Hi,
I recently flew back with my bike using Ryanair from Spain. I had searched for the flight through skyscanner or similar and found the Ryanair flight I wanted. The site gave me various options for buying the ticket and some of these were cheaper than buying direct from Ryanair. I chose one of these but when it came to choosing my baggage options it didn't give me the bike option. I therefore had to revert to booking direct with the airline via skyscanner which wasn't the cheapest option.
I am now looking at some other possible trips and want to know if any of you have managed what I couldn't do ie secure the cheapest option via an intermediary as it can make quite a big price difference esp. on a long haul flight. Is there a suitable work-around that works? Maybe having to ring/contact the intermediary directly which seems a bit of a faff and not sure if they would be able to do it if it's not an option on their website when you try and book it.

When I get some time I will endeavour to do a write up here on my excellent Spanish off road adventure over 4 weeks
I flew with a very large bike box measuring a massive 190x21x118.5....all thanks to the fact that Ryanair don't specify a max size of bike box This did lead to an interesting time at the airport as it wouldn't go through any of the normal scanners but thanks to a clever security chap, we did eventually get it through their biggest scanning machine with a bit of improvisation. I now plan to get a smaller but more standard size box that is required by most airlines and plan to practice to see how on earth you get an XL MTB in such a box. No doubt a lot harder than a road bike!
Andy

Hey Andy,

We have gone long haul with bikes. It really depends on how much other stuff you want to take. We were under 25kg for nepal for our main bags ( bikes ) packed in bike boxes from a shop. A few extra bits in there. With up to 7kg in hand luggage. Did this to NZ too you just need to read the print and then re read it. Hope that might help a bit

Sarah

The Ryan Air website fees table would seem to imply that you can book your bike on at the airport for £75 rather than the online fee of £60. I suppose the risk is that although you have a seat booked there may be no space for your bike. Bike box weight is only 20 kg after which its an extra £9 / kg with a max of 30 kg.

How much can you save buying your ticket through a third party rather than direct from Ryan Air?

Pretty sure in the past I've booked on Skyscanner then added my bike on the airline's website/app using the booking reference.

rufus748 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:26 pm Pretty sure in the past I've booked on Skyscanner then added my bike on the airline's website/app using the booking reference.

Thanks for the replies ref this question and I think Rufus has provided the answer I was looking for

woodsmith wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:54 am The Ryan Air website fees table would seem to imply that you can book your bike on at the airport for £75 rather than the online fee of £60. I suppose the risk is that although you have a seat booked there may be no space for your bike. Bike box weight is only 20 kg after which its an extra £9 / kg with a max of 30 kg.

How much can you save buying your ticket through a third party rather than direct from Ryan Air?

When using a flight search engine such as skyscanner it comes up with lots of companies you can book the flight with and the discounts vary. As an example, on a flight to Kenya the prices for the same flight can be approx. 14% cheaper by booking through the lowest cost provider as opposed to booking via the actual airline result that skyscanner comes up with, so quite a significant saving.

SR wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:19 am Hey Andy,

We have gone long haul with bikes. It really depends on how much other stuff you want to take. We were under 25kg for nepal for our main bags ( bikes ) packed in bike boxes from a shop. A few extra bits in there. With up to 7kg in hand luggage. Did this to NZ too you just need to read the print and then re read it. Hope that might help a bit

Sarah

Yes, quite handy how you can sometimes include them as part of your main luggage rather than having to pay extra. Have you by any chance got any ride reports/writeups from your trips to the Himalyas and NZ? Both fantastic destinations which I haven't visited.

Andy,

No real write ups of our trips. We went guided with red spokes for Nepal. NZ we self guided with some of the Tour Aotearoa route south island but finish off on the round the mountains route.

How much can you save buying your ticket through a third party rather than direct from Ryan Air?

When using a flight search engine such as skyscanner it comes up with lots of companies you can book the flight with and the discounts vary. As an example, on a flight to Kenya the prices for the same flight can be approx. 14% cheaper by booking through the lowest cost provider as opposed to booking via the actual airline result that skyscanner comes up with, so quite a significant saving.

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Interesting. In my (limited) recent experience its always proved cheaper to buy direct through the airline (Turkish with the bike, KLM, Iceland without). I was asking about Ryan Air specificly as I'll probably be using them to fly with the bike to Morocco. When you've finalised your bookings please post your experiences here.