Ryanair passengers who try luggage 'hack' risk '11 item' penalty'

Ryanair passengers have been told to follow a strict packing rule and avoid a viral "hack" which could leave them paying more. Ryanair, which is rivalled by Jet2, Easyjet, TUI, British Airways and more, is well-known for its strict and tight baggage and luggage restrictions.

And passengers should ditch the packing hacks if they want to avoid additional fees. 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.

"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.

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"And then two pieces of larger carry-on luggage: a hard-shelled suitcase and a rucksack (50x40x20cm), both Cabin Max." It went on: "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."

"Our results show you can forget the hype around vacuum packing and compression cubes. Even rolling our clothes didn't give us an advantage," they added. "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."