A woman claims she and her partner were charged £48 each to fly with their small backpacks after easyJet said they couldn’t ‘push’ the luggage into the bag sizer at the airport.
Clíona McCarney and her partner eventually coughed up at Belfast International Airport and made their journey to London nearly £100 lighter because of what the Belfast native called ‘appalling’ customer service from the airline.
Clíona claimed that easyJet staff in the boarding area pulled she and her partner up because their baggage didn’t ‘drop in [to the sizer]’ by ‘magic’.
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She took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: “Charged £48 to fly with this backpack by easyJet, despite flying with it on same airline on Thursday.
(Image: X)
“Apparently you can’t push your bag to get it in bag sizer, it has to drop in by magic. Appalling customer service from two very rude and aggressive staff at Belfast Airport.”
Clíona added: “They both easily fit in with room but apparently you have to “drop and go” and not allowed to touch your bag to place it in. Absolute nonsense.”
She later said after the ‘travel drama’ she and her partner went on to enjoy the English capital, doing a walking tour before watching the boxing at Wembley on Saturday evening (September 21).
But she added: “Really took the shine off our day and cost us £98! That could be a huge chunk of someone’s budget for their trip. Outrageous.”
BBC weather presenter Barra Best replied to Clíona’s X post, calling her treatment ‘horrendous’.
(Image: Getty Images)
“That’s horrendous. Have witnessed that happening before and never understood why,” he said.
Other people shared similar experiences. “I’d the same issue flying with them from one airport, but different from the other,” one man said.
Clíona replied: “My partner flew Belfast to London last week with easyJet using the same bag and had absolutely no issue.”
The airline’s website doesn’t make any mention of not pushing or forcing bagge into the sizers, and merely states ‘your cabin bag allowance is one small cabin bag (max. 45 x 36 x 20 cm), which needs to kept under the seat in front of you.’
An easyJet spokesperson told the Daily Star: “Our ground crew must ensure that customers’ cabin bags are within the maximum dimensions to safely and securely fit where they need to be stowed in the cabin and so customers will sometimes be asked to check this using our baggage size gauges in the airport.
“We clearly inform customers of maximum cabin bag dimensions when booking, via email before they travel and it is also clearly displayed on boarding passes.”
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