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Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Anyone who's booked on Ryanair will know how impossible it is to contact them. Hence I'm asking here!
Our 7-piece band is doing some gigs in Portugal in Sept and I've booked 7 seats plus 7 musical instruments into the hold.
The instruments cost £50 each to include in the flight, but we need to take 14 / 15 instruments in total.
Their webform only gives you the choice of 0 or 1 musical instruments - although I can book additional "sports equipment" at the same £50 charge.
What I want to know is - how do I book more instruments? Do I take a huge risk and turn up and hope they can take another 7 / 8 instruments - obviously we'll pay, but if they won't take them there's no point in going!
Has anyone had experience in taking two or (preferably) more than two instruments with them? Or any other ideas, for that matter?
Obviously I'd like to email / speak to Ryanair but that's absolutely impossible. Even their £1/minute booking line just hangs up as soon as you call (presumably charging you £1 first) and to be honest I don't imagine I'd get any useful answer.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hey Mark.
I'm sorry I can't help you regarding Ryanair.
I am replying to your comment because you mentioned that you are coming to Portugal in September, is it to Lisbon?
I am one of the people here in Lisbon organizing the only session that you can find in this city. So I would very much like to invite you to join our sessions in the time you spend in Portugal, it would be an honour for us.
The sessions are currently on Mondays but I cannot say if that will remain true in September. So feel free to contact me if you would like to come (the session is listed here at Session.org).
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Cesar, thanks for the invite - but we're going to Oporto. At least, that's where I'm hoping we're going!! But I appreciate thte thought all the same. Sounds a lot of fun!
The alternative airline is TAP but it would be prohibitively expensive via them.
I just wish there was a way of asking someone at Ryanair how we go about doing this - but it's impossible.
The only thing I can think of is to lurk about at an airport and collar one of their staff. Hence at least asking here to see who's done anything like this with them.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Mark,fwiw and it's a risky tactic too but if your extra instruments are small enough to fit in the overhead lockers you might try the 'low profile' approach.
i've taken a fiddle on before and have kept it strung over my shoulder so it's not that obvious.
however this may be very risky in the present economic climate when the low cost airlines are looking to maximise revenue without increasing the actual air fare itself.
i wonder,as there's seven of you,if the Santander ferry is an option?
though it can be quite expensive you would n't have to worry about the instruments.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I did like biggus dave with my fiddle in october 2005, no problems. Same for the guitar player that I travelled with, just put the instruments in the overhead lockers and it was OK.
'however this may be very risky in the present economic climate .... ' etc. (see biggus dave's post) !
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Whenever I take my guitar on a Ryanair flight I book it an extra seat, as it's much safer for the instrument and also always much cheaper, especially booking a way ahead like you are.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Mike C,
Did you have to pay all the additional check-in stuff for your guitar (you know how they really screw you for this - priority boarding etc) or did you just pay the return fare for it?
PS although I've already booked the Ryanair tickets for some of the instruments, I really wish I'd thought about the ferry option. Although it's a long trip, I could have gone with the instruments in our van on the Santander ferry, and met everyone else at the other end. Damn!!
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The DoT agreement states you MAY have to purchase an additional seat for "large instruments", but bona fide musicians are still allowed to take one instrument on as hand luggage (even if large).
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi
You have to use airport check-in and pay the fee for each seat, which if I recall is £4. It all depends on how cheap you can get the flights for I suppose.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The band I play with regularly travels by air a lot, with every airline under the sun, including Ryanair (in fact, I flew back from a tour of Italy with Ryanair just last week). I play cello in the band and always have a seat bought (by the promoter - worth having that in the contract if you can). Two fiddles, viola, trumpet, horn and bass trombone go in the cabin, as per Department of Transport/M.U. agreement (worth having one of these with you to wave in the faces of jobsworths). There has never been a problem with taking these instruments on board, even with Ryanair. The sax players and bass guitarist put their gear in the hold in flightcases. With Ryanair you HAVE to tell them about stuff like that in advance, what the weights are, and pay the punitive charges. If you don't sort this out in advance, they can (and probably will) simply refuse to take it.
With most regular airlines this not a problem, as they will distribute the weight allowances over the whole group.
It's worth saying that I flew to Italy with British Airways and back with Ryanair whilst the rest of the band flew with Alitalia. This is because Alitalia refuse to sell a ticket for a cello seat for travel before 10.30 a.m. Whenever we go to Italy that's what happens.
The D.F.T./M.U. agreement is with the British Airports Authority and not, necessarily, with individual airlines. They can, and do, make up their own rules.
