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These fees are flying.
A traveler claims she was charged about $63 to bring her water bottle on board her flight.
Ruby Flanagan was hit with the extra flee when taking a Ryanair flight out of Dublin, she said sharing her story with The Mirror.
Although she claimed the budget airline “has a reputation for ridiculous extra charges,” she was shocked to become a “victim” because of her large water bottle.
Flanagan said she booked herself a “non-priority” ticket which would only allow her a “small” bag onto the flight and opted to travel with a backpack — one she has used to travel many times — for the short trip.
Her roundtrip ticket only cost her about $45 — at first.
She arrived at her gate at Stansted Airport with her bag tightly packed and her 750 ml metal water bottle tied to the strap and settled into her seat with no problems.
However, three days later that was not the case.
Flanagan said that when she attempted to board her Ryanair flight out of Dublin she was told that her water bottle had to be zipped into her bag and approved by the staff who needed to see it fit into the metal box built to represent the underseat storage space she would have.
“I was one of a handful of other passengers who had been pulled aside by the Ryanair crew and were desperately trying to repack,” she recounted.
“After moving a few bits around and shoving the bottle in, my bag now had a giant growth-like lump on the top right-hand corner as the zip did its best to stay closed.”
Unfortunately, the overstuffed backpack was not approved by the Ryanair staff this time and Flanagan was told she would have to pay to get her bag on the flight.
“Thrown by the statement, I asked them why I couldn’t take the bottle in my hand as I did on my outgoing flight,” she said.
“In response, I was told that the water bottle needed to fit into the bag; otherwise, it would be classed as a ‘second bag’, which was not allowed with my ticket.”
To add to her frustration and confusion, Flanagan claimed she “watched other backpack passengers holding laptops, Burger King bags and travel pillows pass through without a hitch.”
Yet, Flanagan and others were being charged extra despite insisting that they had flown one way with the same stuff and been totally fine.
“Each discussion consisted of a lot of hand flailing, a lot of eye-rolling, 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,” she said.
The airline “officially closed the gate” as the arguments continued which caused Flanagan to go into a “state of panic” having never missed a flight before.
She was told, “You’ll have to pay for it either way … out, it’s a second bag and in, the bags too big, so you’ll need to pay.”
As the plane was set to depart in a few minutes, Flanagan finally shuffled over to the staffer with the card reader defeated. She paid about $63 — more than she paid for her round-trip ticket — to bring her water bottle on board.
She later realized it would have been cheaper to throw the water bottle away and purchase a new one but noted “that would’ve been ridiculously un-environmental — and would’ve taken away from the satisfaction of being the over one-millionth plastic bottle of water saved from landfill by refilling.”
Flanagan filed a complaint with Ryanair which was quickly rejected.
Ryanair defended the charge to The Mirror: “This passenger booked a Basic Fare ticket for this flight from Dublin to Stansted (4 Feb), which allowed them to carry a small personal bag onboard.”
“This passenger attempted to board with an additional carry-on, and as it would not fit within their permitted bag, she was correctly required to pay a standard gate baggage fee (€60). Once payment was made, this passenger traveled on this flight from Dublin to Stansted (4 Feb).”
Extra baggage can be purchased for cheaper while booking a ticket.
Flanagan isn’t the first passenger to be stuck with extra fees for what they believe to be a “ridiculous” situation.
A Ryanair passenger was incensed after getting forced to fork over a baggage fee because a wheel was poking out of the size checker.
And another woman recently claimed that she was forced to pay cancellation for her sister’s Ryanair flight after her sibling was tragically killed before the trip.
