My wife is flying to France on sunday with Ryanair from Stansted. She’s only taking hand luggage (her folks are driving out with most of the luggage. Ryanair’s hand-luggage policy is one 10kg bag of 55X40X20cm. Anyone know how strict they are on checking?

The most suitable bag we’ve got is 50X30X25cm. Its a soft bag, so would probable squash down. It seems daft to buy a specific bag, just for this flight, especially since all the “hand luggage” bags feature handles and wheels so eat into the 10kg allowance.

Any thoughts?

They’ve got a cradle thing and if it fits in that it’s OK so squashy is fine. That said I’ve never seen them check the size and seen some massive bags go through.

I reckon that bag will be OK
They can be quite strict – they wander around at the gate with a cardboard sleeve that needs to drop over yourbag

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3554809

Basically they’re tight gits as they can make loads of extra cash from it. We flew to Malaga last year from Leeds and they checked every bag and charged people if they fell foul of the rules. Squishy bags are good for this.
Remember if you buy stuff in duty free it has to go inside the bag too….. rules are rules 1 bag only or £40 please

Remember if you buy stuff in duty free it has to go inside the bag too….. rules are rules 1 bag only or £40 please

not correct. Stuff bought at the airport in plastic bag does not count as carry on allowance.

But yes Ryanair are buggers for bag sizes / weight.

They never checked our hand luggage for. Size or weight,,

There were people stuffing full spy sized holdalls. Into overhead lookers

Ryan air didnt bother would have been a different story with easyjet

I use a barrel bag, it fits in their stupid metal cage.

Don’t get me started on their “Musical Instrument” extra charge, especially as buggys & push chairs fly for bloody free.

No checks on flying out, but strict on coming back. In my experience

stuff bought at the airport in plastic bag does not count as carry on allowance.[/Quote]

ryanair have enforced the one item for hand luggage, so duty free goes inside your bag, on every flight i’ve been on. Bit more hit and miss with checking size and weight

not correct. Stuff bought at the airport in plastic bag does not count as carry on allowance.

As above – yes correct

8.7.1 You may carry strictly one item of cabin baggage per passenger (no allowance for infants) subject to certain weight and dimensions restrictions (click here for Regulations concerning Cabin Baggage). If you have a handbag, briefcase, laptop, airport shop purchases, camera etc. these must be carried in your single permitted item of cabin baggage. Additional/oversized cabin baggage will be refused at the boarding gate, or where available, placed in the hold of the aircraft for a fee at the level set out in our Regulations (click here for Regulations concerning Cabin Baggage). If you are unsure, check at the Bag-Drop desk before going through security.

Going back and for to Skavsta they are just random, sometimes they have weighed all hand luggage and sized it then other times they don’t bat an eyelid. With Ryanair always be prepared for the worst.

I once flew ryanair with the Mrs. Her bag was “too big” so the woman enforcing the rules told her to take stuff out of it until it fit. This stuff she gave to me which I held until her bag was deemed small enough and then we put it back in the bag and walked off.

Never was able to work out if the person at the gate just liked helping people circumvent company policies or wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box.

I’ve been caught by this bag was the right size apart from about half the wheels had to pay to take it, they were strict on the weight too. Annoying thing is when you board you see people with bigger bags so it is a lottery depending on the check in person.

i use easyjet all the time now they are sensible so long as you aren’t taking the mick and there is no weight limit which is handy when you are coming back with mountains of heavy paperwork!

I think to be safe i would make sure it complies in every way.

I have walked through on a number of occasions where bags have been over weight but not weighed or hand luggage hasnt been checked for size and even taken more than one piece on in the mellee at the gate however I have also seen them very strict indeed and I saw a young girl miss her flight recently with two pieces of hand luggage that couldnt be comressed into one.
Avoid the stress.

No checks on flying out, but strict on coming back. In my experience

This happened to me last week, luckily was able to redistribute the contents of hand luggage between our group so everyone came in under 10kg.

However one guy had lost his print out of his boarding pass… that cost him €60 !!

very strict in my experience. I was lucky enough to be called out to check my bag size. had to hammer the damn thing into the cage. Got there though. The woman did say i could remove stuff and wear it.

