Tag: travel-tips

Ryanair’s New Baggage Rules: What Travelers Need to Know

My last column, writing about Ryanair and the possibility of them setting up a tour operator, got some really good feedback — so thank you for that. Ryanair is a story that keeps on giving, and these past two weeks have been no exception.

They have introduced new baggage rules which, to be honest, won’t make much of a difference. I imagine I’ll just be able to bring back a few more tea bags than I did before. They have increased the maximum size of the so-called “personal item” (to be stored under the seat) from 35x20x20cm to 40x25x20cm. This is the standard allowance for all passengers. If you want to bring a larger wheelie case, you must pay for priority boarding, which includes one larger cabin bag (55x40x20cm) and a second smaller item that can be stored in the overhead locker. Don’t you just love it when the priority boarders have to get on the same bus to the airplane as the rest of us in cattle class — or is that just me?

I wish all airlines would agree on a standard size for cabin baggage. It’s very confusing. When you arrive at the gate there are so many different baggage sizers. Take a look at the photo above — and that’s only four airlines.

Ryanair will no doubt have their pack of hyenas at the gates, doing their best to ruin the start of your flight. I think some of them take pleasure in causing that misery. To make matters worse, they have increased their staff incentive programme to catch people out — from €1.50 to €2.50. This bonus used to be capped at €80 per month per person, but this has now been removed, which means they can earn as much as they want. Be warned!

I still laugh that they charge you a €45 administration fee to change a flight. I have no problem with being charged the difference between the flight I booked and the flight I am changing to. What I do object to is the so-called “admin fee.” Why? Because you actually do the admin yourself! At this rate, I’ll be charging myself for an oversized bag if I’m not careful.

They’ve also been in the news this week after apparently dropping one million seats from Spanish airports for the upcoming year. I’m led to believe that the rise equates to €0.68 per passenger. AENA, the company in charge of most of Spain’s airports, has said that it’s a 6.62% year-on-year rise. AENA also points out that Ryanair has raised its fares by 21% in the past year. Whilst this is a game of poker, it will be interesting to see if either side folds. My guess is that the routes Ryanair has dropped are their least profitable or loss-making ones and therefore won’t have a significant effect on their bottom line.

My friend and fellow podcaster Martin Makepeace, from our Talking Balearics podcast, loves Ryanair. He always books seat 17F — by the window, with legroom. Mind you, he is 6’7”, so he needs as much help as he can get!

As you can probably tell from the above, I’m not a fan. Will it stop me booking a flight with them if it’s the cheapest around? Probably not. And if any of those hyenas come snooping around, I’ll stick my bag where the sun doesn’t shine!

Evolution of the UK Holiday Industry: A Historical Overview

When I joined the tour operating world in 1990, tour operators were two a penny. ILG, the company I worked for, had numerous brands such as Intasun, Lancaster, Global, Club 18–30, and Horizon, to name just a few. After they went bust in 1991, the tour operating world started to change.

The major players then were Thomson, Airtours, Thomas Cook, and Owners Abroad, which rebranded as First Choice in 1994. After the Gulf War of the early ’90s, the holiday industry started to recover. Although the internet had begun, people were still booking their holidays at travel agents such as Lunn Poly, Thomas Cook, and Going Places. Who remembers searching the TV for a Teletext holiday? Unbelievable now when you think about it.

By the mid-’90s, the European Council relaxed the rules to create a common aviation area across Europe, and this was the start of the no-frills airline revolution. Ryanair, a company that had started in 1984, was known—believe it or not—for its customer service! In 1988, Michael O’Leary, who was an accountant at the time, was sent in to try and save Ryanair as it was losing millions of pounds. EasyJet started in 1995 when Stelios Haji-Ioannou took a loan from his shipping-tycoon father. He said at the time he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Interestingly, both companies looked to the American airline Southwest for inspiration in building what you see today.

Between 1996 and 2015, passenger numbers at UK airports increased by 85 percent, from 135 million to 251 million—driven by flights sold by low-cost carriers and online booking. The traffic was also coming from more regional airports such as Stansted, Luton, and Liverpool.

This was definitely having an effect on the tour operators, with people now booking directly or with dynamic packaging companies, often for shorter trips. The traditional 7- or 14-night holiday was becoming a thing of the past. This squeeze brought about mergers: Airtours (rebranded as MyTravel in 2002) merged with Thomas Cook in 2007, and in the same year TUI, which operated the Thomson brand, merged with First Choice. Around this time, OTAs (Online Travel Agents) started to take off. On the Beach launched in 2004 from a terraced house in Macclesfield, and Love Holidays began in 2012.

