- Do Your Homework! -Y'all, our problems could have been avoided if we had just done our research instead of relying solely on what others had told us. So, after reading these tips, please proceed to go onto the RyanAir website and read ALL of their rules.
- Add Bags During Ticket Purchase! -When purchasing your RyanAir tickets it will ask you if you'll be checking any bags. At that time it will charge you 15 euro for your luggage fee. If you do not add your bag at the time of purchase and wait until you get to the airport it is then a 60 EURO fee! We made this mistake because Chris was in a hurry when purchasing my ticket and we forgot so we had to add my bag at the airport. *BAM* that's 60 euro we could have had for our trip.
- No More Than 30lbs! -and they mean it! RyanAir is very strict about how much your checked bag weighs. If it is over the allotted 30lbs they will slam you with fees for every Kg you go over. Use a scale at home! Chris and I used our bathroom scale but I recently bought my friend a luggage scale for something like $40 on Amazon.com. DO IT!
- Check-In Online! -It is really important that you check-in online! Seriously, I cannot stress this enough so I am going to one more time. CHECK-IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT ONLINE! Chris and I arrived at the airport all excited about going on our trip. We went up to this counter to check-in for our flight and the woman behind the glass says "You can check-in for your flight here but it's going to be a 60 euro fee." Both our jaws dropped. "What?? 60 euros...are you serious?!" My immediate reaction was to jump on our phone and try to check-in online but we'd still have to print our boarding pass if we did it that way. So we seriously paid 120 EURO to even get checked-in for our flight and then while trying to check our luggage the woman informed us we did not add a bag to my ticket so we'd have to go BACK to the check-in counter and pay ANOTHER 60 EURO just so I could check my bag.
- Arrive Early! -Get there early, early for your flight! First of all because you should always arrive early for your flights and Second of all because RyanAir is first come first serve seating. I've had experience with this before when flying out of Dallas Lovefield. In general, if you're flying with someone, people are typically pretty understanding when you want to sit together so they'll trade seats. But, you can't just expect other passengers to cater to you....yeah, you, the one who decided to show up 20 mins prior to your flight with your friends and/or husband all wanting to sit together. Thankfully Chris and I did not do this but we saw plenty of groups do it and I couldn't help but shake my head haha
We learned our lessons just on the flight TO England so we were smart enough to check-in a few days before our flight back to Germany, add my luggage THEN (which was only 15 euro instead of 60, woohoo!), print out our boarding passes and arrive in plenty of time to have our pick of seats.
RyanAir really is a great airline with awesome ticket prices but they're not too proud to nickel & dime you on everything else so watch out! I really hope this was helpful and please feel free to add anything I may have missed.
RyanAir really is a great airline with awesome ticket prices but they're not too proud to nickel & dime you on everything else so watch out! I really hope this was helpful and please feel free to add anything I may have missed.
