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Customers flying with Ryanair will soon be able to take two bags on board as hand luggage – but many of the budget airline's notorious high charges will stay in place.

Here's a full breakdown of the key changes. These are effective from the date you fly rather than the date you book.

From 1 November 2013:

Providing a booking is made by you directly on its website (ie, not by a travel agent), you'll have a 24-hour grace period from the time of you original booking to correct minor errors including spelling, names or routings

From 1 December 2013:

You'll be allowed to bring either a second, small carry-on bag (maximum size 35cm x 20cm x 20cm), or a duty-free carrier bag, alongside your main hand luggage bag.
The fee for reissuing a boarding card will be cut from £70 to £15, providing you've already checked in online beforehand. If you haven't checked in online, you'll still be charged £70 to do it at the airport.
From 5 January 2014:

Checking in a bag at the airport without having booked and paid for it online beforehand will be cut from £60 to £30 at the bag drop desk, and from £60 to £50 at the boarding gate for a standard 15kg bag on a standard low season flight. No other prices for checking in bags are changing.
The changes follow Ryanair asking passengers to give feedback to chief executive Michael O'Leary on its website.

It says these are the "first in a series of customer service improvements". But when we asked, Ryanair was unable to give us details of what further changes were in store.


Despite these changes, you should still beware other fees if you book flights with Ryanair.

MoneySavingExpert.com's consumer analyst, Jenny Keefe, says: "Of course, any move that helps flyers is great. But Ryanair still has more bolt-ons than Frankenstein.

"You'll still pay up to £120 per return per bag stowed in the hold and, in very extreme cases, up to £320 if you turn up at the airport with a bag.

"Its charge of up to £70 per person, each way for airport check-in is especially fury-inducing.

"It's a good move to wipe it for those who've already checked in online, though anyone who forgets will still pay a hefty penalty.

Taken from MoneysavingExpert newsletter.

Karen

Good moves, good start.

Just in case anyone gets the impression that all this signifies a heightened degree of customer care by Ryanair...on Saturday 26th October (note the day), the incoming Ryanair flight to Perpignan was diverted because of adverse weather (high winds) to Montpellier airport. Fair enough. We heard that incoming passengers would be bussed down to Perpignan, which was reassuring for those who were waiting to meet friends and family. But for those of us waiting to fly back to Birmingham.......first there was a message from airport staff that we would be bussed up to Montpellier. And then came an announcement over the public address system that the flight to Birmingham was cancelled, and that travellers were invited to book online for seats on the next available flight, which was TUESDAY. And that was that. No more. Nothing. Not surprisingly, most people were angry and indeed one or two were clearly very stressed. When things go right, Ryanair does everything it promises. When things go wrong, Ryanair just walks away.

Phil I assume you will be looking at claiming compensation

Maybe worth looking at this

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays

They did exactly the same Phil in August even though other airlines were landing. I am a fan of Ryanair because to my mind they normally produce the goods at a very reasonable price but what they have done on these 2 occasions is morally wrong. Each time it was a Birmingham flight.

Phil Harris wrote:Just in case anyone gets the impression that all this signifies a heightened degree of customer care by Ryanair...on Saturday 26th October (note the day), the incoming Ryanair flight to Perpignan was diverted because of adverse weather (high winds) to Montpellier airport. Fair enough. We heard that incoming passengers would be bussed down to Perpignan, which was reassuring for those who were waiting to meet friends and family. But for those of us waiting to fly back to Birmingham.......first there was a message from airport staff that we would be bussed up to Montpellier. And then came an announcement over the public address system that the flight to Birmingham was cancelled, and that travellers were invited to book online for seats on the next available flight, which was TUESDAY. And that was that. No more. Nothing. Not surprisingly, most people were angry and indeed one or two were clearly very stressed. When things go right, Ryanair does everything it promises. When things go wrong, Ryanair just walks away.

So what should they have done?

As I understand it, Saturday 26th was the day of the big storm and hundreds of airlines had to cancel flights to and from the UK. They probably took the view that the storm was no more their responsibility than it was yours.

Surely the "big storm" was evening of 27th and morning of 28th October. You cant just dump people with young families, the elderly or for that matter anyone at all on a Saturday with a wait of 4 days before they can fly home. Accommodation should be provided for those who need it. There was no "big storm" in August when the exact same thing happened. We took friends, who live in Manchester, to the airport for that flight and they ended up going home by train, finally arriving home Sunday night.

