Cabin baggage at RyanAir?
 

I'm planning a flight this April with Ryanair.
Do you know anything about their allowance as cabin baggage?
It says on their site that they allow one baggage with the maximum size of 55x40x20cm, max 10 kg.
How strict are they with these numbers? does a few cm + count? Because mine is 55x40x23-24cm...

And more importantly: what do you think, could I bring up both my laptop case (as a handbag of some sort:)) AND the 55x40x20cm baggage?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks:)



PS. I am from the EU, Hungary, the reason I asked was that I angled for the Online chek-in. (:

They are very strict - and very good at detecting oversize / over weight bags which means paying extra baggage fees

as for laptop AND another bag - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Ryanair makes no money on its flights

It makes all its money on baggage charges, check-in desk use fees etc

Staff earn commission on the amount of extra charges they manage to extort at check-in

No flexibility

Even worse, if they demand extra money you cannot pay at check-in in London. You are thrown out of the queue and sent to join another long queue to pay the extras, at which point you return to the queue you were originally in (unless you get a nice agent who'll let you push in, as I did last time it happened to me).

(PS. And 10kg is almost nothing, unless you intend to pack your own pillows)

If you avoid check in by using priority boarding you will get away with the bag size, but you could be taking a risk if you are bringing a laptop bag as well, as the gate staff could assert that you have two pieces of hand luggage and make you return to check in, which adds cost (sometimes more than the ticket) as well as time.
At the check in desk you may be asked to use the sizer if the bag looks big to the operator.
They also tend to weigh hand luggage at the desk so beware the 10Kg limit, they will make you check it if it is overweight.

I have seen people on Ryanair with both laptop bags and hand luggage (sometimes improbably large) so I suppose it's down to the individual employees on the day.

We don't know the OP's nationality.

Online check-in is only available to EU nationals - even on internal flights within the same country.

Not always true
 

I've had luggage weighed at the security checkpoint (STN and one other airport I can't remember) and at the gate (GSE) and told it was over the 10kg limit. So I wouldn't say you're safe even if you avoid the check-in desk.

Thank you so much for all your answers, they mean a lot of help to me!
I'll reconsider packing in the light of your advices, thanks guys:)

Actually, it depends on the airport. Stansted is very very strict and I would not recommend you to bring an extra bag.

As for the other routes: Go ahed. I've flown 17 sectors in the last three months on Ryanair, all the time with a 57x42x18cm trolley that always weighed more than 10kgs and on ten flights I had an additional bag with me. I was never even looked at, dare even questioned about the size or weight.

And I have to correct Raffles as well. There is no such thing as a commission on charges for Ryanair staff.

On the three occasions I have flown Ryanair, twice out of STN and once out of DUB, I have always travelled with a backpack closer to 20kg than 10kg, and far outside their stated dimensions. I have never been charged or questioned about it. I have presumably been lucky, but their staff are all subcontracted, and probably not paid enough to necessarily care about squeezing every last bit of money out of the passenger. On the most recent Ryanair flight I took, STN-SXF, at least a third of the passengers appeared to have bags larger than the regulation size, and all of them boarded with no trouble. Your mileage may vary, however, and Ryanair's terms are clear that they have every right to gouge and massively inconvenience you if they decide to notice your oversized hand baggage.

I fly very often with Ryanair and it shouldnt be a problem yes you can normally take your laptop aswell just try not to have 4 bags or something ... for some centimeter more its not a problem
its like this small suitcase they sell at the chinese shops for example...

I've been made to re-pack my hand baggage at SVQ because it weighed 11kg (and it was well under size physically), and my mother has recently been charged excess baggage at East Midlands airport for having a check-in bag weighing 16.5 kg instead of 15kg.

It is impossible to predict what will happen on any given flight but Ryanair are certainly not afraid to impose a very strict implemenation of their rules when it suits them.

I would say though that most of the checks seem to take place at check in, and boarding is usually such a scrum that they don't have time to inspect hand luggage at the gate.

The biggest risk is that as Ryanair don't gate-check bags, if they did decide to get picky with your bags at boarding time, checking in your outsize cabin bag will no longer be an option and you will be off loaded from the flight. :(

Perhaps I'm wrong - but there certainly is for Aer Lingus staff:

From a Jan 07 article : "Aer Lingus staff are to receive 10% of revenue collected from new charges for bags checked in at airports. The deal, which will boost salaries for check-in staff, was agreed at the Labour Relations Commission last night. Aer Lingus declined to say how much the new commission system would cost. Under this new deal, the check-in operator will receive commission worth 10% of the revenue collected, i.e. 80c for each bag handled. However, they will not receive commission on lower baggage charges paid by passengers checking in on the Internet. For the first year of the new scheme, each check-in worker is guaranteed a payment of at least €1,000. Check-in staff already receive a 10% commission on all excess baggage charges which they collect"

i have seen FR doing gate check in of bags in MAD. Flight was full ,so they were stricked and made lots of people check in bags at the gate. They had preprinted luggage tags and stopped everyone who had a slightly bigger bag or 2 pieces, etc...

You will NOT be offloaded of a flight for excess carry-on luggage. Worst case is you have to pay, more likely you won't and your luggage is just fitted with pre-printed tags and jammed into the belly.


@Raffles: Might be true for Aer Lingus, but as suggested in your link this was some way to give the staff possibilities to earn more money. Asked someone at Ryanair and he said they deffo do not get paid extra.
Now with that being said I saw people coming to an Aer Lingus check-in counter with a 26kgs bag and they weren't charged. Same for boarding controls. Never saw one.
Their handling agents are quite strict though.


And finally: Of course abfab is right. Every flight is different, every employee is as well. Most of them probably don't care but if someone does he can make your travelling very unpleasant. If you want to take more with you than you are allowed to try not to be too obvious about it. There is no need to show up with 4 bags or a suit-case that is so full it almost bursts.

This isn't what Ryanair say in their Terms and Conditions though:

"Any passenger who arrives at the airport with cabin baggage that exceeds the maximum weight and/or dimensions will be required to check-in again at the airport and will be charged an Airport Check-In fee of £3.00/€4.00 per person/per one way flight (or local currency equivalent) plus the standard checked baggage fee of £12.00/€18.00 per item/per one way flight. This facility is available only if the applicable airport check-in is still open.

We reserve the right to cancel your reservation and to deny you boarding if you do not comply with the above. "

I appreciate that this may not be what happens in practice,but they do reserve the right to offload you!