Ryanair has come under fire after charging a woman £75 extra for her luggage for a “mind-bogglingly ridiculous” reason.
Catherine Warrilow, 45, was flying to Seville from London Stansted last month when she was told she could not board the plane with her suitcase.
Despite paying in advance for priority boarding with a carry-on suitcase, Catherine was told it was 2cm “too big” due to her suitcase’s expandable zipper.
However, when the suitcase was closed, it fit inside the size rack and met the budget airline’s luggage requirements.
Catherine paid £170 for her airfare and was eventually charged more than £100 extra for her luggage, including paying to store it in the hold on her return flight.
Now he has shared his story on a TikTok. videowhere it has accumulated more than 400,000 views, saying: “Ryanair has taken its baggage fee scandal to a whole new level.”
Ryanair has come under fire after charging a woman £75 extra for her luggage due to a “mind-numbingly numb” reason.
Catherine said that at the check-in desk she was told she had to pay £75 or leave her suitcase.
The author, who lives in Oxford, claims she was told she could not board it in case she had to “kneel on it” to put it in the overhead bin.
She said: ‘It had the potential to be larger than the allowed size even though it fit inside their size rack when closed. They didn’t have it at all.
‘It doesn’t make any sense. It seems like a lot of other people are having problems with the expandable zippers and also getting hassled randomly in line. Some people get by without any problems and others get fined.’
When Catherine went to grab her luggage to put it in the hold, no one was there, so she took it on board as hand luggage anyway, even after paying the £75 fee. Once on the plane, he said he could fit in the overhead bin after all.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said, adding in another video: “It seems like hundreds and hundreds of people have been affected by fraudulent decisions.”
People quickly flocked to the comments section to share their own experiences and their despair at Ryanair’s policies.
Catherine Warrilow, 45, was flying to Seville from London Stansted last month when she was told she could not board the plane with her suitcase (pictured).
They said, ‘That’s like the police stopping you for speeding, even if you don’t, because your car has the potential to go faster’;
“It happened to us in Liverpool with John Lennon because I turned it upside down, he didn’t let me turn it around because I had seen it.” The ground crew removed the yellow sticker from the runway as if it were nothing…’;
‘And paying the £75 makes it fit well in the top cupboard?’;
‘So, does that mean they’ll check if you’re All Inclusive or Self-Catering and fine you because you have the potential to expand?’;
‘That’s why I don’t fly with Ryanair’;
‘Once these lucrative fines are added, Ryanair and easyJet surely won’t get any cheaper. Would it be better to use a suitable airline?’;
“Yes, this happened to me in Krakow, the same suitcase I took from London but apparently on the way home it was too big, smoking.”
People quickly flocked to the comments section to share their own experiences and their despair at Ryanair’s policies.
In a recent update, Catherine shared that she had managed to get a full refund from the budget airline, plus £35 for the amount she paid to store it in the hold on the way home.
She said: “I think it’s time for Ryanair to stop pulling the piss and ripping people off.” It’s not fair.
He told BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine: “This ‘extra’ culture we find ourselves caught up in is crazy.
‘The problem is that it is not very clear. If I had contacted Ryanair… to check that my suitcase met the standard then they would have said yes based on the measurements.
‘I work in the travel sector, I travel a lot, I know the industry well. And I’m afraid we’re making it very difficult for people to travel without this huge extra layer of stress.”
On TikTok, he showed how he ‘fit perfectly’ into the frame with the zipper closed.
Researchers of what? It previously found that some British Airways flights were cheaper than Ryanair and Wizz Air once additional costs were taken into account.
Meanwhile, passengers have been forced to take “desperate” measures with their luggage as airlines continue to increase the price of checked baggage.
The measures have caused some passengers to get creative and put whatever they can under their seats, which varies from airline to airline. Additionally, airplanes are getting smaller every year, at the expense of space for carry-on luggage.
In an earlier statement, Ryanair said: “This passenger purchased a priority fare allowing one small personal bag and one 10kg bag.
“As this passenger’s luggage exceeded the permitted dimensions for a 10kg carry-on bag, she was correctly required to pay a standard baggage fee at the gate.”
FEMAIL has contacted Ryanair for further comment.
