Should the EU ban carry-on luggage charges?

European consumer organisations have filed a complaint asking the Commission to investigate new budget airline fees. Airlines say distinguishing cabin suitcases from backpacks is saving people money.

Yesterday, 16 consumer organisations from 12 EU countries filed a complaint with the European Commission denouncing seven airlines that have started charging consumers for their hand baggage on flights. They say the new fees are violating a 2014 EU high court ruling that said charging for reasonably sized hand baggage is illegal.

Following the pandemic, budget airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Vueling have started offering two types of fares - one with just a backpack that can fit under the seat, and a higher one for rolling carry-on trolleys that go in the overhead storage. According to Spanish authorities, this violates the 2014 high court ruling. But other countries have been reticent to pursue action against the airlines given the losses they incurred during the pandemic. There has also been confusion about whether the ruling applies to fees imposed at the time of booking, or only to charges levied at the gate.

“Haven’t we all experienced the fear of our hand baggage not fitting in the airline’s sizers and being charged extra fees?” asks Agustín Reyna, Director General of the European consumers organisation BEUC which coordinated the complaint. He says that in addition to addressing the complaint based on the 2014 court ruling, EU lawmakers should use the ongoing revision of the Air Passenger Rights regulation to “clarify what services should be included in the basic ticket price.”

“Our data shows that consumers expect to see a small item and a piece of hand luggage when buying basic tickets,” he says. “Policymakers should also define hand luggage’s ‘reasonable size and weight’ to avoid surprises at the airport and ultimately reduce the number of disputes costing consumers and airlines time and money.”

Last year the Spanish Ministry of Social Rights and Consumption fined five airlines €179 million for abusive hand baggage practices in late 2024, but that ruling is under appeal.

Image from the BEUC report “Fly Light, Pay Heavy”

The airlines say that the carry-on differentiation allows them to offer cheaper prices for people who don’t need to carry a suitcase on board, or who have checked a suitcase in the hold. “The action taken today by consumer organisations would decrease consumer choice and oblige all passengers to pay for additional services that they may not all need,” said the industry association Airlines 4 Europe in a statement. “The [EU high court] expressly acknowledges the value of unbundling services and how this allows passengers to choose the exact services that best suits their needs.”

“The decision of the Spanish Consumer Protection Agency on cabin bags is currently under appeal and the European Commission is looking into whether it complies with EU law,” says A4E, which represents 80% of Europe’s airlines. “Making cabin bags mandatory would force up to 50 million passengers in Spain alone to pay for something they do not want.”

Good or bad for consumers?

There’s a fundamental question here: is this a way for airlines to offer cheaper prices for those customers who don’t need to carry on a trolley, or is it a way to squeeze more money out of flyers? Is it good for consumers or bad?

The consumers groups say this question needs to be answered urgently because, if past is prologue, measures adopted by the budget airlines will soon be adopted by the flag carriers. Already, US airlines are looking to emulate what the European budget airlines have done. There have been anecdotal reports so far of airlines enforcing ad-hoc limitations on carry-on suitcases.

But the airlines are dealing with a real problem. It used to be the case that an airline ticket would automatically come with checked luggage. Then, the budget airlines started charging to check luggage. The base price for the budget airlines then looked artificially lower on price comparison websites, because for someone who needs to check luggage it will look like the budget airline is cheaper when it’s not. The main airlines then copied the policy, in order for prices on flight comparison sites to match. But then passengers started bringing more and more rolling trolleys into the cabin in order to avoid the checked luggage fee. This has left airlines with the problem of accommodating all these rolling trolleys in limited space. If everyone on a full flight brings a rolling suitcase, there is nowhere near enough space to accommodate all of them. Some then need to be checked at the gate, which slows down the boarding process. That’s why the EU is considering passing a law standardising carry-on max dimensions of 55x40x20cm, to end the situation where each airline has different requirements. The lack of consistency is causing confusion at gates and slowing down boarding, causing planes to lose their departure slots.

The consumer organisations are supportive of standardising the dimension limits, and they say that once that’s done there should be no reason to charge for rolling carry-ons because airlines should reserve the amount of storage space assuming each passenger has hand baggage of that size. “Harmonising rules on hand baggage will allow better transparency and price comparability for passengers and ensure legal certainty. It will also have a positive impact for airports,” they say. A survey from the Dutch association Consumentenbond confirms that 86% of consumers think that a small item and a small trolley or a backpack should be included in the basic ticket price.

Personally, I’m torn about how I feel about this. I hardly ever check a suitcase, both to save money but also to avoid the time-consuming process of baggage reclaim (and the risk of the bag being lost). I’ve always brought rolling suitcases instead. But for years now, the crackdown on carry-on luggage has created this constant anxiety at the gate about whether the airline will make you check the carry-on, even when it complies with the cabin baggage requirements. This happens to me quite often on Brussels Airlines, for instance. Since the budget airlines started introducing the extra charging for rolling suitcases, I usually just take a backpack if it’s a short trip. Luckily they’re not actually measuring or weighing the backpacks - yet. But when I do pay to bring on a carry-on, what’s nice is that there’s no uncertainty about whether they’re going to make you check it or not. Unlike with the flag carriers, the budget airlines now know exactly who is going to show up with a rolling suitcase - so there’s no surprises at the gate. If you’ve paid for it, you know that suitcase is getting into the cabin. And the charge for checking luggage is usually cheaper than bringing on a rolling suitcase, encouraging more people to check the luggage.

Flying is not cheap these days. Before the pandemic, I would usually fly within Europe for under €50 each way. I sometimes had €6 flights with Ryanair. Those days are gone, and that’s probably for the best. But we all got used to flying being very cheap. I still get sticker shock each time I look up flight prices these days, because my brain still doesn’t seem to have accepted that things changed after the pandemic. But if I can make that price significantly lower (by as much as €50) by just bringing a backpack, I’ll do it. If that means that the people who require a bit more when they travel need to pay more for the privilege, in the end that works out to my benefit.

On one hand, it’s annoying that we have to start paying for something that used to be free. On the other, that is already the case for many aspects of flying. In-flight food and checked luggage used to be free also. Eliminating those perks meant that those of us who didn’t need them could pay less. I would prefer to have a rolling carry-on, and I would prefer to have a free meal. But do I need those things? For those that want them, they can pay for them. For others, they can save money.

BEUC is right to say the best way forward is for the EU to standardise carry-on dimensions to eliminate the uncertainty being experienced at gates. But I doubt that the airlines are really going to leave enough space to accommodate all that hand luggage, which means there will still be uncertainty at the gate. The only way to avoid that may be for the airline to know in advance who’s bringing a backpack and who’s bringing a rolling suitcase. I suppose they could just ask when people book their tickets, without charging them, and then tell people they will need to check rolling suitcases if the amount of people planning to bring them goes above a certain threshold. Perhaps that’s something the EU could mandate. But I imagine the airlines would fight that tooth and nail.

The simplest and most likely way forward is that all airlines are going to charge extra for bringing a rolling carry-on. But that will depend on how the EU Passenger Rights regulation revision progresses as it works its way through the European Parliament and Council. If you have a strong opinion on the matter, you should contact your MEP. But I’m curious how people feel about this. Leave a comment below (available also for free subscribers on this post) and let me know how you feel about these new carry-on suitcase charges.