Ryanair Prime was retired in November 2025
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Have you heard of Ryanair Prime? It’s the new frequent flyer membership scheme from Ryanair. But what is it, how much does it cost and the big question – can it save you money?
What is Ryanair Prime?
Ryanair Prime is a membership scheme from Ryanair, which launched in March 2025. It offers Prime members travel perks, like free seat reservations, free travel insurance and exclusive seat sales.
Who can sign up for Ryanair Prime?
Right now, people who are resident in the following countries can sign up for Ryanair Prime:
- UK
- Ireland
- Austria
- Belgium
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Spain
The scheme is currently capped at 250,000 members – on a first come, first served basis.
What benefits do I get with Ryanair Prime?
In a nutshell, Ryanair Prime gives members the following benefits:
Free seat selection
You get can select seats for free on selected Ryanair flights.
Exclusive fare discounts
You’ll get access to special deals on seats just for Prime members.
Travel insurance
You get travel insurance for your flight.
Are there restrictions on Ryanair Prime?
Free seat selection
You get a maximum of 12 free seat selections per year. So that equals 6 return flights. The flights have to be booked and taken within the membership year – so if you’re booking flights a long way in advance, you mightn’t be able to use the benefit (more on that later).
The Ts&Cs also mention that there’s a limited number of free reserved seating in specific rows. So, as far as the legals go, there’s actually no guarantee that there’ll be a seat you can reserve for free on your flight or where this seat will be.
Exclusive fare discounts
You can book as many exclusive fares as you like, although these flights must operate within the membership year. You’ll get notified about exclusive Prime fares once a month via email.
Travel insurance
You get basic travel insurance for all Ryanair flights you take whilst you’re a Prime member. It covers things like having to cancel your flight due to illness or injury, delayed departures, stolen or damaged baggage and medical emergencies. Additional medical exclusions apply to Ryanair Prime members who are over 70 years old.
The other big restriction to look out for relates to the membership period:
Membership period
The membership period for Prime is 12 months from the date you pay for it, and you can only use Prime benefits on flights booked and operating within this period.
So let’s say you’re 8 months into your year of Prime and you want to book a flight that departs in 6 months’ time – you won’t get your Prime benefits because the flight leaves after your current membership period ends. Even if you’re planning to renew your subscription, the benefits won’t apply.
Can I use my Ryanair Prime benefits for other people in my booking?
As a Prime Member, you can add something called a Ryanair Prime Companion. The Ts&Cs say this has to be done during the sign up process.
The Companion gets access to Prime benefits, but it’s not free! You’ll have to pay another £79, so it’s basically just like buying two separate Prime memberships – especially as there’s no guarantee of seats together.
Can I use Ryanair Prime for my kids?
If you’re travelling with a child under 2, they can be added to your booking (one infant per adult travelling) although they will be classed as a regular passenger and won’t get any Prime benefits.
If you’re travelling with kids aged 2-15, they can’t use Ryanair Prime. You’ll need to book your own Prime fare, then book theirs separately as an adult ticket – because you can’t book a stand-alone child ticket.
Once you’ve booked, you can then link the ticket to your Prime booking, when you’ll be able to update the passenger type to child (yes it’s an absolute faff!). There’s more info in Ryanair’s FAQs.
How much is Ryanair Prime?
Ryanair Prime costs £79 a year for UK residents.
How can I save money on Ryanair Prime?
If you’ve seen any of the adverts for this new membership, you may have spotted that the price is just €79 for our European counterparts which works out at around £67 – that’s a saving of £12!
You may be able to get this by accessing Ryanair on one of their European sites – you could try using their Irish pages for instance! Otherwise, you could try using a VPN to change your location or even by signing up to Ryanair Prime when you’re in a different country!
Bizarrely, we were able to nab the €79 fee by signing up using our phone browser but we’re not sure what the science is behind that…
Either way, if you do manage to pay in euros, make sure you’re paying with a card that does not charge you any foreign transaction fees.
Our Experience of Ryanair Prime
“I signed up – so you don’t have to!
My test included searching for a flight for 1 adult between London Stansted and Rome, flying between Saturday 10 May at 13:55 and returning on Wednesday 14 May at 10:15.
I searched for the flight logged into a standard account, and then also logged into an account that has Ryanair Prime.
I proceeded with selecting the ‘Basic’ fare for both and making my way to the seat reservation page.
With my Ryanair Prime account, I was able to select a seat between rows 18 and 33 for free. The standard account showed me that these seats were worth £8.
If I wanted to, I could select another seat with Prime – perhaps an extra legroom or a seat up front – and it was £8 cheaper than the price on the standard account.
There were no other savings – it quite simply is a saving for the seat and the seat only!
On this alone, I find it quite a disappointing product. Sure, if you usually pay £8 for a seat on 12 flights a year it would cost you £96 but how many people fit that exact mould? Would it not be better to simply pay £8 when you need to or, as I often do, skip paying for a seat all together!
Also, having been signed up for a full week since they launched, I have yet to receive one of their ‘monthly exclusive sales’ so I can’t report back on the possible savings there yet. I had hoped they might have sent one by now to reward those early to sign up!
Finally, I already have good travel insurance and so am covered if things go wrong on my flight, so the added travel insurance is slightly redundant for me.”
– Chelsea
Do we recommend Ryanair Prime?
Ultimately, it’s all going to depend on your flying habits and the true making of this membership scheme will be in how good the exclusive fare deals are that you get emailed about as a Prime member.
If you are:
- Either a solo traveller or someone who always travels with the same person
- Someone who takes at least 12 flights a year with Ryanair
- Someone who always books a seat anywhere on the plane
Then yes, Ryanair Prime makes sense for you and you could use it to save money without any added admin.
If you’re travelling often with a family, it could still be worth it, but we recommend you considering whether you’re happy with the faff involved with having to book your children over the age of 2 separately and then linking them to your account.
As for the travel insurance, we’d like to think that most of us have travel insurance that covers our flights anyway – but it is a nice additional protection.
Otherwise, we’d say everything is resting on how good the 12 sales a year actually are. Ryanair claims that Prime members who fly 12 times a year can save up to £420 (more than 5 times the subscription fee), and that even those who fly 3 times a year can save up to £105.
But I guess the jury’s still out on that one!
Is Ryanair Prime really worth it?
As I mentioned above, I’m signed up to Ryanair Prime so I’ll be keeping track of my costs and savings for Ryanair flights over the next 12 months, to see whether it really does save me money.
If you do sign up to Ryanair Prime, drop me a DM to let me know how you get on!
