I once watched a man at Dublin Airport repack his entire suitcase onto the floor — socks, toiletries, a full-size bottle of Jameson — while a Ryanair gate agent stood there with the expression of someone who has seen this 40 times today. He still paid the £55 gate bag fee. The Jameson didn't make it.
Ryanair is genuinely one of the best ways to get around Europe on a budget. STN to BCN for £18. DUB to MAD for £22. These prices are real, and they happen regularly. But Ryanair's fee structure is also a masterclass in extracting money from people who didn't read the rules. The airline collected over €850 million in ancillary fees in 2024 alone. A meaningful chunk of that came from people who thought they'd be fine.
You can fly Ryanair cheaply and comfortably — but only if you know exactly what you're walking into.
The bag situation, explained without the spin
This is where most people get burned, so let's go through it properly.
Ryanair has three bag tiers, and the line between them matters enormously:
Free personal item (included with every ticket): One small bag, maximum 40cm x 20cm x 25cm. This is smaller than you think. A standard daypack usually fails this. A laptop bag or a small tote typically passes. They do check at the gate, and they do use the metal sizer cage. Cabin bag (paid add-on): 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, up to 10kg. This is what most people think of as a carry-on. It costs £6–£25 depending on route and how far in advance you buy it. Buy it when you book your flight — the price goes up significantly if you add it later, and it's £55 if they catch you at the gate without having paid. Checked bag: 15kg, 20kg, or 25kg options, ranging from roughly £12 to £50+ depending on route and timing. If you're going for more than a long weekend, this is often worth it.| Bag type | Size limit | Weight limit | Cost range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal item | 40x20x25cm | Must fit under seat | Free |
| Cabin bag (Priority) | 55x40x20cm | 10kg | £6–£25 |
| Checked bag (15kg) | Standard hold | 15kg | £12–£30 |
| Checked bag (20kg) | Standard hold | 20kg | £16–£40 |
| Gate bag fee | — | — | £55 flat |
Pro Tip: The metal bag sizer at the gate is not a bluff. Pack your personal item bag so it's slightly compressible — a semi-full soft bag will squeeze in; a rigid backpack frame will not.
What Priority boarding actually buys you
Ryanair's Priority boarding (£6–£8 per flight, per person) is one of the few add-ons that's actually worth considering, but not for the reason they advertise.
It's not really about boarding first. It's about the overhead bin space. On a full STN-FCO flight, the bins are genuinely rammed by the time regular boarding finishes. If you've paid for a cabin bag and you board in Group 4, there's a real chance it goes in the hold anyway. Priority boarding is your insurance against that.
If you're traveling with just a personal item that fits under the seat, skip Priority entirely. You don't need it.
Seat selection: what happens if you don't pay
Ryanair charges £4–£20 per seat per flight for selection. Emergency exit rows and front seats hit the top of that range. Standard seats in the middle of the cabin are cheaper.
If you don't pay, you get randomly assigned a seat at check-in. The algorithm isn't trying to punish you — it's just filling gaps. In practice, this usually means you end up somewhere in the middle of the plane, rows 15–25 ish, occasionally a middle seat.
For solo travelers: don't bother paying for seat selection. The random assignment is fine. You're going to sit down, put your headphones in, and stare at the seat pocket for two hours.
For couples or groups: this is where it gets annoying. Ryanair will not guarantee you're seated together unless you pay. They sometimes seat couples together anyway, but I wouldn't bet a relationship on it. If sitting together matters, pay for it or check in the moment the window opens (usually 48 hours before departure for most bookings) and grab adjacent seats then.
The check-in window and why missing it is expensive
Online check-in opens 48 hours before departure and closes 2 hours before. Miss it, and you're paying £55 per person for airport check-in. This is not a small print thing — it's a real and common fee.
Set a phone alarm. Check in the moment the window opens if you want the best free seat options. Ryanair's app is functional enough for this, though it has a habit of throwing "technical error" messages at inconvenient moments. If the app fails, go straight to the desktop site.
Also: print your boarding pass or download it to your phone before you leave for the airport. Some airports have Ryanair staff checking at the entrance to the gate area, and fumbling with a loading screen is not a great look.
The fees that actually catch people out
Beyond bags, there are a few other charges that surprise first-timers:
Payment fees: Ryanair charges a small fee for most card types. Using a Visa debit or Mastercard debit usually avoids this. Check at checkout — it's itemized before you confirm. Name change fees: Misspell your name at booking? That'll be £115 to correct it. Not a typo. One hundred and fifteen pounds. Spell your name correctly. Flight change fees: If your plans change, Ryanair charges a flight change fee plus any fare difference. Changes made more than 90 days out are cheaper. Changes made at the airport are the most expensive. Buy travel insurance that covers trip changes — it's cheaper than Ryanair's own flexibility fees. Infant fees: Infants under 2 fly for around £25 each way. They don't get a seat. You need to add this at booking — you can't add an infant at the airport.Pro Tip: Ryanair's travel insurance upsell during checkout is overpriced. Buy a standalone annual multi-trip policy instead — you'll pay less and get better coverage, especially if you're flying more than twice a year.
