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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
The European Union is looking to outlaw fees imposed on hand luggage and seat allocation as well as to standardise inconsistent airline policies to eliminate hidden costs that impact airline fares.
This is according to a resolution passed by the European Parliament on October 4, asking the European Commission to present concrete policy measures against hand luggage price supplements. It also requires the EU executive body to outline the scope and specific requirements of "reasonable" carry-on baggage weights and dimensions.
In revising the existing EU Air Services Regulation, the Commission should address issues resulting in hidden passenger costs, such as fees imposed on seat allocations and the current complexity of airline offers relating to luggage. The aim is to regulate the composition of the final price, it said. It has already launched a review of the regulation.
European lawmakers want the Commission to fully implement a European Union Court of Justice ruling on September 18, 2014, concerning the baggage surcharges that Vueling Airlines (VY, Barcelona El Prat) was imposing at the time. The court found that airlines should not charge a supplement for carry-on bags "on condition that such hand baggage meets reasonable requirements in terms of its weight and dimensions and complies with applicable security requirements".
Lawmakers have urged EU member states to ensure that this ruling is respected and, in the meantime, disclose hand luggage fees when providing fares and schedules to strengthen consumer protection.
Earlier this year, Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs launched an investigation into multiple low-cost carriers over hand luggage fees, reports Euronews. In November 2019, a Spanish court ruled against Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) for having imposed a EUR20 euro (USD21) surcharge on a passenger for taking a small personal bag on board.
Last month, the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions (PETI) passed a motion urging airlines operating within the EU not to penalise passengers for carrying hand luggage.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) faces class action for alleged deceptive practices and bait-and-switch tactics concerning luggage and associated fees after it charged a passenger USD100 for an oversized personal carry-on item.
At the very least, it should be illegal to use the misleading tactics they use for things like seats. Not sure if airlines in the EU differ (I’m Canadian), but seemingly every airline here tries to make the seat selection seem like it’s mandatory. While I’ve never fallen for that, I wonder how many people pay for their seats simply because they didn’t realize it’s possible not to?
And Flair here in Canada is the budget airline whose whole thing is that they advertise prices that don’t include a carry-on (which is standard with every other airline in Canada). But if you want a carry-on, they’ll charge so much that their flights are often roughly the same price as the competition (and they push bundling carry-on + checked bag so that people will pay more than they need). Flair is great if you know what you’re doing, since a backpack fits the “personal item” size limit and is all I need for short trips, but many people don’t realize how it works and think they have to pay for the carry-on, plus Flair gets their listings to show up higher in search results because they will list the base price. Google Flights makes it clear that there’s no carry-on, but it still shows those flights first and someone without familiarity with Flair won’t expect carry-ons to cost as much as they do.
Most airlines do the same shit in Europe, and what makes it worse is that when you buy tickets in groups or with your partner for example, they intentionally place you separate even if there is free space next to one of the seats so that you then have to buy at least one seat to place it next to the other assigned seat. Wizzair actually used to place people together before, but then they intentionally broke it and now charge 40€ for the solution to the problem they created.
I’m happy to hear that regulators are getting involved now.