Essential things you need to know about different airlines and their requirements

I don’t know about you, but as spring draws closer, I am starting to get into holiday mode. The sun is shining, and there is nothing I need more than to step foot on a plane and know I’m starting off my Euro summer. As a chronic over packer, one thing I swear by before flying is checking the airlines website to make sure I don’t incur any extra charges. But what are each airline’s policy, and how can you get the most for your money?

1. EasyJet

One of Europe’s largest low-budget airlines, EasyJet has expanded since it began operations 25 years ago. They fly from all over the UK, including from regional airports like Bristol and Liverpool. They are also the best carrier if you are wanting to go to North Africa. Conveniently, they offer a ‘cheapest fare’ tool on their website to help you find some of their best possible deals. Each customer can bring a small under seat cabin bag per person for free, as long as it weighs below 15kg and you can carry and lift it yourself. It can be a maximum size of 45 x 36 x 20cm and must be kept under the seat in front of you. If you want to bring a large cabin bag for the overhead locker (and trust me, we all need one!), then you’ll need to pay between £20-30 extra on top of your fare. A perk of this added cost is that you get Priority boarding, making sure you get that earlier access to overhead locker space. In my experience, EasyJet is one of the more chilled-out airlines in terms of baggage allowance and seat allocation, without paying for additional extras.

2. Ryanair

The same cannot be said however, for Ryanair. The king of extra costs, they are everywhere you look. They are also known for being stingy with refunds and kicking up a fuss. The base fare includes one small personal bag, measuring 40x20x25 (smaller than EasyJet’s personal bag allowance). A cabin bag costs around £36 to add on as an extra, again coming in at £6 more than EasyJet’s pricing. Standard seats cost between £4.50 and £15.50 per flight, making what originally seemed a bargain, actually quite expensive. When booking multiple people on at once without the paid seat allocation, Ryanair will split individuals up, whereas EasyJet typically still seats the booking together, for no extra price.

So, whilst you may think that Ryanair is the cheapest airline to fly with (and it definitely used to be), this is no longer the case. EasyJet have ranked above Ryanair in almost all elements of service, even including the price of inflight food and drink. Another budget airline that you should consider, especially for beach locations, is Jet2. Slightly more pricey than your likes of true budget airlines, but still affordable.

Have you jumped onto Skyscanner yet? I’m opening it as we speak…