Quick Answer:
British Airways offers the most generous free cabin allowance (two bags, 23kg combined, no per-bag weight limit stated), followed by Jet2 (two bags included, 10kg cap). easyJet, Wizz Air, and Ryanair only include a small under-seat bag for free; a full overhead cabin bag costs extra on all three. A single 40×30×20cm bag fits every airline’s free allowance simultaneously.
Verified Allowance Comparison
Checked directly against each airline’s own published policy as of August 2026, not just repeated from other guides.
| Airline | Free Personal Item | Free/Included Overhead Bag | Weight Limit | Key Detail |
| British Airways | 40×30×15cm | 56×45×25cm, included on all fares | 23kg combined for both bags | No per-bag weight limit stated; must lift into the locker unaided |
| Jet2 | 40×30×20cm, no published weight limit | 56×45×25cm, included on all fares | 10kg (cabin bag only) | Can still be gate-checked into the hold on full flights unless you add Guaranteed Cabin Luggage |
| easyJet | 45×36×20cm, 15kg | 56×45×25cm, paid add-on (or included with FLEXI fare/easyJet Plus) | 15kg on both bags | Large bag can no longer be bought at the airport, online only, or a £48 gate fee applies if it doesn’t fit under the seat |
| Wizz Air | 40×30×20cm, 10kg (excludes handles/wheels; wheels may add up to 5cm) | 55×40×23cm, requires WIZZ Priority | 10kg per bag | Both bags measured the same way, wheels/handles excluded but capped at +5cm |
| Ryanair | 40×30×20cm, no weight limit | 55×40×20cm, requires Priority & 2 Cabin Bags | 10kg (overhead bag only) | Personal item size increased from 40×20×25cm on 4 September 2025 |
Two corrections worth flagging against what’s circulating elsewhere: British Airways’ weight allowance is 23kg combined across both bags, not per bag, a distinction some comparison tables get wrong. And British Airways’ personal item is 40×30×15cm, not 45×36×20cm, a figure that appears to be easyJet’s dimension mistakenly attributed to BA in a couple of AI-generated summaries.
Why Ryanair Changed Its Free Bag Size in 2025
This is the single most useful, checkable fact missing from most comparisons of this topic, including every AI tool tested for this piece.
On 4 September 2025, Ryanair increased its free personal bag from 40×20×25cm to 40×30×20cm, roughly 20% more volume. This wasn’t a goodwill gesture. It came directly in response to a European Parliament position (adopted January 2026, building on a June 2025 EU member-state agreement) pushing to standardize a minimum free personal-item size across European carriers, an effort we’ve covered in detail separately, since it’s the same reform behind the EU’s broader air passenger rights overhaul. Ryanair’s new size deliberately exceeds the EU’s proposed 40×30×15cm minimum, positioning the airline ahead of a regulation that isn’t law yet.
There’s a second, less publicized change worth knowing if you fly Ryanair regularly: in November 2025, Ryanair reportedly raised the staff incentive for catching non-compliant bags from €1.50 to €2.50 per bag and removed the previous monthly cap on that incentive. If you’ve flown Ryanair before 2025 without ever having your bag checked and are assuming that’s still the norm, that assumption is now genuinely out of date.
The One Bag That Fits All Five Airlines
If you only want to own a single cabin bag rather than packing differently for every airline, target 40×30×20cm. This exact size falls within the free personal-item allowance on Jet2, Wizz Air, and Ryanair, and comfortably inside British Airways’ and easyJet’s larger free allowances too.
If you’re willing to pay for the larger overhead allowance on the budget carriers (Priority on Ryanair, WIZZ Priority, easyJet’s large bag add-on), a 55×40×20cm bag clears every airline’s paid overhead limit as well as BA’s and Jet2’s included allowance, giving you meaningfully more packing capacity across the board.
What doesn’t work universally: a 56×45×25cm case, BA and Jet2’s included size, is too large for Ryanair’s and Wizz Air’s overhead allowances even with Priority added.
What Real Travelers Actually Report at the Gate
The airlines’ published policies are one thing. What actually happens at the gate is another, and genuine traveler accounts from r/travel and r/Shoestring paint a more textured picture than any policy page.
Enforcement is inconsistent, and depends heavily on who’s checking, not just which airline. Multiple travelers independently describe the same pattern: enforcement varies by staff, by airport, and by how full the flight is, rather than being applied uniformly every time. One detailed account notes that major hub airports (Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, Milan Malpensa) tend to enforce less strictly than secondary “low-cost” airports (Luton, Beauvais, Bergamo), and that Scandinavian airports reportedly show more consistent rule-following than some Southern or Eastern European ones. Ground staff are often third-party contractors (Swissport was named specifically), and enforcement can shift noticeably day to day even on the same route.
