Checked Bag Fees: What the Same Bag Costs at Booking and at the Airport

Sponsored by FlyraGo, a flight, hotel, eSIM and car rental comparison service. FlyraGo supported the research and had no role in the findings; every source and number below is checked to the publication's own standard.

Ryanair's published fee table, as it stood on 3 October 2026, contains two prices for the same object. A 23kg check-in bag costs from 28.99 euro if bought during the initial booking and from 54 euro if bought afterwards, at the airport or through the call centre. That is not a service fee for arriving at a counter, and it is not a late booking penalty in the usual sense. It is a second, higher price list for the identical bag, priced to be paid under worse conditions.

The comparison gets sharper as the bag gets heavier, or rather as the pricing structure gets less forgiving. A 10kg bag listed from 10.49 euro at booking is listed from 24 euro afterwards, about 2.3 times as much. A 20kg bag moves from a listed low of 21.49 euro to 39.99 euro. And at the top of each range the gap narrows, because a 23kg bag bought late costs 97 euro against 80.99 euro when bought early, about 1.2 times as much. The expensive ticket is the one bought at the wrong end of the table.

easyJet, whose fees page was published on the same date, takes a different approach to the same charge. Its hold luggage is priced per item per flight, and the airport price is a flat 60 pounds at the bag drop desk for any hold bag up to 23kg that was not purchased in advance. The company states on that page that buying online is always cheaper than at the airport.

The two published tables, side by side

Figures are as published by each carrier on 3 October 2026. Ryanair's page states that prices are shown in euro and sterling and that fees are subject to VAT on domestic routes in Italy, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden. easyJet notes that its online prices vary with demand, route, flight date and time of booking.

Two pricing structures, not two prices for one thing

The most common mistake in comparing these carriers is to assume the numbers are comparable. They are not, and the difference is not a discount.

Ryanair sells weight. Its table runs in bands at 10kg, 20kg and 23kg, and a lighter bag costs less because it is a smaller product. It also sells excess weight on a per kilo basis, at 13 euro per kilogram, but only through the after booking and airport channel, not at the time of booking.

easyJet sells items. Its hold luggage is charged per item per flight, which means a 10kg bag and a 23kg bag attract the same airport charge of 60 pounds. It also sells additional weight, but only as an add-on to a pre-booked hold bag, in increments of 3kg at up to 15 pounds per increment, with the airport fallback at 12 pounds per kilogram.

So the cheapest possible outcome differs by carrier. On Ryanair, fitting inside 10kg at booking is the cheapest way to carry clothes. On easyJet, a single hold bag up to 23kg costs the same as a single 10kg bag at the airport, which changes how the question should be asked.

The fees that are not about bags

Both published tables carry charges that catch travellers who assumed they had budgeted for everything. Ryanair's table lists a flight change fee at 45 euro online and 60 euro through an agent or at the airport, a name change fee at 115 euro online and 160 euro through an agent, a missed departure fee at 100 euro, a booking fee of 50 euro payable after booking, and an airport check-in fee of 55 euro, reduced to 30 euro on flights from Spain and 40 euro from Austria.

One line on that table deserves particular attention. Ryanair lists a card payment fee as a cost related percentage of the total transaction value, which depends on the form of payment and on where the payment service providers are located. A surcharge attached to the method of paying, rather than to the ticket, is a pricing practice with no equivalent on easyJet's table, where credit card and debit card transactions are both listed as free and the page states plainly that no fee is charged for either.

easyJet lists a change fee of 49 pounds online and 55 pounds through the customer services team for cancellations within 24 hours of booking, a Flex Pass at 14 pounds per passenger per flight that permits one change per flight, and an infant charge of 25 pounds per infant per flight. Its page also records zero for airport and security charges and zero for a fuel surcharge, with government taxes stated as included in the price shown.

What UK law requires you to be told

The Department for Transport's air passenger travel guide states that airlines and travel agents selling flight tickets must make clear the full price for all mandatory charges, such as taxes, at the time of booking. It goes on to state that they should make clear any additional costs for optional extras, and it gives luggage allowance and seat selection as the examples.

That is a disclosure obligation and not a pricing obligation. Nothing in it requires the cost of a bag to appear in the fare you are quoted, and nothing prevents an airline publishing two price lists for the same item as long as both are made clear. The practical effect is that the headline fare on a search result is not the price of the trip, and the number that determines whether a particular flight is a good deal is assembled across the fare, the bag, the seat and the payment method.

Pricing your actual bag before you book

The published tables give you enough to do this properly rather than roughly. Take the specific weight you need, find whether the carrier sells weight bands or items per flight, and price both channels for your route and dates, because the ranges shown are wide and the top of the range is roughly double the bottom in several cases.

Then compare the resulting total against the fare of a competing flight that includes a bag. A low-cost fare plus a hold bag at the airport can exceed a full-service fare with 23kg included, and the difference between the two is frequently larger than the difference between the two fares. FlyraGo, which supported the research behind this guide, compares fares across airlines and travel agencies with the inclusions of each fare visible at the point of comparison, so the total can be assessed before booking rather than reconstructed at the bag drop desk.

The limits of these figures

They are single published snapshots. Ryanair states on its page that prices vary by route and travel date, and easyJet states that its online prices vary with demand, route, flight date and time of booking, so the ranges are not averages but ceilings and floors around a variable middle.

Both tables describe economy fares. Bags at a higher cabin class are frequently included and are not represented here, which is one of the reasons a full-service fare is sometimes cheaper once the bag is added. And none of this covers the third country operators on some routes, whose published schedules differ again.