Seats Selected in a dummy booking
 

Thanks fartoomanyusers. I think we will assume steps and book the "assistance through the airport and with the steps" choice from their list of options.

I booked my parents on FR from STN to ALC (about 2.5hours) in mid June and the priority boarding & two bags was £6 each.
Same flight at a higher price in late July (when kids go on holiday) the charge is £8

So this is going to trip up people who (like me) might make separate bookings. Having committed to the extra carry on in one direction find they have to pay more to bring it back.

I think the seats are blocked off for a little while you go through the booking. If you press the back arrow (top left of the screen) it can be released, but if you go forward through all the myriad upselling screens it hangs on to the seats. And my guess is it will remain pre-allocated for an hour or so until the website finally decides you really haven't booked. So best to use the back arrow if you are doing a "what if" but it should now be available. It's not the only airline to work like this incidentally.

Does Ryanair occasionally also discount high season prices, or are their crazy low prices for low season only?

E. g. if I want to fly them to a typical summer holiday destination in the summer but am flexible about the dates - is it better to book now, or speculate on a future sale?

I understand it is usually better to book now when you have specific travel dates. But what if travel dates (or even the exact destination) are flexible?

I live in London but my mother is from Alicante so I have family, friends (and a house) there. LON-ALC is about as typical a summer destination route as you can get. My experience is limited to this route, and as I have a child at school, it has been limited to these high season dates lately.
This is the time when you might find a half decent price for August.
There is absolutely no incentive, none at all, for Ryanair to introduce a sale.
If you are flexible in, not just dates, but destinations, it is possible that somethIng will turn up for the holidays, but it’s unlikely to be a typical summer destination.
What is more likely to turn up between now and August is a flash sale on a non LCC offering a non-direct route.
In the past my kid and me have “camped” on a rubberised playground floor at Madrid with Iberia and transitted at Oslo with SAS to save a couple of hundred pounds on the direct Ryanair price from London to Alicante. We were quite flexible with dates too.
I booked our outbound LON-ALC flights at the end of January and got them cheap (about £40 each). Unfortunately, I had to wait for confirmation from other people before being able to book our return about a week ago, £120. Prices have gone up considerably since then.
My parents booked their Ryanair STN-ALC outbound flights for the middle of June, £34 each including the hand luggage fee. They will be in ALC for the Hogueras fire festival and stay until the end of August.

I was wondering about ryanair vs easyjet? I heard ryanair might be cheaper? But ryanair also flys into older, farther out airports? Not sure if any of it is true? But would love to know. Since I plan on using 1 of these.

Ryanair and easyJet both price competitively, but rarely compete directly against each other from the same pair of airports. Sometimes Ryanair will be cheaper, sometimes easyJet, but the context may well involve different airports and different times of the day. Both airlines use airports which vary from some of Europe's largest airports to places which aren't much more than an airstrip in the middle of nowhere. It's difficult to generalise here other than it is certainly true that some of Ryanair's airports are a bit obscure. The same could be said of easyJet. So for example Ryanair use Beauvais airport, north of Paris, which is some distance from central Paris, equally easyJet uses Southend, which is some distance from London. But if your hotel was close to Porte Maillot or Stratford, respectively, then both airports are potentially sensible choices.

airports
 

whilst Ryanair started (low cost) life using some seriously obscure airports (when i first hired a car in Hahn airport, it wasn't even marked on the satnav) ... the lack of expansion opportunities from far flung fields has driven it to also fly from the major airports. so whilst still using Hahn, it also now flies from Frankfurt International. and whilst still flying from "barcelona" Reus and Girona, it also now flies from the proper Barcelona airport. and whilst still flying from "oslo" Torp, it also now flies from the proper Oslo aiport ... etc.

Ryanair used to have a reputation for using obscure airports, but they have changed a lot and often fly into the hubs as well. With both you need to check very carefully the airports used today (could be the "main" airport but could also be something 100km away), the schedule, and the baggage/seat policies that are currently in place. The rules have changed several times since the airlines began operating, and a mistake could cost a lot (relative to the price of the seat)!

There is no general rule here - you need to look at specific airport codes you want to fly to. Don't trust airport names used by Ryanair (their "Frankfurt"-Hahn airport is closer to Luxembourg than to Frankfurt, for example), but their 3-letter airport codes are correct.

And be aware of their restrictions - e. g. their free hand luggage allowance is smaller than on most carriers, and if you travel as a couple, you will either have to pay for seat reservations, or be likely seated apart, because you cannot select seats for free, even during check-in. Have a look at their "fees" page - it gives you an idea of the stuff you would have to pay extra for.

Yes, do take a look at their fees. There are a lot of pitfalls that could cost you extra. For example, you have to pay an additional 55 pounds or euros if you don't check in online but try to do this at the airport.

https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful...lp-centre/fees

Also note that transportation to the city could be more expensive (or cheaper) as they often don't use the same airports as other airlines.

Being an American and booked a flight on Ryan Air, even with all the "fees" the airfare was still far cheaper then taking British Airways or aer lingus even with all the upgrades I paid... Vacations are about adventures our flight from DUB-EDI will be one....

and don't forget that whilst many airlines close online checkin one hour before departure ... with Ryanair it closes *two* hours before departure !

and sometimes normal airlines can be almost as cheap as Ryanair/Easyjet - it's total pot luck.

You sound like someone who has done their research, so forgive me if this is repeating stuff you already know - but note that the carry on suitcase size restrictions in Europe (including at Ryanair) are smaller than the US domestic dimensions.

Otherwise, Ryanair is perfectly fine for a short hop like that. It's also fun to board and disembark from the tarmac!