For a few quid all you folks worrying about excess baggage, could save yourselves a lot of heartache.

Fishing scales!

They are much more accurate than bathroom scales for weighing bags and if you wish, light enough to tuck into your suitacase in case of any arguments at check in!

In fact some bright sparks are starting to sell a slightly modified version as luggage scales these days and charging twice as much for them (wish I'd thought of it first....)

I must be missing some thing hear.normal people come out verry light and stuff there cases with cigs and spirits on the way back.how can you do this if you bring every thing and take bakck the same.

My wife flew for the first time with Ryanair from Málaga to Bournemouth today with warnings about baggage scams fresh in her mind but apart from the fact that the inside of the plane looked a bit like the inside of a Lidl supermarket, as though the contents of a large rubbish bin had been strewn around, and the cabin crew appeared to have attended the same charm school as Mercadona check out assistants there was no problem.

However, I was instructed to wipe Ryanair from my bookmarks and informed that she is going to revert to Thompsonfly next time even if it is twice the price.

I have had enough!

I must have been incredibily lucky with Ryanair - I have taken over 48 flights with them in the past couple of years.

Never have I boarded an aircraft that was dirty, anyway a dirty aircraft is not the fault of the crew, its the fault of the messy people on the previous flight. Cabin crew make several passes of the cabin during a flight, asking for empties and rubbish, if passengers chose to chuck their rubbish on the floor, this is NOT down to cabin crew. Observing them (from the front row on a few occasions) they are on the go the whole flight with possibly a 10 minute break to grab some food, if they are very lucky, and no-one calls them. The 25 minutes between flights is taken up with disembarking passengers and embarking the next lot.

I can honestly say also that I have never had a grumpy or unpleasant crew, I have generally found them charming and helpful - obviously some more chatty and jolly than others but never rude. (I wonder how much grumpiness experienced by some of you is down to your attitude on boarding the plane and the way you treat the crew??)

Neither have I had any problems with baggage - OK I don't put anything in the hold these days but it would still not be a problem. As posted earlier, I took the trouble to buy suitable scales to ensure my bags are at or under the allowed weight and my bags are within the stipulated size. Checked and cabin baggage allowance is a total of 25 kilos, surely enough for two weeks holiday.

I know we are lucky to be regular travellers, but many of you moaners out there are too. Half the problems people seem to encounter is because they don't take sufficient care when making a booking. Do you really need 'priority' seating - you will be in company with about half the passengers. There's a saving already. Now its no longer free with 'Check and Go' we shan't be bothering.


Ryanair provide an excellent service, its certainly far from the luxury and style of early days of air travel - but it's a tiny fraction of the cost and you have to look at it as commuting (for the short flights that most of us do) - is it really any worse than being stuck in a traffic jam on our busy roads or standing like sardines on the tubes or buses -mile for mile its a darn sight cheaper!

The flights are cheap, because the income is derived elsewhere. i.e.

On-line booking - saves on staffing.
Expensive and difficult access by phone - ditto
Baggage & variations (Golf clubs, musical insrtuments etc)
Excess baggage
'Priority' seating
Food, drink and gifts supplied in flight
Scratch cards in flight
Insurance, car hire, hotels etc. etc.,

- don't buy the extras - buy your sandwiches, drinks, books etc., airside so they don't take up baggage allowance.

Sorry folks, but I for one prefer flying regularly the Ryanair, paying for just what I need, than with a company that makes me pay for frills, baggage and services that I don't need and can't afford.

And by the way - in all those flights, we have experienced only two delays, one due to a lightening strike - every other flight arrived on time or early...

Talk about looking gift horses in the mouth - get real you lot.

Hooray for Ryanair!!!!!

I think many people forget that the budget airlines are business`s , not subsidised public services, so of course their aim is to make profit...out of you the passenger!
If you dont like the service change carrier,go first class and pay ten times more,or charter your own jet, 20 times more,then if your not happy you have good reason to moan.

