Ryanair have just announced a new hand luggage policy:

Priority customers: standard hand luggage + smaller second bag
Normal customers: the large piece of hand luggage must be gate checked.

The standard 15kg checked bag has been increased to 20kg.

How things turn - Wizzair allowing 55 x 40 x 23 cm and 10 kg from the start of W17, and Ryanair doing the opposite.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41171871

some details here.

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

Embajador3 wrote:

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

exactly! is that legal? it's like you check your bags and carry them to the belly, why don't do it from the start for all bags? (after xraying them of course)

Ryanair's small is really really small. Non-priority passengers with a medium sized backpack (that easily fits under the seat) will be forced to check it even if it is their only piece of hand luggage.

I am not sure Ryanair have thought this through.

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Embajador3 wrote:

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

Ryanair's official version is that there is only room for 90 cabin bags in the overhead bins. I personally think there is room for a few more, but let's accept Ryanair's figures of 90.
This means only 45 passengers could carry two bags on board, assuming that all bags from Priority Boarding passengers go in the overhead bins and all other "smaller" cabin bags go under the seat.
In my personal experience, I have never seen 45 people in the Priority queue, the numbers are usually between 8 and 15. If the figures remain at these levels, a number of 30 bags is very very manageable and will make boarding much easier.

ive booked two Ryanair itinerarys this week, and both times they tried to get me to purchase priority boarding by saying the price has been reduced by 50% on booking. Was on a probably 85% full flight yesterday and the priority line had about 10 people in it. A lot of the 'carry ons' where what I would consider actual suitcases and needed to be wheeled around rather than 'carried'

Embajador3 wrote:

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

Reminds me of the Come Fly With Me sketch where the check in agent sells the customer priority boarding, who then asks how many they sold "one to everyone on the flight"

LTenEleven wrote:

Ryanair's small is really really small. Non-priority passengers with a medium sized backpack (that easily fits under the seat) will be forced to check it even if it is their only piece of hand luggage.

I fly often with FR for weekends and I usually travel with a small backpack (kind of school-size backpack) and no one has ever questioned it.

A lot of customers clearly abuse the new system. Many of those "medium sized backpacks" I see often in FR flights are almost (or directly) hiking backpacks or those new backpacks that are specifically designed for travelling as hand luggage in planes and are pretty huge once they are filled.

jmmadrid wrote:

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Embajador3 wrote:

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

Ryanair's official version is that there is only room for 90 cabin bags in the overhead bins. I personally think there is room for a few more, but let's accept Ryanair's figures of 90.
This means only 45 passengers could carry two bags on board, assuming that all bags from Priority Boarding passengers go in the overhead bins and all other "smaller" cabin bags go under the seat.
In my personal experience, I have never seen 45 people in the Priority queue, the numbers are usually between 8 and 15. If the figures remain at these levels, a number of 30 bags is very very manageable and will make boarding much easier.

90 people. Those 90 people are allowed 1 hand luggage bag for the overhead bin + 1 smaller piece under their seat.

This sounds brilliant , just carry your hand luggage to the trolley , drop it off for free and pick it up at baggage reclaim ,

works for me , should be a big improvement

SCQ83 wrote:

LTenEleven wrote:

Ryanair's small is really really small. Non-priority passengers with a medium sized backpack (that easily fits under the seat) will be forced to check it even if it is their only piece of hand luggage.

I fly often with FR for weekends and I usually travel with a small backpack (kind of school-size backpack) and no one has ever questioned it.

A lot of customers clearly abuse the new system. Many of those "medium sized backpacks" I see often in FR flights are almost (or directly) hiking backpacks or those new backpacks that are specifically designed for travelling as hand luggage in planes and are pretty huge once they are filled.

exactly, normally the staff checks the trolley... i'm searching for a perfect back pack, any website or model suggested?

Ryanair said they're doing this 'To reduce the number of flight delays caused by too many customers arriving at the gate with 2 carry-on bags'. How is gate-checking 50-100 suitcases going to make the process faster? In any case, I'd expect delays to increase!

