LiggyB,

Ryanair are very strict with luggage and often check every piece at the boarding gate during boarding. If they are deemed too large, you'll have to put them in to the hold and be charged for it. Can they be squashed down a little to make them 55cm? If not, i'd check them in to be safe.

Darren

They are strict and extra or oversized cabin baggage will be refused at the boarding gate, or where available, placed in the hold of the aircraft for a fee of £50/€50.

There is a list of fees for checked luggage in this link
http://www.ryanair.com/en/terms-and-conditions#regulations-tableoffees

You want to prebook your luggage though, don't leave it to check in and pay excess baggage charges!

Can anyone tell me how rigorous they are checking these things

VERY!

No, let's make the point absolutely blindingly obvious ............

VERY!

........ even to the point where they will make you put it into a cage or box ... all of your piece of luggage, wheels and all. It doesn't all go in? It doesn't fit to their liking .............

YOU PAY FOR IT TO GO IN THE HOLD ...................... or they may not allow you to fly.

Their decision is final and binding. Common sense, logic, the milk of human kindess, compassion and just being nice don't come into it.

(It's also possible that they are being very positively encouraged by management to enforce this ruling.)

ALWAYS pre-book your luggage .... much cheaper and will save you time at check in rather than having to go and pay at the sales desk for your baggage, and THEN rejoin the check in queue (and perhaps be too late arriving at the gate to board your flight).

Ryanair website shows the increase in Spanish airport departure taxes, these are the ones that maybe claimed back from those who booked Ryanair flights before July 2 but havent yet taken the flights.

Link below to the Ryanair page.

Details show the Spanish airports and various costs depending which airport is involved and where you are flying to. Typically the increase is less than €2 per person for most airport. Madrid isnt typical !

Regards Chris

http://www.ryanair.com/en/notices/gops/120702-sp_tax_increase_en-GB

Boarding staff can sniff oversized cases, they see them everyday and know which ones / makes etc are too large.

My only hand luggage encounter/problem was with Stansted security staff rather than Ryanair staff. Our hand luggage, like yours, was around the correct size measurements and at checkinwe made sure the hand luggage case was ok for size and went into the Ryanair cage - no problem.

When we get to Stansted security the security man who had an altercation with the person before us took our case and placed in the airport cage - their cages require cases to be put in lengthways, holding the side handle, rather than most (like Ryanair) where you drop them in from the top holding the top handle.

The case didn't fit by about 2cm - a small part of the wheel was in the way.- we were forced to either leave the hand luggage (as if) or check it in as hold luggage - which we had to do.and at a cost of course.

We went back to the Ryanair desk and they were confused by it and we put the case back in their cage and noticed that the wheels on the case passed the metal bars of the cage at the bottom, so our case kind of fitted but didn't. They didnt have the boxes those days so maybe that would have triggered the problem.

When we got home we went bought new cases, the correct dimensions and made sure we didnt have to endure that cost again.

If your case is too large you may get away with it - or maybe not. Take a chance, maybe suffer the financial consequences. Remeber if they dont get you departing they may get you (again!) on the return.

Chris

ps what about using suitabely sized holdalls / backpacks, they are lighter than hand cases so you maybe can get more in. I bought one recently called the 'Cabin max' - its the correct Ryanair dimensions for hand luggage but is only 0.6k rather than 2kg that my trolley case was..

The only problem is that my Cabin Max doesnt have wheels so its a backpack and 10kg is heavy when you have to carry it !

The benefit is that when the Ryanair boarding staff see it they tend to ignore it and have so far waved me through without sizing it - maybe just go lucky so far !

Clearly the spanish government want the taxes for flights booked before 2 July but not yet taken.

An updated version of the page I posted earlier is below which Ryanair now confirm they will be debiting the taxes from customers cards that the yused to make the original booking.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/notices/gops/120706-sp_apt_tax_en-GB

Chris

Although I received an email a couple of days ago from Ryanair saying they may charge me retrospectively, it hadn't been confirmed then, and I still haven't got an updated email from them, so thanks TFS1.

