Minimum time to transfer at DUB?
 

I'll be arriving from the US at 11:50 and there are two options for continuing flights on to GLA on Ryanair, leaving at 14:00 or 21:00. While I'd love to take the 14:00, and get into GLA sooner, I'm afraid that wouldn't leave me much time, especially if flights get delayed, long queues at immigration, etc. Am I correct in my thinking here? If I paid for the expedited security would that make a difference? What's the minimum amount of time you'd recommend allowing yourself to transfer?

In the event that we then need to take the 21:00 flight, how early can we drop our bags with Ryanair? On their website they say the bag drop desk opens 2 hours before the flight, but at an airport like DUB with dozens of Ryanair flights, will they take our bags earlier if they're staffed? That would let us drop our bags and then either go into downtown Dublin for the day or go to one of the lounges.

EI or any other major carrier will not interline with FR ... so you will have to go through immigration (no expedited line) and collect your bag(s) in T2. Then take your bag(s) to T1 and check-in with Ryanair. Two hours is certainly doable ... but don't dawdle. At 1150, most by of the TATL arrivals have been processed so lines for non-EU passports should be pretty quick. And you can purchase Fast Track from FR to speed up your exit through T1 security.

Not having much experience with DUB, I would however caution you to leave yourself enough time. Bear in mind that transfer times on separate tickets can be totally unpredictable. There may be 999 cases where 2h10min is enough and that one case where you won't catch the next flight.

Not sure when you're travelling, but have you checked Aer Lingus? They have flights to GLA at about 15:00 or 16:00 most days, and the extra hour would give you a bit of breathing room.

If FR won't take your bags that early (and they don't have to) if you plump for the later flight then there is a left luggage facility at DUB in Terminal 1 arrivals should you decide to go into Dublin.

You are not connecting on to FR. You have a separate ticket and, if you are late, FR owes you nothing - they will simply cancel your ticket (and any return flight). If you can get a connecting flight (ie all on one ticket) do so, but it won't be with FR as they don't do that sort of thing.

If you cannot get a connecting ticket, then either go with the shorter connection (and make sure it's one way only) but also purchase a back up flight for later, or live with a longer connection. Essentially, you need to have a Plan B in case of delayed arrival.

Nope. If you are no show for the outbound, FR won't cancel your inbound. Something where FR applies the exception rather than the general rule...

Sorry, you're right. I used the wrong terminology there. I meant that I would connect to a different flight.

This is the option we're leaning towards right now. Since it would all be on one carrier we would be protected if there's a delay of some sort and 4 hours should be plenty of time to transfer and connect without stress. The only downside is that it would be about 2x as expensive as Ryanair since the ATR 72s they operate on the route would require us to pay to check our carry-on bags :(