Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
The gauges that Ryanair use are slightly bigger than their size dimensions, so if the bag didn't fit the gauge it would be somewhat over the allowed dimensions. Now it's possible they used one of the older gauges (or a box) with previous and now wrong sizes but that seems unlikely. But I would certainly not advocate turning up at the gate with an oversized bag since some agents are extremely skilled in detecting over-sized items. The fact that you had 2 checked items on your ticket won't count for much at the gate, if it's oversized then that's all that matters.
Having said that, my experience is that at the gate they are unlikely to be so bothered about precise sizes, but more about number of bags, so 1 or 2 cabin bags. If you have 2 bags and not on Priority Boarding (etc) then that's where they tend to be fairly strict.
Had priority ticket, with 2 cabin bags and 2 check bags. Either I'm not making it clear that a ryan air employee told me that my carry on was OK or people just want to argue. I'm hoping it the first... Doesn't matter anymore, I'll pay more for Aer Lingus next time if I ever do DUB-EDI.