The 9/11 attacks, subsequent wars, the global financial crisis, and the pandemic wreaked havoc across the holiday industry over the years, ultimately leading to the collapse of Thomas Cook in September 2019.

That left a gap in the market, which was filled by a company that had actually started in 1971 as Carpenters Air Services, flying flowers from Guernsey to the UK. After going through various guises, Jet2 launched its first scheduled leisure flight from Leeds Bradford Airport in 2003. In 2007, its holiday division was launched, and it has since become the leader in the package holiday industry.

Another company that began to fill the Thomas Cook void was already an established player in the airline industry. In November 2019, EasyJet Holidays was launched. It quickly realised that a seat sold as part of a package holiday generated more money per head than a seat-only sale.

When you look at the top five ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence) holders as of April 2025, it makes for interesting reading:

1. Jet2holidays

2. TUI

3. Loveholidays

4. easyJet Holidays

5. On the Beach

Now, I know you may think I’m mad, but don’t be surprised to see Ryanair Holidays within the next five years—or maybe even sooner. In fact, in a roundabout sort of way, they already exist without you knowing it. Ryanair has many partners in the holiday world, but the most recognisable are TUI, On the Beach, and Love Holidays—all of which include Ryanair flights in their packages. So don’t be surprised if Ryanair eventually takes over either On the Beach or Love Holidays in the future.

To borrow a football analogy: the holiday industry is a funny old game!

Navigating Car Hire Insurance: What You Need to Know

With all the travelling I do, I take out insurance that covers me for all the cars I rent. It is without doubt the cheaper way to do things. A year’s cost is usually about the same as taking out two fully comprehensive insurances that you pay as an add-on at the rental desk when you arrive. Most car hire companies will put you on third-party insurance and then add the fully comprehensive cover when you collect the car.

By taking out your own insurance, you avoid that cost—but you have to be aware that the excess charge is usually quite hefty. Obviously, this takes away the opportunity for car hire companies to make extra money from customers, so they try to make it as difficult as possible.

To deter people from doing this, they’ve now increased the excess charge from £1,000 to £1,500. Another thing I’ve noticed on my last two visits to the UK in recent weeks is a change in how they operate when giving you your car. It used to be that, after completing all the paperwork and signing the contract, they would lead you out to the car. Once there, they’d show you around and point out any damage to the vehicle. However, on both recent occasions, they’ve stayed behind the desk and said, “Please check the car over yourself by either videoing or taking pictures and making a note of any damage.”

Basically, they’re putting the onus on you to identify any issues with the car. I’ve rented from two different companies in the UK over the last couple of weeks, and both behaved the same way. I wonder—if you do take out their insurance, do they still bother to come out with you? I’d be interested to know if this has happened to anyone else.

Now, this is fine when the sun is shining and it’s warm because you can see everything. But what are you supposed to do in winter when it’s cold, dark, and raining? If you don’t report something, they’re likely to blame you for the damage. My hunch is this is a way of clawing back the money they lose when customers don’t take their insurance. I’d be happy to be proved wrong, but the way they now ask the question at the desk, it’s almost as if they assume you already have your own cover. Still, they seem determined to find other ways of squeezing as much money out of you as possible.

It reminds me of the check-in staff at low-cost airlines who inspect whether your bag fits into those size checkers. Reports have surfaced this week claiming they receive around €1.50 for every bag they identify as oversized. I think it depends on the airline and how motivated the staff are—on my last two trips, they didn’t bother checking at all.

Low-cost airline fares and cheap car hire are fast becoming a thing of the past, if I’m honest, and it seems we’re all going to have to pay more in the future.

Heathrow Closure and Passport Fee Hikes: What to Know

The breaking news on the radio early Friday morning was Heathrow being closed. My immediate thought was that there had been a terrorist attack or there had been a crash. Thankfully, it was neither of those. A fire at a nearby sub-station had caused a power outage. Unfortunately, it meant that the airport had had to close down, and it wasn’t known when it was going to re-open. The closure meant that thousands of people’s travel plans were disrupted. Not just at Heathrow, but the knock on effect was felt around the World. It begs the question, why does one of the biggest airports in the World not have sufficient back up to run all of its systems? Surely the money lost on that day would have paid for it? 