The M.U. advise members to check with the airline that they will allow instruments in the cabin before booking their tickets.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The only problem I ever had flying with pipes was with Singapore Airlines (and I have done many straightforward trips with budget airlines like Ryanair, Jet2, and EasyJet, as well as BA, Aer Lingus, and assorted US airlines). They apparently have a policy prohibiting hard cases in the cabin. The whole argument that it was a musical instrument didn't fly (haha), thus I ended up buying a duffle bag in JFK, schlepping pipes in that, drones sticking out of the bag, and I checked the case. It was the best duffle bag I ever bought. As it happened the airline lost the case and it traveled through Europe by itself for about five days before we were reunited.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
i fly ryanair every 3 months with my fiddle as hand luggage, and only had a problem once. the girl told me the bow can be considered as a hazard....and she hadnt heard me playing yet!
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I've never had a problem with my instruments. Now, I've never brought big instruments but in January when I moved to Ireland I took my fiddle and my case is quite big, I actually thought I would have to check it in that special spot for fragile stuff, because I also had a huge backpack with computer and all kinds of things. But, they actually told me to take it as hand luggage just because it was a fiddle.
When I've brought the mandolin, I've never had a problem. I just keep it on my back. And if you've bought extra seats for your instruments, I wouldn't worry.
I have brought more than one - once. We were in Italy and I had brought my mandolin, and in Venice we bought an Italian bowl back mandolin. Now, according to the rules, apart from hand luggage you could also get tax free shop bags on board, so we went to the Ferrari shop at Malpensa airport and got the biggest bag they had, and in that we put the Italian mandolin... definitely WAAAY bigger and more in the way than if we'd only had the mandolin without it...
My husband bought a bandurria (cittern-kind of thing) in Gran Canaria and just put it in a backpack. No problems (that wasn't Ryan Air though).
What instruments are they? The only big enough instruments to cause troubles I can think of are banjo, guitar, bouzouki. The rest ITM instruments should be small enough to bring as hand luggage without hassles. Remember to bring soft cases, it'd be easier to get them as hand luggage with soft cases.
Why not making a phone call to the airport? My husband did that and got the answers. The airport knows the rules and possibilities.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Susiakasinead - good idea about calling the airport. We have a harp, bass, banjos and stuff like that - but the smaller ones can go in our hand baggage. I think there's some form of letter that you can show at the check-in staff if you're travelling with instruments - and of course we would also have documentary evidence that we're travelling as a professional band, since we have our booking in Portugal as a public piece of info.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I see some of you have experience with extra guitar seats on ryanair.
I've booked 2 seats from Tees valley to Dublin on thursday, one for myself and another for my guitar. I've entered my own name ", guitar" for the 2nd seat. So, the problem is, can or how can i check in online,..i cant enter my passport details 2ce on the online check in.
Will Mrs guitar have to check in at the airport.
Thanks.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
FWIW: Just returned from the Willie Clancy week with a (shaped) fiddle case, travelling between London Gatwick and Shannon. No hassles at all with Ryanair staff, either going out or coming back.
A substantial improvement on the last time I travelled Ryanair 8 years ago from London Stansted when it took some minutes of increasingly heated argument to be allowed to pass with an oblong fiddle case.
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi all,
Just in case anyone visits this page, we had a successful gig in Portugal and got there - and back - intact.
The experience wasn't without stress: I was able to add two instruments to the hold baggage (just in case) in addition to the 1-per-passenger that is the maximum the website will let you book.
There was no real alternative to Ryanair but if we did it again, we might go for the ferry option that someone suggested. Flying with anyone else would have been absolutely prohibitive, cost-wise.
So - if anyone else is thinking of flying with lots of instruments (we have 15 in all) my advice is: prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
In the end we had a great time thanks to some amazing hospitality from our Portugese agent, the hotel, and the hall staff. Just brilliant, and we would do it all again. In fact, we are, next year!!
Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Anyone who's booked on Ryanair will know how impossible it is to contact them. Hence I'm asking here!
Our 7-piece band is doing some gigs in Portugal in Sept and I've booked 7 seats plus 7 musical instruments into the hold.
The instruments cost £50 each to include in the flight, but we need to take 14 / 15 instruments in total.
Their webform only gives you the choice of 0 or 1 musical instruments - although I can book additional "sports equipment" at the same £50 charge.
What I want to know is - how do I book more instruments? Do I take a huge risk and turn up and hope they can take another 7 / 8 instruments - obviously we'll pay, but if they won't take them there's no point in going!
Has anyone had experience in taking two or (preferably) more than two instruments with them? Or any other ideas, for that matter?
Obviously I'd like to email / speak to Ryanair but that's absolutely impossible. Even their £1/minute booking line just hangs up as soon as you call (presumably charging you £1 first) and to be honest I don't imagine I'd get any useful answer.
Any ideas / experiences / thoughts on this?
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Comes as no surprise I would rather walk than use Ryan Air Is there no other way ?
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by bazouki dave
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Ryanair is an absolute nightmare for a musician. Total crooks.
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by bogman
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hey Mark.
I'm sorry I can't help you regarding Ryanair.
I am replying to your comment because you mentioned that you are coming to Portugal in September, is it to Lisbon?
I am one of the people here in Lisbon organizing the only session that you can find in this city. So I would very much like to invite you to join our sessions in the time you spend in Portugal, it would be an honour for us.
The sessions are currently on Mondays but I cannot say if that will remain true in September. So feel free to contact me if you would like to come (the session is listed here at Session.org).
Good luck with Ryanair.
Cesar
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by cesarpim
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Cesar, thanks for the invite - but we're going to Oporto. At least, that's where I'm hoping we're going!! But I appreciate thte thought all the same. Sounds a lot of fun!
The alternative airline is TAP but it would be prohibitively expensive via them.
I just wish there was a way of asking someone at Ryanair how we go about doing this - but it's impossible.
The only thing I can think of is to lurk about at an airport and collar one of their staff. Hence at least asking here to see who's done anything like this with them.
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Would it be better to get them sent special delivery insured and pick them up in Portugal?
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by bazouki dave
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi - interesting thought - and one option I'll investigate. Thanks for the idea!
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Mark,fwiw and it's a risky tactic too but if your extra instruments are small enough to fit in the overhead lockers you might try the 'low profile' approach.
i've taken a fiddle on before and have kept it strung over my shoulder so it's not that obvious.
however this may be very risky in the present economic climate when the low cost airlines are looking to maximise revenue without increasing the actual air fare itself.
i wonder,as there's seven of you,if the Santander ferry is an option?
though it can be quite expensive you would n't have to worry about the instruments.
best of luck anyway.
# Posted on June 1st 2008 by biggus dave
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I did like biggus dave with my fiddle in october 2005, no problems. Same for the guitar player that I travelled with, just put the instruments in the overhead lockers and it was OK.
'however this may be very risky in the present economic climate .... ' etc. (see biggus dave's post) !
# Posted on June 2nd 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Whenever I take my guitar on a Ryanair flight I book it an extra seat, as it's much safer for the instrument and also always much cheaper, especially booking a way ahead like you are.
All the best Mike
# Posted on June 2nd 2008 by Mike C
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Mike C,
Did you have to pay all the additional check-in stuff for your guitar (you know how they really screw you for this - priority boarding etc) or did you just pay the return fare for it?
PS although I've already booked the Ryanair tickets for some of the instruments, I really wish I'd thought about the ferry option. Although it's a long trip, I could have gone with the instruments in our van on the Santander ferry, and met everyone else at the other end. Damn!!
# Posted on June 2nd 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The DoT agreement states you MAY have to purchase an additional seat for "large instruments", but bona fide musicians are still allowed to take one instrument on as hand luggage (even if large).
# Posted on June 2nd 2008 by geoffwright
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi
You have to use airport check-in and pay the fee for each seat, which if I recall is £4. It all depends on how cheap you can get the flights for I suppose.
# Posted on June 2nd 2008 by Mike C
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The band I play with regularly travels by air a lot, with every airline under the sun, including Ryanair (in fact, I flew back from a tour of Italy with Ryanair just last week). I play cello in the band and always have a seat bought (by the promoter - worth having that in the contract if you can). Two fiddles, viola, trumpet, horn and bass trombone go in the cabin, as per Department of Transport/M.U. agreement (worth having one of these with you to wave in the faces of jobsworths). There has never been a problem with taking these instruments on board, even with Ryanair. The sax players and bass guitarist put their gear in the hold in flightcases. With Ryanair you HAVE to tell them about stuff like that in advance, what the weights are, and pay the punitive charges. If you don't sort this out in advance, they can (and probably will) simply refuse to take it.
With most regular airlines this not a problem, as they will distribute the weight allowances over the whole group.
It's worth saying that I flew to Italy with British Airways and back with Ryanair whilst the rest of the band flew with Alitalia. This is because Alitalia refuse to sell a ticket for a cello seat for travel before 10.30 a.m. Whenever we go to Italy that's what happens.
