A holidaymaker who was slapped with a charge by ‘smug’ easyJet staff for his bag being ‘too big’ alleges they demanded he erase footage of it fitting ‘perfectly’ – only to be offered a refund when the clip went viral.
Jake Hughes was on the verge of boarding his flight from Manchester Airport to Lisbon last month (October 17) when an easyJet employee insisted his duffel bag didn’t fit the measuring box. The 27-year-old’s video seems to show the luggage sitting within the guidelines but when he asks the staff member ‘you saw it fits thought, right?’ the bloke replies ‘no’
(Image: Kennedy News/@jakehughesss)
Jake claims he then took a pair of jeans and a jumper from the black bag and wore them over his clothes so it could fit ‘even more perfectly’. But he says he was still stung with a £48 charge because he had to ‘push’ the bag into the compartment instead of letting it ‘freefall’. The content creator insists his bag fitted inside the compartment ‘like a dream’ and that it was ‘ridiculous’ to get charged for it.
It comes after we reported a woman claimed 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.
(Image: Kennedy News/@jakehughesss)
On the more recent inicdent, before passing through the airport gate Jake was reportedly forced to delete footage of his bag being measured and told his boarding pass would be terminated if he didn’t. He discovered undeleted footage once he landed in Lisbon and later posted it to TikTok, where it’s clocked up more than five million views, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Jake from Worcester, Worcestershire, was left fuming after easyJet hit him with a fine for his luggage, which he insists fit perfectly in the overhead compartment.
He recounted the incident: “I couldn’t believe they were trying to charge me for something that clearly fit inside the compartment. He said it’s because I pushed it into the compartment and it has to freefall into it. I said I disagreed with him and that I thought it was ridiculous to pay £48 for that so he told me to have a go at repacking my bag.”
Jake didn’t stop there, as he explained his attempt to comply: “I went to the side and I put on a pair of jeans and a jumper, just so the bag could fit even more perfectly. When I put it in again at the end of the queue, it literally flew into the compartment like a dream. He said he could see that I’ve put my clothes on and that I’m supposed to rearrange my bag, not empty it. It was crazy.”
(Image: Kennedy News/@jakehughesss)
The situation escalated when he tried to board: “When I went to board the flight, he said he will terminate my boarding pass if I didn’t delete the footage. I was in shock. I just stood there, wearing two pairs of jeans and two jumpers. It was just an absolute nightmare.
“I paid because it really felt like I wasn’t going to be allowed on the flight and he was just looking at me with a smug smile on his face.”
easyJet reached out to Jake on November 1, offering an apology and a refund for the fine, but Jake hasn’t accepted it yet, suspecting the offer only came because his video went viral and people were ‘raging’.
An easyJet spokesman stated: “We are investigating with our ground handling provider at Manchester Airport to understand why Mr Hughes was charged for his bag, which appears to be in line with his allowance. We have been in touch with him to refund the charge.”
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