Rgds

Rotor

Well, I don't have a problem with Ryanair, or any other airline for that matter. I haven't flown anywhere for about seventeen years and from what I hear of other people's experiences I have no inclination to.

I fly with ryanair as I dont have a choice as I live in Bournmouth/Poole area

and cant travel to London to get to Malaga

I havent had a problem with Ryanair, Im lucky I can take all I need for a 3 day trip in hand luggage ... which I might add has never be checked for weight (thank god)
But saying that Ive had a few raised eyebrows from security staff at the airport with what I had packed (dirty weekend)(think about it)
Bournmouth airport is so nice to go from really, its not over croweded and for £2 you get a bottomless cup of coffee :P
will be glad when it gets out of the 70's set up


Will make a point tho if you book online make sure you check in online and print your ticket out, cause if dont you will be charged something like 8 euros each way for not checking in online.


Over all I cant grumble about ryaniar ... but going back to original thread, I agree I would contact trading standards with the weighing system, I had the same problem coming back from italy, i checked on thompson scales and there was a 2kg difference to the easy jet scales, and I did make a stink about it cause I had 2 grumpy crying kids with me... and got let off :P

So have I!!!
You seem to be missing the point!

I have no problem with Ryanair charging for anything. Then I have the choice of using them or not.

My point is nothing to do with cleanliness or their tarrifs ....... Its simply to do with the facts mentioned in my original post. Its inexcusable.

True Rotor, all businesses make money out of the paying pasenger but just to keep things in perspective, an example low cost return flight London to Faro at the end of this month for 10 days is currently 118 pounds, plus luggage, plus any other extras. The same route and date with BA economy is 188 pounds all in and "only" 253 in club. The extras with "low cost" soon mount up too. Yes, chartering one's own jet does get rather prohibitive at something like 40 times these club prices so I have not yet actually taken that option.

In a busy year I took around 300 flights, some of which were long haul of 9 to 11 hours and with every flight I take I research thoroughly and take the best value for money for me and whoever is flying with me. Ryanair may suit a lot of people but they are on my "only if I have to" list. Saludos.

And incidentally, focusing more on Mitzyboys first post, when flying with Clickair who also charge for checked in luggage, in my experience if you have checked at least one bag in they dont seem to bother too much about either the weight of your check in or the weight of your hand baggage. If you have checked in nothing then your hand baggage comes under closer scrutiny. The most I have ever 'got away with' was with Iberia when between the two of us we were allowed 50 kgs but we checked in 100 kgs. Nothing extra to pay although that was a single extreme event.

I must say I thought Ryanair were excellent. The plane was very modern and very clean, the staff were very professional. The landing was one of the best I had experienced for years - never felt a thing, and on top of that it was very cheap. I will certainly use them again. I didnt pay for luggage as I only tool hand luggage but they certainly didnt weight it going or coming. Well done Ryanair

I agree ..... but that isn't the point of this thread
Its not another knock Ryanair thread ..... its simply raising a question about methods for baggage excess calculations

Last time I flew home from the UK with Ryanair I had so much excess baggage I put some in my coat pockets (it was March) and gave some to my sister to hold while I was at the check-in desk. Once I had my boarding pass I went round the corner and we put in all into my cabin bag. This made the bag very heavy (about 16kg) but a nice member of the cabin crew kindly lifted it into the overhead locker without comment. Naughty perhaps but I did feel smug

As it turned out they didn't weigh my cabin bag at any stage of the process so I could have put it all in there to start with. They also provided scales in the check-in hall for people to weigh their cases before getting to the desk. This resulted in whole families repacking their bags to redistribute the weight, putting on extra clothes etc, turning the place into something resembling a jumble sale. At least it cut down the queuing while people argued with check-in staff.

Ah the glamour of travel these days.

Rose

I'm happy with Ryan. Cheap, and as yet I have never had a real problem with them.

Occasionally they do have scales at the beginning of security, and the make you weigh the hand luggage if it looks as tho you are pushing the limits.

Heaven help me then!!! Won't go to the States