Airline charges passenger $62 for water bottle on flight: ‘I couldn’t board without paying’

I recently wrote about an airline charging $68 to print a boarding pass at the airport. Well, guess what? That same airline just charged a passenger $62 to take a water bottle on a flight. Crazy, right? Here’s what happened:

According to Ruby Flanagan, a money reporter for The Mirror in the UK, she was charged £49.95 ($62 USD) “when I was caught out by Ryanair’s baggage policy. However, the charge didn’t come from an oversized bag, as it often does, but because I had a water bottle.”

As Ruby explains, “Ryanair is known for offering some of the lowest fares for international travel, but it also has a reputation for outrageous additional charges. Many of these are levied on customers for allegedly exceeding luggage allowances at the boarding gate.”

Ruby described the incident during a recent trip from London to Dublin. Since it was a short trip, she opted to use her backpack and booked a “non-priority” ticket, which allowed her to bring one small bag—measuring 40 x 20 x 25 cm—onboard. The round-trip tickets cost her just £35.86 ($45 USD).

She attached her water bottle to the top handle of her backpack, as she had done on her outbound flight. However, during the return trip, the agent didn’t let it slide. “As I approached the gate, my passport and boarding pass were scanned, and as I took a step forward, I felt a tap on my shoulder,” Ruby recalled. The agent informed her that her backpack needed to be placed in the sizer to check its fit. While the backpack fit, the water bottle did not.

After squeezing her 750ml metal water bottle into her backpack, the bag no longer fit in the sizer. Ruby was told the bottle would be considered a “second bag,” which wasn’t allowed with her ticket.

Ruby found this unfair as she watched other passengers with similar backpacks, laptops, and even fast food bags breeze through the gate without issue. Frustrated, she became a “difficult customer.”

Ruby said that she and the other flyers flagged by Ryanair staff also tried to argue their case, with many mirroring her own excuse of, “I flew here with the bag like this, why can’t I fly back?” Ruby said the agents used “the word “dimensions” repeated over and over, and a lot of pointing – specifically to the fella with the debit card holder at the other end of the gate who sheepishly waved us over.”

This reminded me of the story I wrote in 2023 when a Frontier Airlines passenger had a similar run-in with an agent, except her bag fit in the sizer and there was nothing attached. It was later revealed by a Frontier flight attendant that the gate agents get a $10 bonus for every passenger bag they force to pay the $100 extra baggage fee.

Ruby eventually paid the fee, as the flight was about to depart, and the agent closed the boarding door behind her (sounds like a tactic to me). Ruby noted that at least four other passengers on her flight were also charged $62.

As I warned in this article, everyone booking tickets needs to read the airline’s baggage policy (including the fine print) from which ever airline they’re booking, especially on low-fare carriers.

As you can see in the Frontier example I used above, these types of money grabs don’t just happen overseas – they happen in the U.S. too. If you are going to fly a low-fare carrier like Ryanair, Frontier or Spirit, then I highly recommend you get this bag to save yourself the headache

This duffle bag is 17 x 12.6 x 6.3 inch, which means that it fits into an 18 x 14 x 8 inch bag sizer and can be stowed under your seat so you don’t have to pay those outrageous fees. It’s lightweight, foldable and inexpensive and can save you enormous amounts of aggravation and money when you’re flying on a low-fare carrier that charges for carrying your bag onboard.

RELATED:

–Don’t fly Frontier Airlines unless you know this
–Frontier Airlines pilot handcuffed and arrested just before plane pushes back at IAH
–Frontier Airlines worker loses it with passengers involuntarily bumped from flight at Denver International Airport
–Flying Spirit, Frontier or Allegiant Airlines? This is the bag you need so you don’t get charged extra
–Frontier Airlines passenger foolishly jokes about exit row responsibilities and is escorted off plane in handcuffs
–Infuriating: Frontier Airlines busted for incentivizing gate agents to enforce outrageous baggage fees 

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