Ryanair outrageous charge for 2 cabin bags

vacheron

We've just flown with Ryanair for the first time ever when my wife, son and I returned from 6 days in Barcelona on Monday the 9th of September on a direct flight to Newcastle.

The fare was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

The total cost for the 3 of us was therefore £262, but this was still £360 cheaper than flying with KLM (who we used for the outbound flight and which would have also required a stop in Amsterdam).

Personally, I look at the total cost coupled with the convenience, no point getting bogged down in which way the total cost is sliced up... If I was buying a pie, I'd rather buy a pie which listed the price as £1 for the pastry case and £2 for the filling rather than a whole pie priced at £6!  
  


PS, For those who haven't flown with Ryanair before (and bearing in mind that this was our first and only experience so far), we had also heard the horror stories, but the seats were just as spacious as KLM / BA economy, the in flight food prices were reasonable (and more advanced than many airlines as we could order from our phones via bluetooth and they brought the order direct to our seat), no fights broke out, the landing was smooth, and we weren't charged to use the toilet!   

borderline

vacheron said:

The fair was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

But why such as discrepancies in prices ? why not the same charge for a bag in all flights? they charged me £35 each way for a short flight, and my flight is not even full 

vacheron

borderline said:

vacheron said:

The fair was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

But why such as discrepancies in prices ? why not the same charge for a bag in all flights? they charged me £35 each way for a short flight, and my flight is not even full 

I wouldn't say there is too much of a discrepancy. I've just searched on their site and Stanstead - Biarritz flights are currently £19.95 pretty much most days this week, and if you select this, their cabin bag / seat reservation / priority option which we took is right there on the next page for £32, so pretty much identical. 

Not much diffterence in the flight times either. Our Newcastle-Barcelona flight was 2 hours 30 minutes and Stanstead-Biarritz is 1 hour 55 minutes, so it's just 20% shorter.

It's no different to Sky / Virgin etc. In that they will give you tempting offers if you book services as a bundle at the time of ordering will generally end up more economical than going for the initially cheapest option and then tagging on specific extras later on. 

zagfles

I've found on budget airlines and even some non budget ones it's usually cheaper to book the basic fares and separately add on extras like cabin/hold bags, particularly if you don't all need one 

Hoenir

borderline said:

vacheron said:

The fair was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

But why such as discrepancies in prices ? why not the same charge for a bag in all flights? they charged me £35 each way for a short flight, and my flight is not even full 

Different airports will levy different charges on Ryanair.  

NoodleDoodleMan

borderline said:

vacheron said:

The fair was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

But why such as discrepancies in prices ? why not the same charge for a bag in all flights? they charged me £35 each way for a short flight, and my flight is not even full 

Other aspects aside, how is the aircraft seat occupancy level relevant to the price charged for an bag on a specific flight ?

borderline

vacheron said:

borderline said:

vacheron said:

The fair was £58 per person which only included 1 underseat bag per person, but for an additional £29 per person we could upgrade to a package which included a cabin sized suitcase each, priority boarding and a seat reservation.

But why such as discrepancies in prices ? why not the same charge for a bag in all flights? they charged me £35 each way for a short flight, and my flight is not even full 

I wouldn't say there is too much of a discrepancy. I've just searched on their site and Stanstead - Biarritz flights are currently £19.95 pretty much most days this week, and if you select this, their cabin bag / seat reservation / priority option which we took is right there on the next page for £32, so pretty much identical. 

Not much diffterence in the flight times either. Our Newcastle-Barcelona flight was 2 hours 30 minutes and Stanstead-Biarritz is 1 hour 55 minutes, so it's just 20% shorter.

It's no different to Sky / Virgin etc. In that they will give you tempting offers if you book services as a bundle at the time of ordering will generally end up more economical than going for the initially cheapest option and then tagging on specific extras later on. 

The total for my flight including the cabin bags is £248, flying back Sunday so much more expensive 

Sarahspangles

Have you priced the train, because if you’re going from London I think it’s one change?

Instead of hanging around at the airport after paying through the nose to park, you’re on the train and then at the other end there’s no waiting around for baggage so it’s not that much slower.

Voyager2002

mtc95 said:

mr_stripey said:

la531983 said:

Ive never had an issue with Ryanair, just for a bit of balance.

likewise. They've always got me where I needed to go. I travel to Norway often. Sometimes BA are cheaper than Ryanair (after factoring in luggage costs), sometimes not.

I managed to to a full week's trip with just the "under the seat included bag" this year. Using packing cubes you can get a lot of stuff into a small bag!th

For those who travel often with Ryanair, do they generally strictly enforce their bag limits?  I flew with them recently for the first time in ages and was a bit concerned that my carry-on bag was larger than the 40X20X25 size that they stipulate (but could still go easily under the seat).

But on neither the outgoing nor return flight was anyone seemingly bothered about what was being carried on.  I think I could even have had a bag large enough for the overhead locker without having paid for that.  I'm not suggesting anyone tries this, but I'm just curious whether my experience was typical.

I have seen strict enforcement sometimes.

Like you, I have flown a few times with a bag that was larger than their limits. Each time, I managed to sneak past without payment. It seems that after catching a few offenders their enforcement people get bored, and so I ensure that I am among the last of those boarding. Furthermore, I hold my bag discreetly and do something to distract their agent (I wear a facemask and so s/he has to ask me to remove it so s/he can check my face against my passport photo, and so is thinking about this rather than about my bag size). Obviously my luck will run out eventually and so I am sure to get caught in the end.