MSE News: Flying Ryanair? It's about to change its hand luggage rules

Mrs_Parker

Has my first post gone through without having to join facebook?

In addition:
Sadly won't have an excuse to talk to strong young men ;o)

minerva_windsong

I'm OK with this, but that's mainly because I always have a small bag within my carry-on that contains all the things I might want 'in-flight', and just take that out once I've gone through the boarding gate and put my larger bag in the overhead locker. Suspect my husband - who flies hand luggage only precisely so he doesn't have to wait at a baggage carousel - won't be though, which means we may well not be flying Ryanair to Dublin next month (as per his original plan) and therefore Michael O'Leary gets none of my money. So win-win!


Also: does anyone know if this will affect the amount of liquids you can put in the larger bag? Given as it's going in the hold (presumably the 100ml restriction would apply to the smaller cabin bag).

PeacefulWaters

Also: does anyone know if this will affect the amount of liquids you can put in the larger bag? Given as it's going in the hold (presumably the 100ml restriction would apply to the smaller cabin bag).

Surely liquids won't get through security. So you'll have them confiscated.

blaggrr

alinwales wrote: »

.. and loading/unloading 100 bags from the tarmac to the hold is not going to be time consuming at all..

Yes that is a valid observation if time is Ryanair's real motive. Is it time for passenger handling they are trying to improve, or is the real motive to shake out more of our cold cash to Ryanair's bottom line (without altering their headline prices in their marketing), and steering that cash to their pocket and no one else's i.e. not the airport?

These handling changes constantly put pressure on the airport handling contracts and my guess is that by the time we arrived at November 1st, Ryanair had agreed their new policy with too few of their destinations to be able to implement it. Afterall, Ryanair had some other trouble at mill last autumn. However, It didn't stop Ryanair from misleading us though for a.return flight booked in September for a flight in early December. We booked as normal, but then received an email out of the blue so worded that we believed they were suddenly insisting that for all flights, with no exemption for flights already booked, no 55x40x20 bag at all was allowed without logging in again and paying extra for priority. Their actual words were:

You're entitled to bring 1 small personal bag (35cm x 20cm x 20cm) on board which must fit under the seat in front of you. If you want to bring 2 cabin bags on board you must add Priority Boarding.

It was sloppy communication, with the words "bring" and "on board" requiring much more explanation. We realised after mistakenly coughing up for priority that they hadn't followed through with the rule change in their actual T&Cs. It was a foul up by Ryanair which someone should have had words with them about. They still have our money.

So this latest implementation, is a typical change of story by Ryanair, just as we have come to love from them. I recall that a month or two before Ryanair announced this last September, and then quickly withdrew it in November, Wizzair had just done the opposite and allowed two cabin bags including a bigger one as their main approved size! In fact if you Google Wizzair cabin bag sizes you might still think Wizzair currently allow:

• 42x32x25cm Small cabin bag 10kg maximum weight
• 56x45x25cm Large cabin bag 10kg maximum weight

But Wizzair ALSO seem to have changed it yet again - it's a bit like a supermarket price war - but in this case it's your handbags at dawn that they batter each other with :rotfl:
Per Wizzair's website, it seems Wizzair now allow just the 55x40x23 (note the size has shrunk!) large cabin bag. You now only get to carry on a small one 40x30x18 exclusively with Wizzair's own "Priority" offering

There is of course another side to these constant changes which is more troubling. Every airport is different in how it handles passengers and scans luggage and keeps passengers separate and safe. Every time Ryanair or one of the others upsets the applecart, and rings the bell "All Change", there are a myriad of different new airport implementations which create uncertainty in security and safety, let alone confusion amongst passengers as to their consumer rights.

