Ryanair may increase commission to staff identifying oversized cabin bags

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0721/1524508-ryanair-baggage/

by austinallegro • 1 year ago

44 75 1 year ago

rte.ie

isubasinghe• 1 year ago

Makes perfect sense, if the excess fuel costs outweigh the commission costs

thaumasiotes• 1 year ago

No, that would only be true if the commissions were the only cost of the program.

poszlem• 1 year ago

Yeah, of all the shady things Ryanair does, this one actually makes sense from a fairness perspective.

sct202• 1 year ago

Only if the staff is fair. Frontier in America pays their staff $10 per bag identified and when they first started, some gate agents went wild trying to get that $10. There were videos of bags that cleanly fit in the sizer but passengers were being charged and threatened with being blocked from the flight if they didn't pay quickly.

sokoloff• 1 year ago

The €75 baggage fee outweighs the commission cost.

seanhunter• 1 year ago

How does size of an item in the cabin correspond with excess fuel? In particular, how do large items cause excess fuel if they are in the cabin, but not the hold?

Remember that the mass of something is the same if it is in the hold or in the cabin, and just because something is large doesn't mean it necessarily has a large mass.

krisoft• 1 year ago

It has nothing to do with the fuel cost. This is what ryanair's website says about oversized luggage: "Passengers who bring an oversize bag (over 55x40x20cm) to the boarding gate will either have their bag refused or, where available, placed in the hold of the aircraft for a fee of £/€ 70.00 - £/€ 75.00."

Ryanair earns every time they identify an oversized bag at the boarding gate. They just share some of that money with their staff.

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

the system we have is nuts. it should be free checking for bags (under a certain weight) and pay for overhead bin privilege. due to the insane way we do it, overhead bins are what slow down boarding and deplaning.

jmclnx• 1 year ago

This I fully agree with, plus limit the size and weight of carry-ons. No exceptions!

donalhunt2• 1 year ago

The issue everyone is skirting around is that many aeroplanes don't actually have the capacity to allow every passenger to bring a carry-on onboard. Ryanair even acknowledge this by limiting the number of people booking their priority add-on.

williamdclt• 1 year ago

it should be

In a capitalist system, what anything "should" be is what brings most profits. Any alignment with other desirable outcomes is by sheer chance.

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

Sure. In a free market system, corporations are free to optimize for what they wish.

baq2• 1 year ago

Fortunately, capitalism can't exist without a regulator.

cjrp3• 1 year ago

Airports charge fees to airlines for handling hold luggage, and it's another potential source of delays when Ryanair has very tight turnarounds. Plus it's harder to remove a belligerent passenger when they have a checked bag ;)

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

aha. thanks, i didnt know that (but i should). In the us, some airlines have one free checked bag anyways.... and you get forced to gate check anyways at no cost when you're in a later boarding order.

dylan6044• 1 year ago

Plus it's harder to remove a belligerent passenger when they have a checked bag ;)

F that. If you're removing a belligerent passenger, part of the punishment should be that you have to pay to have your luggage returned to you when it arrives at the destination. Getting kicked off the plane should not me you get to delay everyone else even further by making them go find your luggage before the plane can depart. F that.

zarzavat• 1 year ago

In principle yes, but I'd rather people put their lithium batteries in the overheads rather than the hold.

The solution is to set minimum baggage allowance regulations to prevent a race to the bottom.

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

most people put lithium batteries in their under the seat? (briefcase, valise, backpack)

chippiewill• 1 year ago

They do slow it down from the passenger perspective, but Ryanair optimise for the overall cost of turning planes around.

Loading and unloading bags from the hold costs time and money. Transporting those bags from bag-drop to the plane means paying the airport for that privilege. Misplaced bags etc. adds a customer service overhead.

Ryanair deliberately don't use jet bridges so they can load/unload from both ends using built-in stairs

throwaway2873912• 1 year ago

"99.9% of our passengers don't break the rules, they don't get penalised. The 0.1% of the guys who delay the boarding process, the guys who are there delaying the departure of the aircraft because their bag doesn't fit in the overhead (cabin), they are going to pay and we're going to eliminate them."

Somehow I doubt the compliance rate is anywhere near 99.9% -- that's roughly 1 passenger breaking the rules every 5 flights? Would they really be investing so much (including having the CEO spend time on air to rant) in catching the delinquents if that's the scale of the problem?

