What to watch out for when booking Ryanair

Passengers have been charged up to £75 - per bag - by Ryanair in unexpected fees at the gate.

One person posted on Which? Travel’s Facebook group that they were charged £400 for their family of four - on return flights - after they made the mistake of not checking the very strict rules.

Others say that they thought they did know the rules - but were hit by heavy fees for bags they’d used many times before - just because the wheels or the zip pocket at the front, were slightly outside of the airline’s measuring cage.

One Ryanair customer, made to pay a heavy fee at the gate told us: ‘They wouldn’t even explain to me what the issue was, they just told me if I want to get on the flight I had to pay €75 

My bag clearly fitted (see picture below) There were at least 6 others who they pulled to the side to pay whose bags also appeared to fit.’ 

Many people in our annual airlines survey also told us that they’d seen people made to pay extra for oversized cases - or that they were made to pay extra themselves.

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Rule one: Make sure your bag fits

Ryanair’s cabin bag rules are extremely strict. If you’ve only paid the basic fare you’re only allowed to take a small bag that fits underneath the seat in front of you - 40cm x 20cm x 25cm.

If your bag is found to be bigger than this at the gate you’ll face a fee of between £46 - £60 (depending on your route).

If you have paid to take a cabin case to put in the overhead locker - but it turns out to be larger than 55cm x 40cm x 20cm - you’ll have an even bigger fee of between £70 - £75 (again, depending on your route).

The crucial thing to remember is that these measurements must include the handles and the wheels. As with the picture above, if Ryanair staff deem any part of your bag to be even slightly oversized, they can hit you with a fee. 

Ryanair argues that the measuring cage is larger than the permitted bag size - so if any part of the bag does not fit inside, the bag is not allowed on. It said the bag in the picture above 'clearly doesn't comply' as it protrudes in front.

Rule two: Never book Ryanair ‘Regular’ and ‘Plus’ fares

When we looked at booking a flight from London to Alicante in 2023 a pop-up appeared stating: ‘Regular fare is ideal for your trip’. When we checked the same trip in April 2025 a legend said that, this time, a 'Plus' fare was ideal for our trip. But neither of those statements were true for us.

The Regular fare comes with priority boarding, carry-on luggage and free standard seat selection included, but on the London to Alicante route we checked in 2023 it was £8 cheaper to add the same extras on to the Basic fare.

We looked at 10 flights to a range of locations and the Regular ticket was never cheaper, even if we wanted all those extras. On three occasions it was more expensive.

The Plus fare includes a 20kg suitcase and seat selection. But on the Luton to Alicante route it was £5 cheaper to choose Basic and get those extras separately when we looked in 2023 and £8 cheaper when we checked again in April 2025.

Ryanair flatly denied that it's cheaper to buy the basic fare then add extras. However, we checked another flight and again it worked out £1 cheaper to book the basic fare then add extras.

 Return flight for two, with at least 10kg of luggage each - prices compared

Flight from London to Alicante, Spain, Easter 2025

Rule three: Ignore Ryanair Flexi Plus fares

It was much the same story with Flexi Plus. You get the right to change your flight without a fee, the option of selecting a seat with more legroom, fast track through security and two cabin bags. 

This cost £354 extra for a couple flying from London to Alicante, but those same extras (minus the fee-free flight change) bought separately were just £186 – £168 cheaper than Flexi Plus. 

You can’t buy the flight change, which is included separately, so Flexi Plus is only worth it if you want all the extras and are unfortunate enough to need to change your travel plans. Ryanair charges £180 for two people to change both legs of a return fare. Even then, you still have to pay any difference in fare.

Rule four: Families probably don't need Ryanair Family Plus

When we checked the price for two adults, a teenager and a four-year-old on the Alicante route, a pop-up said a Family Plus ticket is ‘recommended for you’.

But the £260 extra it costs isn't worth it. If we instead bought a cheaper Basic ticket with seat selection, three 10kg cabin bags and a larger, 20kg suitcase to check-in we would pay £45 less. 