This was inevitable once Ryanair started claiming the two bag policy was being abused and delaying flights, yet despite these claims they continue to publish ever improving on time performance stats. Someone, somewhere is telling porkies!

As for the new rules, the whole point of hand luggage is convenience, nobody wants to wait for their baggage anymore and Ryanair has played a big part in conditioning passengers to believe that. Now we've come full circle and Ryanair has had a change of heart, quite ironic considering they once wanted to get rid of checked baggage altogether.

2009:

Ryanair wants passengers to carry all their bags to the plane

Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, has outlined plans to axe checked-in luggage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... plane.html

This is less about delays or passengers abusing the system and more about Ryanair trying to claw back some revenue they lost to clued up passengers who played them at their own game.

And what happens if everybody buys the priority boarding

angelopga wrote:

And what happens if everybody buys the priority boarding

Except for confusing passenger, I am not sure it will convince many to actually buy priority boarding. Unlike Wizz Air, you get to have a second bag anyway. Now, you just know it will have to be checked-in. An inconvenience probably, but not a deal breaker. It seems the price of priority boarding has gone up (and I am not seeing the 50% off when doing a trial booking).

Between this and seat assignment changes, Ryanair seem to be doing what they canto piss off passengers.

downtown273 wrote:

Ryanair said they're doing this 'To reduce the number of flight delays caused by too many customers arriving at the gate with 2 carry-on bags'. How is gate-checking 50-100 suitcases going to make the process faster? In any case, I'd expect delays to increase!

Gate checking is usually done quite in advance, however now it is arbitrary. Sometimes they start and they just decide that they might "enough" and stop, or if you are on of the last passengers in the queue they just don't bother losing time. You see also people removing the label to put the piece in the hold. I see often people arguing because they have their grandma's ashes in their hand luggage so they are afraid to lose them

With this new policy, I see no discussion. Priority = on board. No priority = on hold.

The way I read this is that a second full size carry-on will have to go in the hold, yet if you only have one carry-on, space permitting you'll be able to take that on board together with the small backpack, handbag or laptop case-size piece of luggage which you're allowed, provided this fits under your seat.

Soft bags aren't a problem , it's the wheelies that cause the problem

As for passengers removing the tags , this is where the real problems start , the tags have to be reconciled by the baggage handlers prior to the doors closing .... people who remove the tags should be banned

TheLion wrote:

The way I read this is that a second full size carry-on will have to go in the hold, yet if you only have one carry-on, space permitting you'll be able to take that on board together with the small backpack, handbag or laptop case-size piece of luggage which you're allowed, provided this fits under your seat.

You're reading it wrong.

"Ryanair" and "Enhanced" don't go together.

It seems BBC have got this wrong... you are charged £5 for a second cabin item - it's only free (checked) for priority boarders.

That makes sense, since otherwise the story was just advertising that you could get trolleys checked for free instead of paying for it... (something most East European passengers already took full advantage of, according to my source) and that would have caused much *more* hassle in the gate queues!

Edit: and it also seems that *all* trolley bags will need to be checked in... at the check-in desk, not the gate! BBC might have got the story all wrong. Does anyone have a Ryanair statement? All this conflicting reporting is confusing...

From Ryanair website:

Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (6 Sep), as part of its “Always Getting Better” programme announced new reduced checked bag fees (and increased check-in bag sizes) to encourage more customers to check in bags and reduce the number of customers with 2 bags at the boarding gates. As too many customers are availing of Ryanair’s improved 2 free carry-on bags service, and with high load factors (97% in August) there is not enough overhead cabin space for this volume of carry-on bags, which is causing boarding/flight delays.

To encourage more customers to check-in some bags and reduce the volume of carry-on bags, Ryanair will introduce the following bag policy changes on all flights from 1st November next:

The check-in bag allowance will increase from 15kg to 20kg for all bags
The standard check-in bag fee will be cut from €/£35 to €/£25 for this 20kg bag
Only Priority Boarding customers (including Plus, Flexi Plus & Family Plus) will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags on the aircraft*
All other (i.e. non-priority) customers will only be allowed to bring one smaller carry-on bag on board the aircraft, while their second (bigger) wheelie bag must be placed in the hold (free of charge) at the boarding gate.



Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:

“These bag policy changes will cost Ryanair over €50m p.a. in reduced checked bag fees. However, we believe offering bigger bags at reduced fees will encourage more customers to consider checking-in a bag, which will reduce the high volume of customers we have with 2 carry-on bags at the boarding gates, which is causing flight delays due to large numbers of gate bag and cabin bag offloads.

We hope that by restricting non-priority customers to one small carry-on bag – their wheelie bag must be placed in the hold, free of charge at the boarding gate – this will speed up the boarding of flights and eliminate flight delays being caused by not having sufficient overhead cabin space on busy flights to accommodate over 360 (182 customers x 2 bags) carry-on bags.

These lower bag fees and increased bag size allowances will come into play for all bookings for travel after 1st November, and we hope our customers will enjoy the savings of our new simplified bag policy.”

* Priority Boarding can be purchased for just €/£5 at the time of booking or added to a booking for €/£6 and is available up to one hour prior to scheduled departure.





Ryanair’s New Baggage Policy – Media Q & A



Q1. What is Ryanair’s new baggage policy?

A. From November, we will cut the cost of a checked bag from €/£35 to €/£25 and increase the bag size from 15kg to 20kg.

The check-in bag allowance will increase from 15kgs to 20kgs for all bags
The standard check-in bag fee will be cut from €/£35 to €/£25 for this 20kg bag
Only Priority Boarding customers (including Plus passengers) will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags on the aircraft
All other (i.e. non-priority) customers will only be allowed to bring one smaller carry-on bag on board the aircraft, while their second (bigger) wheelie bag must be placed in the hold (free of charge) at the boarding gate.



Q2. Why is Ryanair making this change?

A. To reduce the number of flight delays caused by too many customers arriving at the gate with 2 carry-on bags.

Q3. Will customers still be able to take 2 pieces of cabin baggage on board?

Yes for Priority Boarding customers who will still be able to bring 2 bags, 1 normal (55cm x 40cm x 20cm) and 1 small (35cm x 20cm x 20cm) into the cabin.
No for non-priority customers who will put their bigger (wheelie) cabin bag in the hold (free of charge), and will be able to take their smaller bag into the cabin.



Q4. How will this change be implemented?

A. There will be two queues at the gate: Priority customers 2/bags and non-priority/1 bag only.

Q5. How much is Priority Boarding and can it be added to bookings?

A. €/£5 at the time of the flight booking. It can be added after booking (for €/£6) up to 1 hour before the scheduled flight departure time, via the Ryanair app.

Q6. What about 15kg bag?

A. The 15kg bag will increase to 20kg.

Q7. Will non-priority customers be able to check their normal cabin bag at the check-in desk instead of the boarding gate?

A. No, all cabin bags must be brought to the boarding gate where the bigger one will be placed in the hold, free of charge.

Q8. What about bookings before the new policy was implemented?

A. The new baggage policy will start on 1st November, and will apply to all bookings made before and after 1st Nov, and flights from that date onwards.

Q9. What if non-priority customers refuse to put their bag in the hold?

A. They will not be allowed to travel (without refunds).

Q10. What about customers with infants; can they still bring a changing bag?

A. Yes. A small (5kg) baby bag may be carried by customers with infants.

Q11. Why is there a €/£10 supplement at Easter, Christmas and on longer routes during the peak summer months?

A. The €/£10 supplement reflects the increased handling costs of significant additional checked bags during these busy periods.

Q12. Will it still be cheaper to book a checked-in bag at the time of booking?

A. Yes. The 20kg bag will be reduced in price to €/£25 at the time of booking only. Checked-in bags added after the time of booking or made at the airport will cost €/£40.

Q13. Where can I find the routes where the supplement applies?

A. These selected routes will be highlighted on the website and in the app from today.

Q14. What about customers with waivers for medical items – can they still take them onboard?

A. Yes, subject to contacting our special assistance line in advance and complying with any requirements of our special assistance team.

