Isabel García Madrid
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, April 3, 2024-00:15
Aviation The latest 'low cost' controversy: the extra cost for connecting flights that they should not force you to pay (and they do)
Ranking of the most dangerous countries in the world (and the safest) to travel to in 2024
Nine o'clock in the morning. Terminal 1 of the Adolfo Suárez
Madrid-Barajas airport.
The three-day getaway to Madeira begins for Javier and Ana, an excited couple... for a short time. They get in line to board easyJet flight EJU7640, heading first to Lisbon, and from there, they connect with another flight of the same company to
Funchal,
the capital of the Portuguese island.
The problems begin
: "That suitcase is too big; you can't take it up," says one of the employees of the British
low-cost
airline in a rather rude and rude manner . "
But it's the only thing I bring!
When booking on the company's website it said that you can take a hand luggage with you," the man answers.
The worker's response: "Not so big. Put it there," he continues in the same tone, pointing towards the company's baggage meter. It cannot exceed
45 x 36 x 20 centimeters
(including handles and wheels) nor weigh more than 15 kilos and fit under the airplane seat. Standing it fits perfectly. Lying down, "as it should be", no. It exceeds six centimeters in height.
"58 euros
," adds the employee,
pointing
with the dataphone.
Either you pay or you don't fly. There is no more, no matter what the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Union, the
Air Navigation Law,
the European Superior Court of Justice (CJEU), the different previous judicial rulings, consumer associations, the Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the
Montreal Convention
, the international treaty that seeks to protect the rights of passengers in air transport.
Suitcase conveyor belt.SHUTTERSTOCK
All these organizations consider that "
hand luggage
must be considered an essential element of passenger transportation and that its transportation, therefore, cannot be subject to a price supplement, provided that it meets the reasonable requirements regarding its weight and dimensions". This is specified by the
European High Court of Justice
in a ruling corresponding to 2014 that has created jurisprudence for subsequent rulings throughout the European Union.
Even so,
low cost companies
such as
easyJet, Ryanair, Norwegian, Vueling, Wizz Air or Eurowings
maintain that their fares are covered by EC Regulation 1008/2008, which established total liberalization of prices in
the transport sector,
ignoring the entities previously mentioned. In addition, each company establishes its own measurements for hand luggage in order to charge anyone who exceeds them. And
IATA, after consulting Airbus and Boeing
, has already expressed what the official size should be: a maximum of 55x35x20, with wheels, handles and pockets included.
Pay more at the airport
But with many
low-cost airlines
you have no choice but to pay if you do not travel with a piece that goes beyond a large bag or backpack. Up to 58 euros in the case of easyJet if you wait in
line to get on the plane
(
online
it can go down to 42 or 46 euros). Ryanair, for its part, charges 32, while Vueling reaches 75 euros.
The figure multiplies if there is a stopover, as happened in the case of the main couple with whom we started, since they had to pay 58 euros per suitcase on the
flight to Lisbon
and another 58 to get to Funchal. "In Barajas they did not warn me that in Lisbon I would have to
pay another 58 euros
or that if I did it online it would be somewhat cheaper. If I find out, I leave the suitcase there and take a couple of things in a bag of plastic; it is not worth spending
more than 200 extra euros
between round trips, to which we must add the 200 that it already cost me," says Javier.
An Easyjet plane.
This is because the
reservation number of the two flights
are different, despite having been purchased at the same time as a connecting flight on the airline's website. "I looked for Madrid-Funchal, not Madrid-Lisbon and then Lisbon-Funchal," he adds. This is another irregularity that is also contemplated in
European legislation on air transport,
since companies must guarantee assistance during stopovers if the first flight is delayed or cancelled, as long as they are journeys included under the same reservation.
However, by assigning flights with
different reservation numbers,
even if they are from the same company, "they are no longer obliged to do so," says Noemí Rodríguez, manager of the Reclamio.com portal, specialized in complaints to airlines on issues such as such as lost luggage,
flight cancellations or delays
. "In addition, you have to pay double for the suitcase as there are two different flights and not one; it is a trap," points out the board of directors of this website, which in 2023 managed more than
15,000 claims
, which represented a recovery of four million euros. in compensation to travelers.
For all these reasons,
consumer associations
have gone to court motivated by the demands of dissatisfied passengers. In France, easyJet was sentenced to withdraw a total of
23 clauses considered abusive
by the Court of Grand Instance of Paris regarding aspects such as baggage, the charging of extra fares, delays or even schedules.
A Ryanair plane, on the runway.
Spain has not been an exception. In the case of hand luggage in question,
low cost airlines
have had to compensate passengers on several occasions who had to pay to bring their
suitcase on board.
Many of these complaints are promoted by associations such as
Facua (Consumers in Action),
which led the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to open a sanctioning file against four companies, Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea, for charging extra costs for this type of parts. cabin. "We transferred the complaint to Consumer Affairs so that they could impose
large fines,
since otherwise they continue to act the same," explains Rubén Sánchez, general secretary and spokesperson for the entity.
The practice of "splitting services"
In this sense, the ministry highlighted, just a few months ago, that with the practice of "splitting services" when purchasing a ticket, these companies "can offer initial competitive prices in their advertising, since
the supplements come later,
a once the reservation is made. "This allows them to have a privileged SEO positioning in search engines and comparators compared to their competitors, who do include these services in
the price of the ticket
with which they advertise," they point out from Consumption.
Previously, Facua had already promoted the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs of the
Balearic Islands
to open another file against easyJet, Eurowings and Volotea with the idea of sanctioning them with 20,000 euros for an offense classified as serious, "by limiting the right of passengers to
board to the plane cabin
with their hand luggage or ask for higher fares so they can take it with them," according to Félix Alonso, head of the Balearic department. The owner adds that Consumption has carried out a search on the websites of
other companies
to detect similar cases. "The legislation allows the passenger to carry their hand luggage in the cabin without being forced to pay additional amounts for it," he adds.
However, easyJet assures EL MUNDO that, "like many other European airlines", they offer the option of "carrying
large cabin luggage
for a fee", in addition to allowing "all customers to carry a bag that fits under the seat for free." With this, the company considers that "the baggage policy complies with
local regulations
."
On the other hand, the OCU (Organization of Consumers and Users) encourages reporting
this type of practices, considering them "irregularities"
, even if you have to pay at the airport beforehand. "If you don't accept the extra cost, they won't let you board, but you have to report it.
The passenger always has the upper hand
," says Ileana Izverniceanu, spokesperson for the organization.
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