Ryanair Hack! Half price hold luggage for ALL when you travel with under 16s

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Value travelling is not all about the glamorous bargain Business Class flights. There are times when you need to take a deep breath, hold your nose and… fly Ryanair.

ryanair half price hold luggage

That may be a touch unfair. Ryanair is undoubtedly better than it used to be, but you might legitimately argue that it wasn’t aiming at a particularly high bar there.

So when there’s an opportunity to cannily secure the budget travel offered by Ryanair at a knock-down price you should seize it with both hands, and there’s no better way of doing that than cutting the cost of your hold luggage by half. 

The trick to getting cheap Ryanair luggage is fairly simple. Ryanair offers 50% off checked luggage for children aged 2 up to under 16, and the crucial points here are:

  1. Children can each carry up to 3 checked in bags (15kg or 20kg)
  2. Adults do not need to also purchase baggage.

So, you simply need to make sure that all the checked in baggage is booked for your children!

Obviously this tip does require you to be travelling with an under 16, and similarly you are limited to three pieces of checked baggage per child, but clearly with your average 1-3 child family (assuming the mum’s not Kate Moss), then that should be more than enough.

Are you sure about this?

Yes, here’s an example.

Book two 15kg bags for adults, and it’ll cost you £60 return

cheap ryanair luggage

Book two 15kg bags for a child (2-11 years) and it’ll cost you £30 return

cheap ryanair luggage

Or book two 15kg bags for a teen (12-15 years) and again it’ll cost you £30 retrun.

cheap ryanair luggage

The 50% discount does, of course, apply to whatever weigh hold luggage you buy.

Comments

  1. Ajam says

    Are you sure about this? I followed this hack but the website clear states today:

    50% discount on child and teen bags when an accompanying adult adds a bag.
    Discount applies to 2 children/teens for every 1 adult, to a max of 4 children/teens.

    It even lets me book the hack today but I suspect according to the forums this is a wheeze so they can sting me at the airport! I’d welcome an update.

    • Tom Sumner says

      Interesting. Well I had no issue with it the last time I flew with the kids on Ryanair, although that was in January and I cannot say for sure whether or not the terms have changed since then.

      My instinct (and I may be wrong here) is that Ryanair may have added that wording since I flagged the hack, as I generally notice these things and would bring them to your attention.

      What would be odd is if they allow you to book the “child only” baggage (which appears to be the case) and then subsequently claim this is not valid. They would be on shakey ground on a number of fronts if they do this.

      • Polly Hassall says

        In January I managed to book my three kids baggage with the discount applied for our family holiday in July WITHOUT having to buy baggage for myself and my husband………now I’m worried that we’ll encounter a problem when we arrive at the airport to check our luggage in! Do you think this is likely? Can do without the stress of that and am considering adding an extra bag for myself……..

        • Tom Sumner says

          Interesting that you say this. I have exactly the same issue with flights in June and August 🙂

          Frankly I am just forging ahead with it. They allowed the purchase, and the idea that they will refuse to honour a baggage booking they permitted, regardless of what is buried in their terms and conditions is preposterous in my view.

          Obviously I can’t make any promises or guarantees on behalf of Ryanair, but I am sticking to my guns, and the booking!

  2. Matt Kirkby says

    I’ve booked just the one hold bag under my son’s name for the whole family to bung disallowed and extra stuff in from the cabin bags. We’re flying Monday from Liverpool so I’ll report back how that works out.

  3. wendy says

    Hi. I can book child only luggage on their app…was just curious because we fly next week and I want to take an almost empty case which I’ll use to bring back stiff we buy so half price sounds good to me

    • Tom Sumner says

      Hi Wendy

      It seems Ryanair have now fixed this glitch, and you can only buy half price children’s luggage if you also buy an adult bag.

      • Lauren says

        It’s just let me do it I looked a while ago and Childs bag was £90 each way I about fell over but checked in online today and had another look and got 15kg for £35 under my child’s name we have no adult bags and it’s let me do it just hope they don’t try charge extra at airport

        • Tom Sumner says

          Great – let us know how you get on. I don’t think you’ll have any problems at all.

  4. hind lmrini says

    i have the same issue, in february i managed to book 1 child and 2 teen luggage under the family offer with no problem.please any body traveling befor august let us know how you get on

    • Tom Sumner says

      I am travelling on Thursday with the child only half price baggage! Rest assured I will let you know how I get on, but also argue the point heavily if I have any problems.

  5. Keira Richardson says

    Has anyone been charged at the airport for not having an adult bag? Flying in 4 weeks & worried!

  6. Lara says

    I flew in May and June with a child’s bag checked in only and had no problems or queries at the airports (Bournemouth and Mallorca). I booked it through the app.

  7. Blossomhips says

    Hi, I did the same as some others and booked our suitcases under the children’s name with 50% off. I have since contacted Ryanair via their online chat. And they told me this would not be a problem at the airport. I asked them to confirm this and was asked if they would just prefer to change my luggage over to named adults in the party free of charge. This was done for both journeys and confirmation email was instant.

    • Tom Sumner says

      I have now travelled several times on Ryanair with luggage booked only in kid’s names, at 50% off. I’ve had no problems whatsoever on any of the flights.

      Sadly it does seem that booking the luggage at 50% off is no longer an option without buying adult luggage too, but if you have a ticket where you did manage to book it at 50% off, you’ll have no problem.

      • Polly Hassall says

        That’s good to know!! Thanks for getting back to us. One less thing to stress about!
        Love family holidays, once I’m relaxing on my sun lounger at the resort!| 🙂

  8. Mariann says

    Does anyone know if this deal has been cancelled? I haven’t booked any luggage yet and I will be traveling with two children from Newcastle to Lanzarote in July 2017. All baggage prices on the app and website are £23.50 for 15kg.

    I have also tried adding and adult bag then a child’s but both stay the same price.

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