How to Pack Hand Luggage Only: A UK Guide to Ryanair and easyJet Size Limits

Most packing advice is written for people checking a suitcase. In the UK, most short haul flying is done with hand luggage only, because checked bags on budget airlines cost more than the seat did.

That changes the problem entirely. It is no longer about packing light in the abstract. It is about fitting a trip inside a specific box, measured at the gate, with a fee waiting if you get it wrong.

The dimensions that actually matter

Airlines change these, so check before you fly. As a working guide for UK short haul:

• Ryanair small free bag: 40 x 20 x 25cm, must fit under the seat
• easyJet small free bag: 45 x 36 x 20cm, under the seat
• Larger cabin bag with priority or added on: usually around 55 x 40 x 20cm

Two things people get wrong. The measurements include wheels and handles, which is where hard shell cases fail. And the smaller free allowance is genuinely small, so a normal weekend bag will not pass.

A soft backpack compresses into a sizer where a rigid case does not, which is why experienced hand luggage travellers use one. If you fly with a larger allowance, travel and luggage options with proper structure make more sense.

Roll, and use the corners

Rolling compresses clothes into cylinders that stack without wasted air. Folding leaves gaps and creases along the fold lines.

Once rolled, fill the corners. Socks and underwear go inside shoes. Chargers go in the gaps between rolls. A cabin bag loses more capacity to empty corners than to anything else.

Packing cubes help less with space than with retrieval. Their real value is not having to unpack the whole bag to find one thing at a airport security desk.

The five day rule

Almost any trip up to a week fits in a cabin bag with five days of clothing, because you rewear.

• Five tops
• Two bottoms, one worn and one packed
• One layer, a cardigan or light jacket
• Underwear and socks for the full trip, because they take almost no space
• Two pairs of shoes at most, wearing the bulkier pair

Pick one colour scheme so everything combines. Three tops and two bottoms that all work together give more outfits than five tops that each go with only one thing.

Socks are worth doing properly since they weigh nothing. Merino or bamboo women's socks and men's socks resist odour far longer than cotton, which matters when you are packing five pairs for seven days.

Wear your bulkiest items

The oldest hand luggage trick and still the most effective. Coat, boots and jeans go on your body, not in the bag.

A coat also functions as extra storage. Deep pockets take a phone, wallet, passport and charger, and coats are not weighed or measured.

Dress in layers for the flight itself. Aircraft cabins run cold and airports run hot, and a base layer under a jumper handles both without taking up bag space.

Liquids

The rule remains 100ml containers in a single clear resealable bag of about a litre, though some UK airports have newer scanners with different rules. Check your specific departure airport, and note that your return airport may differ.

The practical answer is to take less. Most accommodation provides shampoo and shower gel. Solid toiletries, a shampoo bar or a solid deodorant, are not liquids at all and sidestep the rule entirely.

Decant into small refillable bottles rather than buying travel minis every time.

What goes in your personal item

Anything you cannot replace, plus anything you want during the flight.

• Passport, boarding pass, wallet
• Phone, charger and power bank, which must be in the cabin and never in a checked bag
• Medication in original packaging
• Headphones
• An empty water bottle to fill after security

Keep this bag under the seat in front rather than in the overhead locker so you are not standing up mid flight.

Coming home with more than you left with

The predictable problem. You leave with a full bag and want to return with things in it.

Pack a foldable bag flat in your case. It weighs almost nothing and expands into a second bag for the return, though check whether your return fare includes an allowance for it.

Wearing your bulkiest clothes home frees the same space it did on the way out.

The final check

Before you close the bag, take out three things.

There will be three. The second pair of jeans, the shoes for one evening, the book you will not open. Most people wear about two thirds of what they pack, and the third you leave behind is the difference between a bag that closes easily and one that does not fit the sizer.

The genuine test is whether you can lift it into an overhead locker one handed. If you cannot, it is too heavy regardless of what the label says.

A note on weight limits

Size and weight are separate limits and both are enforced. A small bag packed with books can exceed a 10kg limit while fitting the sizer perfectly.

Weigh your bag at home on bathroom scales. Weigh yourself, then weigh yourself holding the bag, and take the difference. It costs nothing and it is considerably cheaper than finding out at the gate.