Ryanair hand luggage - Any weird or wonderful ideas?

bryonyhines

How about vacuum packing bags, because usually its the clothes that take up space.

Angiemax1

We (2 adults. 3 kids 13,8,3) travel regularly with Ryanair and always carry hand luggage only (including a pushchair, checked in free) We have previously bought correctly sized hand luggage from SportsDirect.com, Tesco, and Ikea. We have never paid more than £10 for any new hand luggage, so it would probably be worth the extra few pounds to get some proper luggage ( the plastic bags people sometimes take are very easy to tear, have no wheels and can be cumbersome even though you lose 2-3 kilos in weight)

We are actually going to the Canaries in three weeks ourselves for 16 days and manage quite easily with the hand luggage. Tesco sell 100ml bottles, and you can fill these with suncreams, shampoos etc.. if you're on a budget (max 1 litre total per person) You can also get mini deodorants, toothpastes, pretty much most of the toiletries you'll need.

We always travel self catering and even take packets of ham, grated cheese, spices etc as we like to cook in sometimes. The secret is really to cut down on the clothes and shoes you need to take. You'll find if you only take half as much as you think you might need - you just happily cope and get on with it! You can always rinse clothes out with some washing powder - they'll soon dry in the Canarian sun.

The large coat idea also works a treat. I can get my camcorder, my son's ds, my digital camera, some wipes for the little one and some sweets for the flight in mine!

I've never personally seen hand luggage weighed at the gate. Considering Ryanair's emphasis on punctuality I'm not sure they could easily implement this at the gate with their fast turnaround without having a profound effect on punctuality. Hand luggage is rarely weighed at security for the simple reason that carriers have different weight restrictions.

Anyway, cut down if you can - and most of all - have a nice time!

23rdspiral

hi, well i got back yesterday from a lovely holiday in Gran Canaria (though i wont scare you with details of the flight home!), and thought i'd let you know that they DID weigh our handluggage, but only on the way home, and as a group with hold baggage with my o/h's bags too. not had them do that before. if the total weight was over what we could have in hand/hold between us, then there were excess charges. happily we were fine.

(oh, and i'm glad i took a few diff pairs of shoes - we did a lot of walking and my feet swelled up on the plane and i still have the biggest blister i've ever seen!)

Siemo

Intrigued by this thread as flying Ryanair for the first time next month - eek! Not sure what to expect but hoping to keep costs down as much as possible. There will be me, husband and 2 year old son, so 3 sets of hand luggage and probably one case in the hold. Just wondering about 'wearing' items in a big coat or a fly fishing vest(!) - don't they question this when you go through the scanners and have to remove things from your pockets to put on the conveyor belt? I can imagine some of you being there half an hour emptying all the pockets lol! Is this common practice on ryanair or will we get odd looks/told off if we empty out another bagful of stuff from our pockets?!?

If it saves money I'm game, but don't want to get into trouble at the gate and told to put stuff in the hold at a huge extra cost. I'm assuming though if you all do it you can get away with it no questions asked?

Tight_Fist

rachelh81 wrote: »

Intrigued by this thread as flying Ryanair for the first time next month - eek! Not sure what to expect but hoping to keep costs down as much as possible. There will be me, husband and 2 year old son, so 3 sets of hand luggage and probably one case in the hold. Just wondering about 'wearing' items in a big coat or a fly fishing vest(!) - don't they question this when you go through the scanners and have to remove things from your pockets to put on the conveyor belt? I can imagine some of you being there half an hour emptying all the pockets lol! Is this common practice on ryanair or will we get odd looks/told off if we empty out another bagful of stuff from our pockets?!?

If it saves money I'm game, but don't want to get into trouble at the gate and told to put stuff in the hold at a huge extra cost. I'm assuming though if you all do it you can get away with it no questions asked?

You can fill your pockets with clothes/towels/flipflops etc and you won't have to get these out as they are not metal....
If you put cameras and games consoles then you need to put them in the tray at security so as not to set off the alarms, the same as you do with your keys/coins/belts etc.

When our daughter was younger and had a pushchair we used to use our towels as blankets and store them in the hold when we folded up the pushchair, they never said anything.

Does anyone know how many 100ml bottles you can take in the hand luggage and can each bottle contain the same substance such as plutonium:D.??

Siemo

Tight_Fist wrote: »

You can fill your pockets with clothes/towels/flipflops etc and you won't have to get these out as they are not metal....

Ahhhh I see, very clever

Do you think we'll be ok taking the pushchair even though he's over 2 (so technically not an infant - full fare) I have searched the forums about this but it seems no one has a definitive answer. Is it worth phoning Ryanair to find out or do you think it will be ok?

elfen

It's 100ml things and they can't go over the bag size - think its the slightly larger sandwich bags, so not a helluva lot.

Am going to Finland on Ryanair in August, my plan is to wear a jacket and hoodie, with a tee and a shirt underneath (I have to be there overnight anyway, so I don't want to get cold) and a pair of jeans and my trainers. I'll put a smaller pair of shoes in the bag, roll up 4 or 5 tees and put them in, roll up the clothes as much as I can.

I was considering getting hold luggage for the way back, as there may be things I want to bring home, so was considering buying a handbag and any extra clothes I need, so they go into the hold bag and my handbag is light as a feather..Think this may work, as I have time to kill getting my bus to the station and then one to where I need to be, so I'll do a little shopping then, or some later in the week. Think I'll take enough clothes for four days, and then see if I can go into town at all and get some more later in the week (Monday - Monday)

sandiep

At prestwick airport, Ryanair are measuring and weighing all pull along suitcases, and ruckscaks etc on the gate. A second crew member has a hold luggage labeling system, and a card terminal to take excess charges. You cannot get away with anything that is even slightly over in size or weight. Also, seperate handbags (for the ladies!), or seperate duty free bags are not allowed. Everything must be in that one hand luggage bag.

meandmaboy

sandiep wrote: »

At prestwick airport, Ryanair are measuring and weighing all pull along suitcases, and ruckscaks etc on the gate. A second crew member has a hold luggage labeling system, and a card terminal to take excess charges. You cannot get away with anything that is even slightly over in size or weight. Also, seperate handbags (for the ladies!), or seperate duty free bags are not allowed. Everything must be in that one hand luggage bag.

Thats good to know as i'm flying out from there this week, OH's case is about 2cm bigger than permitted dimensions,:mad::mad: so it'll be back to the drawing board for us.:eek::eek::eek:

antenna

Its not so much the height of the case,but the width and the thickness of the case must fit in the ryanair frame.........but if you can squeeze the thickness to fit in the frame you are ok,even if when you remove it it expands back to original size