A woman in front had a trolley dolly case, and a plastic bag with two bottles of water in it. She was made surrender her plastic bag and carry the bottles on.

I’ll be trying to go Easyjet next time.

it is a lottery depending on the check in person

that’s it, there. Flying out of edinburgh, someone looked a every single bag and did the cardboard box trick with about half. Them that went through the cardboard box were weighed. Some were then told to pay more or dump weight (someone left a couple of bottles of whiskey). next flight from same airport, no checks
FWIW I use a soft bag which is over the size limit but have never been asked

FWIW I use a soft bag which is over the size limit but have never been asked

Same here.I always take my huge Chrome courier bag as hand luggage. As it’s on my back they never ask to check its weight or size.But seeing as it’s soft you could squish it into the ‘cage’ without a problem anyway.

Once watched them make a guy try to fit several boxes of duty free shortbread into his already full bag – much shouting and swearing followed – Ryan air woman remained calm – guy jumps up and down on the boxes of short bread until they are crumbs and they do fit in his bag – hilarious!

I fly klm a lot with work, who are very relaxed with hand luggage , but this means it takes ages to load and unload – and if the plane is full you are knackered for storage if you get on last.

it is a lottery depending on the check in person

It’s mainly the gate staff as most people check in online [unless they have hold bags] as it costs £40 IIRC to physically check in.

We all use Cabin Max bags that cost about 20e on the Net. They checked no bags on my last flight and some were clearly oversize. My wife flies more often than me and related how they checked only one woman’s bag on a flight, the woman jumped a queue and insulted another passenger, they stopped her, checked the bag and billed her.

Hit and miss.

Returning from Bergerac 2 weeks ago guy in front was having his bag weighed – 12.5kg and they were telling him to check it in for the princely sum of £50. He decided to take some stuff out rather than do that.

They weighed one of our bags as well but didn’t make my lady stow her handbag in one of our carry on cases.

I take great delight in wearing combat / walking trousers, and a jacket with lots of pockets. I think I must have carried about 20 kg on my person before now, and stowed it all once on the plane. Play them at their own game…

Ryanair’s baggage handlers (at Stansted) are on strike this weekend, and they are saying that it’s possible that they will only be allowing hand luggage.

No doubt in that case they will be weighing everyone’s bags to make a few extra £.

WHat do you reckon, you pay (£60) for hold luggage and they tell you that you can’t take it on the plane, then they charge you extra for your hand luggage because you tried to fit everything into it?
I wouldn’t put it past them.

I’m flying with Ryanair from Stansted tomorrow. Can’t wait.

I fly from Liverpool to Las Palmas on Ryanair fairly regularly and on that route they always check at both airports (or at least when I fly they have), and enforce the rule of putting your duty free purchases in your bag not carrying them separately.

Having said that, they seem most bothered about wheely cases. I tend to use a squishable rucksack of a similar size (within the size limit but only just) and they usually take a look at it and let me through without making me put it in the size thingy.

Last time I flew I saw someone in the boarding queue wearing his cycle helmet so it was clothing rather than hand luggage 🙂

No read replies but from personal experience they are pretty strict – sometimes. Just about everyone has to put their luggage in the checker and they do weigh them too if they look heavy.

I would have thought the bag you want to use would fit fine so I wouldn’t worry.

I’m flying with Ryanair from Stansted tomorrow. Can’t wait.

It’ll be great Grizla: people standing in orderly queues quietly going “baa baa, baa baaaa” and giggling, stewardesses that do everything with big grims and a charming element of self-derision, the tumpets blaring as they play the “you have arrived on time” recording, a free copy of the Daily Mail, O’Leary on CNBC. What’s more to want?

Once watched them make a guy try to fit several boxes of duty free shortbread into his already full bag – much shouting and swearing followed – Ryan air woman remained calm – guy jumps up and down on the boxes of short bread until they are crumbs and they do fit in his bag – hilarious!

If that was me I would have followed up by letting them know that once on board I would be leaving the crumbs around the floor of the plane for them to clean up.