easyJet’s controversial new cabin bag policy is now live

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• Ozidedeoglu@yahoo.com says:

  15 Feb15 February 07:54

  Its not only about making revenue. They want you on and off the plane in a flash. Less bags less time wasting. Also as a freequent traveler the amount of issues seen on bord between crew and rude pssengers and their bags especially on Italian, Spanish and Greek routes…this is not a bad thing. In reltion to covid this also hels spread less cabin germs!

  • ChrisW says:

    15 Feb15 February 08:27

    People are still going to take luggage when they travel. It just means it will be loaded into the hold not the cabin. Does that really reduce turnaround times.

    • Julian says:

      15 Feb15 February 09:45

      It has nothing to do with turnaround times. Instead its all about raising more fees from passengers in extra luggage charges of one kind or another……………

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    15 Feb15 February 10:41

    That is completely wrong. The likes of Ryanair and Easyjet first started charging for bags because it is costly and time consuming to load them into the hold.

    This policy is more about stop people taking the piss (guilty as charged). I suspect the enforcement will be very relaxed until you push it too far. I read some of there investor relations documents a couple years ago, it is part of Easyjet’s strategy to be relaxed on enforcement so that people want to fly with them again

    • Lady London says:

      15 Feb15 February 10:49

      wasn’t relaxed if you landed one particular member of staff at your gate at Gatwick…. my heart used to sink when I saw her.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        15 Feb15 February 17:25

        If it is the same lady we are thinking of, I am surprised she was still employed. Awful lady and awful dealing with disabled people

        • Lady London says:

          15 Feb15 February 21:47

          Yes! same lady!
          I’d mention the gate numbers I saw her most at… but I will have to use them again so won’t.

          Big leap… you are not one of the regulars out every Monday back Thurs/Fri every week are you? pre-Covid anyway…

• Andy says:

  15 Feb15 February 08:32

  Very odd interpretation in this report. EasyJet is not stopping you from putting your bag in the overhead lockers; the overhead lockers at the back will not be empty. The new policy is that if you don’t pay, your cabin bag must be of a size which fits underneath your seat (and presumably only if necessary to create space for larger bags).

  • Rob says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:39

    How? The only way to get an overhead locker spot is to buy ‘upfront’ (so you’re sat at the front) or to have an easyJet Plus card.

    You misinterpret the rules. The bag must go under the seat in front. It isn’t about it being big enough to fit under the seat but you can put it in the locker if you want. easyJet wants empty overhead lockers.

    • Julian says:

      15 Feb15 February 09:44

      Who wouldn’t want to put their bag in the locker given that bags under seats can shoot forward and disappear during a landing or in turbulent conditions etc.

      • Rob says:

        15 Feb15 February 09:49

        You can’t put it in the locker. That’s the point. It must go under the seat.

        • John says:

          15 Feb15 February 10:15

          I have to disagree. No one is enforcing that all small bags go under the seat. Only that you won’t get your large bag past the gate if you are not ‘up front’.

        • ken says:

          15 Feb15 February 13:40

          I think you are wrong here Rob.

          It has to be of a size that means it can go under the seat. Nowhere does it say that you can’t then store it in the overhead locker.

          The idea that staff are going to be taking stuff out of lockers & telling people to put it under their seat seem fanciful.

        • Rob says:

          15 Feb15 February 14:26

          Look at the screenshot. One is headed ‘bag under seat’, one is headed ‘bag in locker’.

          If a small bag could be placed in the locker, it would have been worded totally differently. They would be saying ‘from 10th February we can no longer accept large bags over a certain size in the cabin – full stop’. They wouldn’t mention the underseat issue and they wouldn’t have used that graphic.

          I am not saying that you are definitely wrong but we published virtually the same article word for word a few months ago and none of our contacts in the easyJet press office got in touch to say we had misunderstood it. It is also 2.30pm now and we’ve not a word from easyJet.

        • ken says:

          15 Feb15 February 15:58

          why would they clarify anything ?

          Its a fairly blatant cash grab and the more customers think they have to pay the better for them.

