Are you planning to travel by air this year? If so, do take extra care when booking your flight – and packing your bag!
I’m totally confused by 
new surcharges being added by operators Ryanair which is currently advertising 1 million flights at a fiver for one way.
According to The Times today, Europe’s top airline has introduced additional baggage charges in a bid to price luggage out of travel.
This is not music to the ears of someone like me who packs a pair a stylish shoes and handbag to match each outfit. I don’t travel light. I always include at least three small bags jam packed with toiletries. I cannot survive with just a toothbrush. According to the new rates, the charge for my moisturiser and shampoo will cost much 
more than my fare!
On top of its £10 each-way fees for checking in bags, Ryanair passengers will be charged an extra £30 fee for taking on board a carrier bag of duty-free goods or a small handbag, as well as their 10kg (22lb) of hand luggage. There are additional charges for passengers who check in at the airport rather than online. It seems Ryanair is planning to scrap check in desks altogether. That’s another bad move in my view, it means there will be no personal face representing this giant airline.
Michael O’Leary reckons that 10kg of luggage is easily sufficient for a two-week holiday. If you can survive in a bikini and be sure of generous hotel toiletries (have you noticed how they have been cut back?), then you might be able to manage it. The last thing you want to do is rush out to the pharmacy/supermarket at your destination to stock up on what you couldn’t afford to take with you. I suspect passengers, myself included. will opt for more consumer friendly airlines instead.
To test the new system, I checked out the price of a Ryanair flight from Stansted Aiport to Madrid travelling on a Monday to Friday next month and it came to £94.54 for the flight alone, excluding their insurance and priority booking which was already ticked. The additional charge for two bags and airport check-in was £66.50. The whole process was very confusing.
I know the days of cheap air travel has gone, but I do wish there was more transparency about flight prices.
well i have no problem, traveling with geoff you learn to pack as little as poss no glam clothes or shoes/ handbags and certainly no lotions and potions, as most of the time i will be carrying what ever i take.
I actually like it this way as i never get stressed about what to pack or what to wear the only time i do get stressed about packing is when traveling with people who take everything but the kitchen sink
Sally, what you say makes really good sense. I only wish I could be like that, well sometimes….
I enjoy packing and planning for long trips. I always decant soaps, lotions etc into small plastic bottles. Clothes are co-ordinated to create maximum combinations with minimum items – cool wash, easy iron with a bottle of handwash detergent. Four day’s supply of clothes can easily be made to last two weeks.
My kagool, my Berghaus fleece and Craghopper troos (convertable to shorts) pack small and cover most weather conditions.
Footwear is usually a pair on nice sandals and a pair of trainers as I don’t give up my running on holiday. I don’t take shoes unless I have to.
Packing is the greatest part of any trip for me. And I love my weekend camping in the wilds where I get everything (including shelter and food) into one rucksack. I’ve just upgraded my kit to lightweight miniature stuff and it’s fantastically compact. I can lift it all with two fingers – any more and it doesn’t go.
You’d be amazed and how little you need.
People would have to be gullible to want to travel on RyanAir.
I always struggle with the luggage allowance too.
And for some reason no matter how small my hand luggage is, they always pick on mine to be weighed and say it is overweight. Then they let the next person who has a huge suitcase as hand luggage, straight through without questioning!!
I travel like you, Ellee!
I suppose the annoying thing about my heavy luggage is that I do find I don’t always use/wear what I pack with me. I would love to travel light, so maybe this will help focus my mind. But then old habits die hard.
I have decided to walk everywhere this year in protest! I shall be holidaying by camping in the small patch of grass in the next door cul-de-sac!
As a blogger, you won’t be welcome on Ryanair anyway! Here’s a story in the Times about their relationship with blogging. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article5797990.ece?Submitted=true
Damon,
I think I am an idiot too finding it difficult to understand their new charges. I have cut and paste the article you refer to as it is so interesting:
Ryanair and the ‘idiot bloggers’
The airline confirms a member of staff abused bloggers questionning its website credentials as idiots and lunatics
Steve Keenan
Ryanair has confirmed that one its staff abused a blogger who questionned the airline site’s credentials.
But far from apologising for the volley of abuse, Ryanair today dismissed bloggers as “lunatics” and “idiots.”
The extraordinary exchanges came after Dublin-based web designer Jason Roe posted on his site:
“As I was booking flights to Cork, I noticed something a bit strange. When I went to change my flight times, all of the prices on the flights had changed to “Total Cost of Flight 0.00â€.
Background
* Ryanair slams ‘Thomas Crooks’ for overcharging
* Ryanair: no complaints about mobiles
* Ryanair: our 40 favourite headlines
* Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book
Related Links
* Ryanair slams ‘Thomas Crooks’ for overcharging
* Ryanair: our 40 favourite headlines
* Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book
Roe said he worked out what had happened – in trying to avoid credit card charges, he jumped into the Ryanair voucher section – in which there are no charges on vouchers. “So it can be a good way to avoid charges,” he added.