And there is the other thing Ryanair and possibly others seem to have "gotten away with" with their safety regulators - the continued deliberate ploy of splitting up family groups and fellow travellers compromises onboard safety in at least two respects:

• emergency evacuation times due to the very high likelihood of groups trying to regroup prior to evacuation
• emergency evacuation rules compromised by underage teenagers persuading their parents they can use the odd seat they won in the "random allocation" lottery that gave the group a spurious one-off emergency exit row seat - naturally it'll be one far from the rest of the group. Such lucky draws suit a certain type of kid. I have personally discovered I was sitting next to three such in the last six months in three separate flights. If you split up families ten metres apart, up and down the plane, then guess where the moody teenagers want to sit if one of the available seats in the deliberately scattered allocation is an emergency exit wing seat ... and who scotches that idea, if it isn't someone like me who realises before take-off?

At least there's a bit of a silver lining to the latest cabin baggage policy - the evacuation times (which are never tested by airlines, only manufacturers) may be improved a little with more baggage now being carried in the hold where it belongs, instead of cluttering up the cabin when passengers try to take bags with them in an emergency.

But back to what can still be carried in the cabin, what's the situation now with airport purchases? What can be carried as part of this latest regime? There was a time on Ryanair when any airport purchases had to be put in the (one only - 55x40x20) cabin bag for fear of copping a £50 excess bag fee at the gate. Then that got relaxed and at some airports e.g. Stansted, main shops like WHSmith started issuing free strong black fibre reinforced bags, which were interestingly also a full 55x40x20! They were given out to hold your airport purchases, and for you to take them onboard in addition to your existing 55x40x20 cabin bag. That lasted about a year I think. Still got one of the free bags somewhere.

And I recall that before the general relaxation on airport purchases, a few presumably powerful airport interests (those where Ryanair's need to go there exceeded the airport's need for Ryanair to be enticed to come!) had already apparently insisted passengers should be allowed to take actual crate-sized boxes of airport purchased beer onboard - Malaga springs to mind? Anyone else remember that?

Personally I've regularly got used to carrying three bags onboard for the past year or three ... one "large", one "small" (which actually expands to 55x40x20 if I dared stuff it), plus my undefined airport purchases, often plus a fourth coffee bar bag with my airport coffee hidden in it with two lids and a few belt and braces serviettes to stop spillages! And more often than not I sit in an extra legroom seat which I haven't paid for. However,as regulars will know, it takes years of practice to charm your way through the ever-changing system, doesn't it?

melanzana

One thing I've noticed is some passengers removing the hold tag on the tarmac and taking the bag on board anyway, (when they volunteer to place bag in the hold under the current rules).

So there may be a need for different colour tags. Red for the hold and Blue for the cabin or something.

I am in favour of the new rules. You get what you pay for, quicker boarding and guaranteed space if you pay priority.

pelirocco

They will be loaded while the aircraft is doing its checks etc . They arent the only airline experiencing delays due to passengers faffing about with over head locker space

bertiewhite

Good news - if it can't be carried by hand and needs wheels, it shouldn't be classed as HAND luggage.

How much does one person need for the duration of a flight anyway?

richardw

Nice to have P Baker back with the same moans.

richymac

I guess the obvious question would be "what if everyone had priority" - I noticed on my last flight that the Priority queue was pretty much 50 /50 with the standard line.

One of the new moves which I hadnt connected on was the seperation of Priority boarding and my prebooked seat. If you booked a seat in row 1-6 you paid (as an example) £17 each person each way for 4A / 4B. It used to be the case that the cost included priority boarding - this is no longer the case and you have to buy that as well !

My forthcoming Feb flight cost more for the seat position and priority boarding than the flight itself

zagfles

The "small bag" size is ridiculously small - 35x20x20cm!! On short trips I usually take a 40x30x20cm bag and that easily fits under the seat in front. Never been taken off me to put in the hold on any budget airline.

On their website they say "Your small bag (e.g. handbag, laptop etc.) must not exceed 35x20x20cm and should easily fit under the seat in front of you." Unless you've got a tiny laptop it'll exceed those dimensions, are they really going to force people to put their laptops in the hold??

I can see this coat becoming popular https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2868327/incredible-airport-coat-can-store-15kg-of-luggage-to-beat-ryanair-and-easyjet-carry-on-fees/