What is Ryanair's policy for rebooking when they changed the time of your flight? Mine is shifted only 50 minutes later, which normally would not be a big problem but in this case it means I'll miss the last tube home, which is annoying. Can I get rebooked to another flight on the same day or no go?

First post here in a long time!

Hoping to book Edinburgh - Beziers flights in April 2020. Anyone have a good guesstimate when FR are likely to release the bookings for April onwards?

Is there anyway to tell how many seats are left on a Ryanair flight?

Number of tickets left to purchase: no.

Number of seats left to be allocated: go through the booking process up to the page where they try to sell you seat selection.

the FR website allows you to book up to 25 passengers ... you can keep making booking attempts until the flight becomes unavailable ...

for example i just had a go at LPL-DUB this evening ... available for a 4 pax booking ... but "sold out" if you try and book for 5 pax.

Flight change !!!
 

Thanks, that managed to catch a random fare drop and booked by flight.

So I am back to having an experience with Ryanair, reasonably reassured that the pilots strike in the UK won't affect a German domestic flight. I managed to book CGN-SXF for €5.40 and I got the return for €23.00. However, looking at the Ryanair site I see that the flight is operated by Air Malta, which is sort of odd. I know Ryanair have an interest in Air Malta, but I have never seen one of their flights operated by anything other than their own metal. Of course, they don't do codeshares or joint ventures like the normal airlines. So this will be an interesting trip, a bit of an aviation geek's outing. And the CGN-SXF route will be apparently dropped from the end of October, so it is a chance to collect a couple more flight numbers (which interestingly are quite low, FR184 and FR189; usually Ryanair flight numbers are some unmemorable 4-digit combination).

It's "Malta Air", not "Air Malta" (which is a different airline).

Had a flight on them recently (PMI-CGN), it's basically Ryanair metal. Same seats, same service. Just a different operating company, probably to get some extra government subsidies or something like that.

Malta Air
 

sounds like it's mostly a tax reduction structuring decision !

https://corporate.ryanair.com/news/r...-of-malta-air/

did you check the price on Ryanair's own website ?
i don't think FR ever sell their seats cheaper through OTAs.

I paid for €5.40 for the outbound (Ryanair price was €13). For the inbound I paid €23 (Ryanair price was €26). Still a bargain for a trip to Berlin!
It seems the OTAs periodically make offers for using different cards, or for paying by direct bank transfer. Enfin, if I get into trouble in a week's time, I will certainly post here about it. But according to Ryanair's website, the bookings are live and I'm good to go.

Just a question about Ryanair, though. I see online check-in now costs €4, which it wasn't in the past. I presume there is a period just before the flight when OLCI will be free, maybe 48 hours. I haven't paid for seat reservations either and I am expecting we will get split into two middle seats, even though we're both on the same booking reference.

You'll be fine using the OTA-I've done it once or twice.

Yes, its free <48h STD. But you might want to check in as late as possible, that is minimum 2h> STD to try to grab an Exit or Front Row seat for free.

and you really don't want to miss the 2 hour deadline - or it becomes very expensive !

I was thinking, if there are two of us, wouldn't it be better to check in as early as possible? If I was travelling alone I might try the idea mentioned above.

The software will most definitely split you up no matter what you do. It's a default behaviour to incentivise you to change seats, for a fee, after CI.

if they check in as late as possible - sometimes the only seats are together - so they might just happen to get nearby seats !

Their algorithm splits you up by default (they are under no obligation to seat adults together). If you check in as late as possible you have a higher chance of being put in attractive seats that people will be more willing to swap for (ie aisles or windows).

The question here is, are you prepared to pay extra to sit together?

When checking in, the software will most likely seat you apart. Ryanair starts seat assignments with middle seats, so if you check in early, you will likely get middle seats in different rows with seats next to you still vacant. After the check in, you should be able to change one of your seats for a fee, so that you would sit together. In my experience, this fee is identical to what you pay when reserving seats in advance.

If you reserve seats in advance instead, you would have to pay not for one, but for both seat reservations.

If you are not willing to pay extra to sit together, then checking in as late as possible (but before the 2h deadline) is still a better choice, because you would get better seats this way.

Well, I'm leaving here at 0600, possibly a bit earlier, and the flight is at 10h05. So I'll check in before leaving, or before going to sleep the night before which will probably be around midnight (just in case I have printer problems, smartphone is broken). We've decided that if we get separate middle seats in separate rows, it really doesn't matter. I have nothing against paying for seat reservations, but for fun we wanted to see how little we could pay for this trip! I have always avoided Ryanair's traps in the past, but the last time I used them they still had free seating!

most/all ryanair airports allow you to use a boarding pass on the Ryanair app ... which is a handy way of delaying check in for another couple of hours (assuming you have mobile data on your journey to the airport)

i usually aim to check in on the app about 3 hours before departure - so i have an hour in hand in case of data problems

i often have a look the night before, and there's still loads of empty seats - so don't expect a great outcome if you do that !

