Ryanair can be the best and worst airline all in one but that pretty much depends on your expectations and know how to navigate the purposefully complex booking system. A Ryanair fare can be as cheap as €35 return but don’t obey their rules and that will triple in price at a minimum. In this post I am guiding you step by step through their entire screen and step processes to find out the cheapest ways to book a Ryanair flight without wanting to slam your laptop shut in frustration.
I will also provide some sneaky tips and tricks to get away with not paying for a seat selection and still get the seat you wanted (to some degree). This and more money saving tips will be given while going through step by step on both desktop and mobile versions of the site.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: Searching For A Flight
- Step 2: Flight Selection
- Step 3: Fare Types Explained (Classes)
- Step 4: Seat Selection
- Step 5: Luggage Selection
- Step 6: All the Extra Options.
- Step 7: Checking In
- Cheapest Ways to Book a Ryanair Flight – Bonus Step Seat Selection
- Cheapest ways to Book a Ryanair Flight – A Summary
Step 1: Searching For A Flight
Once entering their website, you will be greeted with this screen. To search for a flight, you will need to search for either a return trip or a one way. A return trip if you know that you are coming and going with Ryanair. Choose a 1 way trip if you searched for flights beforehand using a tool like SkyScanner and know that you only need a one way flight with Ryanair.
Another import detail on when to select a one way trip is when you want to compare airports. For instance London Luton and London Stansted are both airports that Ryanair serve in London and each have their advantages and disadvantages. (Compare London Luton and London Stansted) Selecting a one way trip might be wise as an airport can be cheaper than the other.
Simply select the From and To destinations, and the desired dates you wish to travel as well as the number of travellers. If a day is greyed out and is not selectable it means that there are no available flights on that day.
Step 2: Flight Selection
When selecting a flight, 3 things pop up.
- Options on the selected days
- Options with price listed on subsequent days.
- Once selected the fare types pop up.
As you can see in this example, there are two flights on the same day, make sure that you select the flight that is right for you. Important to note also that the fare types do not pop up for each flight if you are booking a return so this implies that you will get the same fare type both ways. If you do not want this then it is best to book one way and then repeat the process twice.
Step 3: Fare Types Explained (Classes)
Ryanair has 4 different fares, the basic, regular, plus and time saver. The difference is explained in the table that the airline displays when booking.
Why do I always choose Basic Fare
The reason that I almost always choose the basic fare is that more often than not, you can choose the perks that the other fares offer as an add on later on in the booking process. This will work out roughly the same if you pay for both a seat and a 10kg cabin bag or a 20kg luggage. However using my other tricks later on I will tell you why you should never pay for a seat unless you are traveling as a family with kids and want the kids seated next to you.
Once you select basic then you will once again be prompted to upgrade to regular. Don’t do this, click on continue with basic.
Note: Regular is €26.50 more per flight
After you click on that, you will be asked to fill in passenger details. Either login or just fill in name and surname of passengers and click continue
Step 4: Seat Selection
You are then asked to select a seat, and if you followed the rule that you selected the basic fare, this seat will come at a price. As you can see, the cheapest seat is €7.50. Keeping this in mind of the €26.50 that would have cost us to upgrade to regular fare that leaves us with €19. Now you can either select your desired seat or you can opt for random allocation, where the seat is assigned to you for free but you can be assigned a middle seat (the horror) or you can get lucky and get one of the Extra legrooms.
As a general rule of thumb, I would buy the seats if I am traveling peak season on a popular route and traveling as an inseparable couple or a family. However if you are solo traveling or group of friends which are not worth the extra €15 (return) just to spend an extra 2h near them opt for random allocation. I also have some tips later on to make this seat allocation not so random!
After adding seats, you will be asked to add fast track. I can’t stress this enough, do not do this, just arrive early at the airport and most of the airports are small enough that you don’t have a long security queue either. Click on no thanks and move on.
Step 5: Luggage Selection
Cabin Bag Selection
Regardless of the type of fare that you chose in the beginning of your flight selection, you will be asked if you want to add any luggage. First off is the cabin bag. The cabin bag are all bags that are allowed to take with you on the plane. 1 Small bag (40x30x20) is free and that is what everyone gets. Even if you paid for a 20kg check in bag as part of your plus fare, this small bag is your only bag that is allowed on the plane.
Please be careful don’t think that you have paid for a 20kg bag and then show up with it at the gate because they will charge you in the region of €70. If you want a cabin bag you will need to choose the priority and 2 cabin bags as depicted in the picture. 2 Cabin bags is the 1 small bag and 1 10kg small luggage.
Now moving onto the price. You will notice that going through the basic fare we are left with €19 if you bought seats and €26.50 (the value of the regular fare) if you haven’t bought seats. As you can see adding the priority and cabin bags here only costs you €18.50 saving a total of €8 each way and this time around it also turned out 50c cheaper by adding the perks after rather than choosing the bundled regular fare.
In the next section I will go into how to not choose your seats and influence which seats Ryanair can give you.
Checked Bag Selection
After choosing between a small bag and a cabin bag, then comes your checked in luggage. Very Important: Luggage that you select and pay for here are NOT allowed with you on the plane. Don’t be misled saying that it is a 10kg luggage then you can take it with you on the flight. The answer is NO. These luggages must be checked in from the check in booths before passing security. You can also note that if you are willing to wait to receive the luggages then you can further save on some money by checking it in and not taking the luggage with you on the plane.