As someone who mostly follows the rules, the thing that really bothers me about Ryanair and the like are, I'll get to the airport at least 2 hours early as I'm supposed to, and then there'll be a massive hour+ long check-in queue (which I have to wait in just to show my passport, even if I'm not checking bags, since online check in never seems to work when I need to enter passport info), and all the while they'll have staff shouting "Anyone going to <destination of flight that closes boarding in 20-30 minutes>?" and shepherding those passengers to the front of the queue. It irritates me to no end -- why the hell should I bother arriving early if I'm just going to be punished with a longer wait for it?

4gotunameagain• 1 year ago

yeah that number is bullshit.

Every time I've been on a ryanair flight where they checked luggage sizes, it is always the case that 5-10 people have to pay. That is nowhere near one in a thousand passengers.

donalhunt2• 1 year ago

Ryanair's response (probably): have you tried getting a different passport?

maccard• 1 year ago

I'm supposed to, and then there'll be a massive hour+ long check-in queue (which I have to wait in just to show my passport, even if I'm not checking bags, since online check in never seems to work when I need to enter passport info

I’ve flown predominantly with Ryanair 4/5 times a year for over a decade and I have not once had to do this. Anecdotally I e always found their bag drop queues way quicker than other airlines too, even when it’s busy.

throwaway2873912• 1 year ago

I guess it may be because I've only had a US passport but have primarily taken Ryanair to fly between the UK (where I live) and elsewhere in Europe, which is potentially an edge case they don't care to handle well. I recently gained UK citizenship / a passport so perhaps this will get easier for me going forward.

Either way, I stand by my main complaint about Ryanair letting late arrivers jump the queue even if I only have to "suffer" from it when I'm checking bags.

mft_• 1 year ago

I wish whatever they decide to do could be clear and fairly applied.

For example, there are plenty of stories on TikTok of travellers being penalised for bags which fit into the Ryanair sizing tool, but which bulge ever so slightly out on the open side. There are businesses now which cater to Ryanair’s specific regulations in response.

As a result, when I flew with them recently, I was careful (almost to the point of paranoia!) to meet their specifications; and yet many passengers on the same flight were egregiously breaching the sizing rules, and not a single person was challenged.

pm215• 1 year ago

I see that this article says they were already giving 1.50 euro bonuses for this; on the other hand this other article from just a few months back says they "categorically denied" paying commissions for oversized bag detection:

https://www.dublinlive.ie/lifestyle/travel/ryanair-set-recor...

O'Leary is on record as saying that this kind of "bad publicity" story is actually good for the business, because it builds up the Ryanair image that the base price of the tickets is extremely low and keeps them in the minds of potential customers. So I'm always a bit sceptical about how much this kind of story is real vs just a successful attempt to get their brand all across the news for a day...

camillomiller• 1 year ago

As someone who is forced to use Ryanair to move around Europe because they priced out any other competition with their unfair, dark pattern-y, and borderline deceitful tactics, I can't wait for them to be regulated into a much more reasonable market position. Easyjet, while being problematic in many ways, is not even remotely as bold and arrogant as Ryanair in this regard. Also, there is an element of fundamental need in booking flights last minute (visiting a sick family member abroad, for example): getting a Ryanair ticket in these conditions means paying an incredible amount of money for a subpar service. They thrive on this.

Personal Experience: last minute ticket from Italy to Germany, major airports, bought the morning for the evening with Ryanair with no luggage: 569€.

baq2• 1 year ago

Have you compared with other carriers? While it is a lot, if it was cheaper than anything else, it's just the market doing things the market does, i.e. forced buyers paying through the roof.

pjmlp• 1 year ago

They are in other ways, like canceling morning flights if not enough passangers are on the flight, like it happened to me from Germany to Switzerland, and by quoting technical failure, usually EasyJet gets away with having to refund a few ones, while those willing to way almost a full day get the evening flight instead, and one less day.

What about Eurowings now offering booking of headspace, so that you can guarantee to have the hand lugagge close to your seat?

