I will be using RyanAir to fly from Munich to Oslo next week, and noticed that they have some severe weight and size restrictions on carryons. Has anyone flown on Ryanair and can give me feedback on how strictly they enforce the rules? My carryon is a typical 21 or 22" bag, but the Ryanair rules say 20" max and 10 kilos. I hate to buy a little carryon if I don't need to.

I've gotten through with a 25lb 21" once.Another time I had to carry a bottle of vodka with me through check-in, get my boarding pass, and then put the bottle of vodka back in. I've found it to be hit and miss - wish I had better news for you.... But rules like this (and in Canada) forced me to purchase a 20" rollaboard...

Ryanair are generally very strict, both on size and (especially) on weight. Their carry-on limit of 10 kg (22 lbs) is in fact on the generous side for Europe; a lot of airlines limit carry-ons to between 5 and 8 kg. Their checked baggage limit of 15 kg is 5 kg below the standard limit applied by other airlines.

They don't weigh every bag, but they do a lot more weighing than any other airline I know. If your carry-on is more than 10 kg you have to check it or transfer the excess into checked baggage. If your checked baggage is more than 15 kg they send you away to pay for the excess, and their per-kilo rates are the highest of any airline in Europe. From what I've heard they've even now become wise to the usual tricks of putting small heavy items in one's pockets - I've heard of people being asked to take off their coats and put them on the scales!

BTW, you say you are flying from Munich to Oslo. Where are you REALLY flying from and to? Ryanair claim to fly to Oslo but they don't, they fly to Sandefjord. Munich they don't even CLAIM to fly to - but I guess you could be flying from Salzburg which must be about the same distance from Munich as Sandefjord is from Oslo.

How ridiculous. Skinny people cramming stuff in their pockets weighs far less than some of the other heavier passengers. I guess people will just have stuff things down their underwear.

I've flown Ryanair and you get what you pay for. Nothing more than bus transportation in the sky.

Of course it's ridiculous. But it's not about weight, it's about money. Ryanair makes it money from charging for extra baggage (among other things), not from selling tickets.

Still a good value though, no?, since they essentially charge bus-like fares.

I wasn't impressed with Ryanair on my flight from Luton to Milan (Bergamo actually) but I got exactly what I expected considering the airfare cost less than my travel to and from the airport in the UK. If you get cheap tickets and you're not expecting much then you have a decent experience, if you're expecting top level service you're going to be upset.

Well, some of their seats are sold at bus-like fares some of the time. A lot of the time you pay the same as you do with other airlines, for a much inferior service. I sometimes fly Ryanair if they are the only airline that goes to where I need to go. I've had the odd flight for GBP 30 return, but I've also paid as much as GBP 200 return. I'm flying with them next week for slightly over GBP 100 return, some flights on the same days were going for GBP 130 one way plus tax.

Flown RyanAir from London Stansted to Rome Ciampino. No frills, but no problems. :-:

Let us dispel this notion once and for all that Ryanair can treat you like dirt because their fares are cheap.

Changed my plans last week, went straight to Bristol airport to buy a ticket to Dublin, hadn't even checked if any seats.

�194 single for a 40-minute flight. Yes, about US$350. One way. On Ryanair.

I flew them around Christmas from STN to Baden Baden. I was a bit concerned about the size of my carryon, a soft duffel bag shape, because I thought it was longer than the maximum length (unless scrunched) and asked them about it the day before my flight (when I arrived at the airport from another flight). They did not seem to care about the size, only the weight, and on both check-ins, it was in fact weighed but not measured. Because I'd bought my ticket relatively late (my plans had changed), I did not have a particularly cheap fare, but it was still the quickest way to get to Baden Baden from London. The flights were better than I'd expected (I snagged an exit row both times).
I may be going back this year and would do it again (but would try to buy my ticket earlier!)

Ryanair are actually the most profitable carrier in the world and they still managed to give away 2 million free seats last year. How do they do it?

In fairness, changing plans like that with most airlines will mean paying more, unless you are already on a pretty expensive flexible ticket.

I remember reading an interview of CEO O`Leary ( hope I got the name right ) where he emphasized the importance of add-on services, from accomodations to the aforementioned excess baggage. Of course they mainly leave those to partners but then charge them for linking to or advertising directly on Ryanair`s webpage.

Another factor is that they've built a strong brand among teens and twenty-somethings, right up there with MTV Networks and Coca-Cola. I believe a lot of "backpackers" will choose Ryanair even if could fly with a "traditional" airline for the same price because of the youthful image and succesful branding.

Actually, mostly by charging pax like WHBM. A goodly chunk of the airline's profit is made from the last handful of seats sold on each aircraft.

You can see the same thing if you look at Independence Air's rationale for leaving SJC (widely published). They couldn't get many last-minute full-fare paying pax to buy the last few seats on those flights, so the route didn't make much money. However, at SFO, they can - so SJC got the chop.

In contrast, the free seats tend to be on flights that would never have been full anyway, or to be seats which would otherwise have been sold for very little money anyway - so the actual cost of the promotion is relatively small.