Ah thank you - so the other source had got it wrong about £5 and check-in desk.

But it does beg the question, how is this going to help? According to my source, it's already chaos and angry exchanges trying to get people to check their bags at the gate, now Ryanair wants everyone to do it!?!

LTenEleven wrote:

TheLion wrote:

The way I read this is that a second full size carry-on will have to go in the hold, yet if you only have one carry-on, space permitting you'll be able to take that on board together with the small backpack, handbag or laptop case-size piece of luggage which you're allowed, provided this fits under your seat.

You're reading it wrong.

Well actually I think they will only make people check large carry ons in practice, and will permit those with smaller carry on bags to put them in the overhead bins. Otherwise it'll take forever and cost them much more. That's what I'm getting at. Let's see.

When Ryanair ask you to gate check a bag they usually put a yellow tag on it then ask you to leave it at the bottom of the stairs to the plane. I've seen quite a few people remove this tag and just carry on as normal

Wow. Big thumbs down. It's obviously just so they can generate some extra revenue. I have seen this coming over the last few months, in which I have seen this already happening in practical terms on very many flights.... most of the 'even slightly bigger' wheelies are taken away from you and placed in the hold, even if the flight is not full, AND in a very 'punitive' manner. Now I don't generally mind waiting to retrieve a bag, especially when I travel for leisure; but part of the 'easy thing' of flying FR was how quickly you could get out of the arrivals, especially at some smaller regional airport. Now, no more. It seems as if the smaller the airport, the longer is the wait...

To me this is the second thing they get seriously wrong, and will be biting them back. Number 1 was the deliberate displacement of passengers who are not paying to be seated together (and this, according to my friends at FR) has been creating huge chaos for the last few months. Now this... I don't normally complain about FR if the fare is good, plus they fly to so many destinations that are not served by others, so in practice very often there's no alternative to them; but the seating policy coupled to this restrictive baggage policy are making FR less and less appealing...

I guess now they will do he opposite, allow directly the Priority ones, and not allow any from the main Q, or put the yellow tags in the priority trolleys, so no label no cabin

how does Ryanair pay for baggage handling? I would assume it's done on a per piece basis?
I'd be surprised if this policy is actually good for profits as I don't think more people will buy priority boarding than extra luggage going into the hold.
However, the change probably still looks good on the balance sheet as it's raising ancillary fee income.

More fees for the handling, less delays in the flights, and if passegers accept it happier boardings (first ones will be terrible). FR has announce this will cost them 50 million euro a year.

SomebodyInTLS wrote:

Ah thank you - so the other source had got it wrong about £5 and check-in desk.

But it does beg the question, how is this going to help? According to my source, it's already chaos and angry exchanges trying to get people to check their bags at the gate, now Ryanair wants everyone to do it!?!

I think it helps in the way that all people are treated equally. I think many of ones who get angry see that the people in front can take their luggage. They don't make the connection in their head that their different treatment is due to their position in the queue. It also looks arbitrary from their perspective. Now it's a "very easy" conversation for the agent as I believe people understand it better: "your luggage goes into the hold because you didn't want to spend 5€ for priority queue"

They will label the priority ones, otherwise it's not going to work(as is now). Probably labelling all bags (as bags in the hold should also be labelled), but different colour between priority and other Q.

DUSZRH wrote:

Probably labelling all bags (as bags in the hold should also be labelled), but different colour between priority and other Q.

Those go from the gate to the baggage claim at destination. If one type is labelled theere is no need to label those ones as well.

jamsco99 wrote:

When Ryanair ask you to gate check a bag they usually put a yellow tag on it then ask you to leave it at the bottom of the stairs to the plane. I've seen quite a few people remove this tag and just carry on as normal

Of course, I'd do the same. Nobody puts my bag in the hold!

Now that Wizzair has loosened it's hand luggage policy and Ryanair is tightening it, this makes it very interesting to fly Wizzair instead of Ryanair. If Wizzair is smart, now is the time for a full frontal attack on Ryanair. With the better hand luggage policy at Wizzair they'll be the prefered airline.