Agreed with your strategy of checking in circa 3 hours ahead, however Ryanair do not allow non-EU citizens to use mobile boarding passes and a printout is mandatory. Not doing this results in an airport printing fee. Usually I ask the hotel to print it out before heading out to the airport.

Well, here's how it went. I checked in 5 hours before, and partner was offered 5C and I was offered 30E. In the end, there was nobody in 30F so I just moved over. The flight was surprisingly pleasant and efficient, and boarding was a really civilized process. Other passengers seemed happy and easy going (none of the attitude I've seen on other flights) and the cabin crew were friendly and had a sense of humour. I had a Lavazza coffee with the filter, landed punctually in Berlin and had a great time there, as always.

On the return, from SXF to CGN, check in offered me 14B and partner 24B. I ended up in 12C because I moved to accommodate a couple. Partner had a whole free row, which I should have gone and sat in...but I am not sure how ok it is to seat shift with all the issues about weight distribution on flights! However, this flight picked up what ended up a 65 minute delay. I just had a feeling that something was wrong and started digging around with Flightstats. Inbound aircraft was late, perhaps came from Malta. Again, the crew had quite a laugh at my thinking they were Maltese! It seems the thing about MALTA AIR is that Ryanair has just registered a few aircraft there under the MALTA AIR brand, maybe saving money on tax? But between MALTA AIR, Laudamotion or whatever it's called and Ryanair Sun, soon to be renamed Buzz, Ryanair is creating quite an interesting mini alliance in Europe.

the suggestion that i've read is that Ryanair is using their subsidiaries as a way to allocate new aircraft most efficiently - the idea being that each separate company will fight to get extra resources by finding the best opportunities to use new aircraft to generate profits.

Michael O'Leary saw the way Willie Walsh sits in IAG hq and decides whether BA/IB/EI/etc has the best business plan for new planes ... and decided to copy the structure.

It makes sense, actually. Ryanair has a good chance of creating a plausible low cost alliance in Europe. Bases in Poland, Malta and Vienna aren't bad to have at all.

But where is the advantage to creating a low cost alliance as opposed to creating a one very large lowcost airline?
At most I see there might be a point of creating multiple national subsidiaries for traffic rights purposes...

they're not creating an "alliance" - they are all wholly owned subsidiaries of the one company.

they're just choosing to split up the company into parts to obtain the best financial / tax outcome.

I must say, though, Ryanair has become a lot more friendly and user friendly to fly. Sure, the traps are still there, but it's less of a lottery than it used to be. It is good if it becomes a bit more mainstream, because it is here to stay and we will have to get used to it.

I purchased a ticket on Ryanair two weeks ago for travel in a month. I purchased one 20kg checked bag for 25 Euro. Now I realize I may potentially need a second 20kg checked bag but the price seems to be 40 Euro now. I am wondering if there is any benefit to buying a second checked bag online now before going to the airport or should I just go to the airport and do it.

I wouldn't do anything at the airport with Ryanair, except board the plane. But others more experienced might have better suggestions.

Do not do anything with Ryanair at the airport, their business model is designed around maximizing profit from the unprepared / unaware. Even purchasing it on the website at the time of check-in is better than doing it at the airport.

'https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/baggage/bags

Cost

The 20kg check-in bag costs €/£25 if purchased while booking the flight, and costs €/£40 after the booking is made.

Checked bags are non-refundable, are charged per person, per one way flight, and cannot be swapped between passengers or changed to other bag options. *Higher bag fees apply when checked bags are purchased via a Ryanair call centre, at airport ticket desks, during peak periods and on selected routes.

Interesting that their fees page does not mention higher bag fees when paying at the airport.

I think it does!:eek:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7560c769df.png
Check these at the bottom of the Fees table

There is room for doubt. For several other fees it shows:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3aa4509086.jpg

and airport is specifically mentioned, whereas it's not for the part you pictured which includes baggage, ie airport is excluded? Your previous post sort of supports that view but it is (deliberately?) confusing.

Thanks for all the feedback folks. I will wait till checkin to see if I need another bag and then buy the extra bag online if needed.

don't forget that Ryanair don't normally enforce their official "one small free hand luggage bag" size limitations. as long as it is *not* a wheely, and not a stupid size, you can normally take a reasonable size bag onboard.

Can you self-connect in DUB between two Ryanair flights on separate bookings without having to go through immigration/security? No checked bags, obviously.

I remember a long walk between Ryanair gates and immigration, but don't remember if there were separate levels for arrivals/departures, or you simply got dumped into the secure non-Schengen area on arrival from where you could immediately board another flight.

The airport website mentions you can only self-connect if both flights are on the same booking, but I fail to see what difference it would make. A boarding pass is a boarding pass, how are they going to check if I arrived on the same booking as the one I am going to depart on?