I recently flew Ryanair, and had a decent experience. I was flying from Pisa to Stanstead on a completely packed flight and was worried that I wouldn't be able to take my rollaboard and small daypack on the plane... I was not met with any incredulity by the ticket counter rep when I said I had no bags to check, and had no problem passing through security. I was a bit worried that the gate agent would reject my two bags, but smiled, handed her my boarding pass, and proceeded onto the jet without any problem whatsoever. My small backpack fit under the seat and the overheads were practically empty, so had no problem whatsoever. The only hitch was on the return flight from Stanstead to Pisa, b/c the London airport system is privately owned and security absolutely will not allow any more than one bag to go through... So I ended up having to shell out extra $ for checking my bag, but all in all, you get what you pay for! Considering I got the ticket for $120 when Alitalia was charging $330 with layovers, I was overall a pleased customer...