I love RyanAir. It’s a low cost airline that can get you from country to country in Europe and Europe to Africa for amazingly cheap prices. I’ve flown them often and I recently used them to fly to Morocco from Spain and 2 tickets for 2 people was $200 round trip! I wrote about how to fly a low cost airline which can also be helpful to you as I wish someone had told me these things before my first flight!
I’ve flown them often and I recently used them to fly to Morocco from Spain and 2 tickets for 2 people was $200 round trip! I can’t fly from Charlotte to Los Angeles for that price so to be able to fly so cheaply from Europe to Africa is a treat. However, there are a few things you need to know before you fly with them so here are 5 tips for flying RyanAir.
1. Print boarding passes before heading to the airport
RyanAir is a low cost airline for a reason. Aside from the low cost ticket they do not give many things away and a printed boarding pass is one of them. If you get to the airport and they have to print your boarding pass you will have to pay a fee. What about mobile boarding passes? They do accept those but not in all airports, click here for a list of participating cities. My advice is to still print out a copy, what happens if you can’t retrieve it from your phone for some reason or another?
2. Pay for checked bags online
This is extremely important as RyanAir has very small overhead bins. You must look at the dimensions carefully and make sure your bag fits. If it doesn’t you need to pay for your bags online. If you wait to check them in at the airport the fee will be higher. I paid to check 2 bags from Morocco and it cost me $40 total. When we got to the airport there were no issues, I gave the agent our bags, showed our boarding passes and everything was fine. However, if you don’t pay for them online of think your bag will fit and it doesn’t you will have to pay a higher fee at the airport and why would you wanna do that?
3. Read the fine print in your emails
The only reason I initially found out about the luggage and boarding passes is because I read the emails they sent me. It’s now second nature because I have flown them several times but the first time I had no idea and spent time running around Rome trying to print my pass. Make sure to look at the rules on the website and read your emails.
4.set expectations
The flights are cheap for a reason. RyanAir isn’t fancy but they get you from point A to point B safely. However, most seats don’t recline, there isn’t much room in your row, and more than likely you have to board the plane on the tarmac. If you have the right expectations before you get to the airport you will be just fine.
5. Be prepared to fly out of alternative airport
When we recently flew from Barcelona to Marrakech we had to fly from Girona, Spain which is about 40 minutes by train from Barcelona. Many of RyanAir and other low cost airlines fly out of neighboring airports so make sure to check that before you heard to the airport. I had never been to Girona and I have a good friend who lives there so he met us and showed us all around the city then took us to the airport later on. You may not have a friend that can pick you up but that doesn’t mean you can’t explore a bit. If you are departing from a city you have never been to, why not get there a bit earlier and look around? Or if the airport isn’t in an explorable city just make sure to have your transportation options figured out days before you leave.
Have you ever flown a low cost airline?
What was your experience like?
