You can’t say you haven’t been warned.
Months after initially announcing it and having served repeated reminders to customers since, Ryanair’s new cabin baggage policy finally comes into effect today, 15 January.
From now on, only priority customers will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags on board Ryanair flights, with all other customers permitted to bring a smaller bag that will fit under their seats.
All larger wheelie bags for non-priority customers will be placed in the hold at the boarding gate free of charge.
In case you haven’t seen any of the Ryanair reminders in recent weeks and months, the main details of the new policy can be seen below.
Ryanair initially announced plans to introduce the policy last year due to their existing rules on cabin baggage being “repeatedly flouted” by customers, which led to boarding delays.
- 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 still enjoy a two-bag allowance but will only be allowed to bring one smaller carry-on bag on board, while their second (bigger) wheelie bag will be placed in the hold (free of charge) at the boarding gate.
- All customers travelling on/from 15 January onwards have been emailed and informed of these changes.
- New boarding passes have been redesigned to clearly show whether a customer should queue in the priority or non-priority queue.
- New signage and baggage sizers have been installed at the boarding gates at all of Ryanair’s airports.
- From Monday (January 15), Priority Boarding (including two bags) will be available to purchase up to 30 minutes prior to scheduled flight departure time on the Ryanair app.
- Ryanair has already introduced 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.
- Since September, the check-in bag allowance has increased from 15kg to 20kg for all bags. The standard check-in bag fee has been cut from €/£35 to €/£25 for this 20kg bag.
