A passenger has won a refund from Ryanair after a dispute over her cabin bag size at Stansted Airport.
Catherine Warrilow, 45, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was charged more than £100 extra for her flights to and from Spain due to concerns regarding her expandable suitcase.
The travel industry consultant told BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine that a Ryanair worker suggested her bag was potentially oversized, despite it fitting into the airline’s measuring cage.
Ryanair has since repaid the extra fees as a “gesture of goodwill” but they maintained that their actions were correct.
Warrilow said her expandable case “fit flush” into the measuring cageGetty/PADescribing her experience that left her “confused” and “frustrated” at the airport gate on October 22, Warrilow said she had to remove items and add a luggage strap to comply with the airline’s bag allowance.
She explained that it was within the size when she placed it in the rack but, when she let go, the case tipped forward slightly.
The Ryanair worker then deemed the bag too big, saying: “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.”
As a result, Ms Warrilow was forced to pay an extra £75 for her outbound flight and £33 for the return journey.
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Ryanair defended their actions in a statement, saying: “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.”
However, after Warrilow sent a complaint letter following advice from a consumer expert, she received a response detailing Ryanair’s “gesture of goodwill”.
She said: “[I] had an email within 24 hours saying as a gesture of goodwill they’ve refunded me both sets of fees.”
Warrilow said that the airline maintained that she was “correctly fined”
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Warrilow said that the airline maintained that she was “correctly fined”, she told BBC News.
A BBC investigation in 2023 found that three of the UK’s most popular airlines – Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air – had halved the size of their free cabin baggage allowance since 2018.
Ms Warrilow commented on the industry’s “added extra” culture, saying it was causing people a “huge added layer of stress”.
As airlines continue to adjust their allowances, travellers are encouraged to carefully check baggage requirements ahead of flying to avoid unexpected fees at the airport.