Routes where Ryanair is genuinely unbeatable
Ryanair operates over 200 routes out of London Stansted alone. Some of these are legitimately extraordinary value when you catch them at the right time.
Routes worth watching:
- STN to DUB — Often under £20 each way. Ryanair's bread and butter.
- STN to BCN — Catches below £25 happen multiple times per month in shoulder season.
- STN to PMI (Palma) — Summer rates spike, but spring and autumn see sub-£30 fares regularly.
- DUB to MAD — One of the most competitive routes in Europe. Iberia and Ryanair fight each other constantly, which means you win.
- STN to KRK (Krakow) — Under £30 is common. Krakow is excellent and underrated.
- STN to BGY (Milan Bergamo) — Note: Bergamo is 45km from Milan city center. Factor in the bus (€3 if booked in advance, €5 on board). Still worth it at £18.
FlightKitten tracks Ryanair fares on most of these routes. Set up a hunt on the routes you care about and you'll get a pounce alert the moment prices drop — which on Ryanair routes can happen fast and reverse just as quickly.
The Ryanair airport situation
Ryanair loves secondary airports. This is how they keep costs low, and it's also how they occasionally send you to an airport that's technically in the same country as your destination but not much else.
"Milan" on Ryanair is usually BGY (Bergamo) or sometimes CIA in Rome's case (Ciampino, not Fiumicino). "Frankfurt" is often HHN (Frankfurt Hahn), which is 120km from Frankfurt. "Brussels" is sometimes CRL (Charleroi), which is 60km south of Brussels.
Always check the actual airport code before booking. Budget the ground transport into your total trip cost. A £19 flight to "Brussels" that requires a £22 bus into the city is still a good deal — just not the deal you thought you were getting.
| Ryanair airport | Actual city | Distance | Approx transfer cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| BGY (Bergamo) | Milan | 45km | €3–€5 bus |
| CRL (Charleroi) | Brussels | 60km | €14–€22 bus |
| HHN (Frankfurt Hahn) | Frankfurt | 120km | €15–€22 bus |
| CIA (Ciampino) | Rome | 15km | €4–€6 bus |
| STN (Stansted) | London | 60km | £10–£32 train/bus |
What's actually fine on Ryanair
Here's the thing nobody writes: once you've sorted the bag situation and checked in properly, Ryanair flights are... fine. The seats are uncomfortable but not unusually so for short-haul. The legroom (30-inch pitch) is standard economy. The planes are new — Ryanair operates a young Boeing 737 MAX fleet, which is actually more comfortable than some older narrowbodies on legacy carriers.
The crew are professional. Flights are generally on time — Ryanair's punctuality stats are consistently better than British Airways on short-haul European routes, which is either impressive or embarrassing depending on your perspective.
You won't get a free drink or a snack. The onboard prices are high (£3.50 for a coffee, £5 for a sad sandwich). Bring your own food through security — this is legal, normal, and something Ryanair cannot stop you from doing.
The app works for boarding passes. The website is functional if cluttered with upsells. The actual flying part is fine.
How to actually book Ryanair cheaply
A few things that genuinely move the needle:
Book early or very late. Ryanair's pricing follows a curve — cheap at launch, expensive as the flight fills, occasionally cheap again in the final 48 hours if seats remain. The middle window (2–6 weeks out) is usually the worst value. Fly midweek. Tuesday and Wednesday departures are consistently cheaper than Friday or Sunday on almost every Ryanair route. Be flexible on the airport. If you're going to Dublin, DUB might be £40 but SNN (Shannon) or ORK (Cork) might be £18. Irish trains and buses are reasonable. Sometimes the "wrong" airport is the right answer. Use FlightKitten's fare alerts. Ryanair drops sale fares with almost no warning — sometimes a 48-hour flash sale on a specific route. If you're not watching, you miss it. Setting up a hunt takes 30 seconds and means you don't have to check manually every day. Don't buy Ryanair's travel extras. Car hire through Ryanair's checkout, hotel recommendations, travel insurance — all of these have cheaper alternatives. Use the flight booking for the flight only.The bottom line
Ryanair is not trying to be your friend. It is trying to fly you from A to B for the lowest possible base fare and then recover margin through fees on everyone who doesn't pay attention. That's the model, and it's been extraordinarily successful.
But here's the thing: the rules are completely transparent. The bag sizes are published. The check-in window is in the confirmation email. The gate fee is listed on the website. Ryanair doesn't hide any of this — they just count on people not reading it.
Read it. Pack a bag that fits. Check in online. Buy your cabin bag at booking if you need one. Know which airport you're actually flying into. Do these five things and you will have a perfectly functional flight to somewhere in Europe for less than the cost of a London dinner.
If you want FlightKitten to do the fare-watching part for you, set up a hunt on your target route. We'll send you a pounce alert when Ryanair drops a price worth jumping on — and on the London-Europe routes, that happens more often than you'd think.