The UK Government is going to raise the cost of passport applications from the 10th of April 2025. This is subject to Parliament approval, but with the majority the Government have there shouldn’t be a problem.

  • the fee for a standard online application made from within the UK will rise from £88.50 to £94.50 for adults and £57.50 to £61.50 for children
  • postal applications will increase from £100 to £107 for adults and £69 to £74 for children
  • the fee for a Premium Service (1 day) application made from within in the UK will rise from £207.50 to £222 for adults and £176.50 to £189 for children
  • the fee for a standard online application when applying from overseas for a UK passport will rise from £101 to £108 for adults and £65.50 to £70 for children
  • overseas standard paper applications will increase from £112.50 to £120.50 for adults and £77 to £82.50 for children 

In 2024, where no further information was required, 99.7% of standard applications from the UK were processed within 3 weeks. You may want to look at the date of all your family passports to save yourself some.money.

The British Embassy in Spain is urging all British nationals resident in Spain to get a tarjeta de identidad de extranjero (TIE) as soon as possible, following new information from the Spanish Government that the old Green Certificate will not be recognised by the EU’s Entry Exit System.  

The EU have yet to announce a date for when the Entry Exit System (EES) will come into force, though it is believed to be later this year. Under this new border system, all non-EU short stay travellers will need to register their name, passport details, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) upon entering Spain or any other EU country. These details will be held on file for three years, meaning Britons making repeat visits to Spain within a three-year period will not have to go through the same registration process each time or have their passport stamped once EES is fully implemented.  

To be exempt from registering with the EES, British residents in the EU will need to show a valid uniform-format biometric card. For British residents in Spain, only a TIE will be accepted by Spanish and EU authorities. The Green Certificate will not be recognised because it does not meet the requirements to feature in Annex 22 of the Schengen Borders Code.   

As a result, Green Certificate holders attempting to enter Spain or any other country in the Schengen zone will not be able to use their Green Certificate as valid proof of residency and may be wrongly accused of overstaying in the EU. This could lead to them being denied entry and returned to the UK. There will be an appeals process, although it may require the Green Certificate holder to return to the UK until it is resolved.  

You can Subscribe to receive my blogs by email at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Exploring Family-Friendly Travel: Center Parcs to Cancun

We returned from our Christmas break last week with our batteries recharged and ready for what 2025 has to offer. 

Christmas with the family is a must-do for us every year, although tinged with some sadness this year after the passing of my Mother. We stayed at Center Parcs in Woburn for the beginning part of our break. If you’re not familiar with them, they are a holiday resort brand offering family-friendly short breaks in natural forested settings. Operating several holiday villages across the UK, each designed to provide a tranquil escape while offering a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities for all ages. What I love about them is they are so big that you never see a lot of people at any one particular time, and that they are car free. 

I say this every year and I will keep on saying it, Center Parcs would be perfect for Mallorca and particularly to help promote the winter months here. One highlight of our trip every year is going to see our team the Arsenal play and as usual tickets were hard to come by but a good friend of ours managed to sort them for us. At the time of the game, we were staying at the Premier Inn in Gatwick Airport, in preparation for our holiday abroad. So we caught the Gatwick Express to Victoria and then the Tube to Arsenal. We booked our tickets on the Train Line App and halved the cost that we would have paid by paying at the station. 

Our holiday was booked through TUI, who we’ve travelled with for quite a few years now. We find the choice and prices they offer particularly on long haul holidays are usually the best compared to say Virgin or BA. Interestingly, we flew with BA to our destination, which was Cancún in Mexico. We were booked into the Grand Palladium Select, situated in Costa Mujeres. Approximately 45 minutes from the airport. The Palladium Hotel Group is a well-known Spanish hotel chain established in the late 1960s. It operates a diverse portfolio of luxury and all-inclusive properties across several brands, catering to various types of travellers, including families, couples, and adults-only guests. Headquartered in Ibiza, Spain, the group is part of the Matutes Group, a family-owned conglomerate with interests in tourism and real estate. On Ibiza they own some of the most iconic brands including Ushuaia, Hi Ibiza and Privilege Nghtcub. Here in Mallorca, they own the BH complex in Magaluf that they’ve turned into a huge family complex in partnership with Fergus Hotels. 

Palladium aren’t the only Balearic based hotel company with interests in long haul destinations. Melia, Riu and Iberostar are well represented, and it makes you wonder that one of the reasons why the Balearics suffers during the winter months could be their concentration on their long haul offerings. 

