Ryanair Baggage labels - do you now have to DIY at the airport?

Westin

I found the Ryanair ones at DUB to be very straight forward. Even more simple than the Norweigan, Easyjet, BA and Virgin Atlantic ones I have used at other airports. A quick scan of the bar code, a couple of on screen questions to answer, confirmation of a bag being checked in. The machine then spat a luggage tag at me. Even that was simple to apply with no pealing off of an adhesive strip to expose. Also no baggage receipt as the system just logs it against your booking PNR. The whole process must have taken less than 60 seconds.

Unless the OP's friends experienced very long queues to use the self service machines, or had not left enough time to complete checkin formalities, I can't understand how a flight could be missed and blame placed on this check in process. Even if late there are normally ground handling staff around who could usher you to the front and help with the process if your checking deadline is approaching.

Tunstallstoven

Great, thanks for the further replies.

Thinking about it, we always travel with large back packs and usually have to take them to the oversized section. I'm sure they'll have provision for that though...

benjus

I recently used the Easyjet ones in Gatwick. It looks like they have a few minor teething problems - in my case the machine sat there for ages doing nothing when it was supposed to print out the luggage tag, then eventually came up with "Error printing tag - please start again" or something similar - at which point the tag came out of the printer. It just required a member of airport staff to force the bag through with the tag on it.

No big deal, and it was still faster than queuing for a check-in desk even with the glitch.

agarnett

Seagull27 wrote: »

Great, thanks for the further replies.

Thinking about it, we always travel with large back packs and usually have to take them to the oversized section. I'm sure they'll have provision for that though...

I have used Ryanair out of Stansted for donkeys years, but although I have been aware of Ryanair machines that must have been first installed perhaps as long as 5 years ago, I have never used one. I rarely check in hold baggage, but on the rare occasions when I have done, I have queued for a baggage drop desk. Having said that, a couple of years ago I was late and missed a flight through queueing for it! I remember once checking in a full sized bike and paying just £25 - them's were the days!

At Stansted, I really am not sure what advantage you get by using a machine. Sure you probably do not queue to get your baggage label, but then what do you do with your labeled hold bags? Is there a separate baggage drop desk for labeled as opposed to unlabeled bags? I appreciate there always used to be a spot for dropping off oversized bags or fragile bags ... but can someone tell us for sure where you drop off self-labeled(self operated machine sourced labels) bags if it isn't the same as the normal bag drop desks?


As a moneysaver, I would also question the need to actually pay and check in any sort of backpack unless it was Falklands paratrooper sized!

I notice there is a new thread in this forum labeled "Ryanair Baggage Fine" which I have not read yet, but unless something has changed very very recently, I'd say Ryanair's policing of baggage is currently much less prevalent than ever before, and for the last two years approximately you are quite within your rights to take into the cabin at least three bags if you include the bag with airport purchases in it.

So if I needed to take a big backpack I would probably seek to reduce the length and width whilst boarding by transferring stuff into a simple second bag (and/or even some into an airport purchases bag).

I have a theory that I can probably get away with a bigger bag than some can, because I myself am 110% or more of average size and it is perhaps a question of relative size of bag to passenger that is the sort of test that gets you noticed (or not;) )!

Certainly Ryanair does not seem too bothered about 55x40x20 or the smaller 2nd bag, being exactly adhered to unless you are unlucky enough to have attracted attention by appearing to struggle under the weight, or otherwise looking guilty of some indiscretion when going through the gate! I always try to look untroubled by my bags, not give the staff a chance to easily "see" that they might be a bit big, and breeze through the gate making sure my boarding pass and passport are open and ready to present and have checked in a single glance whilst smiling and saying thanks as I hand it over and looking them in the eye and wishing them a good day.

Fact is when you are finally onboard, you will sit and watch other passengers trying to push some quite odd shaped (e.g long square profile sports holdalls and yes longish backpacker backpacks) and or otherwise well stuffed expandable bags into the overhead bins and you may well be thinking at that point "well if they can, why didn't I"?

It is whilst queueing for the gate and at the gate that you are most likely to be rumbled. I have not seen actual cabin crew challenge anyone over the size of their bag when you reach the top of the aircraft steps for a number of years. On some flights, before boarding starts, the gate staff do tour the queues looking at your bags and offering that yours should go free in the hold. It is I suppose possible that these pre-boarding tours of the queues (by the handling agent gate staff - not sure they wear Ryanair uniforms thesedays at Stansted or uniforms of their actual employer Swissport) might be double purpose. I.e. they may easily decide a regulation full 55x40x20 bag might be a candidate for being offered (in a way that is hard to refuse) a hold label at the gate for putting in the hold free, but then again they might not be so free and easy with an obvious giant backpack when it is stood against a little person ! That might be an invitation to whack said little person (cf their bag) with an oversized cabin baggage fine!

There is a risk of course that if you bend the baggage rules you won't get away with it, and I suppose this is when I need to read the Ryanair Baggage Fine thread and would urge the OP to do so too, and then decide whether you feel lucky, OP ... well DO yer?

Tunstallstoven

Hi agarnett

I fly Ryanair from Stansted once a year, and I've never noticed the self service machines! Damn those early starts…

Do you know what, I didn’t even think it through and so hadn't thought about what you do with your bag/suitcase after putting the label on! So I would also definitely be interested in hearing from someone who has done it what the process is with regards this.

As for the rule bending… I can’t quite visualise what kind of size bag you have got away with in the past. Mine is a Duke of Edinburgh type size hikers back pack. It has a tent in it and sleeping bag/mats, which would be difficult to condense or redistribute. But I'm still curious as to whether you are referring to back packs of this kind of type/size?

