Ryanair passengers should ditch the packing hacks if they want to avoid additional fees.
Budget airlines like Ryanair and easyJet are well known for attracting customers with their low-cost upfront fares, which can see holidaymakers jet off to all parts of Europe for as little as £15. However, these cheap tickets often come with extra charges, especially for those who wish to travel with more than the free hand luggage allowance.
This is particularly the case for Ryanair, where free allowances are minimal and the customers regularly find themselves falling foul of the airline's strict check-in policy.
In a bid to see how best to make the most of the slightly meagre baggage allowance some airlines offer, experts from Which? Travel decided to test some common packing hacks to see which ones were the most effective for fitting the most items into a small bag.
Given that Ryanair's allowance for its under-seat carry-on and larger paid-for cabin bag is among the smallest of most budget carriers, Which? used bags that fit the Irish airline's restrictions.
"We used two under-seat bags with the dimensions 40x25x25cm: a tiny wheelie case by a brand called Travel Ready and a squishy holdall by Kono that went viral on social media for being the ideal Ryanair-sized carry-on you can fill to the brim without going over the strict dimensions," the price comparison publication wrote. "And then two pieces of larger carry-on luggage: a hard-shelled suitcase and a rucksack (50x40x20cm), both Cabin Max."
Vacuum bags and packing cubes are popular on social media, where they are often recommended by experts and influencers. Manufacturers suggest they will help customers pack more in less space, while one brand of vacuum roll bags boasts it will help you fit three times as many clothes into your suitcase.
"Head to TikTok and you'll find video after video of users raving about 'the sorcery' of compression cubes and how they help them to cram more into their bags," Which? wrote. However, when it came to packing the experts found that the vacuum packaging and cubes fit less than simply folding their clothes into the bags.
Similarly, they also found folding fit slightly more clothes than when they rolled. "Our results show you can forget the hype around vacuum packing and compression cubes. Even rolling our clothes didn't give us an advantage," said the Which? experts.
"Instead, we found that folding was best. We fitted 129 garments across all four bags using this technique that's 16 more pieces of clothing than vacuum packing. The compression cubes social media influencers sometimes promote also failed to impress in our test. They fitted in 11 items fewer than folding, although they were useful for stuffing in lots and lots of socks because there were plenty of gaps left around each cube. But considering we spent over £50 on these cubes, we expected them to work miracles."
Ryanair's policy allows customers to bring one small personal bag on board, such as a handbag or laptop bag. However, this bag is limited to the dimensions of 40 x 20 x 25cm and must be able to fit under the seat in front of you. If your luggage exceeds this size, you'll be required to pay an additional fee.
Meanwhile, easyJet passengers travelling on a standard flight ticket are permitted to carry a slightly larger under-seat cabin bag on board at no extra cost. The maximum dimensions for this bag include handles and wheels and cannot exceed 45 x 36 x 20cm.
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