We use Ryan Air for quick weekend trips, but for anything longer than 3 days, we use British Air. We have a family of 4, so by the time we pay for any luggage, BA is about the same price. Ryan Air is VERY strict. Most American carry-ons are too big, so we have purchased smaller, lighter bags just for Ryan Air. When we were in Spain for Thanksgiving, there was a guy in line with his carry-on and a laptop. Rather than pay the extra 100 GBP, he stuffed the laptop in his suitcase and walked up the line trying to giving away his laptop case for free. There were no takers since no one else wanted the extra cost.
I agree! Well, I looked into all the other options out of Venice and only the "no frills" airlines with super strict rules were the ones that 1) had direct flights from Venice to Barcelona and 2) were way cheaper, even with all the extra bag fees, etc. So, I just decided to book with Ryan air knowing what I was getting myself into.
I have already pre-paid for our checked bags (because it's WAAAAY cheaper to pre-pay for checked bags than wait until you get to the counter to check your bags... it's like 4-X's the cost if you pay to have your bags checked at the counter). So, I just paid to have our roller carry-on bags checked, too, because 1) I had read exactly what you wrote... that a lot of roller carry-on bags are too big for Ryan Air requirements, and if you have to check your carry-on bag at the gate, it's like 100 Euros to check it (and you don't have a choice because they won't let you get on the plane if your carry-on doesn't fit their size requirement), and 2) I'm going to have a small shoulder bag (like a purse, basically), and my husband will have his laptop bag, and both our boys will have backpacks, so we can't take our roller carry-on bags anyway, because that would be considered a 2nd carry-on, and they ONLY allow you to have one.
But, we're still WAY under the cost, (even with our checked bag fees, and we paid extra to be able to choose our seats, so we can guarantee we are all sitting together), of what it would have been to take "mainstream" international airline.... And, I have it on my calendar to check into our Ryan Air flight before we leave the states, because (as crazy as this sounds), if we check in for our flight AT the airport, they are going to charge us something like 50 Euros!! So, to avoid that extra charge, we have to check in before we get to the airport, but I can't guarantee I will be able to print out boarding passes for our flight while we are in Venice at the hotel we're staying at, so luckily, Ryan Air lets you check in something like 2 weeks before your flight, so I'm checking into our flight and printing our boarding passes here at home before we leave.
So, all that said, you are smart to take BA for any flight when you have to check bags or have a larger carry-on. I WISH we could have taken BA from Venice to Barcelona, but that wasn't an option. We are flying BA for all our other flights on this trip... just had to use Ryan Air for the Venice -> Barcelona route. I'm looking forward to BA, though... I love that airline!
Well, we'll just look at our Ryan Air experience as another part of our European adventure!
(By the way, our luggage is actually a UK made brand (Antler), so my guess is if we DID carry-on our roller bags, they would fit, since they are European... to me, our roller carry-on bags do seem smaller than most American roller carry-on bags).