Another Balearic business situated at our hotel was the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy. It opened in 2018 and provides excellent tennis facilities for the guests at the hotel. 

All in all it was a lovely relaxing holiday and the Mexican people are very friendly, polite and hard-working. 

One thing I noticed on the way home was, why is it that long haul flights are always such a mess at the end? There is rubbish everywhere, and having flown on many a low-cost flight and see how they keep their flights as clean as possible. Why can’t the long haul flights do the same? 

Ryanair Holidays

My life in Tourism began in the mid-eighties when I worked for Butlins holiday hotels as a Redcoat. My experience there led me to start work overseas here in Mallorca in 1990. I was a Holiday Rep for Intasun Holidays, working at the Guadalupe Hotel for my first season. At that time, there were loads of UK Tour Operators. Intasun were under the ILG banner which also included Global, Lancaster, Club 1830, Sol Holidays and the airline Air Europe. Their main rival was Thomson, who had Skytours, Horizon and their own airline called Brittania. There are lots of others too including, Cosmos, Owners Abroad (First Choice), Airtours and Thomas Cook. 

Remember, all this was before the internet was invented, so people booked their holidays with a travel agent or on teletext (remember that!) Low-cost airlines weren’t around at that time, although interestingly a company called Skytrain took to the air for the first time on 26 September 1977 when their inaugural flight departed London Gatwick for New York JFK. This flight carried 272 passengers on one of the airline’s 345-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-10 wide bodied aircraft. The fares charged at the time were £59 (equivalent to £463 in 2024) one-way from London and $135 (equivalent to £1,059 in 2024) one-way from New York. It makes we wonder why the owner Sir Freddie Laker decided to take on British Airways and the large American carriers at that time to fly long haul. When surely it would have been cheaper and more economical to fly short haul? He went bust five years later. 

Ryanair had been in existence since 1984 but by the mid 1990s it had become a big player in the European low-cost market, they were followed In 1996 by EasyJet with their first European flights. Both of these airlines began to totally change the way we travel and giving people the opportunity to arrange their own holidays. Interestingly starting in 1996 in Amsterdam, was Booking.com who have grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the world’s leading digital travel companies. On the back of both Ryanair and Easyjet. 

This then led to there being fewer Tour Operators, and they started to buy each other up. The biggest mergers were in 2007 when Thomas Cook partnered with My Travel and Tui partnered with First Choice. 

2007 also saw the emergence of Jet2 Holidays who had mainly been a flight only and freight company before that. 

Fast-forward to today, and the travel landscape is very different. 

The Leading ATOL-licensed tour operators in the United Kingdom as of February 2024, ranked by number of passengers licensed, with figures from Statista are;

  1. Jet2 Holidays 
  2. TUI UK
  3. Love Holidays 
  4. Booking.com
  5. EasyJet Holidays

With all the consolidation in the holiday market there is one name that’s missing in that Tour Operating top five. Ryanair have so far resisted the temptation to delve into the package holiday market. Interestingly, though, in January this year they agreed a new partnership with Love Holidays for its customers who wish to book low-cost package holidays. This deal allows Love Holidays customers to buy Ryanair flights, seats, and bags as part of their love holidays package at Ryanair’s low prices.

Don’t be surprised to see Ryanair take that partnership further by buying Love Holidays or another online travel agent and launching Ryanair Holidays. It seems the natural way forward and having seen what EasyJet have done, I’m sure they won’t be far behind. 

10 Ways To Save Money in Mallorca

Everyone is saying how expensive Mallorca has become, so I’ve come up with 10 ways to save money here on the island. 