With Family Plus all four – including the toddler - also get a 10kg wheelie suitcase, a 20kg case – and small bags each. But you’re unlikely to need that much luggage.

 Return flight for family of four, with over 10kg of luggage each - prices compared

Route as in table above. Children's ages are 15 and four. All passengers can also take small bags onboard. At time of making booking the cheapest seats were not available.

Rule five: Don’t ever add Ryanair travel insurance 

The advice from our travel insurance team is to ignore any airline trying to sell you travel insurance. It’s unlikely to be tailored to your needs - and could be more expensive. 

Always check to see if you can get better cover for less. We’ve rated hundreds of policies to help you get the best travel insurance.

Rule six: Don’t join Ryanair’s loyalty scheme

Ryanair has launched a subscription service that it says can save frequent flyers money. You pay £79 for a 12-month subscription and for that you get exclusive seat-sale access, free reserved seats and free insurance.

However, when we looked at its calculations, we estimated that few travellers would save money by subscribing. It would only be worth it if you always wanted to reserve your seat - and even then there are many caveats.

Rule seven: Never let Ryanair do your currency conversion

If you book a ticket that starts overseas to fly into the UK, Ryanair (and other airlines) give the fare in the currency of the country you depart from.  For example, a family of four flying from Alicante would pay €1,272 when we checked in 2023. Ryanair then converts that into pounds – but at £1,166, that is a terrible exchange rate. 

When we checked prices, we would have paid £73 more with Ryanair’s automatic currency conversion than with the bank’s rate, if we had just paid in euros. 

We checked the conversion rate again in April 2025 and it was still terrible. For a fare of €812 Ryanair was asking us to pay £752 - when the equivalent rate on currency exchange site xe.com was just £704.

You can opt out of Ryanair’s automatic conversion rate but you have to jump through several hoops to do so. 

How to beat Ryanair’s currency conversion 

After you enter your payment card number a figure appears showing the conversion rate Ryanair is giving you. There’s also a discreet arrow downwards and the legend ‘Want to learn more about our guaranteed exchange rate?’

Click on the arrow and you’ll see the message: ‘If you do not wish to accept the exchange rate, you can pay in the currency of the flight and have the currency converted by your Payment Service Provider. However, bear in mind that the rate you receive from your bank is not guaranteed and is subject to daily fluctuations, which could result in a significantly different cost for you.’

There is also a pre-ticked box and the message: ‘We recommend you do not untick the checkbox so that you receive our guaranteed exchange rate.’

Ignore this warning, untick the checkbox and your exchange rate will be calculated by your bank, rather than Ryanair. In our research, since 2017 when we first investigated this, the bank rate has always been better. 

Ryanair told us that this claim was false and said that its currency conversion is competitive.

Rule eight: Consider checking in a 20kg bag, instead of taking two 10kg bags 

 If you don’t care about ‘priority boarding’ (which can just mean you queue in a corridor) it might work out cheaper to check in one 20kg suitcase, rather than choosing two 10kg bags of hand luggage and priority boarding. This was £5 cheaper on our Alicante route.

However, prices vary so always check – and remember you will need to collect luggage from the carousel at the airport.

Rule nine: You do need to pay for Ryanair seat selection, if you want to guarantee sitting next to your travel companion.

With British Airways, easyJet and Jet2 you’ll almost certainly be seated next to your travel companion even if you don’t pay to select a seat. 

More than 90% of people in our most recent airline survey were seated next to their loved-ones without paying. 

For Ryanair that figure was only 62%. Even this means you’ve got a reasonable chance of being sat next to your travel companion without paying, but there is a strong risk of being split up. 

You’ll typically pay from £10 each way (for a standard seat) to £20 (for one with more legroom).

If you do reserve a seat here’s why it pays to choose to sit on the right side of the plane.

Ryanair told us that it's not true that it's more likely to split passengers up than other airlines.

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