New Ryanair hand luggage allowance rules – no longer free cabin bag without Priority Boarding

For the second time in 2018, Ryanair has tightened its free cabin baggage allowance for passengers.

This time round, the change will affect 60-90% of all passengers flying with the Irish low cost airline. From November 1st, 2018, it will no longer be possible to bring your cabin bag or wheelie bag on the plane as carry-on luggage for free.

Not as cheap as Ryanair makes out it is – unless you skip bringing any luggage

No more free wheelie bag  – the new Ryanair hand luggage allowance
Only with Priority Boarding, your cabin bag will be free of charge to carry on the plane.

Unfortunately, Ryanair Priority Boarding is not for free. The charge is either 6 €/£ if booking online in advance or 8 €/£ post booking at the airport.

If a passenger turns up at the gate with the usual wheelie-bag without having bought Priority Boarding, the price for bringing the bag in the plane without checking it in is 20 €/£ or 25 €/£ - for each flight, mind you.

When you buy Ryanair Priority Boarding, this ’old invention’; popular amongst low cost operators, gives more or less the same rights and advantages as all passengers used to have without any need for Ryanair Priority Boarding purchase. The bottom line is that Ryanair, as a minimum, will earn between 12 €/£ and 16 €/£ extra on each return flight booking.

The only possibility for a free carry-on Ryanair piece of luggage is that Ryanair with the new regulations accept passengers to take aboard a small personal bag (small ladies bag or small computer bag) which can be stowed under the seat in front of the passenger. Curiously, no weight restrictions apply to this small bag, but it cannot measure in excess of 40cm x 20cm x 25cm.

Should Ryanair chose to measure any small personal bag at the gate, it has been communicated that the company is ‘large’ and will use a measuring device allowing 42cm x 20cm x 30cm. Passengers with larger handbags or full size computer bags will, no doubt, be modestly impressed.

For bringing your cabin bag aboard the plane (only with priority boarding), the maximum weight stays at 10 kg; equal to the situation before the Ryanair change in cabin allowance.

Check-in baggage – new Ryanair hand luggage allowance rules resulting in change?
Travellers will, more frequently, chose to check in a normal suitcase in lieu of purchasing Ryanair Priority Boarding. Please note that the weight restriction for a checked in suitcase or bag is 20 kilos. 

The price for one checked in piece of luggage, when booking online, is between 25 and 35 €/£ depending on season. Up to 3 suitcases (max 20 kg each) can be checked in per passenger.

It is worth noting that Ryanair will turn its fee’s up (and very rarely down) on a frequent basis and without much notification to the public.

Ryanair new baggage fee structure is slightly complicated, and the airline may end up having unexpected results from the changes. One can speculate that passengers in considerable numbers perhaps will make use of checking in a suitcase, which Ryanair do not like at all as they are heavy and more important: large numbers of suitcases damage turn-around time at airports.

Ryanair luggage fees are, therefore, likely to be altered. All Ryanair luggage fees, weight restrictions and size restrictions in this article were updated as of autumn 2018.

See also: List of Ryanair-fees.

Measurements for cabin bags – no change in Ryanair rules 2018-2019
A Ryanair cabin bag or wheelie bag with a Priority Boarding ticket can measure up to 55cm x 40cm x 20cm – the same measurements as before the changes in cabin allowance.

The first tightening of hand luggage allowance was in the beginning of the year
In January 2018, Ryanair made it impossible for passengers to carry two bags into the cabin without Priority Boarding.

Instead, passengers could chose to bring either a personal handbag/computer bag or a wheelie bag into the cabin. At the time, Ryanair, however, would take any one wheelie bag per passengers free of charge and put it in the hold at the gate. This policy ended on November 1^st.

Additional information:

• Ryanair cuts its hand luggage allowance AGAIN.
• The truth about Ryanair car rental best price guarantee.