only gone via RyanAir 2x (the didn't check either time), so others may have more info. I did read somewhere that they were relaxing their rules a bit.