Last updated: August 2026
Plans change, and so can a booking. A Ryanair change flight date request costs £45 if you do it online, £60 through an agent or at the airport, on top of whatever the fare has moved by since you booked. There’s a fee-free route for genuine booking mistakes, another if you’ve paid for Flexi Plus, and sometimes a cheaper option: not changing at all.
What a Ryanair change flight date request actually costs
Online changes are possible up to 2.5 hours before departure, counting from whichever is earlier: your original flight or the new one. Do it yourself through “My Bookings” and the fee is £45 per passenger, per one-way flight. Ask an agent or change it at the airport and it’s £60. Either way, you also pay the gap between what you originally paid and today’s fare and fees. If today’s price is lower, Ryanair keeps the difference rather than refunding it.
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| Situation | What it costs | What you can change |
|---|---|---|
| Standard fare, more than 2.5 hours before departure | £45 online, £60 through an agent or at the airport, plus any fare difference | Date, time or route, to whatever’s available on the new flight |
| Any fare, within 24 hours of the original booking | No change fee, fare difference only | Correcting a genuine date/time mistake, or reversing a route booked the wrong way round |
| Flexi Plus fare, up to 1 hour before original departure | No change fee, fare difference only | Flight, route or day, subject to a seat being available |
The 24-hour grace period is easy to miss and worth knowing about. It’s not a general cooling-off period, just cover for a genuine slip: booking the wrong date, the wrong time, or a route the wrong way round (Dublin to Stansted instead of Stansted to Dublin, for instance). Fix it within a day of booking and Ryanair waives the change fee, though any fare difference still applies.
How to change your flight
Go to “My Bookings” on the website, or “My Trips” in the app, and log in. Select the booking, then “Change your flight,” and choose the flight you want to change. Enter the new date, time or route, and the price breakdown appears before you commit to anything. Confirm and pay the fee plus any fare difference, and an updated email itinerary follows straight away. You can do all of this even if you’ve already checked in for the original flight, though a checked-in flight needs unchecking first if you’re changing away from it.
Flexi Plus: changing without the fee
Flexi Plus removes the £45/£60 change fee on every change you can make with it, right up to one hour before your original flight’s scheduled departure. Move to a different flight on the same route, on the day of travel, and it costs nothing at all, no fare difference either, as long as a seat’s available. Switch to a different route on the day, or move your date to a day before or after, and there’s still no change fee, just whatever the fare gap comes to.
- Extras included in Flexi Plus, like seats or bags, move across automatically, where they’re available on the new flight.
- Name changes still cost. Flexi Plus doesn’t cover them, whatever fare you’re on.
When it’s cheaper to book a new ticket instead
The £45/£60 fee only makes sense if changing costs less than starting again. Add the change fee to any fare difference Ryanair would charge. Then compare that total against the price of a brand new one-way ticket on the route and date you actually want. Ryanair runs seat sales often enough that a fresh fare can undercut the change fee on its own, particularly on quieter routes or off-peak dates.
| Option | What it costs | What you keep |
|---|---|---|
| Change the existing booking | £45/£60 change fee, plus any fare difference | Seats, bags and other extras, where they transfer to the new flight |
| Book a fresh one-way fare | Whatever today’s fare costs, no change fee at all | Nothing from the old booking, unless it’s still inside the 24-hour grace window |
If a new ticket comes in cheaper than the change would, buying it and letting the original booking lapse is the better deal. That only works if you’re not relying on the checked bags, seats or other extras tied to the old booking. Run the sums each time. The headline £45 fee alone tells you nothing about which option wins.
What doesn’t carry over automatically
Seats, priority boarding and checked bags don’t move across to a changed flight on their own. If the new flight doesn’t have the same options available, or you simply forget to check, you can end up travelling without extras you already paid for. Confirm what’s actually attached to the new booking during the change itself, not after you’ve paid for it.
“The £45 change fee gets all the attention, but the 24-hour window is the one that actually catches people out. Book the wrong date by mistake, catch it within a day, and Ryanair waives the fee entirely, fare difference aside. Miss that day, even by an hour, and the same mistake costs the full fee. Check your booking confirmation the moment it lands, not the night before you fly.”
Kate Acaster, Chief Editor, Flight Tribe
Ryanair change flight date: FAQs
How much does it cost to change a Ryanair flight?
£45 per passenger, per one-way flight if you change online, or £60 through an agent or at the airport. You also pay any difference between your original fare and today’s, though Ryanair won’t refund you if the new fare is cheaper.
How late can I change a Ryanair flight online?
Up to 2.5 hours before departure of your original flight or the new one, whichever comes first. Miss that and a different process, with a different fee, applies instead.
Does Flexi Plus let me change flights for free?
It removes the change fee, not the fare. Same route, same day, and it’s fully free, no fare difference either. A different route or a different day still has no change fee, but you pay whatever the fare difference comes to.
Can I get a free change if I made a booking mistake?
Yes, within 24 hours of the original booking. Ryanair waives the change fee for correcting a genuine date or time error, or reversing a route booked the wrong way round. Any fare difference still applies.
Is it ever cheaper to book a new Ryanair flight than to change my existing one?
Sometimes. Add the £45/£60 change fee to any fare difference, then compare that total to the price of a fresh one-way fare on the route you want. If a new ticket works out cheaper, buying it and letting the old booking lapse can beat paying to change it.
Will my seat, bags or priority boarding carry over if I change my flight?
Not automatically. Check what’s actually included on the new flight during the change, rather than assuming your extras have followed you across.
More on flying with Ryanair
- Changing who’s flying, not when? Ryanair name change fee covers correcting a passenger’s name instead.
- Already past the cut-off? Ryanair missed flight covers the £100 fee and what happens next.
- Ryanair baggage allowance covers what you can bring, rather than when you fly.
- Weighing up Flexi Plus against priority boarding on its own? Our Ryanair priority boarding guide breaks down what each one actually includes.
- Booking a new trip entirely? Flying with Ryanair covers what UK passengers need to know before they fly.
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Kate Acaster is Chief Editor at Flight Tribe. She writes about practical travel planning, budget airlines, baggage rules, city breaks, beach holidays and good hotels that do not cost daft money.
Kate has travelled through Europe, South America and beyond, usually with a notebook, a half-formed plan and a strong opinion on airport snacks. At Flight Tribe, her work focuses on helping UK travellers understand what is included, what costs extra, and whether a trip is worth booking at the price shown.
How Kate works
Kate checks the details that can change the value of a trip, including cabin-bag rules, airline fees, hotel location, seasonality, travel dates and booking conditions. She is especially interested in offers that look useful on the surface but need a proper reader-first check before they are worth recommending.
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Flight Tribe covers deals and travel advice for readers first. Affiliate links do not decide whether an offer is worth writing about.
