Navigate Ryanair's Hand Luggage Charges And Save Big!

Ryanair’s hand luggage rules ensure that all bags over 40x25x20 (20 Litres) receive some sort of charge or require some sort of ticket upgrade in order to be taken on board the aircraft.

In this article we’ll take you through the hand luggage rules, tell you how to avoid extra fees and discuss which (if any) of the new paid options may be best for you.

In a nutshell:

• The maximum size of carry on bag that you can take on board without paying extra charges is 40x25x20cm (20L).
• If you wish to take a traditionally sized cabin bag on board (up to 55x40x20cm), you have to purchase the ‘Priority Boarding and 2 Cabin Bags‘ bundle in order to do so.
• Purchasing the ‘Priority Boarding and 2 Cabin Bags‘ bundle means you can take both a 55x40x20cm bag and a 40x25x20cm bag on board, but Ryanair will charge you between £8 - £32 per flight to do so.
• The number of ‘Priority Boarding and 2 Cabin Bags‘ tickets is capped at 95 per flight.
• There is no option to take just a 55x40x20cm traditional cabin bag on board.
• Ryanair also offers Plus and Flexi-Plus bundles which include a hold luggage allowance, but these can often increase the price of your flight by over 400% and include a lot of extras that are irrelevant.

Which option is best for me?

We’d always recommend that travellers going on city breaks or short trips under 4 days adapt your packing towards the free bag allowance when travelling on airlines like Ryanair, simply because of the huge savings you can make by avoiding the extra fees.

Though Ryanair quotes a fee of between £8 and £32 for Priority Boarding, our investigations indicate that it is quite difficult to find a Priority Boarding fee towards the lower end of that spectrum. Generally fees tend to range from upwards of £22 per flight for this bundle. That means, on average, a couple could save £88 over a typical return trip, simply by travelling lighter and each taking a 20L under seat bag.

20 Litres may not sound like a huge allowance, but Cabin Max’s range of 20L Stowaway bags are incredibly space-efficient and offer so much more packing possibilities than you may expect. Teamed with a few small changes to your packing technique, they can be more than enough. Here’s a few of our best picks to comply with Ryanair’s free allowance: