Ryanair’s new cabin bag rules came into force earlier this month, meaning passengers will have to pay if they want to bring a second bag on board.
However, passengers have been taking to social media to vent their frustration around the new policy – but it’s nothing to do with the extra fees.
Under the new policy, if you want to bring a second bag you’ll need to pay for either priority boarding, or pay for the new 10kg check-in bag allowance, with this bag being placed in the hold.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to an increase in passengers opting for priority boarding, but those travelling claim that it’s now causing longer priority queues at the check-in desk.
Some passengers took to social media expressing their anger, as they felt that they were not getting the ‘priority boarding’ experience they expected because of the longer wait.
One Twitter user wrote: "As expected, Ryanair’s new policy that you must purchase Priority to get your small bag in the cabin = everyone books Priority.
"Expect this to become the new ‘normal’ and something else to be removed for additional purchase. Successful but relentlessly irritating business plan."
Meanwhile, others pointed out that the non-priority queues appeared significantly shorter.
Another passenger shared images of the queues on Twitter, writing: "@Ryanair your new #baggagepolicy makes a mockery of your "#Priority" queue. The priority queue in @ShannonAirport for #FR108 this evening is easily 5 times longer than the non priority #queue. So how has this helped other than rolling in more revenue for yourselves?"
A spokesperson for Ryanair told Mirror Online: "We’ve already received lots of positive feedback from our customers and airports across Europe. Priority boarding is capped at 95 customers per flight (out of 189 customers)."
The airline also claims that before the policy change, they had an average of 60 customers in the priority boarding queues.
Priority boarding isn’t the only way passengers can opt to bring a second bag – the alternative is to pay for a 10kg check-in bag that will be placed in the hold.
Ryanair brought in the new 10kg check-in bag as part of the new policy, to offer a different option to the standard 20kg bag.
This does have benefits for passengers who had planned to bring a second bag anyway, as the 10kg back costs £8, compared to the £25 price tag for the 20kg bag.
However, you could argue that if you’re paying £8 for your second bag, you might as well opt for priority boarding and get the extra perks too.
The new rules were actually brought in as an effort to try and combat long queues at the gates.
In fact, it’s the second time that Ryanair changed its policy this year.
The previous policy, brought in back in January, had meant that while only priority boarding passengers could bring two bags of hand luggage into the cabin for free, non-priority passengers could take one small bag into the cabin and have a second bag put in the hold for free.
However because this service was free, most passengers weren’t opting for priority boarding, choosing instead to turn up at the check-in gate with their second bag, which the airline said was leading to timekeeping issues.
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