          I pity a steward on say a Belfast – Liverpool stag party flights trying to get bags down from lockers to go under seats.

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          15 Feb15 February 18:05

          Ryanair have the same policy and unless the overhead lockers are full they really aren’t bothered if you put your small bag up top

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      15 Feb15 February 10:44

      I’m not convinced the enforcement of this will be that strict. But yes could probably stop you like Spirit in the US does, but they won’t. It is too damaging to there reputation.

      Another factor is probably to try and push there subscription membership thing on the assumption it can make customers loyal like Amazon Prime. Again, not convinced on that either

• TimM says:

  15 Feb15 February 08:39

  The Hands Free option makes all the difference. This is the larger bag size (56 x 45 x 25 cm) with no weight limit checked in for £7 each way.

  Low cost airlines have tried to persuade us to travel hand luggage only for years. They wanted to eliminate the check-in desk and their airport baggage handling fees. This is easyJet throwing in the towel and accepting that a certain proportion of travellers will always want to take a large suitcase. EasyJet’s optimisation is to allow the large cabin bag size in the front section only to speed up turnaround times.

  Those of us who travel hand luggage only will be happy to pay the small extra for an upfront seat or for the extra legroom and not have to physically check-in or wait at the carousel at the destination. To me, it is an extra 2-3 hours of holiday which can often take in an extra meal (or two) at the hotel instead standing at an airport.

  • Julian says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:03

    Don’t be ridiculous. Waiting for hold luggage adds may be 15minutes or so per leg travelled on average. But of course exceptionally on a busy day in the summer it might be 45 minutes. And very exceptionally once in 50 or so flights your hold bag might not show up when you arrive and you might have to waste lots of time filling out forms to get it delivered to your hotel or accommodation later. But even so your claim of 2 to 3 hours extra per holiday cannot possible be justified. Although I assume you are adding together saved time for say four passengers to get to that number?

    • John says:

      15 Feb15 February 10:19

      I flew with easyJet on Saturday. Hands free means queuing for 60+ mins to check in a bag. That means having to arrive at the airport earlier, and more standing around. “Hands free” is value reducing, not value adding.

    • Stu N says:

      15 Feb15 February 10:26

      Julian – clearly TimM is counting both the additional time to check a bag in and additional time to retrieve it. You usually have to check bags in 1 hour before departure and add maybe 30 mins buffer for queues.

      If traveling hand luggage arriving at airport 1 hour before flight is comfortable, 45 mins adequate, 30 mins brave but doable.

      So 45 mins at check-in and 30 mins at other end x 2 = 2 1/2 hours.

      QED

    • Lady London says:

      15 Feb15 February 11:02

      Not sure who you’re flying with Julian but @Tim M’s luggage waits reflect my experience overall. Collecting luggage is a pain and subject to delays. Having to queue to check luggage wastes loads of time as well.

      Plus checkin desks often open very few deska early servivicing all flights in one queue, or open them late or very close to the flight time in the very early hours of the morning at places where you’re obliged to use them.
      Completely removing lounge time or reducing it so as not to be worth it if you would pay and even risking missing your flight if it’s a very early one because you still have to go through security after that.

      Noting that at some airports you will have to queue as only checkin desk (and not ticket officr and not online) can take money for handsfree. So monster wasteof time.

      • TimM says:

        15 Feb15 February 14:24

        Yes, John, Stu N and Lady London, I rolled all the luggage collection and check-in times into one. Experience is the most valuable commodity.

        My most recent trip was to Antalya last September/October – a time when we were allowed to travel but NHS dentists in the UK were not operating. I took my mother for a dental bridge. We booked EJ, hand luggage only, and I timed our trip from the aircraft door to the transfer vehicle at 7 minutes. On the return, I allowed an hour at the airport before scheduled departure. It was more than enough.

        I think people who are used to travelling with checked-in baggage are mentally conditioned into a sort of rhythm of airports: 2+ hours before the flight on departure, an hour on arrival. Travelling with hand-luggage-only shaves off most of that and improves quality of life.

        High-speed travel should not involve standing in a queue or at the carousel for a comparable time to the actual journey.

