Anyone travel with Ryanair lately? I'm thinking of using them to go from Frankfurt to Rome to Paris to Milan within a 3 week period...Are they reliable? Too good to be true? My whole itinary would cost only 175 Euro...

I've flown them several times and never had a problem. Yes, you'll have to wait a while to check in, and they have strict luggage requirements and often fly to out of the way places, but the prices are generally quite good.

I was actually thinking of flying from Paris to Milan on ryanair. I have heard the luggage requirements are different. We are traveling from New York and we were concerned about the luggage weight since we will be traveling for 3 wks.

Anyone know specifics?

I read somewhere that ALL checked luggage has a fee (7 Euro per piece), and the weight limit is 15 kgs...

This should answer your baggage question:

Checked Baggage Allowance:

A Baggage Fee is charged for the carriage of each item of Checked Baggage. The Baggage Fee may be prepaid at the current discounted rate of £2.50/€3.50 (€4.50/£3.50 from 1st September 2006 onwards) per item of baggage /per one way flight when making your reservation on www.ryanair.com, or through a Ryanair call centre (up to 4 hours prior to scheduled flight departure time – subject to opening hours). If the Baggage Fee is paid at the airport, the full rate of £5/€7 (£7/€10 from the 1st September 2006 onwards) per item of baggage/per one way flight is charged. Baby buggies, wheelchairs, scooters and walking frames are carried free of charge.

The Checked Baggage allowance is 20kg per person (15kg per person for all passengers travelling from the 1st November 2006 onwards). There is no baggage allowance for infants, although a pram/buggy will be carried free of charge. Each Passenger may check-in up to five items of checked baggage, up to the checked baggage allowance per person (a Baggage Fee is charged for each item of checked baggage).

For health and safety reasons Ryanair will not accept any individual item exceeding 32 kilos and with combined dimensions of more than 81cms height, 119cms wide and 119cms depth. This weight limit does not apply to mobility equipment.


Have a good trip,

Just to be complete, here is the carry-on allowance info:

What is my Cabin Baggage Allowance?

Ryanair allows each passenger (excluding infants) to carry one small piece of hand baggage on board free of charge. The hand baggage must not weigh more than 10kg and be less than 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, in dimensions. For the safety and convenience of all passengers, hand baggage must fit underneath the seat or in the overhead compartment.

Just a note about the Cabin Luggage.
Ryanair's limits are significantly smaller than the standard 56x45x25cm (2 inches smaller in 2 of the dimensions) of most airlines.

Therefore there is a real danger that they will check your otherwise legal hand luggage - at a cost of £5

Then, when your combined checked luggage is above 20kg (or 15kg from November,) charge you excess baggage charges of £5.50 per kilogram.

I just got home at midnight last night from a weekend trip to London using Ryanair. We flew out of Frankfurt-Hahn and into Stansted. We also used them a few years ago for a trip to Oslo. I thought they were great and would definitely use them again. The friend I was traveling with has used them for at least eight trips and has never had a problem.

There are three things besides the strict luggage policy that you need to be very aware of.

1) As JoeTro said, the airports they use are often out of the way, so you'll need to take transportation costs and travel time into account.

2) Their check-in desk closes 40 minutes before the flight, although both coming and going we saw them finish taking the people in the line at that cut-off time. I wouldn't count on it though, and would leave lots of time to check in. Our flight last night was full, and we had to stand in line for 45 minutes to check-in, even though we were there 1 3/4 hours ahead. You can only use the online check-in if you're an EU or EEC citizen.

3) They are strictly a point-to-point airline. If you are flying in from the States, for example, and your flight is late, they are not responsible for you missing your plane.

If you can work it out to work within their restrictions, I think they're a great way to travel.

Re Ryanair's Paris - it's Beauvais which is a LONG way from Paris & their Frankfurt (Hahn) is halfway across Germany from Frankfurt International Airport.

So assuming you are flying into Frankfurt, you are talking about a 3-4 hour transfer time between flights

One other point - the 20KG luggage allowance is per person - non transferable. If there are two of you travelling together, one with a case weighing 10KG, the other with a case weighing 25kg, then they would consider the 25KG case overweight, not that you have 35KG between you.

And if you've only got one bag between you which weighs 30kg, that's 10kg overweight (15kg in November)