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We wrote back in September about the planned Ryanair cabin bag cuts, but the plans (originally set to be introduced in November 2017), were placed on ice and are only now coming into force.
From next Monday (15th January 2018), unless you have paid for Priority & 2 Cabin Bags, Flexi Plus, Plus or Family Plus tickets, you will have to surrender you main cabin bag at the gate, where it will be checked into the hold for free. The details are as follows:
Non-Priority
If you have not purchased Priority & 2 Cabin Bags, you are only permitted to bring 1 small bag on board. Your second 10kg bag will be tagged at the gate and put into the hold free of charge.
Your small bag (e.g. handbag, laptop etc.) must not exceed 35x20x20cm and should easily fit under the seat in front of you.
Your second 10kg bag must be 55x40x20cm in size and must fit into the sizers at the gate before being tagged and put into the hold free of charge.
Failure to comply will result in a charge of £50 per item at the departure gate and may also lead to delays for all passengers on board.
Priority & 2 Cabin Bags
Only customers who have purchased Priority & 2 Cabin Bags, Flexi Plus, Plus or Family Plus will be permitted to bring both of their cabin bags on board.
Your small bag (e.g. handbag, laptop etc.) must not exceed 35x20x20cm and should easily fit under the seat in front of you.
Your second 10kg bag must be 55x40x20cm in size and must fit into the sizers at the gate.
Failure to comply will result in a charge of £50 per item at the departure gate and may also lead to delays for all passengers on board.
To guarantee 2 cabin bags on board you must purchase Priority & 2 Cabin bags
In other words, if you want to keep a normal sized cabin bag with you, from now on you’ll have to pay for “Priority & 2 Cabin Bags” – otherwise, your cabin bag gets placed into the hold and you’ll have to wait to pick it up from the baggage carousel when you arrive. All passengers can still bring a small handbag/laptop bag onboard with them for free.
Are the Ryanair cabin bag cuts bad?
It depends how you normally like to travel. I almost never check in any luggage whatsoever – I find waiting for bags annoying and can very happily live out of a standard carry-on bag for a couple of weeks (with a bit of strategic planning and occasional access to a washing machine!). So, for me this is negative change, given that I’ll now either have to pay more money or spend more time waiting at airports.
The good news is that Priority only costs £5 if you pay in advance, and that guarantees a space in the overhead compartments for your bag. I’m usually amongst the last to board and therefore normally end up with my cabin bag wedged under the seat in front of me because there’s no space left in overhead lockers. Therefore, I suppose I could see this as paying £5 to be a bit more comfortable, at the same time as continuing to skip the luggage collection lines, which doesn’t sound too bad.
If you normally check bags anyway, the changes as a whole could actually be positive for you overall, as they also include the following:
- Check-in bag allowance will increase from 15kg to 20kg for all bags
- Standard check-in bag fee will be cut from €/£35 to €/£25 for this 20kg bag
Plus, your cabin bag will checked in for free at the gate, meaning you won’t have to stick it under the seat in front, if there’s no room in the overhead lockers.
Bottom line
The Ryanair cabin bag cuts aren’t terrible overall and may even work out net positive for some travellers. Personally, I’d rather they kept the old system, but in the grand scheme of things, paying an extra fiver isn’t terrible if it means that there really will be overhead space for my bag.
I’m flying with Ryanair in a few weeks, so will get to see how it works out in practice pretty soon
over the years all low cost airlands, have added more and more to the cost of putting a bag in the hold, so customer not wanting to be ripped of more by these airlines, have added to the amount of hand luggage, this is the airlines thought.
you pay of the flight, then you have to pay for the seat, then they want you to pay for a bag, by that time your up to 90 pounds plus each way, now they want to charge for hand luggage, its far becoming a joke. do they not remember the guy that put all his holiday cloths on so he didn’t have to pay for this luggage, and he almost died.
if the airlines set a price that included the seat, or can you stand up all the way?? reduced to price of hold luggage then people will go back to using the hold, then you can set hand luggage to just one small bag, handbag or computer bag or a medical back like me.
people want the cheapest way to travel, but after add on after, add on, after add on, yes people fill they are being ripped off more and more by these so called low cost airlines.