If anything, I see other airliners getting the same tatics, and I guess we should all be happy they still care about maintenance.

ruiseal• 1 year ago

I've probably flown on 200 Ryanair flights and think the service is great. They get you from A to B cheap and mostly on time. If you adjust your expectations that they're a bus you'll have a better time. In response to your last paragraph. Their ability to set prices as they see fit has allowed them to offer mostly very cheap prices. Regulate this and say goodbye to those prices.

tpm• 1 year ago

As someone who is forced to use Ryanair to move around Europe because they priced out any other competition... I can't wait for them to be regulated

Careful what you wish for. I am forced to fly Austrian because on my routes there is nothing else and it's more expensive, always late, in case the flight is cancelled they manage to lose half the rebooking emails etc. And somehow it rubs me the wrong way there is no apology when they lost my baggage or cancelled (already way late) flights.

beAbU• 1 year ago

Nobody is forcing you to buy Ryanair tickets.

marksomnian• 1 year ago

O'Leary has form for this sort of ragebaiting - recall the non-stories about standing "seats" and paying to use the toilet.

disgruntledphd22• 1 year ago

Both of those were April Fools jokes, to be fair.

kkarpkkarp• 1 year ago

For the same reason, every year there is a news Ryanair is considering standing room in their planes. This is absolutely against regulation, and they do not consider such thing, but it is good for publicity: they strive to offer the lowest prices.

red-iron-pine• 1 year ago

it also means that they don't have to pay for advertising space and The Guardian can run their stupid BS quotes as headlines to drive clicks. The newspaper gets more hits and Ryanair gets free brainspace in readers

JimDabell4• 1 year ago

At peak season every year, O’Leary says something crazy like they are going to charge for the bathroom, or charge fat people extra, or get rid of arm rests, or have standing room only. The tabloids run the story and include a generous amount of quotes from O’Leary about how great Ryanair is. It’s very, very obvious advertising. The tabloids go along with it because it makes people angry, which drives traffic.

disgruntledphd22• 1 year ago

I worked for that fecker. He would do anything to get himself (and therefore Ryanair) into the media.

One of the weirdest ones was him pretending to be a plane along our open plan hallway. Still don't understand what that was about.

(But yeah, i'm pretty sure it's Ryanair policy to say stupid crap to get free advertising).

PaulHoule• 1 year ago

My first take is that this could lead to the Cobra effect [1] -- employees would want customers to take oversized bags up so they could earn this payment.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

bilekas2• 1 year ago

"I am going to eliminate the scourge of this 0.1% of passengers who simply will not comply with our baggage rules. Please fly with somebody else we don't want your business."

Trust me, this man VERY much wants the business, he makes all profit from that, they also wont let you checking 3 hours before the flight for free. You need to go to a physical kiosk for them to print your ticket, for the lovely fee of 60EUR.

They upcharge everything and it's fine.

The people who have slightly bigger bags are not intentionally bringing those extra 500 grams of clothing and chancing their arm.

"eliminate the scourge"

I like Oleary, but this is just lazy ragebaiting from him now.

tonyedgecombe• 1 year ago

I like Oleary, but this is just lazy ragebaiting from him now.

I don't, I've worked for people like him and they make your life a misery.

dylan6044• 1 year ago

The people who have slightly bigger bags are not intentionally bringing those extra 500 grams of clothing and chancing their arm.

I don't understand how you can say "not intentionally" when they absolutely are intentionally bringing their bag that is over the airline's policy with however much crap they can cram into it. It's not like they are "oops, I used the wrong bag". They are knowingly bringing the bag they have. Also, I know no one that brings a bag half packed. They are all stuffed to the gills. Especially when trying to cram all of the stuff they would normally bring into a smaller bag.

bilekas2• 1 year ago

I guess I've just never seen it then. I know myself with Ryanair I take the priority boarding because you get a "free" carry on.

Jessibot• 1 year ago

For non EU people, Ryanair is like the evil version of spirit airlines, so this is not surprising. They are well known to refuse cabin bags that were bought specifically for their sizing requirements. And passengers who do bring cabin luggage that does not «fit» to the boarding gate will either have it refused or placed in the aircraft's hold for a fee of up to €75. Many people have complained that these specifications havent been enforced fairly, but I suppose this is a win for the shareholders

Ekaros4• 1 year ago

Seems like superior rewarding model compared to say tips...

madduci• 1 year ago

So the commission will drive much more "conversions" and generate more revenues due to "unfitting" bags?

Ryanair already has a lot of dark patterns and excessive fees (e.g. assigning random seats to members of the same family, just to force them pay extra to seat next to each other)

speedgoose• 1 year ago

When are they going to charge more oversized passengers?

dylan6044• 1 year ago

I thought airlines were already doing this with so called "fat tax".

flr03• 1 year ago

I'm the 0.1% scourge. I've been flying Ryanair for 10 years and I always told myself I'll change my (very slightly off chart) cabin bag the first time they fine me. Also it always fits and it never caused delay as far as I'm aware.

