Bag which easy jet declined as carry on baggage and fined us

Easy Jet on the 17th of November declined this bag stating that it easily didn't fit into their guide. The bag as you can tell is a fabric bag and they stated that once placed on the guide could not be touched even though it needed a slight adjustment.

EDIT:2016
Well this got quiet popular. I initially only uploaded this as a minor threat to try and get a refund from easy jet and had the video on url only. But they refused to give a refund so I put it on public and forgot about it.
We were fined in Prague and the man was extremely unfriendly. I went in through first towards the boarding of the plane and was not allowed to head back and help my wife as I saw her in trouble. Basically the man was saying that she was only allowed to place the bag on the guide and not allowed to touch it. It was only filled with clothes and the only reason mine went into the guide is because it was filled with the heavy things and gravity forced it down.
When we arrived at Gatwick we headed back to departures and to test her bag again. Funny enough an easy jet representative said "Yep that fits, you're good to go." of course un-aware of what we went through. I stated "Then we had a problem" and showered her our receipt for the fine. She just became very quiet and uncooperative stating she couldn't do anything and we needed to contact management. We are talking to her throughout the video and you can hear she is very quiet.

Long story short.
Don't bring fabric bags unless they will always drop right in no problem. Best option is the hard bags which don't bulge when filled.
Also Easy jet will target you on your return flights to the UK as they know you have probably brought more back than when you left.

Easy Jets customer service response

Dear Marco,

Thank you for contacting us.

I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy your bag was refused as hand baggage.

However, I must advise that easyJet staff at the airport reserve the right to ask passengers to check that their bag fits 'easily' into the gauge. If a hand bag needs to be adjusted, even slightly, then it does not meet our dimensions of 56cm x 45cm x 25cm as our gauge is accurate.

Although, you claim your bag fitted the gauge at London Gatwick this may be a a result of not containing the same contents.

When hand bags are oversized passengers are charged to add these bags to the hold. Therefore in this instance you have been correctly charged and will not be receiving a refund.

Although the outcome of your request has not been in your favour on this occasion I hope that this will not prevent you from travelling with us in the future.

Yours sincerely

- Pierce Caherty -
easyJet Customer Services

My response

Good morning Pierce

That however is sadly not the response I would have liked to hear, as now it's become very apparent that these are desperate measures to acquire additional profit from luggage that clearly meets your guidelines.
I will be doing my best to let review sites know the hidden costs of taking any baggage on easy jet. I will not be flying with easyjet again. Please delete my account and all relevant customer information.

Marco

Never flew with easy jet again

[AkuzeruD]

Your artwork is amazing, great 3d models, keep it up!

[pussiboost]

Disgusting, as well as fitting in the guide overall it was way smaller than it needed to be. Unless people start taking them to court for breach of contract this will continue.

[stevehaire]

I had a similar issue with a similar style bag.

The lady there said that my hand luggage bag was too big as it didn't go into the 'size check thing' without being pushed in. I said that I'd need to push it into the overhead compartment on the plane, so couldn't understand what the problem was. Although embarrassed, she wasn't having any of it and maintained that it had to just "drop in" for it to be ok.

As we hadn't checked in our main luggage yet, I removed the coloured strap (used to quickly identity my suitcase on the carousel) and put it horizontally around my hand luggage, then pulled it tight to squeeze it together.
It just dropped into their contraption with no effort.

Bizarrely, the lady insisted that I "couldn't do that" stating that "it's still the same bag". I explained why this didnt make any sense (one would assume that she'd embarrassed herself enough already), but she said that she'd get a supervisor.
She went away, spoke with someone while pointing in our direction, then; nothing.

Nobody else came over and she didn't come back.

I hung around for a few minutes, then carried on with checking in.

Nothing ever came of it.

Bunch of oddballs if you ask me - we've never flown with them since.

[pauldavis]

I had this with easy jet at Lisbon airport. They go along the queue with a card reader in hand.
I had brought a case that specifically fit the requirements. However, they insisted on checking it. I didn't have to pay because it fit.
This didn't stop me from losing it at the easy jet staff member. After the horrendously bad treatment at Lisbon airport, i had reached the end of my tether.
I will never fly with easy jet again.

[kch-ooxe]

Send the video to your bank/credit card provider, and make a chargeback request on the basis you had no option other than to pay or be offloaded (at which point EasyJet were refusing to complete their end of the contract), you had no option other than to pay under duress.

[leonorfernandez]

That’s disgusting! That bag clearly fits and has room to spare. That buy is a jerk. I’m staying away from Easy Jet. Frontier tried to do that to me, but after seeing the guy behind me stuff his bag into the sizer and not get charged, I said, “I can do that, ” so I stuffed it in and it fit. There was nothing that he could do, because he let the guy behind me force his bag into the sizer. He wanted to charge me $60! I’ve never booked another flight with Frontier since. Trash airlines.

[George-hszm]

They (easyJet) are clearly changing the rules to suit themselves.

[jimreece]

I have taken North Face Duffel bag - size large - 95 litres. A huge bag. Always loads of sceptical looks. Asked on at least 4 separate occasions to put it in the size checker metal frame. This was with easyJet too. I’ve always packed it light so can mould it to shape. Last time took at least a minute to squeeze it in. Unhappy staff, amused fellow passengers. I am always ready for the problem you faced and to respond with show me the terminology in the terms and conditions which clearly state it needs to fit in the frame in its resting non squashed state. Video yourself challenging the staff on your phone, watch the staff squirm.