Onto our fare pricing scenario. If you chose the Plus Fare, the cost was €39.49. While having established that the seat was around €7.50, if you are buying luggage here than it will only cost you €30.99, totalling at €38.49 which is €1 cheaper! Once again you can also save another 7.50 by skipping seat selection.
Extra Equipment Section – Pushchairs/Sports/Music
If you have any bulky luggage then there is a section on the luggage selection screen to book it here. Any equipment you will need to add on here and please do so because fines are extortionate if you don’t pay here.
Regarding any baby equipment, you will be allowed to keep your stroller/pushchair right up to before boarding. The gate agents will then pick it up and put it in the hold section of the plane. It then comes out wither with your own luggage or in some airports they have a dedicated bulky luggage section. It will come out there.
Step 6: All the Extra Options.
Once you click on Continue after the luggage options then a series of screens and popups will greet you to try and upsell their other products like rental cars, insurance, transfers, experiences and a whole bunch of other things. Please skip through these you are better off getting same service on another website and it will be better and cheaper. Once that is done you will be prompted to fill in your payment details and you are on your way to the holiday that you deserve! Below are some of the extra options that they try and upsell you.
Step 7: Checking In
Once you book your flight it is extremely important that you check in. If you don’t once again Ryanair rewards you with a fee. Now if you paid for a seat then you can check in immediately or at any point from booking to 2 hours before the flight. If you haven’t paid for a seat then you will be allowed to check in from 24 hours before.
To check in you will need to enter your ID or passport details and you are good to go. The boarding pass will then be issued and it will be your ticket to your holiday as Ryanair have gone paperless so the boarding pass is on your device.
Cheapest Ways to Book a Ryanair Flight – Bonus Step Seat Selection
I have been going on about not choosing a seat and paying an extra €15-20 per person just to choose 2 seats when you are traveling. I wholeheartedly do not recommend doing so if you are traveling alone and here is why. This trick is not basic, so if you are not a bit technical and don’t want to go through a tedious process then my simple trick to you is Wait!
The Simple Trick on How to Get a Good Seat
If a flight is relatively empty and even if it is full, I would recommend waiting until the last second before issuing your boarding pass and selecting a seat. This is to allow for the rest of the people to check in and have them fill out the middle seats first. Moreover it allows you to check the entire plane on what seats may be available once you board and you can be cheeky and just confidently sit in a seat that is not yours as chances are no one checked in after you taking that seat.
If you are a couple or a family and want to risk a bit and sit next to each other I would do the opposite and check in as early as possible within the 24 hours. You may ask why? So, the reasoning is that Ryanair allows you to change your seat if you do not like the one they given you randomly (Of course you have to pay).
However take the case that you randomly get assigned 2 middle seats, say 21B and 24B. There may be the chance that either 21A,C or 24A,C are not taken yet. This will then allow you to change one of your seats to go next to your partner and this way you will be seated next to each other but you only paid for 1 seat! It is a bit more risky for families but if you are willing to take the risk, then I think this is a fantastic trick to try out!
The More Complicated Trick on How to Guarantee a Good Seat.
Now this is a full proof way on how to almost always guarantee a good seat. I travel almost exclusively with Ryanair for my solo travels and I have never once sat in a middle seat, almost always got my preferred window seat and I bagged extra legroom about half the times. How do I do this?
So what you do is right before clicking on proceed to seat selection after you fill in your passport details on your Ryanair app you are going to open up a new browser on your phone or your laptop. You are going to search up your flight as if you are going to book it and select the maximum amount of passengers it allows you. This will also give you a sense on how fully booked or empty your flight is. You might need to go back and forth a bit to select the right number it will allow you.
After that proceed as above with booking the flight, just select the basic fare and fill in absolute gibberish as the passenger details. Now it might take some time having to fill out 20 names but bare with me it will be worth it. Once you fill out everyone of your fake passengers, you will then proceed to seat selection. Here you are going to select all the seats that you do NOT want.
So in my case as a solo traveler I always block out every middle seat and if possible aisle seats because I like the window seat. You can do whatever you like. This method has guaranteed me never sitting in the middle seat like I explained in the beginning.
If you are traveling in a couple or family then you can still give this tactic a shot. I would block out any singled out seats irrelevant of aisle,middle or window and leave rows or seats together. Then I would follow the tip I gave above in the single method to just change and pay for one or two seats instead of all of them.
After you selected the seats that you don’t want then proceed to luggage selection and just leave the session open. Go back to your Ryanair app and proceed with check in. You will know if this method worked or not because on the seat map, the seats that you selected on your other browser will be marked unavailable. Once you see that it means that the method has worked and you can proceed with random seat allocation. You will only be assigned a seat that you left available. You are welcome!
Cheapest ways to Book a Ryanair Flight – A Summary
Now that you have gone all through the steps and details on the cheapest ways to book a Ryanair flight here are the most important step process.
- Select Base Fare
- Do not select seats
- Skip all add ons
- Only add luggage as an add on if needed
- Use the seat selection trick mentioned above
Hope that this has helped you in your process to book a flight with ryanair, and do not hesitate to contact us if you would need any assistance in doing so.