Sue wrote:Surely the "big storm" was evening of 27th and morning of 28th October. You cant just dump people with young families, the elderly or for that matter anyone at all on a Saturday with a wait of 4 days before they can fly home. Accommodation should be provided for those who need it. There was no "big storm" in August when the exact same thing happened. We took friends, who live in Manchester, to the airport for that flight and they ended up going home by train, finally arriving home Sunday night.

I too am a big fan of Ryanair and you may well be right about the date of the storm. The point I was trying to make is that airlines are not insurance companies and that there are many reasons why a flight could be cancelled that are not their fault.

I suppose the question here is whether an airline has a duty of care to stranded passangers, even when the delay isnt their fault.

I think it's probably quite a grey area, as some airlines do try to help out, maybe arrange accomodation etc whilst others leave you high and dry.

It's true that they cannot be blamed for bad weather (and speaking for myself, I would prefer to be stranded on the ground than in the sky!! ) but to be stranded with kids or elderly people over several days is an enormous thing, having been stuck in monpellier for nearly 24 hours with my Dad in his 90s, I do feel they should offer some support, if not financial, at least updates and advice, on the situation...ie is it worth leaving the airport and looking for hotel? Are we talking about a 5 hour delay or a 5 day delay.....?

If you a flight is cancelled, your entitlement is to re-book or to get a refund. If you take the refund, the airline has no further responsibility to you. If you have truned up at the airport, and choose to re-book at the earliest opportunity , the airline has a responsibility to you and should provide food, access to phones and if necessary overnight accommodation. The reason for the cancellation is immaterial. If the airline doesn't meet its responsibilities, you can claim for receipted expenses. It is only if a cancellation is the airline's fault that you can claim for compensation as opposed to necessary expenses.

Reference:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel ... ays#cancel

Whenever I have looked at a flight to Birmingham recently, the cost has been under twenty euros. It costs more than that to take the train to Montpellier.

This leaves us plenty of money to take out travel insurance, which is what I do when I travel with my dad.

Pearson

We had the same problem at Perpignan airport once, except the relief airport was Carcassone. We even saw the plane trying to land at Perpignan.

1) Be safe at all costs
2) Try and mitigate the inconvenience in as practical a way possible.
e.g. If a bus is coming down from the relief airport with the incoming passengers then it will probably be returning anyway. Why has it to be empty ? Why not take the outgoing passengers with it?
3) Communicate
In our case the poor Ryanair girl was so overwhelmed she just left.

We were lucky. Whilst stuck in the Cow shed which is Perpignan airport (not enough seats for every passenger) we rang friends in teh UK who found us alternate flights - toulouse gatwick then we booked two new cars hires. Perp - Toulouse and Gatwick - Birmingham.
Subsequently we claimed our money back from the insurance but that did nothing for my daughter's football tournament she was rushing back for.

Ryanair fails more often on point 2 than other airlines I think.

I think for us the problem was communication. Like Pearson we had (or at least my Dad had) good travel insurance, but if nobody is telling you what's going on....is the plane cancelled or delayed? Will there be transport to take us to another airport etc .......

it's not the insurance that will sort out an elderly gentleman's panic about taking medicines on time, and distress right there and then. We eventually were bussed to Marseilles, and on to Leeds, but if we'd known the delay would be more than 4 hours (it was in fact 9) we'd have come home and got my Dad to bed, and rebooked.

I once spent the night trying to sleep on a concrete floor when Heathrow airport got snowed in. My son spent over six hours stuck in the middle of Picardie when the Eurostar broke down. In neither case did we get any information from anyone on authority. Things happen

But this thread, as with the Frogbus thread, illustrates the importance of communicating with your customers. With modern technology, that shouldn't be so difficult.

We were at Canet plage on Saturday and I don't remember any wind to speak of, certainly not enough to divert planes to Montpelier! Having landed several times in Perpignan in a raging Tramonatane, not pleasant, I don't understand why the plane was diverted in the first place.

I do wish people wouldn't mis-read posts on this forum. I wasn't suggesting that Ryanair should have landed, or tried to take off, in bad weather, nor was I blaming them for not doing so. And yes, compensation and insurance are very important, as this experience shows; and yes, there is an interesting question about Ryanair's legal duty of care. But my point was not about any of these issues. It was - as several people here have recognised - merely to emphasise the distress and anger caused to passengers by Ryanair's lack of communication, sense of MORAL obligation, or compassion.

I think that's what most people are saying/agreeing with Phil - that no amount of insurance, compensation etc makes up for the there and then stress, usually due to lack of communication.

By the way, I don't think people misread things particularly on THIS forum. I have managed to misread things all over the place!

