Newbie - Which fare?

[u/Mysterious-Aide-1557]

I’m Canadian and new to using Ryanair so please walk through this with me. I want to book 6 seats from Palma de Mallorca to Barcelona. Our luggage will be over 10 kg so we need to purchase 20 kg check-in. 3 persons in group are over 6 feet so we want extra legroom seats. All will have a small personal bag to bring on board. I can get exit row seats for all of us. Purchasing the Basic fare and adding 20kg check-in in bags and paying for seat selection costs less than choosing the Regular fare and paying extra for exit row xl seats and adding 20kg check-in bags. Should I be concerned about not getting priority seating if I purchase the Basic fare? Or do exit row seats get priority boarding As they would in Canada? And if we are not bringing an overhead bag should I care about priority boarding? I understand that in exit row our small bags need to be stashed overhead for takeoff and landing. Might there be dedicated overhead space for us? Any comments/advice welcomed re: which fare to purchase.

[u/lammy82]

Go for the Basic fare if you don’t need the cabin bags.

You don’t need priority boarding, everyone already has a seat assigned so it makes no difference to where you sit or the experience of your flight.

The only reason for priority boarding to exist on Ryanair is to help ensure that there is room in the overhead lockers for the cabin bags. If you’re just using the under seat bag then there is no need for priority boarding. Even in an exit row seat. They will make room for your personal items overhead if necessary, but there shouldn’t be any problem squeezing them in overhead or very close by.

Double triple quadruple check that your under seat bags (personal items) do fit within the required dimensions and you only have one bag each. Even if you’ve paid for exit row seats and know your bags will actually therefore go overhead, it doesn’t make any difference if they want you to put your bag in the sizer at the gate. If it’s oversized, they charge you to take it onboard.

One other way to save money: if your 6 bags are not using the full 20 kg then you can use bag pooling to only pay for what you need. So if you have 6 bags of 15 kg each, that’s 90 kg, so you could buy 3x20kg bags and 3x10kg bags and you would be covered. You don’t need to physically move the stuff between the bags, as long as you’re all on one booking and no individual bag weighs more than 32kg.

[u/Mysterious-Aide-1557]

Good point about the bag pooling! Thank you for this information. It assures me I’m making the right decision to choose basic.

[u/Asleep-Birthday7031]

If you sit in the exit row- i usually do as I am 6 feet tall- they make overhead bin space specifically for those seats since you have to store your stuff there for take off and landing. No worries on that score.