Am I being naive then? How come they keep peoples card details on record, to allow them to charge us? I thought we had to input cc details every time we booked?

Madsue,

I presume they keep the details in case they have to make a refund !

Keen to get the emails as you have to cancel the flights by next Friday (13 July) if not acepting the tax payments.- Im ok to pay them as they are not too painful on the wallet.

My Ryanair Cash Passport account thankfully has the required €32 ish needed to pay for these taxes, if not it would have been a £150 load to pay for them ! That would have been more painful.

Regards, Chris

Exactly, I need that email!! I have a friend staying with me till end of July, and she already has her email.. I am not due to fly till 14th August, and still would have to apply for a refund (not that I'm going to), by the same date I presume i.e.13th July? The tax is only 1.87€ so no worries there. I was just concerned about them keeping cc details, as when my son had to ask for a refund he still had to input cc details; if they are kept by Ryanair, why did he have to do tht???

We have received one email regarding paying the extra taxes for one of our flight bookings but have several others bookings (made before 1 July) which we have yet to receive emails for.

Anyone else waiting for multiple emails but have not received them or maybe have already received them?

Chris

Hi does anyone know when ryanair will be releasing their uk to faro flights for may/June 2013? Tried searching last night without any luck.

Thanks

yummymummy,

Probably sometime towards October or November but keep checking.

Darren

ryanair emails starting to come through.

Perhaps one for Darren.

A friend has just returned to the UK and came over on what he describes as a 'normal' Ryanair plane, good legroom as normal but returned on one with much less legroom.

The onboard decor was light blue and very different from the current design/colour etc, someone in the flight crew told him this was one of Ryanairs oldest planes, does the 737-800 fleet differ in legroom, I thought a 737-800 was a 737-800.

Regards Chris

TFS1,

Ryanair are one of the largest 737-800 operators in the world with a fleet of 294 aircraft, 13 on order and 173 options. Some of the older aircraft have a slightly different interior as things have evolved over the years. All aircraft have the same 189 seat configuration though with the same seat pitch. Some of the seats may differ with thinner cussions that give the impression of more room, although the seat pitch is the same.

Darren

I noticed that the Ryanair 737-800 seating plan as shown by seatguru omits a row numbered 13. Is this normal or is it an airline preference whether to include a row 13 on their aircraft or not.

Chris

TFS1,

Many airlines don't use 13 as it's supposedly an unlucky number.

Darren

TFS1 wrote:

Madsue,

I presume they keep the details in case they have to make a refund !

Keen to get the emails as you have to cancel the flights by next Friday (13 July) if not acepting the tax payments.- Im ok to pay them as they are not too painful on the wallet.

My Ryanair Cash Passport account thankfully has the required €32 ish needed to pay for these taxes, if not it would have been a £150 load to pay for them ! That would have been more painful.

Regards, Chris

Chris, I accidentally loaded £70 on my card and it went through OK, although it took longer. I did 'phone and try to cancel it but the lady at the call centre just said "don't worry, it will go through".

My concern about this though is that I have enough on my card but only just (I have £5.06 on my card to pay 5.61e) at today's exchange rate that will easily be enough but does anyone know what exchange rate Ryanair use?

robertk,

thanks for the info re reload amounts. Did you have to pay any penalty as it wasnt the required minimum amount of £150 ?

You would have thought that their computer systems would have rejected your reload request at the initial load stage given the minimum values stated.

Chris

in an idle moment, ifI can find one, I will see what values they accept / decline

I have found an idle moment a little sooner than I expected.

Tried loading £70 and the Ryanair Cash passport online reload process said the minimum you can load is £150 and wouldn't let me go any further.

Ah well, whats £150.

robertk - what steps did you take to load your money ?

Regards, Chris