  1. The Spanish government subsidises 75% of the fares of scheduled air or sea transport for all EU citizens who are residents of the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla. For us Brits living in Mallorca it means to qualify for the discount, you must be a permanent resident, either with the green NIE stating ‘permanente’ or with the TIE card. You also need to get a resident certificate from the municipal council where you are registered. I got ours from one of the tourist information offices. 
  2. All public transport will continue to be free in 2024. This will be for interurban buses, trains and Metro in Mallorca. Palma buses are treated separately, and the town hall has said these are also free. To get your card, you’ll need to take your NIE and ‘empadronamiento’ – proof of residence in your local municipality – to one of the travel information offices. Palma’s intermodal station is just one of the locations where you can obtain your card. Note that the Soller train is not included in the above. 
  3. In the municipality where I live in Calvia, parking is free in the blue zones in the winter, which is normally November to the end of March. In those blue zones in the summer months, you have to pay on Mondays to Fridays 09.30 to 13.30 and 16.00 to 20.00. Saturdays, 09:30 to 13.30, Sundays and bank holidays are free. It’s always best to check the machine before paying. It can be different in other municipalities, so it’s good to check first. There is a parking app called Elparking.com which I haven’t used yet but looks useful, particularly in the summer months. 
  4. Hotel treats is a website that offers vouchers to luxury hotels, spas and beach clubs not just to tourists but to residents too. My Wife made me aware of this when she booked a day at Puro Beach in Illetas last summer. We got a Bali bed for two, drinks and fruit on arrival and a three-course meal with wine in their restaurant, all for just €100. 
  5. Menú del día, or “menu of the day”, is a set menu or served by Spanish restaurants during weekday lunch, one of the largest meals of the day in Spain. It is known for being economical, and normally you’ll have a choice of 3 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts plus a bottle of house wine and water. Lots of restaurants are offering this now, not just your traditional Spanish restaurants. 
  6. Most of the supermarkets have loyalty cards. We shop in Lidl, who have an app that you can download. You tend to find that they will offer you discount on the things you buy regularly, which is useful. Aldi offer something similar, Eroski and Carrefour have a club card system and as far as I am aware Mercadona do not have anything. Although they do have that annoying jingle which now I’ve said it will be going on in your heads all day! 
  7. “Too Good To Go” is the free food recovery app that makes it easy to make a positive impact on the planet while saving money on your favourite foods. The #1 app for reducing food waste, you can save tasty unsold snacks, takeaway meals, and ingredients straight from shops, cafés, supermarkets and restaurants in your area – all at an unbeatable price. Most of the offers range from €2 to €5 and are normally available in the afternoon/evening. 
  8. Mallorca Fashion Outlet is situated just outside Marratxi on the outskirts of Palma. It has a full array of shops offering factory prices plus a cinema, karting and many different food outlets. Every last Thursday of the month they offer “Super Thursdays” where they offer even bigger discounts. I went to one last year when they were offering all goods without paying IVA(VAT to you and I).
  9. Most excursions on the island offer a resident’s discount. It’s best to check with each one what they offer. At Pirates, you can get 20% off of Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos, by using the code RESW20. But keep a lookout in the winter months, as sometimes we’ll offer a bigger discount for a limited period only. 
  10. Most of the above are for residents here on the island, but a few of them can be used if you’re visiting us from somewhere else. I would encourage more of you to come in the low season and in the winter. Mallorca and Palma in particular have a great deal to offer than just sun, sea and sand. Gastronomy, culture, bars, boutique hotels, history and lots of shopping opportunities are just a few of the highlights. 

This list has been made up of things I already knew and some from friends that I didn’t know about. I’m sure there are many more, so please feel free to send them to me or add them into the comments below. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi, or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

Mallorca Too Expensive?

I see a lot of comments on social media about how expensive Mallorca has become. Being an island that has to import most of its produce, unfortunately means we are hit harder than most. But most of the complaints seem to be about the cost of holidays, flights and hotels. Once again, being an island doesn’t help, as it limits the ways people can get to us. 

Possibly we have become victims of our own success and popularity means more, and more people are choosing to come here. If Tour Operators, hoteliers and airlines see that demand and load factors are high, then why would they drop their prices? I’m not saying it’s right, but it makes business sense and let’s face it, they are not in it to lose money. A change I have seen is that the Brits do not seem to dominate the market as much as they used to. In the resort of Magalluf which has been a predominantly British resort for years, we are now seeing Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, Scandinavians and Americans. At Pirates, particularly in our family Adventure show, we have seen a huge shift. Years ago, our market would have been 90% British, but that has now slipped to just over 50% with all the other markets filling the space. 

Mallorca hoteliers who own Iberostar and Melia hotels International hit the headlines when they were announced on Forbes billionaire list. Then came the usual pile on from the keyboard warriors about reducing their hotel prices in Mallorca. Let’s remember that although these businesses are based here, they have hotels and other businesses all over the World. So their fortune is not just built here. When I was in Seville in February, I booked a room for one night at the Eurostars Torre Sevilla for 3 of us, and it cost me €150. The weekend that Real Mallorca played there in the Copa del Rey final, the same hotel was €599 for one night! It’s a trend copied by tour operators, hoteliers and airlines worldwide and if you want to go somewhere that’s popular, I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay for it. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com