Havoc2• 1 year ago

I actively avoid them due to their crappy behaviour around cabin luggage

They use(d) a “smaller size than other European airlines and I’ve seen them check entire flights one by one during boarding and fine everyone over their stupid non standard size. Pretty much all the people with hard cases got nailed with fines

geor9e• 1 year ago

"crappy behavior" meaning they fit 4 bags in a 4 bag long overhead bin, instead of the good behavior of fitting 3 slighly oversized bags + a bunch of air slighly narrower than a bag

Havoc2• 1 year ago

Their measuring tool thing is literally smaller than what is norm. So bags sized to fit the norm fail

That combined with enthusiasm to check it and fine seemed pretty intentional to me

richwater• 1 year ago

The real, adjusted cost of air travel has gotten to be so low because RyanAir is willing to push conventional norms. You are not required to book a ticket with them. You are more than welcome to pay British Airways 2x the money to go to the same destination. Be very careful what you ask for when it comes to onerous regulation -- The EU is great at causing unintended side effects.

victorbjorklund• 1 year ago

This is just marketing. They always do this because they know that if they say "Oh, we might charge for bathroom, we might charge even more for oversized cabin bags" then they know that the majority who doesn't bring oversized cabin bags is gonna feel like "Wow, this really must be the most low-cost possible" and they perceive that the value is more because they think that they are getting a great deal and don't get me wrong I fly with Ryanair all the time I find it very good but it's kind of marketing stunts.

eitland2• 1 year ago

The last time I flew with Ryanair (and hopefully the last time I’ll ever have to), I made sure our hand luggage met their cabin size requirements—I didn’t fancy waiting around for it at the other end anyway.

Only for it to be collected at the gate and put in the hold anyway, meaning we had to wait for it after all. At least they forgot to charge me for the inconvenience, which given the rest of my experience could almost have been considered a mistake from their side.

Then there was the return journey: the boarding pass couldn’t be printed until just a few hours before departure, by which time getting access to a printer was tricky. But, as with all things Ryanair, there was of course an option to pay and make the problem go away. Out of sheer stubbornness, I found a workaround. If I factor in the time spent, it probably cost me more—but by that point, I was so utterly fed up with their relentless upselling that I refused to give them another penny.

And finally, during a layover before the last leg of our journey, we ended up sat in a grounded aircraft in full sun for 2–3 hours, with small children onboard and barely any information before we could leave the plane. While we waited, another passenger collapsed from what I understood to be severe hypoglycaemia, at which point people started calling out for anything sugary.

As far as I remember (this was over a decade ago and I had three young kids with me a few rows back), the person was helped thanks to another passenger who recognised what was going on and acted quickly—not because of any intervention from the crew.

If you can avoid Ryanair, do. I’ve no issue with trading comfort for a lower fare—but Ryanair doesn’t feel like a cheaper flight because they’ve cut costs. It feels like they’ve gone out of their way to invent new ways to make life miserable, just so they can charge you for relief.

freeone3000• 1 year ago

Only for it to be collected at the gate and put in the hold anyway, meaning we had to wait for it after all. At least they forgot to charge me for the inconvenience, which given the rest of my experience could almost have been considered a mistake from their side.

Having to gate-check can happen with more reputable carriers too, from American Airlines to British Airways. Even if every single bag individually fits, on a full flight, not every bag for everyone can fit at the same time. It happens more often with smaller (and older) planes, which have less cabin space per passenger.

eitland2• 1 year ago

If it had just been the last ten passengers who were boarding, or if this was the only hiccup along the way, I probably wouldn’t have bothered writing any of this.

But as I remember it, the misery was systematic—from the moment we started booking to the moment we left the final airport. At every step, Ryanair seemed to go out of their way to make things unpleasant—unless, of course, we paid an extra £15 here, £20 there, and so on—for each passenger, and for every inconvenience it seemed they’d quite clearly engineered.

mrbadguy• 1 year ago

Their latest sham is the bag sizing box that has one side open. So, even if your bag would actually fit into a volume of the required size, if any of it is loose (often the case with soft bags)then it’s “too big”.

I recently saw a lady try to make this point to them, only for the staff to keep repeating “but it sticks out”. In the end, the lady had to take the belt off her jacket and wrap it around the bag just to make the point. What a waste of time.

People who defend this airline “because it’s cheap” are just degrading themselves quite frankly. It’s awful and we shouldn’t be accepting of it.

Ryanair may increase commission to staff identifying oversized cabin bags

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