What are the airlines going to fleece you for next?

[CeeJay81]

We are off on holiday in December and Jet 2's latest email is asking me if I want too guarantee our handluggage? Yes that's right for £6pp we can guarantee our hand luggage fits on the plane😯. I thought the reason they had measurements for these things was too make sure everyone's does fit on. It's not Ryanair/EasyJet, not that that should make a difference. It's a package holiday. With several posts discussing seat booking charges, am I being unreasonable for thinking this is just one step too far?

I wouldn’t fly with them for all the tea in china.

I don't know but government should intervene on some extra charges via a new Consumer Bill. Though the list seems to get longer as to what it should include.

Wtaf?! I honestly would never fly Ryanair ever again.

Sorry, have just seen it wasn't Ryanair. I guess the only sane thing to do is to accept that the price of flights is going up, they're just not putting it on the ticket price

Jet2 are also low cost.
When selling tickets and holidays cheap, they make up money on other stuff. 🤷
And no, it is VERY rare in my experience everyone's baggae fits in the overheads. Not just because people stuff their jackets and duty free 3 bags there too....

So how does this work? You pay £6 and they will squeeze your giant suitcase in somehow?

Makes sense.

Flew BA in August and our bags nearly didn't fit on, I'd have paid £6 to make sure they did

I’ve flown with Jet2 many times

You are allowed to have 10kg of HL free of charge.https://www.jet2.com/en/baggage#:~:text=10kg%20included,(including%20wheels%20and%20handles).

The £6 charge is if on flights they know from experience that passengers will just travel with HL. It guarantees them a space in overhead lockers. If overhead lockers are full, they will ask passengers to put their HL in the hold - making sure that passports, electronic gadgets are with them.

To prevent this charge, pack your luggage a holdall, not a suitcase as you can put that under the seat in front of you. Put anything accessible - passport, reading material in an external pocket in bag

I flew back with them last week and there was only my holdall and my neighbour’s coat in the locker.

As I understand it;
You are travelling with handluggage only, mainly to avoid queueing at the belt for hours.
On rare occasions, said hand luggage is taken and put in the hold. Paying this levy guarantees yours won't be one of them.

I've flown for business and holidays with hand luggage only loads of times and have only had hand luggage put in hold once!

If they didn’t fit they shouldn’t go on! It’s like you have to bribe them with £6 to fit them in!

It’s the way they (the low cost airlines). Instantly change their rules to catch you out that annoys me. You have to be a full time consultant to keep up.

Yes this is usually on those flights that people may go for a shortbreak so rather than checking a suitcase and taking just a large handbag or small rucksack on they are taking small suitcases as hand luggage. As another person said it guarantees you don't have to queue for baggage. If you don't want to do that and are checking a suitcase through then they aren't going to make you put your handbag in the hold.

It amazes me that at least one person’s luggage never fits the lockers. On another Jet2 flight 2 years ago a member of the flight crew measured the problematic luggage. It was about 5cm more in all three dimensions. In the hold it went.

They’re fine short haul as part of a package.

That's not new on Jet 2. It's been the case for ages. It simply means you're paying to guarantee it's not put in the hold if the flight is busy. If you don't want to pay it don't - it's part of the low cost model but not compulsory. These days you pay for the seat - anything else is chargeable.

No we have suitcases for the hold but do take a small hand luggage size one on the plane usually aswell. I'll just take rucksacks instead this time to make sure they fit under seat

How will this work? If you are one of the last on the plane and the lockers are full but you've paid they will pick someone who hasn't paid at random and take their luggage? I can see this leading to lots of arguments on board.

Haven't flown with them before, so didn't know this.

I imagine it'll be some form of priority boarding

I'd pay the £6. We just flew with Ethihad. We were one of the first passengers on the plane, and they wanted to take our hand luggage off us as we were boarding to put in hold as the flight was full. It wasn't oversized. We refused.

I would too.Not that I fly with them. They might put the £6 people in a higher boarding category so your bags and you get on earlier? It’s not about big bags. It’s about ensuring you have space for a standard bag. Did you not realise that’s why people are desperate to board? They take bags away from the last in the queue!

Having said that: BA did once try to take my bag away. It fitted the size requirement snd I just had another small handbag. I certainly wasn’t last either but I guess they had virtually nothing checked in. The staff member put my case to one side with several others. She was then looking for more victims. When she engaged another one, having not stopped several people with far more bags than me, I nipped back and took it back, People who stick to the rules should not be penalized but many don’t. With low cost airlines, I’d pay.

Like somebody else said the guarantee is intended for those who travel with the big maximum cabin baggage sized cases. Not people with a hold-all.

The "included" bag defines the size of the nag you can take at no extra charge, it doesn't guarantee you'll be able to take it in the cabin. On busy shorthaul flights, too many passengers taken cabin sized suitcases so if you want to guarantee yours.notmgking in the hold, pay the extra.

Easyjet and Ryanlair do it by offering priority for more than £6

All these flights are still too cheap to be reasonable or sustainable IMO (although I use them a lot, so not judging anyone?

jet 2 holidays are very generous on luggage - you get a decent amount of check in included and a good hand luggage allowance. The problem is is that if everyone takes the max hand luggage there isn’t enough space. If your bag fits under the chair it is already guaranteed; it’s the overhead ones that aren’t.

There are a few things they could add charges for:

Oxygen supply
Toilet (maybe 20p for a wee and £1 for anything else?)
Lifejacket upgrade - siren and flares, not just light and whistle
Basic pleasantries - fiver each if you want “please” and “thank you”, and a maximum of two cheery greetings plus one farewell