I didn't misread your post Phil I was just curious about the wind as there didn't seem to be any on Saturday. That is all.

Indeed no one misread the post , merely stating we knew of no bad weather on that day. As I posted previously they diverted a flight from Birmingham to Perpignan in August again sending it to Montpellier and again the only option to rebook for the following Tuesday. Again there was no problem with the weather and people were left high and dry and stressed.

Sorry folks - didn't mean to sound tetchy - it was just something someone said.....

No need to apologise Phil we all have tetchy times, with me its usually every day!!

Let us be honest. There is no point griping about Ryanair. The vast majority of us know what to expect, It runs like a bus company not BA. If you are waiting to catch a local bus and it drives past without stopping, or is full so you can't board it, too bad. If you are making onward connections you allow for contingencies.

We had family flying in to Carcassonne last July. They could not get a flight to Perpignan . In the event my husband drove all the way for nothing. The flight was diverted to Perpignan anyway due to severe bad weather coming in from the west. So he texted them, told them to stay put and collected them himself as he drove past.

But we never even though of claiming compensation for the wear and tear on our car, or time wasted. Life's too short I'm afraid. I do know Ryanair hired buses to get people to their destinations and they turned up at Carcassonne pdq.

Merisin

For once Merisin I agree with everything you say.

I think these changes should be welcomed.

Like Sue, I'm a fan of Ryanair. They provide a service that gets us to places that major airlines don't cover and they have a pretty good record for keeping to schedule. I've had more delayed/cancelled fligths with major airlines than Ryanair.

All that extra care and attention that you get from BA, AirFrance etc comes at a cost. Laying on buses and putting people up in hotels costs money. Ryanair try to get away with doing the minimum under the charters so that they can offer very cheap flights.

If they had a button for "Would you like to pay an extra 30€ to have a personal assistant to help you in case of a cancellation or delay beyond our control", how many people would click it? My guess is virtually none, especially those who are the first to complain.

I am concerned that allowing people to take on 2 bags is going to cause a lot of problems. It's usually pretty difficult to find overhead space as it is.

Surely there is a big difference between missing a bus, it being full or whatever, with all due respect, than being left stranded for whatever reason at an airport.
At last handbags are allowed on Ryanair and not before time. I think it was outrageous not to allow persons to carry a handbag and then request passport / printed booking form at different embarkation points. Backpackers O.K. have no problem with that restriction but pensioners are a different kettle of fish. They are nine times out of ten never without their handbags. Do I travel by Ryanair not if I can help it!!!

monsans wrote:Surely there is a big difference between missing a bus, it being full or whatever, with all due respect, than being left stranded for whatever reason at an airport.
At last handbags are allowed on Ryanair and not before time. I think it was outrageous not to allow persons to carry a handbag and then request passport / printed booking form at different embarkation points. Backpackers O.K. have no problem with that restriction but pensioners are a different kettle of fish. They are nine times out of ten never without their handbags. Do I travel by Ryanair not if I can help it!!!

just a quickie , we will now see handbags the size of cases being brought on board, i do hope that there will be chcks on "oversized handbags" cdlm Geoff

Size limit for bags 35x20x20cm

Or a duty free carrier bag.

Karen

monsans wrote:Surely there is a big difference between missing a bus, it being full or whatever, with all due respect, than being left stranded for whatever reason at an airport.
At last handbags are allowed on Ryanair and not before time. I think it was outrageous not to allow persons to carry a handbag and then request passport / printed booking form at different embarkation points. Backpackers O.K. have no problem with that restriction but pensioners are a different kettle of fish. They are nine times out of ten never without their handbags. Do I travel by Ryanair not if I can help it!!!

I'm with you on the first sentence but the second bit is bringing a smile to my face. I can see a Daily Mail headline in there somewhere. "O'Leary victimises pensioners just because they don't like clothes with pockets"!

PS: I think it's only £15 to check in a bag.

For what it's worth, they have honoured their claim to correct typing mistakes on a booking I made a few days ago. I corrected it about 36 hours after the original booking: their phone person was impeccably courteous and helpful. But according to my web searches, they always would do this if you asked nicely and struck lucky (as distinct from a change to a genuinely different traveller).

More generally, I am a longtime fan (as well as a former shareholder): if you have an ounce of wit, you can go to places, for prices, that would have been beyond comprehension when I started travelling. All subsidised by the add-ons I do not buy, and the charges I do not pay. I can remember prices much higher than they charge from the National Union of Students catalogue circa 1970 - as cheap as you could get at the time - in 1970 money and two days by train.