        Besides what you can’t fit into that 56 x 45 x 25 cm unlimited weight trolley case, is not worth taking.

• Julian says:

  15 Feb15 February 09:07

  The point of all these constantly changing baggage rules is to catch passengers out and leave them paying vast extra fees while they are emotionally damaged by being unexpectedly separated from their luggage that may contain valuable or important items.

  The object of the exercise seems to be to assist new sales by the luggage industry and to upset some customers enough to keep British Airways in business.

  It is high time that the Competition and Markets Authority took a long and firm look in to the iniquitous baggage charging policies of the airline industry and in particular the so called Low Cost (in practice more like Lousy and Minimal Service) airlines.

  • Lady London says:

    15 Feb15 February 11:15

    It is high time the CMA took a look at Easyjet constantly changing rulea and pricing for flight changes. Some changes, rules and chargespublished, many not and many affecting tickets that were already purchased.

    Since @Callum will be along to ask me if I’ve got a real example a good one is that before any rule change was announced, for at least 5 months Easyjet was insisting that in order to purchase luggage for a flight, luggagealao had to be purchased for every other flight on a booking. They simply refused to allow you to putchase luggage on just one flight. This had never been required before and with Easyjet bookings being able to have 12 flights and previously more, this was totally unreasonable. Yet agents wouldn’t budge even though no published rule change had been made. This for months amd should not have been applied to existinv tickets anyway.

  • Track says:

    15 Feb15 February 11:15

    Bingo! Price obfuscation.

  • Track says:

    15 Feb15 February 11:17

    We’re coming back to the need for a consumer watchdog in aviation, not porter service to the industry.

    • Lady London says:

      15 Feb15 February 11:26

      On performance CAA should lose the consumer side.

• Nick says:

  15 Feb15 February 09:08

  This is designed to raise revenue, no more, no less. easyJet were actually surprisingly honest about that, making it clear it’s a way to recoup losses made over the past year. I’m expecting flybe-style enforcement at airports so some people will definitely be in for a surprise.

  • Julian says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:47

    No experience of FlyBe style enforcement but I presume its the same as Ryanair (i.e. pay us in cash now or you won’t get on the flight and you also therefor won’t be able to make a chargeback claim on your credit card).

    In other words exactly the opposite of the level of enforcement of hand baggage size or weight by BA or Norwegian.

• Froggitt says:

  15 Feb15 February 09:49

  “Since the only people who can put something in the overhead locker are sitting in the extra legroom seats at the front or centre of the plane, the lockers in the rear half of the plane will be empty”

  – can you imagine all the people at the front trying to walk past everyone queueing to get off, to get their case at the back when the plane lands?????

• Rich says:

  15 Feb15 February 10:20

  Urgh. I try to avoid Ryanair – not for the fees, so much as the constant nagging feeling that I’m going to be penalised for not spotting whatever traps they’ve put in place today. It feels like you have to trawl through the T&Cs and then check with recent reports on social media every time you book.

  Looks like it’s the same thing on easyJet now.

  • Brighton Belle says:

    15 Feb15 February 10:30

    Flying Easyjet used to be simple pricing with no traps. 30 sectors a year for me was simple and straight forward. It’s now become an unpleasant T&C’s price gamble I cant really be bothered with. I will avoid them now. I started with EZY when Stelios had just 4 planes out of Luton. Driving from Brighton to Luton was a PITA. The new bag policy is complexity without any benefit.

    • Julian says:

      15 Feb15 February 12:46

      The only benefit is to Easyjet in generating more revenue from tricking their customers…………..

    • Bagoly says:

      16 Feb16 February 22:08

      Exactly my thoughts too.
      Flexi tickets were great when they were -7/+21 days, but during Covid that went down to -1/+1.
      My Flight Club membership will lapse.

• Matarredonda says:

  15 Feb15 February 10:32

  Revenue raising pure and simple.
  I suspect the so called under the seat bag will be allowed in the overhead locker by the cabin crew as is the case with Ryanair and Wizz Air.
  In many respects the Ryanair policy is better.

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