Ryanair repays 'potentially oversize' bag charge
· BBC NewsMarcus White
BBC News
An air passenger has said she won a refund from Ryanair after a dispute over the size of her expandable suitcase.
Catherine Warrilow, 45, previously told Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine she had been charged more than £100 extra for her flights to and from Spain, on top of her £170 air fare.
She said a Ryanair worker had suggested her cabin bag was potentially oversize, even though it "fit flush" into the airline's measuring cage.
The travel industry consultant, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, said the airline had repaid her the extra fees as a "gesture of goodwill" while insisting they were correct.
Ms Warrilow previously said she had been left "confused and frustrated" after the dispute at Stansted Airport on 22 October.
She said when she had arrived at the airport gate, she had had to remove items and add a luggage strap to keep within the airline's bag allowance.
The consultant said: "I put it in the rack and it was within the size. But as I let go of the case, it tipped forward slightly because the bottom wasn't particularly stable and she said, 'That it's too big'.
"She said, 'I'm sorry, I can't let you on board with this suitcase because I can't have you having to kneel on it to get it into the overhead locker'."
Ms Warrilow said she had been forced to pay an extra £75 for her outbound flight and £33 for the journey back to the UK.
She told Vine the "added extra" culture in the airline industry was causing people a "huge added layer of stress".
Ms Warrilow said she had sent a complaint letter to Ryanair after seeking advice from a consumer expert.
She said: "[I] had an email within 24 hours saying as a gesture of goodwill they've refunded me both sets of fees. They maintain I was correctly fined though."
In a previous statement, Ryanair said: “This passenger purchased a Priority Fare which permits a small personal bag and a 10kg bag.
"As this passenger’s bag exceeded the dimensions allowed for a 10kg cabin bag, she was correctly required to pay a standard gate baggage fee."
In 2023, a BBC investigation found three of the UK’s most popular airlines -Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air - had cut the size of their free cabin baggage allowance by half since 2018.
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