Other bloggers quickly pointed out that despite the apparent glitch, the Ryanair site did not allow users to complete a £0.00 transaction, with bloggers finding an ‘error’ message occuring, or being sent back to a search page.
But then six hours after Jason’s posting, a blogger called Ryanair Staff wellied in:
“You’re an idiot and a liar!! fact is! you’ve opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it!”
Roe defended his posting, saying: ” I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight.” And he later clarified that he did not claim to have completed the booking process.
But that didn’t stop Ryanair Staff continuing a vitriolic attack on Roe: “If you would work in your pathetic life on a such big project in a such busy environment with so little resources, you would know that the most important is to have usual user behavior scenarios working rather than spending time on improbable and harmless things.
And Ryanair Staff continued: “Even you did not discover anything major you are still trying to benefit from this. If I would be you I would think of consequences this can have.”
Other users of the blog rallied to defend Roe. Lar Veale said: “Woohoo – the race to the bottom has been won! No frills culture applies to manners, customer service and common decency.”
And Aedan said: “I am amazed at the rudeness and aggression of ryanair staffers. Why can’t they accept the bug report and fix it.”
The row has to date generated 85 comments and was picked up by online travel publication Travolution where another 11 comments were added.
And today Ryanair confirmed to Times Online that it was a staff member responsible for the posts – but in typical Ryanair bullish fashion, a spokesman refused to apologise:
“Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.
“Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travelâ€.
* Have your say
Well, I’ve come across enough rude Ryanair staff in many countries that this doesn’t really surprise me!
Franziska, London,
Still, there’s no need for Ryan Air to be rude about it. All they are doing is breeding more hatred around their credentials. All they had to do was fixed the problem and ignore the blog, or thank the guy for pointing it out. It’s easier to be nice about it. They should’nt have dragged it out.
Matt, Cork, Ireland
Fair play to RyanAir – I don’t spend my entire life glued to a computer screen, although sadly the commentors above do. Who cares about the technicalities of a website? I just want cheap flights in real time – real life.
Joe, Surrey, UK
Here are some more comments which go with the article referred to above:
After we received and ran Ryanair’s official response, bloggers the world over have slammed the airline for its apparent hatred of social media.
The point to make here is that Ryanair doesn’t – and why should it – worry.
It has a CONSUMER-focused strategy and doesn’t feel it needs bloggers.
Kevin May, Travolution, London,
I hope for the sake of their customers these angry outbursts don’t extend beyond the website development team and that the cost of air travel is the only thing they are ‘busy driving down’.
Dorothy Ryan, Dublin, Ireland
Proof that professionalism is expensive. Can’t argue that they don’t stay true to their core value..
Chris Dymond, Sheffield,
The blogger was mad because of his own ignorance. Completely wasted his time writing about his own mistake and probably on a flight costing under a 100 pounds and got his feelings hurt when he was told the cold truth.
No, I am not an employee and I have flown ryanair.
steve, freistadt,
I was shocked by the vulgar comments left by Ryanair staff. The official response from Ryanair is woeful at best. You would think that the PR department would know better.
Jason Roe, Dublin, Ireland
Is this the same lunatic bloggers that previously would have used Ryanair for flights?????
Peter Young, Manchester,
I heard him say that they might well start charging people to use the toilets – £1 per pee!!
How much for a dump ? Will they take credit card ???
I have to confess that I won’t travel on Ryanair or Easyjet or any of those budget airlines.
But I do travel light. When I go on holiday with my children (all three of them) we are always well under our allowance and even for our three month trip here we were well under. I think it is fun and cool to travel light and good to spend money at the local destination (for the country you are visiting I mean)
I always say the fairest way to charge people is for total weight – ie passenger and luggage combined. I know it would be embarrassing trotting onto the scale with your bags but it would mean slimmies like you and me could take lots of stuff with us!!
But yeah- give it a try re travelling light. You might be surprised how satisfying it is.
But I agree that Ryanair is a foul company and I would NEVER travel on one of their planes.
Michael Gerard Joseph Mary O’Leary, for that is his real name, is a genius at PR. He got everyone talking about this and not talking about the fact that his airline like many others is struggling against the falling passenger loads, t has laid up aircraft and things are not great!
[…] Ellee created an interesting post today on Are you a toothbrush traveller?Here’s a short outlineAre you a toothbrush traveller? Are you planning to travel by air this year? If so, do take extra care when booking your flight – and packing your bag! I’m totally confused by new surcharges being added by operators Ryanair which is currently advertising 1 million flights at a fiver for one way. According to The Times today,… Read the full post from Ellee Seymour Tags: News via Blogdigger blog search for Cheap Holidays. […]