RYANAIR regularly offers some of the cheapest flights around.
But flying no-frills means you have to be better prepared – otherwise your dream holiday could soon turn into travel hell.
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We’ve rounded up some of the best travel hacks around that could just improve your journey.
From getting off the flight before passengers to making sure you don’t end up next to a dud window seat, here’s what you need to know for your summer holiday:
Discount on flights
Throughout the year, Ryanair has regular flash sales on flights that seems to stop as soon as they appear.
But if you want to get cheaper flights when it suits you, there is an easy way to do it.
Keen-eyed travellers may have noticed that Ryanair have a “Flight Credit” feature, which works in a similar way to a cashback scheme.
You have to book hotel rooms through Ryanair Rooms and then you get five per cent of the cost back as Flight Credit, which can be redeemed against a future flight.
It can take up to ten days for the credit to appear in your account though, and you have just 180 days to spend it.
Getting off the flight before everyone else
On every airline, getting the best seat on a flight means you have to pay extra and Ryanair is no exception.
But actually, when you’re flying with Ryanair, there’s an easy way of improving your chances of getting one of the good seats for free.
Deal hunter Tom Church, who runs money saving website latestdeals.co.uk, says that he managed to bag the front row window seat on a recent flight without having to spend a single penny.
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He said: “If you check-in online at the last possible moment using the random allocation option that’s free, you’re more likely to get an unsold, premium seat on Ryanair.”
Ryanair will charge you if you want to pick a seat before you flight and the better seats – with more leg room or near the front of the plane – will cost up to £20 each way.
But according to Tom, the hack works because the more expensive the seat is, the less likely it is to sell.
It means that if you choose Ryanair’s random seat allocation option, which is free, you’re more likely to end up with a better seat if you leave it until the last minute.
The latest that Ryanair customers can check in online is two hours before the scheduled departure time for the flight, which means that is the time you want to check if you want to score one of the good seats.
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Using the trick, Tom managed to bad seat 5A on the way to Portugal and 1A on the way back, and he didn’t need to pay extra.
Making sure your window seat has an actual window
It might surprise you to learn that not every “window seat” has an actual window.
Because of the configurations of some planes, the seat rows could be placed in a position that just misses the window.
And instead of a window, you’d just get a wall of the plane.
On Ryanair, The seats to avoid are 11A, 11F or 12F.
Sitting together if you’re travelling as a family
Ryanair is the only airline where it’s worth paying extra if you want to sit together as a family because of the way they randomly allocate seats.
The airline requires that children under 12 must be seated with an adult – and each adult is allocated up to four seats for children.
But in order to pick these seats, the adult in question must pay a mandatory four euro fee to reserve their seat first.
If you don’t, you would have to try your luck once on the flight.
Always pay in the local currency of your departure airport
A recent Which? investigation found that when booking Ryanair flights from abroad to the UK, the airline would switch the currency from the local one to pounds at the end of the booking process.
The result is a much worse exchange rate than one that would be offered by the bank if you’re booking in the local currency.
For example, a flight from Alicante to London Gatwick would cost €156.45, but the system would automatically exchange this to £145.82.
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But if they use the exchange rate given by a Visa bank to convert, then the same amount comes to £137.10 instead, saving approximately £9.
Brits can avoid being caught out by this by opting out of the Ryanair exchange rate, which can be found underneath the “more information” link.
Get in touch quick if you spot a spelling mistake
Once you make your booking, double check all the details are right.
The airline gives you a 24-hour grace period for minor corrections such as name changes.
After that, they will allow you to make changes for a fee up to two hours before boarding.
Changes to names or flights can cost between £35 and £160, depending on whether it is done online or at the airport.
Earlier this year, Ryanair announced that it would be offering cheaper fares when flights are delayed in new customer service improvement drive.
Sun Online Travel previously revealed some of the inflight extras you can ask for.
We also reveal some of the best seats in economy.