Cheers

Fridge03

Flew from Stansted to Pisa not a month ago. Used the desk like normal, wasn't told to use a machine. To be honest, I didn't even see any of the machines!

Everything like normal and actually pretty efficient!

Raymondo111

I agree that they are fairly easy to use but the problem is they seem to have 'dynamic' check in times, we recently flew fro Gatwick and aimed for a 3 hour check in before our flight was due to depart. However, when we tried to initially check in the machine wouldn't accept our boarding passes, assistant was called and we were told we are too early, come back 2 1/2 hours before flight is due to leave, the check in area does not have any standard seating only disabled so it meant hanging around with all the other people who were used to the 3 hour check in window. To cut a long story short we went back at 2 1/2 hours and were told come back 2 hours before take off, by the time we did this and got through the security checks we were cutting it fine to get something to eat which meant we had to run to get to the gate (which was changed at the last minute) so more stress. In the end we were delayed for 45 minutes so it meant that all the rushing was for nothing, so It may be teething problems but trying to work on a flexible time span to alleviate bottlenecks needs some tweaking also the staff need to be kept aware as we kept getting conflicting information from them.

agarnett

As I said, I think, I use Ryanair Stansted so often, I have lost count. I rarely check in a bag, but have done so maybe once a year. I've never used the machines, primarily because as yet I have noticed no advantage. If Ryanair have a special bag drop desk for DIY machine labelled bags, I have yet to notice it!

I know that hiker back packs can be made very dense. That is a risky problem. If you are targeted for a sizing inspection, you need to be able to squash whatever you put into the sizer without violently trying to bend it, e.g. a rubber sleeping mat which I imagine you might carry? Personally I cannot imagine a rolled rubber sleeping mat that would be any good to me that is less than 55cm long. My thigh bones are longer than that, and my soft backside needs even more width!

Obviously Ryanair likes to particularly encourage backpackers as repeat customers. You might try asking the question on Ryanair's Live Chat of one of their customer service people - do they allow a little slack for backpackers whose bags may be slightly longer than 55 but less wide than 40? You may get a straight bat answer, but who knows, you may get a useful answer. You could also ask about the benefit of using the DIY machines at Stansted - is there a separate drop of desk that avoids the normal bag drop queues?

It does sound to me however that you are a serious hiker and will be pushing the limits with so much kit. I might not be risking it if I were you unless I had a back up plan where I knew that my mats could be folded into a shape that would fit inside 55x40x20 and that I could distribute everything else around them else fit into a second smaller soft bag (supposed to be 35x20x20 max but you see lots of interpretations hanging on shoulders which I have not seen challenged yet (there's always a first time! :eek:)

And as a final overflow contingency, see if you can get an airport shop bag as you walk through - one of the decent sized World duty free ones from the friendly boys in the Whisky Shop holds 3 one liter bottles in boxes easily, so it can hold a fair bit of overflow instead if you don't make it too obvious!

Bit think carefully Seagull27 - in the present climate of not knowing whether Ryanair is turning a bit nastier again, I wouldn't risk trying to take anything into the cabin which exceeded 55cm (plus a bit for packing it diagonally, but that's not going to give you much more with a rolled rubber mat) and which could not be easily folded or squashed.

They won't stand there and let you force it into the sizer - it is supposed to fit with only gentle urging.

Finally, I return to the main title of this thread - I am concerned about possible cross-purposes. You started the thread, Seagull27, but it seems to me that you were hoping not to pay for checking in any baggage into the aircraft hold? Apologies if I have that wrong.

I think you may have to put your biggest back pack into the hold if your kit is as bulky as the picture you have painted in our minds, but if not, then let me be clear - if carrying only cabin baggage, then you do not go near any DIY machine or any check-in desk at Stansted.

You of course make sure you check-in online at least 2 hours before the scheduled flight time (or you will pay an enormous penalty for airport check-in).

You take your online printed boarding pass or I use the electronic one on a smartphone via the Ryanair App, and you go directly to Departures Security and plonk your barcode or smartphone QR code down on the entry gate like it might be a London Underground gate, and in you go!

I apologise if you thought the DIY machines were for anything other than checking in hold bags - they are useless to cabin bag only passengers and at Stansted maybe pretty redundant for the rest too!

Lorian

I fly a lot. Rarely is there a queue at these machines where I fly (not stanstead). If there is its usually just formed by bemused people.

Go to weighing machine machine (often there is little/no queing ettiquette for machines)
Scan boarding pass
Put case on scales
confirm there are no prohibited items
wait for lable to be printed
(on some) peel off backing of label
attach label to handle of case (wrap around and stick two halves together)
Confirm label attached
Keep receipt safe
Take bag to bad drop PAST the scales - manned (Queuing Ettiquette applies here)
(present boarding pass and ID) put bag on conveyor.

It takes longer to type this than to actually do it

Tunstallstoven

Hi agarnett

Thanks again for taking the time to provide all that info. I'm afraid to say we are indeed talking at cross purposes as I fully intend to put a bag in the hold and know I'll have to pay for that. Sorry if my OP suggested otherwise; although having read it again just now I can't see that it does... My only concern was with potential queues, delays, and ultimately missed flights, as a result of having to use a self service machine (for hold luggage). And that concern was only based on a two minute quick chat with a fellow dog walker on the side of a corn field!

And hi Lorian....

Thanks for describing the full procedure. That makes it very clear. And no doubt if the back pack cannot go on the manned conveyors, the people there will tell you to take it to the "oversized" area, which is what usually happens in the past. I think it is because of all the straps on the bags which means they might end up getting caught in the machines...

Thanks to you both and to everyone else for the time and help.