The D.F.T./M.U. agreement is with the British Airports Authority and not, necessarily, with individual airlines. They can, and do, make up their own rules.
The M.U. advise members to check with the airline that they will allow instruments in the cabin before booking their tickets.
# Posted on June 3rd 2008 by Chief Wanganui
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
The only problem I ever had flying with pipes was with Singapore Airlines (and I have done many straightforward trips with budget airlines like Ryanair, Jet2, and EasyJet, as well as BA, Aer Lingus, and assorted US airlines). They apparently have a policy prohibiting hard cases in the cabin. The whole argument that it was a musical instrument didn't fly (haha), thus I ended up buying a duffle bag in JFK, schlepping pipes in that, drones sticking out of the bag, and I checked the case. It was the best duffle bag I ever bought. As it happened the airline lost the case and it traveled through Europe by itself for about five days before we were reunited.
# Posted on June 3rd 2008 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
i fly ryanair every 3 months with my fiddle as hand luggage, and only had a problem once. the girl told me the bow can be considered as a hazard....and she hadnt heard me playing yet!
# Posted on June 6th 2008 by justabloke
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I've never had a problem with my instruments. Now, I've never brought big instruments but in January when I moved to Ireland I took my fiddle and my case is quite big, I actually thought I would have to check it in that special spot for fragile stuff, because I also had a huge backpack with computer and all kinds of things. But, they actually told me to take it as hand luggage just because it was a fiddle.
When I've brought the mandolin, I've never had a problem. I just keep it on my back. And if you've bought extra seats for your instruments, I wouldn't worry.
I have brought more than one - once. We were in Italy and I had brought my mandolin, and in Venice we bought an Italian bowl back mandolin. Now, according to the rules, apart from hand luggage you could also get tax free shop bags on board, so we went to the Ferrari shop at Malpensa airport and got the biggest bag they had, and in that we put the Italian mandolin... definitely WAAAY bigger and more in the way than if we'd only had the mandolin without it...
My husband bought a bandurria (cittern-kind of thing) in Gran Canaria and just put it in a backpack. No problems (that wasn't Ryan Air though).
What instruments are they? The only big enough instruments to cause troubles I can think of are banjo, guitar, bouzouki. The rest ITM instruments should be small enough to bring as hand luggage without hassles. Remember to bring soft cases, it'd be easier to get them as hand luggage with soft cases.
Why not making a phone call to the airport? My husband did that and got the answers. The airport knows the rules and possibilities.
# Posted on June 8th 2008 by susiakasinead
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi Susiakasinead - good idea about calling the airport. We have a harp, bass, banjos and stuff like that - but the smaller ones can go in our hand baggage. I think there's some form of letter that you can show at the check-in staff if you're travelling with instruments - and of course we would also have documentary evidence that we're travelling as a professional band, since we have our booking in Portugal as a public piece of info.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
I see some of you have experience with extra guitar seats on ryanair.
I've booked 2 seats from Tees valley to Dublin on thursday, one for myself and another for my guitar. I've entered my own name ", guitar" for the 2nd seat. So, the problem is, can or how can i check in online,..i cant enter my passport details 2ce on the online check in.
Will Mrs guitar have to check in at the airport.
Thanks.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by emmet mc
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
FWIW: Just returned from the Willie Clancy week with a (shaped) fiddle case, travelling between London Gatwick and Shannon. No hassles at all with Ryanair staff, either going out or coming back.
A substantial improvement on the last time I travelled Ryanair 8 years ago from London Stansted when it took some minutes of increasingly heated argument to be allowed to pass with an oblong fiddle case.
# Posted on July 14th 2008 by Presumin Ed
Re: Recent Ryanair experiences please - esp with large instruments
Hi all,
Just in case anyone visits this page, we had a successful gig in Portugal and got there - and back - intact.
The experience wasn't without stress: I was able to add two instruments to the hold baggage (just in case) in addition to the 1-per-passenger that is the maximum the website will let you book.
There was no real alternative to Ryanair but if we did it again, we might go for the ferry option that someone suggested. Flying with anyone else would have been absolutely prohibitive, cost-wise.
So - if anyone else is thinking of flying with lots of instruments (we have 15 in all) my advice is: prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
In the end we had a great time thanks to some amazing hospitality from our Portugese agent, the hotel, and the hall staff. Just brilliant, and we would do it all again. In fact, we are, next year!!
# Posted on September 3rd 2008 by Mark Harmer