Yet another change in the rules for Ryanair luggage comes into affect today.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-carry-on-bags

When we flew Ryan Air earlier in the month from Bologna to Sardinia, they were already enforcing this new rule, without the charges (i.e. they had the gate attendant go through the line and tag all bags that were then taken by someone before they climbed the steps). We had paid the extra fee, so we could select seats, and that put us in the "priority" line that allowed us overhead storage. Their simple message is they can't afford to fly for the $20-25 they often advertise for these routes. That's not surprising. But, still at the $50 or so that I believe we paid, it's better than discount fares in the US. And, it includes a checked bag for those who might expect to pay for that. Not defending Ryan Air, but except for some turbulence, we found their plane this time to have less tacky interior colors than we have experienced in the past and less annoying selling by their flight attendants.

Personally I would not fly Ryanair if you paid me. I hate the whole ethos of the company with it's racist attitude, it's treatment of it's staff and passengers, not mention it's ignoring the law on compensation and various rulings made against it.

Given that they had nearly all their aircraft bought as per their design and their design does not provide sufficient carry on space for the number of seats x 1 of wheel on luggage, this is at best a problem of their own making and they are resolving it by charging their clients. The cheep airline model requires all parts of the business system to work together to really cut costs and here they have dropped one almighty ball.

I will not fly with R'air unless there is no feasible alternative and this is yet another reason to avoid, avoid, avoid.

I feel the same way. I will not set foot on a Ryanair plane. I'd rather walk overland.

Those are the old rules not the new ones.

The new rules non priority are only allowed a 40x25x20 ( I think that's right) underseat carry on. It's actually bigger than the old underseat bag and for a short trip might actually be big enough for many.

I don't know the details about their personal policies or racism, but other than that, it's just a budget airline with skimpy room and you get what you pay for. I don't get the whinging about paying "extra" for a bag if the ultimate total is cheaper than other airlines (all of the ones within Europe I fly charge to check a bag anyway nowadays, including Air France). This makes no logical sense. That size is prefectly reasonable for a personal item/tote bag, I could easily fly by those rules as I never carry-on something bigger than that. Well, I do sometimes at home when on a short weekend trip to visit family, but never for a longer trip.

What's the deal, you get what you pay for. I wouldn't ever fly them because I've heard their seats and other comforts are so bad, and I can easily afford not to. I fly Easyjet a lot within Europe, I guess compared to Ryanair they are luxury.

I think Ryanair makes sense for businesspeople just traveling for a meeting or an overnight, something like that.

We have also flown EasyJet many times and noticed little difference in seat space between the current RyanAir and them. We fly discount carriers in Europe when it makes sense. Our latest trip this fall included Volotea, RyanAir and Lufthansa, which some would say is not a discount carrier, and we saw little difference among them.

We fly EasyJet all the time. The difference isn't so much the seat space, it's the attitude of the staff.

My personal policy for a very long time has been if Ryanair is the only way to get there, I won’t go. Glad to see I’m not alone.

Ryanair staff varies widely because they come from all over the EU. Most of my flights are either on planes based in Italy or Spain. That means usually the staff are either Italian or Spanish. But Ryanair isn't shy about taking advantage of EU rules and you might have a plane full of stewards from any place in the EU. I've never had an issue with the staff but it's strange to be on a plane that's 95% Italian passengers and the staff barely speaks a word of Italian. Luckily it's never mattered but at some point it might become a safety issue.

I don't see any difference with Easyjet but than they cut back their flights out of Rome a few years ago.

If you get a chance use jet2.com based on Yorkshire "common sense" the staff are chosen to be sensible and friendly. Now flying out of Stansted.

They are not always great, but often so cheap that it is worth my while to drag myself up to Stansted to use them. Last month I flew to Turin for £20 - that is less than a local train journey to the of less than 30 miles.
In the past I've had issues with Easyjet and almost every time I use Flybe - so much as I dislike Ryanair's business model, they are not the worst airline I have used.

As the recent strikes at Brussels Airport show, there's a limit to this cheaper-than-cheap business model. Baggage handlers are being paid next-to-nothing and have to do the same job with less people in order to keep fees for the airlines low.
The 2 companies in Brussels that do all the handling compete on price to get business from Ryanair and other airlines.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at the airport last week - the fall break for schools here, with many families traveling. Still there was a lot sympathy for the handlers that were on strike for better conditions.