The only time I've heard of Ryanair overbooking is when there is disruption. Capacity is 189, so you were within the capacity of the plane.

Maybe the data exchange with the airport computer systems had already been completed? I've heard some airports have very archaic computer systems.

Everything went fine on my Ryanair flight SKG-ATH. I checked in the day before and was allocated a window seat (19F).

Priority boarding was a joke - all it meant was you got on the bus first (and therefore off the bus and onto the plane last). I really wasn't bothered about this - I only purchased "priority" to get the extra hand luggage allowance.

Hand luggage was not being policed in any way. My bags measured more or less exactly the permitted dimensions and I noticed many people boarding with larger ones. Again not an issue, as it all somehow managed to fit into the overheads.

The flight was on time taking off and landed early. It was a pretty efficient operation overall and the experience was really no different from flying with any other airline within Europe.

Would I fly Ryanair again? The only thing I would worry about is irrops handling (or lack of it). But on a short route like SKG-ATH with plenty of alternatives, yes I would.

Apologies for taking this quote out of context but it is the only thing I have found that has helped me at all.

I am trying to establish if Ryanair use steps at Manchester. My fairly infirm in-laws have got themselves booked on a Ryanair flight from Manchester. Although I wasn't involved in the booking I have got sucked into helping with the damage mitigation/limitation exercise. I have found a page on the Ryanair website about booking assistance but it looks like it is necessary to be very specific about the assistance required.

Thanks

Generally Ryanair don't overbook (easyJet do) but there are one or two of their aircraft that have slightly different seating arrangements, sometimes a seat goes out of service, plus staff movements sometimes get in the way. And there is the strange and unexpected that can happen (e.g. someone refused entry to a country). So while I don't think your scenario is unprecedented, it's nevertheless unusual.

I don't know about Manchester, but Ryanair use steps at almost every airport.

Can you request wheelchairs for the in-laws, and say that they have limited mobility ?

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!

I paid for the extra carry on, my backpack is no issue, it's our roller boards that I know we will have to pay extra for. But there is no clear cut cost of these...

The extra carry-on, which I assume is 'Priority and 2 cabin bags', allows a rollaboard of 55x40x20 (cm) in addition to a purse/backpack/handbag etc.

https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful...d-2-cabin-bags

Hi folks, anyone know Leeds-Bradford?
I'm going from there to Bratislava next month, I've booked 1A as a seat because I quite like being at the front, and 1A gets me window and the only pocket on the whole plane..
I'm conscious that space in the lockers is an issue up there, though, and there's no underseat stowage.

Do they bus you to the plane from the gate at Leeds, or do you walk from terminal to stairs? If you walk, it's useful being near the front of the priority queue, and I'll plan my airside activities accordingly, but if there's a bus then there's little point and I'll join the queue when I'm good and ready.

I've never flown with Ryanair and TBH never really wanted too but may have no choice do to limited options.

I'm a UK/EU passport holder and if i was travelling from LTN to FUE on a 7.30am flight with checked baggage would arriving at LTN for 6am be cutting it too fine or would that be okay?

I've not used LTN for over 10 years so no idea how fast/slow the bag drop for Ryanair at luton is

as long as you're in the checkin queue an hour before departure, i think you'll be fine.
and once all those bags are in the hold, if security is slow, then you will all be late to the gate - so Ryanair will hold the plane (as long as you don't go off to the bar for half an hour) !

NOt too sure how to post this, truly the worst experience I have ever had flying. At the bag drop, the agents were friendly and cheerful and very helpful. Spoke with the agent about my carry on, she told me I wont have a problem. Get to the gate, and it doesn't fit, first thing out of the gate agents mouth is, that'll be 50 euro this is WITHOUT looking at my ticket. She would not listen to me, her attitude got bad and then she walked away. I had purchased 2 check bags, I was lost on how they cuold charge me 50 euro the gate agent wouldn't answer the question. When this other agent showed up asked me what the problem was, I explained that the drop bag agent told me that my roller board was OK, I get to the gate and it's not.The first thing out of the gate agents mouth was 50 Euro, she never looked at my tickets to see I had paid for 2 check bags. THe new agents checked and saw that I did have 2 check bags, he apologized and took care of the problem. The first agent told me to my face that she didnt want to hold the flight up, the ironic thing here is out flight was delayed 25 minutes.. The onboard experience was just as horrible the FA's don't smile and they don't apologize for bumping into you, I'm sorry I have broad shoulder and they stick out in the aisle from your skinny seats. It seems that BA will be my way to go from now.

I guess they made an assumption (quite a reasonable one too) that someone wouldn't carry their checked luggage to the gate.

Not too sure how to take this, it wasn't a check bag, it was a carry on, again at the bag drop off I asked the agent there if my carry on was good to be carried on, she told me yes, if she told me no, it wouldn't have been a problem. So not too sure about your assumption.

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.

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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.

Does Laudamotion (flies certain Ryanair routes e.g. from DUS) have reclining seats?

I think it was clear that the first Ryanair check in agent was incorrect here. Presumably the agent took a visual look at the item and decided it was fine, when in reality they should have referred it to the gauge. Now in many situations what should have happened is that the gate agent should have made a quick call to the check-in agent before demanding money with menaces, but in essence on LCCs it doesn't work like that, either it is within the limits or not. And I think it is fair to point out that you had a bit of responsibility to check the size before going to the airport, which was indicated in the replies around your post on 4 March above. In the end the right thing happened, albeit with some nastiness thrown in. With LCCs generally you best accept that any leeway is far from guaranteed and that it is best to measure bags to know exactly where you stand.

DUB-EDI on Aer Lingus is with Stobart and their small aircraft, which has even smaller sizes than Ryanair. But yes, they tend to be polite.

Live and let live, BTW, never saw the sizer at the bag drop off area, if I had I would have checked myself, but taking the word of the Airline Employee should have been good enough.

It's been a couple of years since I flew from there, but last time I went out of LBA, it was a walk under a canopy. It almost certainly hasn't changed. So I'd try to get there early.

You are correct that there's no underseat stowage in 1A.

Flying with Ryanair from Malta anyone know what time I should get to the airport for a 06:30 flight? (Carry on only)

Not use Malta before or Ryanair.

If you are an EU or EEA citizen and you have your boarding pass sorted out in advance (which you have to do to avoid charges) then 1 hour would be fine. MLA isn't a big airport and the locals are used to arriving fairly late. If you are not a European passport holder you may need to arrive a little earlier, you need to print your boarding pass in advance, since they need to stamp your boarding pass.

Thanks for the reply. I have British Passport and boarding pass. When do they stamp the boarding pass? Do I just go straight to security? (Carry On)

If you have a British passport then they don't stamp it. So yes, you can proceed straight to security and on to the gate, they will start the boarding process about 40 minutes before departure but the deadline to be at the gate is 20 minutes. I wouldn't rely on that final time so 30 minutes at the gate gives you a margin.

Though, depending on when you travel, this may have changed.

At least not before Brexit. As with anything about Brexit, it is unclear what happens after Brexit.