Britons told to use Ryanair 'add-ons trick' - prompting angry statement from airline

You might be spending more money than you need to on your Ryanair flight, according to research by Which?.

The consumer champion has set out nine rules for travellers to follow when booking a ticket with the budget airline after looking for ways to save on what it calls the "notoriously complicated website".

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Which? found it was sometimes cheaper to buy the most basic fare and add any extras, instead of purchasing a fare bundle that comes with them included.

We should say here that Ryanair has branded the Which? findings "fake news" and has rebutted most of the rules. But first...

How Ryanair pricing works

Before we get into the rules, here are the six different levels of fare bundles offered by the low-cost airline:

• Basic Fare: The cheapest fare, includes one small cabin bag (40x20x30cm), which must fit under the seat in front of you, with no additional baggage allowance and randomly assigned seats.
• Regular Fare: This fare includes a standard seat and priority boarding, one small cabin bag, one 10kg cabin bag (55x40x20cm) to be stored in the overhead locker.
• Plus: This fare includes a standard seat and gives you a baggage allowance of one small cabin bag and one 20kg check-in bag
• Family Plus: This is the family bundle and includes one small cabin bag (40x20x30cm), one 10kg check-in bag for each group member, free seats for children under 12 and one 20kg check-in family bag.
• Flexi Plus: This includes Priority Boarding & two cabin bags (one small cabin bag and one 10kg cabin bag), reserved seating in any of our seating options, and Airport Security Fast Track (where available). You can change your booked flight to a different date, time or route without paying the flight change fee, but you must pay the fare difference.
• Time Saver: This includes Priority Boarding & two cabin bags (one small cabin bag and one 10kg cabin bag), front row reserved seating (in rows 1-5. Once these rows are sold out, remaining seats on the plane will become available) and Airport Security Fast Track (where available).

But Which? found that by booking the "basic" fare and adding luggage and seat selection, passengers could save money - even in cases when Ryanair suggested options that were "ideal" for their trip.

For example...

Which? went to book a flight from London to Alicante for a family of four for August this year.

A banner popped up saying that "Regular is ideal for your trip".

But choosing this option would have cost £59 more than if they chose "Basic", and added bags and seat selection later in the booking process, according to Which?'s findings.

Here are the nine rules Which? has come up with...

1. Make sure your bag fits

If you've only paid the basic fare, you're only allowed to take a small bag that fits underneath the seat in front of you

That can be a case of 40cm x 30cm x 20cm. If your bag is found to be bigger than this at the gate, you'll face a fee of £46 to £60 (depending on your route).

If you have paid for a cabin case in the overhead locker but it turns out to be larger than 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, you'll have an even bigger fee of £70 to £75 (again, depending on your route).

Ryanair said people should avoid the high fees for oversized bags by simply travelling with bags that meet the agreed dimensions.

"Our sizers are bigger than our permitted dimensions, so if the bag fits in the sizer, it gets on, if it doesn't, it gets charged," the airline told Money.

2. Don't book a Regular fare

On around 30 checks over the past two years, Which? has only once found it cheaper to book a Regular fare, instead of a Basic fare with added extras.

It looked at 15 flights to a range of locations in February 2026 and only once was the Regular ticket cheaper.

On seven occasions it was more expensive - often just by a pound or so - but sometimes much more.

3. Ignore the Plus fare

On a summer Stansted to Malaga route, Which? found it was £35 cheaper for a family of four to choose Basic and get those Plus extras separately.

If the family decided they didn't need that much luggage, they'd save even more.

Ryanair flatly denied that it's cheaper to buy the Basic fare and then add extras.

"The Ryanair bundles are a facility, which make it easier for passengers to buy and book the bundles. They are however dynamically priced, using the cheapest available fare at time of booking, and so the Ryanair bundles are the same price as the underlying air fare, plus the extras if booked separately. Your claim that it is cheaper to book separately is false," it told Money.

4. Consider if Flexi Plus is worth it

It was a very similar situation for the Flexi Plus fares.

But you can't buy the flight change that comes with it, so it could be worth it if there's a chance you will have to change your travel plans.

5. Families probably don't need Family Plus

When Which? checked the price for two adults, a teenager and a four-year-old on the Alicante route last year, it found the Family Plus fare was more expensive and might give passengers unnecessary amounts of luggage.

"If we instead bought a cheaper Basic ticket with seat selection, three 10kg cabin bags and a larger, 20kg suitcase to check-in we would pay £45 less," Which? said.

"With Family Plus, all four - including the toddler - also get a 10kg wheelie suitcase, a 20kg case - and small bags each. But you're unlikely to need that much luggage."

6. Don't add Ryanair travel insurance

The Which? travel insurance team advises against most airline insurance policies, warning they are usually more expensive and don't offer tailored cover.

Ryanair said: "We don't care whether people buy Ryanair's travel insurance or third-party travel insurance, as long as they buy travel insurance. We strongly recommend all passengers buy travel insurance."

7. Don't let Ryanair do your currency conversion

If you book a ticket that starts overseas to fly into the UK, Ryanair (and other airlines) give the fare in the currency of the country you depart from.

For example, a family of four flying from Alicante to London this summer would pay €1,439. Ryanair then converts that into pounds - but the £1,321 it charged is a bad exchange rate.

Which? checked prices on currency conversion site xe.com, and found it would have paid £81 more with Ryanair's automatic currency conversion than with the bank's rate, if they had just paid in euros.

Ryanair told Money its conversion rate was competitive and it didn't care whether people used its conversion service or not.

8. Consider checking in 20kg bag instead of two 10kg bags

This could work out cheaper, but prices do vary, so it's always worth checking first.

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9. You should pay for seat selection

Which? also argued there was a "significant risk" of being split up from your travel companions if you don't pay for seat selection with Ryanair.

It said that, on other airlines - it cited British Airways, easyJet and Jet2 as examples - you'll "almost certainly be seated next to your travel companion even if you don't pay to select a seat".

But with Ryanair, a survey found 62% of people were seated next to their loved ones without paying.

Which? accepted this was still a "reasonable chance" of sitting with your travelling companion but advised paying for seat selection if you wanted it guaranteed.

Ryanair said the claim was false and there was no factual basis for it.

What else did Ryanair say?

"This is more fake news from Which?" the spokesperson told us.

"Thankfully no one reads, or takes any notice of Which's fake recycled news articles or your spurious 'advice', as our traffic growth from 200 million to 208 million passengers in 2025 proves."