to suspect ryanair of scamming me out of £20?

[wastingyourgum]

I've just come back from visiting family abroad, and flew with Ryanair with a 20 kg allowance. Nothing heavy in my suitcase - I wasn't able to weigh it beforehand but it didn't 'feel' over and I had packed as lightly as possible (travelling with DC).

On the outbound my case was 22kg and I had to pay extra. I was annoyed, but assumed it was my fault for going over.

On the way back my case was heavier as I offered to bring a few gifts over on my DM's behalf. When I weighed it at her house I was confused to discover my heavier case only weighed 18 kg.

I assumed it was a faulty scale, but it weighed to same when I checked in, and everyone I spoke to on my flight had the same story to tell...

Obviously the scales on the outbound journey were a bit wonky but AIBU to have a sneaking suspicion that this is some underhanded tactic by Ryanair to con people out of more cash?

Where did you travel to and from? Gravity is stronger in some parts of the world than others so it could just be that. It would explain why other people had the same problem.

(Or it could just have been a mistake, perhaps the bag caught on something? Perhaps the scales were broken. Mistakes do happen, things do go wrong - not everyone is trying to scam you all the time.)

It's unlikely that Ryanair are responsible for the scales abroad, it will be an airport service agent.

There may be gravity fluctuations on Earth, but they would be if very small magnitude, not enough to make several kgs difference! Even if you were weighed on top of a tall mountain on the equator!

Beehatch - don't worry, I know. I also know there's no fluctuating miles/kilometres exchange rate but I'm still happy to tell people about it.

lacktoastintolerance I know you don't know me, but I am one of the least likely people to think they are being scammed! It's probably the whole experience of flying with them that has made me a bit paranoid - for example, the website would not let me check in for my return flight unless I paid £10 extra to choose a seat. The option to be allocated a seat at random was only made available after I'd set off on the outbound, so I had to pay to check in and print off my boarding pass at an internet cafe while abroad. It felt a bit dodgy.

I flew from the UK to Greece (so it was the scales in the UK that were heavier). Thanks for pointing out the gravity issue - I didn't know that.

Oh, I feel bad now. Don't believe the gravity thing.

I think that's the thing with the way companies like Ryanair operate - it creates a feeling you're being constantly ripped off even when you aren't. So if your flight cost £100 + extras of £10 + £20 + £5 (£135 total), you feel like you've got a worse deal than if you had paid £150 for a flight with a 'traditional' airline.

It's not surprising people jump to conclusions about being scammed at all.

You can't check in for the return flight until 7 days before unless you pay to choose a seat. That's why you won't have seen that option.

This might sound dumb but are you sure it was a 20kg allowance? We're flying Ryanair next week and our allowance is 15kg, the one above was 30kg.

If it was 15kg you could have been over both ways?

I'm already pissed at all the add ons they are getting us with! My dad had to pay £30 when he forgot to print his boarding pass!!

You're right - I knew in the back of my mind that it wasn't really a budget flight because of the extras, but some of their tactics are so bloody sneaky! I wouldn't mind so much if they were open about their policies.

It was definitely 20 kg - I still have the receipt for the extra charge.