cressers

Hi - I will buy the continental carry on, or international - but both have 21.5 as their dimensions for depth.

Ryanair has dimensions 55cm x 40cm x 20cm as maximum.

does anyone have any first hand experience if the continental fits?

SirRagnar

If in doubt don't try your luck with Ryanair. There is no such thing as courtesy to customers or bending the rules in favor of the passenger on Ryanair. They'll gladly force you to check the bag in and cash the high fee they charge for that. They will strictly enforce the carry-on rules and don't be surprised to see them bend it a bit in their favor.
If at all possible, avoid Ryanair, they are not a nice company;

http://www.gadling.com/2010/02/19/ry...d-doesnt-care/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/wo...agewanted=2&em

scunnered

All the bad stuff that you read about Ryanair is true.

Somehow this doesn't stop people flying with them - RyanAir is the most profitable airline in Europe (the World?) and the most popular in terms of passenger numbers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair).

I fly with them a lot and many of their policies are a PITA. But when I evaluate price vs. the competition and often the total time of travel, then I go with Ryan Air.

If you haven't flown with them before, then use your first flight to figure out the modus operandi and to see how experienced flyers play the game - including what they expect to get away with in carryons, how and when they line up, which door of the plane they head for and where they sit and so on. When you know a route, you can get away with bending the rules that can be bent, and you can usually end up in an aisle seat near the correct exit door unless you specifically want an exit row, with your slightly oversized carryon stowed above you. The overhead lockers in RyanAir planes are vast and usually empty, since most passengers have checked in one giant bag and were too scared to take a carry on. So if you get it on, there is no problem getting it to fit.

With OLCI, the first time someone gets a look at the bag you plan to take on the plane is when the pre board starts, when you are processed out of the lounge to the corridor where you will wait before actual boarding starts. The staff have too much to do and too tight a schedule to meet to spend a lot of time dealing with oversize carrryons, and as long as what you have looks reasonable at a glance, you will get on with it. I usually take my RedOxx Airboss and in more than 20 RyanAir flights in the past two years, it has never been given a second glance. It is bigger than the size limit and always over the weight limit. I see people with rollaboards that are visibly bigger than the RyanAir size limit going on unchallenged.

There is no question it is a risk, and there is always a chance that RyanAir's enforcement may get stepped up, but I think it is a risk worth taking. I expect others with more, or different, experiences than me will jump in to the thread if I am seriously wrong here.

If the trip is mission critical, then don't go with RyanAir. They don't guarantee you will get where you want in the time you want. But they are actually more likely to get you there on schedule than any other airline.

I find RyanAir just as helpful and caring about passengers as KLM and SAS, i.e., basically not all, (and I am elite plus on both those airlines). I have been abandoned in mid trip at Schiphol by KLM,in Copenhagen by SAS and at CDG by Air France (don't get me started about Air France/KLM), but so far never stranded anywhere by RyanAir.

cressers

thanks!

I use them only when we go as a family back to the UK - we live in Tampere, and my parents near Stansted, so even if I would rather go with BA etc - it would require a 2.5hr drive on each end, vs 15min, and 30min.

So the convenience wins.

I agree they can be really strict, and am many pounds out as a result of the 10kg limit (sometimes more than the price of the ticket)

BUT I was looking to see if anyone had been stopped with one....

I am going to risk it and get the slightly larger continental.