[Sunshine]

Ugh, thieves! They won't change until enough people stop riding with them or take them to court.

[Patrick-bwkr]

They won’t charge you extra if you’re 170 kilo with 10 kilo bagage.
But if you are 70 kilo with 20 kilo luggage .. they will.
I find that strange.

[anniearmitage]

I had the same problem with Ryanair. My elderly Mother’s hard-shell cabin bag fitted in the cage on the way over to Gran Canaria but not on the way back at Palma airport. Ground crew told her to pay £50 or don’t get on the plane. As tempting as it was to leave her behind, we paid up!
We were a family group of 13 and another family member had a similar problem that flight too. Not a happy bunny.
Since then I won’t book Ryanair unless I have no alternative - and I never buy so much as a bottle of water in-flight on the odd occasion I do use Ryanair. It’s cost Ryanair a lot more than a hundred quid to p*ss me off. I hold grudges, that was back in 2010. 😤

[ebermtheburn]

If this happened in Germany all you need to do is contact what is called the "Verbraucherzentrale" and they will sue them for you. It's basically a consumer protection agency.

[rhonddalesley]

Ditto myself with Ryanair leaving Lanzarote years ago even down to the bag being the same colour!
There was hardly anything in it but the rigid bottom had shifted and the contents settled at the bottom but the bag fit with ease on it's side but they weren't having it.
My ex who put the bag in the rack complained and started getting irritable and while he was waiting for the manager I was told to board the plane alone getting really upset and anxious.
In the end the captain was called and couldn't understand what the fuss was all about so we went on our way.
We found out later when we complained that the woman causing the issue had a reputation for singling men out for doing nothing wrong and she lost her job soon afterwards.

[petebrown]

It depends what mood they're in. They let many oversize bags through without measuring them. On one flight a lady was determined to fine a passenger for a bag that was borderline overweight.

[lagraefz]

Easyjet wanted to charge me £65 each way for my bag. The package holiday cost £110. I went to the coffee shop got a black plastic bin bag, left my case in the car and flew to Spain where I paid 10 euros for a case to return with.

[LordStraightBanana]

They don’t call them sleazy jet for nothing

[PlanetaryCitizen]

I was told to put my case in one of those by an Easyjet worker at Budapest airport. It was standard size and the correct cabin bag measurements for both Easyjet AND Ryanair. That was one of the reasons I bought it. The young man, who looked like he'd just left school, said it was too big. When I turned it on it's side however, it fitted in perfectly. The rest of the passengers in the queue looked confused and wondered why he'd picked on me! He did tell another passenger to go through the checks and his bag WAS over the size limit, so he had to pay £30.

[Gaz_minis]

Youtube has turned this into a 'short' and now its hard to see my actual description of the video.
This is filmed in Gatwick, but the incident happened in Prague.
There was a surprise check of everyone's luggage before boarding. I went in through first towards the boarding of the plane and was not allowed to head back and help my wife as I saw her in trouble. Basically, the man was saying that she was only allowed to place the bag on the guide and not allowed to touch it. It was only filled with clothes and the only reason mine went into the guide is that it was filled with the heavy things and gravity forced it down.
When we arrived at Gatwick we headed back to departures to test her bag again. Funny enough, an easy jet representative said "Yep that fits, you're good to go." Of course un-aware of what we went through. I stated "Then we had a problem" and showed her our receipt for the fine. You can see the bag is still sealed, unopened since it was forcibly checked in.
She became very quiet and uncooperative, stating she couldn't do anything, and we needed to contact management. I am actually talking to her throughout the video, and you can hear she is very quiet.
I sent a complaint to easy jet with this video, which was unlisted at the time to try and get a refund on the fine. They said they could do nothing, so I published the video.

EDIT
Weird YouTube algorithm has made this short explode. Context guys. This video happened in 2012. A lot has past and it's hilarious, this video is so popular.
Since this incident we got the carry on style hard bags and not had any issues as they are one size fits all. Still not flown with easy jet.
I kind of hope easy jet just wants to pay me off £10k and I can just delete this video. You guys can afford it, Email me!

Common criticisms
1 - That bag looks heavier than 15kg.
It really isn't and my wife is handling it with ease. I also have an email from easy jet stating incorrectly that it failed because (which isn't according to the rules) that the bag needed and adjustment and not because of weight.

2 - You just removed things from the bag for the video
The bag is clearly sealed. Sure, it could be opened to about 10 cm and clothes fed out awkwardly and things left in the middle of a busy Gatwick check in out of frame while we filmed this. Not sure what the goal of that would be? Make YouTube millions off a viral easy jet bashing video?

[mp]

Doesn’t surprise me easyJet left me stranded in the basement of an airport in a wheelchair for 14 hours only got out when the cleaners came in & found me, compensation? NO said it was my fault 🤦🏼‍♂️ 🤷‍♂️ never again!

[LovinLnCottage]

That airline will never see me buying a ticket to fly with them! Thank you for publishing this. I hope you send this to the FAA, as well. This is consumer fraud.