Major UK consumer watchdog Which? has slammed European budget airlines for almost never actually offering cabin bag fares as low as advertised.
The lowest prices for carry-on bags advertised by major European budget airlines Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz Air are almost never available, according to UK consumer watchdog Which?.
In a recent survey of nearly 1,500 bag prices on eight busy Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz Air routes, Which? highlighted that the lowest carry-on prices from £5.99 (€6.80) are available less than one per cent of the time.
The report took into account four separate dates in August, November, December and February, to account for both peak and off-peak travel.
Not knowing cabin bag charges until the very last page of the booking process can be frustrating and even misleading at times for passengers.
In some cases, Which? says these charges exceed the flight fares themselves, especially for low-cost European routes, which are the main attractions for budget flyers in the first place.
In contrast, other larger and global airlines like British Airways, KLM and Qatar Airways still provide a free cabin bag, while charging for check-in luggage in some cases.
Compounded with some budget airlines’ obscure gate fines around luggage, cabin bag fares have come under special scrutiny in the last few years.
Back in November 2024, Spain’s Consumer Rights Ministry imposed a fine of €179 million on five budget airlines for “abusive practices” around luggage. However, the EU Commission has contested Spain’s authority to impose these fines.
The European Parliament’s transport committee has also advocated for free standard cabin bags on all airlines.
Which? says it has already shared its EasyJet findings with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is now investigating this issue.
“Our research shows that the tens of millions of passengers who need to take a cabin bag will pay much more than the cheapest price advertised- rather than a few pounds, prices for bags can often be more than the flight itself,” Rory Boland, editor of Which?, said about the survey.
“The tactics used by these airlines deserve to be called out, that’s why we have shared our findings with the regulator.”
Cheapest EasyJet cabin bag fare not found even once
Out of the 520 EasyJet cabin bag prices surveyed, Which? could not find a single flight which had the airline’s advertised lowest fee of £5.99 (€6.80).
“In the case of easyJet, Which? challenged the airline to send an example of any flight where you could take a standard cabin bag for £5.99 and they declined to do so,” the survey said.
The cheapest fare was £23.49 (€26.79), with the average price being £30 (€34.2). With cabin fares usually only one way, passengers technically have to pay double this price for a round trip.
“EasyJet’s bag options and pricing is transparent and well understood by our customers, allows them to pay for only what they want and no more and enables us to keep fares low for everyone,” an EasyJet spokesperson said.
“This year 100 million passengers are choosing to fly with us and with our customer satisfaction scores up year on year, it’s clear that customers continue to value the choices that we offer.”
Lowest Ryanair cabin bag price only available 0.3% of the time
Not far behind EasyJet, the cheapest advertised cabin bag fee for Ryanair, at £12 (€13.70), could only be found by Which? twice out of a staggering 634 flights- or a grand total of 0.3 per cent of the time.
The airline’s average cabin luggage fare was £20.50 (€23.40). Ryanair has strongly rebuked the Which? survey, calling it “total rubbish” and saying that the sample of 634 flights was statistically too small to be representative or accurate, when the airline operates more than 100,000 flights each month.
A spokesperson for the budget airlines added that claims its cabin bag policy is “adversarial” or had “alienated large numbers of customers” were “yet another complete fabrication”.
Ryanair called into question how many of its 206 million customers Which? had surveyed and pointed to figures which show that its traffic has grown 40 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So the factual position is that Ryanair customers are flocking to us in their millions, and have no problems with our optional and fully transparent bag policies.”
Wizz Air cheapest cabin bag fares available only 0.6% of the time
Similarly, Wizz Air’s lowest cabin bag fare of €10 was only found twice on the 338 flights checked, which made a total of 0.6 per cent of the time.
The airline claimed that the sample size of 350 flights chosen by Which? wasn’t representative enough enough of cabin bag pricing across its full network, given it has over 75 million passengers annually.
They also said that they’ve had no visibility of the data and believed that it is “potentially misleading”. “At Wizz Air, our bag pricing is transparent and fully compliant with consumer protection laws. Every ticket includes a free under-seat bag, and customers can choose to add larger luggage if they wish,” a Wizz Air spokesperson said.
“That way, our customers only pay for what they need which we believe is a fairer, more sustainable model than a one-size-fits-all approach. We make luggage pricing clear across multiple touchpoints and always encourage customers to purchase large cabin baggage directly and in advance to secure the best price.”