This matches the documented Ryanair change directly. One traveler describes being made to check a 34-litre bag in May, for the first time in 15 years of flying Ryanair, and directly attributes it to a genuine crackdown, consistent with the November 2025 enforcement-incentive change above. Other accounts from earlier in 2025 describe years of flying with oversized bags and never being stopped, a real before-and-after split that lines up with the documented timeline rather than contradicting it.
Bag shape and material matter as much as exact dimensions. Several travelers report that soft, compressible backpacks squeeze into gate sizers more easily than rigid suitcases, even when both are technically the same size. One account describes successfully fitting a 40-litre bag by removing bulky items and compressing it at the sizer, while a rigid case at the same declared size might not have the same flexibility.
Paying online in advance is consistently cheaper than risking the gate. This is the most repeated, most practical theme across both threads. One traveler describes a genuinely bad outcome: booking what looked like a £20 flight, then paying roughly £50 for a checked bag and a seat at the gate after being stopped, turning a cheap fare into a considerably more expensive one. The advance-purchase price for the same allowance is typically a fraction of that.
Weight enforcement is the least consistent rule of all. Some travelers report flying dozens of times without ever having a cabin bag weighed. Others describe being weighed and having modest overages (12kg against an 8kg limit, in one account) waved through without consequence. Airlines with a published weight limit (Jet2, easyJet, Wizz Air) can and do enforce it, but real-world accounts suggest it happens far less consistently than size checks at the gate sizer itself.
The Practical Takeaway
Pack to the smallest common denominator (40×30×20cm) if you want one bag that works everywhere without paying extra anywhere. Measure your actual bag, including wheels and handles, since several airlines explicitly count them. And if you’re flying Ryanair specifically, treat the “I’ve never been checked before” assumption as outdated advice from before September and November 2025, not a reliable guide to what happens now.
FAQs
Comparing the Airlines
1. Which airline has the most generous free cabin bag allowance?
British Airways, with two included bags (a 56×45×25cm cabin bag and a 40×30×15cm personal item) and a combined 23kg weight allowance across both, no per-bag limit stated.
2. Is Jet2’s free allowance genuinely as good as British Airways’?
Close. Jet2 includes the same two-bag structure and identical cabin bag dimensions (56×45×25cm), but caps the cabin bag at 10kg, whereas BA states no per-bag weight limit, only that you must lift it unaided.
3. Which airline has the biggest free under-seat bag?
easyJet, at 45×36×20cm with a 15kg limit, notably larger than the 40×30×20cm free allowance on Jet2, Wizz Air, and Ryanair.
4. What size cabin bag fits every one of these five airlines’ free allowance?
40×30×20cm fits within the free personal-item allowance on Jet2, Wizz Air, and Ryanair, and comfortably inside the larger free allowances on British Airways and easyJet.
Ryanair Specifically
5. Did Ryanair’s free bag size actually change recently?
Yes. On 4 September 2025, Ryanair increased its free personal bag from 40×20×25cm to 40×30×20cm, roughly 20% more volume, positioning itself ahead of a pending EU minimum-size proposal.
6. Is Ryanair stricter about cabin bags now than it used to be?
14 days from the violation date. After that window, objections are no longer accepted.
6. Is there a discount for paying traffic fines early in Qatar?
Genuine traveler reports and a documented policy change both point that way. In November 2025, Ryanair reportedly increased its staff incentive for catching non-compliant bags and removed the previous monthly cap, and multiple travelers report a noticeable enforcement shift around that time.
7. Does Ryanair weigh the free personal bag?
Ryanair states no weight limit for the free personal bag, only the 55×40×20cm Priority overhead bag carries a published 10kg limit.
Practical Packing
8. Do handles and wheels count toward the size limit?
It varies. British Airways, Jet2, easyJet, and Ryanair measure the full bag including wheels and handles. Wizz Air excludes them from the base measurement but caps how far wheels can protrude (up to 5cm extra).
9. Is it cheaper to pay for a larger bag online or at the gate?
Online, by a significant margin on every airline covered here. Real traveler accounts describe gate fees roughly doubling or tripling the cost of pre-booking the same allowance.
10. Can I buy easyJet’s large cabin bag at the airport?
No. easyJet removed the option to purchase the large cabin bag at the airport; it must be added online in advance, or a £48 fee applies at the gate if an unbooked bag doesn’t fit under the seat.
Editorial & Accuracy Standards
- Expert Review:
Ammara Azmat,
Senior Travel Mobility Analyst (12+ years experience) - Status: Verified for accuracy against official 2026 service data and real-time traveller reports.
- Our Process: This content follows our Fact-Checking Policy.
