Did A Budget Airline’s Baggage Policy Just Get “Better?”

Budget airline Ryanair is changing up their baggage policy on January 15 as part of their “Always Getting Better” campaign. The new, improved baggage policy is designed to speed up the boarding process.

In December, many passengers boarded with two carry-on bags and overhead compartments quickly filled up. As passengers and staff scrambled to bags, planes were delayed. The new policies are designed to prevent future delays and encourage passengers to check bags, rather than carry them on.

The changes include:

• Increasing the weight of checked bags to 44 pounds. In addition, the price of checking a bag has been dropped 33 percent to $33.
• Passengers that are allowed to carry on two bags are limited to those that are Priority Boarding. This group includes Plus, Flexi Plus and Family Plus, passengers. If you’re not Priority, then you can check your larger carryon at the gate for no charge because you can only bring a small carryon onto the plane.

If you hate checking your bags, free or not, then you might want to make sure that your ticket is Priority and pay the higher ticket price. This way, you can bring both bags with you onto the plane without checking. Although this probably isn’t what Ryanair intended with its new baggage policies.