Miniscule luggage allowances, indifferent customer service reps, long lines, huge fees (including a £160 fee for correcting your name)… If you’ve researched Ryanair, you’ve seen reviews detailing all of these issues. So I was a little nervous when we decided to book a flight from London to Berlin on Ryanair. However, it was an extremely pleasant experience, one I would gladly do again. Just know that you aren’t flying a major carrier like United or Lufthansa. The wrong move could cost you or leave you stranded while your plane departs without you.
Learn the system
Ryanair offers a very inexpensive way to travel around Europe. My family of four flew from London to Berlin for less than $150 total. Yes, you read that right. The flight was clean and on time, and every staff person we dealt with was friendly. That said, there are so many ways Ryanair can zap you with a fee that it’s worth it to learn about the airline before you’re under pressure to reserve your ticket. A great place to start is The Points Guy guide for flying Ryanair.
Try to do as much as possible up front
After you’ve reserved a ticket, ancillary prices often will go up. Checked luggage can cost more if you don’t select it when you’re reserving your ticket. That incredible £160 name change fee applies after just 48 hours from when you make your reservation. And while you can change your ticket, if you miss the free window it’s often cheaper to simply rebook on the same or another flight. Be sure to know the exact date and times you want to go, how much luggage you want to take, and the precise spelling of your name as shown on your passport.
Make sure you can (and want to) get to the airport
Low-cost carriers in Europe often fly through airports that are miles from the city center. When we flew out of London, we traveled up to Stansted Airport the afternoon before our flight. It wasn’t a huge headache – Heathrow isn’t in the city center either. But airport location is something to keep in mind as you’re getting ready to book your flights.
Luggage
The allotted carryon size for Ryanair is tiny compared to what US airlines allow. The ultra-cheap fare you see online includes one small personal bag – imagine something the size of a computer bag or kid’s backpack. You can choose to upgrade to two cabin bags and also receive priority boarding. Even though we chose priority, we didn’t realize how tiny the luggage allowance was when we booked our flights and ended up breaking one of my rules. We added a 20kg checked bag to the reservation a few weeks later. For whatever reason, we didn’t have to pay more for adding that bag, even though the cost was supposed to rise from £25 to £40. Maybe it was far enough in advance to warrant no increase in fees.
Additionally, you will read horror stories of people having to pay a fee to gate-check their luggage that was 5cm taller than allowed or that wouldn’t fit cleanly in the luggage sizer. Make sure your bags are within the Ryanair limits.
Having a checked bag worked fine for us. We used it as a carryon for the flights to and from the US, then checked it on Ryanair. Since we had to go through the longer, in-person passport check in Berlin, it was waiting for us at the baggage carousel.
US Citizen requirement
Passengers from the US need their boarding pass stamped before going through security. When we were in London, they simply took care of this when we checked in our bag. Some reviews have said there’s a separate Visa desk, but again we never had to look for it. However, make sure your documents are stamped. If you don’t, the gate staff may not let you board the flight.
Consider reserving seats
My family of four definitely wanted to sit together, especially since it was inexpensive to reserve seats. When booking your flight, you will notice that certain rows cost more than others. We found the cheapest row with four together. Reserving our seats also allowed us to check in online much earlier than people who didn’t reserve a seat (60 days vs. 2 days). Since we spent six days in London, we were able to print our boarding passes before we left the States.
Transparent about their requirements
Ryanair is completely upfront and transparent about their fees. In fact, they provide a list of fees and baggage requirements on their website. The difference between them and a full-fare carrier is Ryanair most likely will not waive the fee if you make a mistake; you won’t be talking your way out of a fee like you might with a major carrier.
I understand if this makes you nervous. The night before our flight, I was concerned if we were actually going to get to Berlin. But given the cost of going with a major airline (over $600 for the four of us), it seemed worth the gamble. If it’s not worth it to you, there are lots of full-fare carriers flying all over Europe.
Photo by Lucas Davies