Comments on: Airline Carry-On Baggage Restrictions : An Extreme Example

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:31:55 +0000

I was refused entry to a Ryanair flight yesterday at the gate. They told me that the 2 small bags I had, 1 containing a video camera and tapes, the other containing a stills camera, (both ‘uncheckin-able’) exceeded their policy. I got pulled out of the line and told to discard 1 in order to board the plane. I was obviously not going to do this, so strapped them both together. This was not adequate for the brilliant minds they have working for them, so 3 min later, when the claimed they had to shut the gate to maintain the punctuality, they closed the doors, and delayed the flight because they had to retrieve my checked bag! Would have been so much simpler, for all parties, (what, in all reality is one small extra bag?) to have just let me on the flight, for which I had paid 98 GBP, plus 17€ bus.

With no flight for 48 hours to my destination, I paid 155GBP to fly somewhere else, then 33€ train to my ultimate destination.

Thanks Ryanair, for making one small bag cost me 7 hours, nearly 200GBP, and a nice surprise for my unsuspecting girlfriend.

I had recently taken 2 other Ryanair flights with exactly the same luggage with no problem…I would love some form of compensation, but I’m confident the money flows only one way with this company.

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By: stockczech

stockczech — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:22:51 +0000

Ryanair are the pits! Although the tickets (sometimes) seem cheap, the added extras can make them far more expensive than the major airlines – let alone the other budget companies. This summer I found it cheaper to fly with British Airways from London to Stockholm than with Ryanair; not only did I get an allocated seat, I was offered free food and drink – now there’s a novelty – and was able to carry on my cameras and laptop. Ryanair’s weight policy makes it a complete no-no for the professional photographer. Oh, and their check-in procedure is a joke. I have seen people in the check-in queue refused boarding, because the cut-off time has been reached – when they have been waiting in line for half an hour.

By: Chris Ratcliff

Chris Ratcliff — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:15:58 +0000

Ryanair… I can feel my blood pressure rising as we speak.

I *loathe* Ryanair with a passion, as they are one of the worst example of nickel-and-dimeing of passengers I’ve ever seen. I’ve flown with them a number of times, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult. They’re fairly hot on hand luagge (with a nominal weight restriction of 10Kg, not unlimited, but I’ve never seen it enforced.) and to travel with them for any longer than a weekend becomes very expensive, very quickly.

The two things I hate most – and these are in no way photog related!

1) They charge a ticket booking fee for paying with a card. This fee is £2.50 per ticket. Don’t want to pay the charge? Tough. They will not let you pay with cash. There is no difference between credit and debit card charges either (despite retailers being charged a percentage of transaction cost for credit cards, typically 2%-5%, but a fixed cost per transaction for debit cards of 20p-50p). 5 people flying? That’s £12.50 extra.

2) They do not have free priority boarding for anyone. It used to be that the first 50 to check in *and* parents with kids got priority boarding, but now they sell it at £2 per person per flight, and they target it at families. Two parents and two kids, an extra £16.

Ryanair can be cheap, but only if you watch fare prices closely and take the absolute minimum of add-ons (checked baggage? That’s extra…) and even then you get treated like cattle, with people rushing to form queues to ensure they get a choice of non-allocated seating.