I sort of understand why they have done this. However, given that they state it will apply to ALL flights after November regardless of booked doesn't this potentially create a change to the contracts of those people who have already booked to fly after the implementation date?

Can airlines unilaterally change T&C to already booked flights? - imagine if a passenger tried doing it!

SCQ83 wrote:

jmmadrid wrote:

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Embajador3 wrote:

Now, my question is: how many passengers will be allowed to purchase 'priority boarding'? This could end up being a move to force most people to pay an extra fee.

Ryanair's official version is that there is only room for 90 cabin bags in the overhead bins. I personally think there is room for a few more, but let's accept Ryanair's figures of 90.
This means only 45 passengers could carry two bags on board, assuming that all bags from Priority Boarding passengers go in the overhead bins and all other "smaller" cabin bags go under the seat.
In my personal experience, I have never seen 45 people in the Priority queue, the numbers are usually between 8 and 15. If the figures remain at these levels, a number of 30 bags is very very manageable and will make boarding much easier.

90 people. Those 90 people are allowed 1 hand luggage bag for the overhead bin + 1 smaller piece under their seat.

I already knew that. The question remains unanswered: will they update the amount of people allowed to buy priority boarding?

I've just seen an internal mail for a ground handling agent which basically said Ryanair have created this situation and now the agents have to deal with it. As my source said, this only seems to make things worse...

This new hand luggage policy is going to cost them customers. Myself for example. I'm planning on a week at the Canary islands somewhere this autumn or winter to escape the cold weather in the Netherlands and enjoy a bit of warmth. Last couple of times I've done that I've flown Ryanair. Now I'm looking into EasyJet, Transavia and Vueling. They all allow me to keep my large hand luggage suitcase with me in the cabin without buying priority, Ryanair doesn't. That gives them the upper hand.

The way I read into this, I still don't understand what happens to the "shoulder bags"... bigger than the Ryanair definition of "small bag" but definitely small enough to fit under the seat in front.

Like one of the earlier posters, I also usually fly Ryanair on weekend one-night visits so take this type of small bag. If it fits easily under the seat in front, can I take it onboard?

Vasu wrote:

The way I read into this, I still don't understand what happens to the "shoulder bags"... bigger than the Ryanair definition of "small bag" but definitely small enough to fit under the seat in front.

Like one of the earlier posters, I also usually fly Ryanair on weekend one-night visits so take this type of small bag. If it fits easily under the seat in front, can I take it onboard?

Quoting what Ryanair's CM wrote in their Facebook account, anything that fits under the seat will be fine...

I just received an email from Ryanair. It was interesting reading the above thread as they don't mention anything about checking your bag in for free. They just say that approved hand luggage is changing to one small personal item from November. Upgrade to priority boarding to bring 2 bags on board.

Does anyone know if they've dropped the bit about checking in a bag for free or are they just purposefully being misleading to push everyone who's already made a booking to pay an additional £6?

How is gate-checking 50-100 suitcases going to make the process faster? In any case, I'd expect delays to increase!

Agree! Whereas before we would take around 40-50 gate bags for a booked load of over 180. We'd now be taking up to around 120 depending on load I reckon. I only ever see about 10-30 people maximum in the priority Q. And of the remaining 150 normal PAX, I imagine 80%+ have wheelie bags which we will now be forced to take! With the extra bags, we'll now have to start using hold 3 which will inevitably increase turnaround times as we now need an extra 3-4 ramp guys and belt loader

We usually start collecting around 90mins before departure currently and just about manage to tag them all and place them on a trolley and wheel to the baggage make-up area by check-in closure! We refuse to let PAX drop them at a/c as you can't trust a PAX to do anything. I can't imagine doing it with over double the amount! But if that's what RYR wants, then that's what they get. I'll just put any cabin bag delays down as DL96 and suffix it with "Policy is not actually manageable you morons"

My airport is lucky that the departure terminal is same level as apron and the aircraft parks 2 stands from the gate and baggage make-up area is 20m away! I can't begin to imagine how this new policy will be doable at larger airports where the gate is miles from the a/c and you have to get there on a bus