Austin Price was flying from Bristol Airport to Krakow, Poland, on October 4 when he was stopped in the queue as staff asked him to put his suitcase in the ‘if it fits, it flies’ measuring stand.
The 28-year-old, from Plymouth, Devon, claims that his luggage did fit in the gap but the wheels did not as they are ‘wonky’ and ‘a bit stiff’.
However the cyber security worker was horrified when a ‘rather rude’ Ryanair employee told him he would have to pay because it was too big – on top of the priority boarding payment he’d made to take the 10kg bag on in the first place.
The holiday-maker shamed the brand online in a post (Image: Kennedy News and Media)
The holiday-maker shamed the brand online in a post, ranting: “What kind of f**kery is this? Just been charged £75 for a bag which clearly fits. Sort this sh*t out.”
However Austin’s own images of his suitcase sat in the measuring stand show that, while it fit on both height and width, the suitcase visibly stuck out at the front.
The apparent error appeared to miss that Ryanair’s website states 10kg bags must fit within the three dimensions – 55 x 40 x 20cm – and his appeared to be deeper than the permitted 20cm.
Ryanair pointed this out by stating that the ‘passenger’s bag exceeded the dimensions allowed’ for a 10kg cabin bag and was ‘correctly required to pay a standard gate baggage fee of £75’.
However Austin blames the member of staff for ‘trying too much to do his job’ and doing it ‘poorly’.
Austin said: “We had priority, with which you get one hand luggage bag and one small suitcase. I used the same suitcase I have probably used for the last three years.
“When boarding, there was one individual [member of staff] that was rather rude.
“They have changed the [measuring] boxes now. Before, you could wheel the suitcase in, while the new ones are like an open gap, almost like they are trying to catch people out.
“My suitcase was the size that fit in the gap and I have a photo of it sitting in, but because the wheels are a bit stiff it wouldn’t sit flat because of the weight on the wheels.
“The wheels are not the size of the suitcase. I said it clearly fits in but he said that I have to pay.
“I thought it was only going to be around £28 as it is on their website and I thought ‘that’s annoying but I’ll take the hit, gave my bank details and all of a sudden I got charged £75.”
Austin was angry at how much he was charged after already paying for Priority boarding so he could take on the 10kg case so wrote an email to Ryanair complaining.
However he claims they simply responded informing him how much he had to pay.
Austin said: “I sent an email and the response was awful. They obviously didn’t read what I wrote in the email because the response I got was them stating how much I have to pay but that’s not what I asked.
“I have already paid and was told that I shouldn’t have paid so I wanted a refund.
“I literally used it a month ago with EasyJet. I flew with Ryanair in April with the same bag and had no issues.”
However Ryanair pointed out that the suitcase simply didn’t fit in the ‘fit to fly’ measuring box.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This passenger’s bag exceeded the dimensions allowed for a 10kg cabin bag and was correctly required to pay a standard gate baggage fee of £75 to carry a 10kg cabin bag onboard.”
