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.
Standardization is good, but God please don't make it a law. Just force the industry to define it themselves, them they have the freedom to evolve without waiting for Brussels...
I don’t fly much nowadays, indeed actively try to avoid it when train travel is an increasingly attractive alternative. However I had to fly London to Dublin to Edinburgh not long ago and the whole experience reminded me that the airlines’ pricing policies are as infuriating as ever.
I carried a small flight bag to keep weight and cost down. I also had my laptop with me. Did I have to pay for two bags in the cabin or just one, or none? Very unclear especially on the Dublin-Edinburgh leg where the permitted size/weight limit was lower. I paid for an extra cabin bag. Probably unnecessarily.
On the flights themselves it was clear all these restrictions were unenforced. People were bringing enormous wheelie bags into the cabin, no questions asked. Both my flights were Aer Lingus but one was operated by Shamrock Air using a smaller plane.
I would welcome standardisation of cabin luggage size limits and I would welcome proper enforcement of any standardised rules. Then we would all know exactly where we are.
Travelling almost weekly here, unfortunately. I'm fine with standardising carry-on luggage to fit backpacks and to pay for trolleys - that should improve transparency and efficiency. Hopefully, it will help the less travel-literate and reign-in cheeky travellers. Both can make taking a plane a painful experience.
If they are going to charge fees for carry-on, I would like the fees to be clearly laid out at the start of the booking process, so I can know how much I'll have to pay and can compare to other flight options. I hate having to click through the entire booking process to find out what my mystery carry-on fee will be each time, especially when the amount is now often exceeding the base price of the flights.
It seems like the best way is to just get people to pay as you then also ensure all the third party booking websites will forward the information about who brings suitcases and who don’t. Otherwise you’ll have a bunch of people who didn’t know they had to register their bag show up and you can go all the way back to the beginning with thinking about these regulations. Booking people with suitcases first might also speed things up as presumably people without suitcases have more flexibility to just put their bag under the seat in front.
It’s also great that you can still bring as much stuff as you carry when you take the train and I hope some train companies will double down on this and remind people with their advertising (even if SNCF does everything in their power enshitify train travel as well).
Indeed, rail prices always look way more expensive than flying but sometimes when you add in the luggage charges from the airlines they work out to be the same or at least more comparable. I've encountered this when travelling from Brussels to Berlin and Barcelona.
Standardization is good, but God please don't make it a law. Just force the industry to define it themselves, them they have the freedom to evolve without waiting for Brussels...
I don’t fly much nowadays, indeed actively try to avoid it when train travel is an increasingly attractive alternative. However I had to fly London to Dublin to Edinburgh not long ago and the whole experience reminded me that the airlines’ pricing policies are as infuriating as ever.
I carried a small flight bag to keep weight and cost down. I also had my laptop with me. Did I have to pay for two bags in the cabin or just one, or none? Very unclear especially on the Dublin-Edinburgh leg where the permitted size/weight limit was lower. I paid for an extra cabin bag. Probably unnecessarily.
On the flights themselves it was clear all these restrictions were unenforced. People were bringing enormous wheelie bags into the cabin, no questions asked. Both my flights were Aer Lingus but one was operated by Shamrock Air using a smaller plane.
I would welcome standardisation of cabin luggage size limits and I would welcome proper enforcement of any standardised rules. Then we would all know exactly where we are.
Travelling almost weekly here, unfortunately. I'm fine with standardising carry-on luggage to fit backpacks and to pay for trolleys - that should improve transparency and efficiency. Hopefully, it will help the less travel-literate and reign-in cheeky travellers. Both can make taking a plane a painful experience.
If they are going to charge fees for carry-on, I would like the fees to be clearly laid out at the start of the booking process, so I can know how much I'll have to pay and can compare to other flight options. I hate having to click through the entire booking process to find out what my mystery carry-on fee will be each time, especially when the amount is now often exceeding the base price of the flights.
Yes that's a very good point! I've encountered this as well and it's very frustrating. It's basically a way of gaming the flight comparison sites.
It seems like the best way is to just get people to pay as you then also ensure all the third party booking websites will forward the information about who brings suitcases and who don’t. Otherwise you’ll have a bunch of people who didn’t know they had to register their bag show up and you can go all the way back to the beginning with thinking about these regulations. Booking people with suitcases first might also speed things up as presumably people without suitcases have more flexibility to just put their bag under the seat in front.
It’s also great that you can still bring as much stuff as you carry when you take the train and I hope some train companies will double down on this and remind people with their advertising (even if SNCF does everything in their power enshitify train travel as well).
Indeed, rail prices always look way more expensive than flying but sometimes when you add in the luggage charges from the airlines they work out to be the same or at least more comparable. I've encountered this when travelling from Brussels to Berlin and Barcelona.