A pensioner in the UK laments that she was hit up for a bag fee while boarding her Ryanair flight while a “gorgeous” girl traveling with a nearly identical bag was allowed through without payment. Is Ryanair guilty of ageism?
Ageism On Ryanair? Older Woman Claims She Was Hit Up For Baggage Fee While Younger, Attractive Woman Was Not Charged
63-year-old Maxine Haughian was pulled aside while boarding her Ryanair flight from Leeds, UK (LBA) to Alicante, Spain (ALC). A Ryanair staffer claimed her carry-on bag was too large…the same bag she has been carrying on Ryanair for 10 years.
But what made Haughian even angrier was when a “gorgeous” young girl was let onboard even though she was traveling with what Haughian called an identical suitcase.
I’m absolutely disgusted with Ryanair! I’ve just been held up for 20 minutes because they said my cabin bag was too big and I must pay an EXTRA £75 for it to go in the hold. Alternatively I can leave it and forfeit the bag and its contents!
It’s funny (not funny) how other bags that are exactly the same were allowed through without comment. It’s a good job I took the photo of this (gorgeous) girl pushing her case into the box and being allowed through. Mine is the pink case and I see no difference whatsoever. I’m obviously not young or good-looking enough!!!!!
Eventually (using the photographic evidence) I was allowed through.
I’m stressed to high-hell and hope I can calm down and get into holiday mode before we land.
Her post went viral and she later told a local news outlet Kennedy News:
“I can’t see what reason there would be for that to have happened — for it to be OK for some people to go through and not for me to go through. And in that instance, the only thing that differentiates us was the fact that that was a young, good-looking female and I’m not young.
“It’s not like I’m some hag or anything, but I am older.”
She felt she was singled out because Ryanair staff assumed older people would be more compliant.
“It was the inconsistency of it all. If you’ve got rules, they should be applied evenly and equally.”
And that last point is reasonable. From the pictures above, we can see that the young woman was also asked to place her bag in the sizer and while her pink bag is similar to the younger woman’s pink bag, it is not clear they were identical.
And while I think the bag was close enough, it did slightly protrude from the sizer…she’s fortunate she put up a fuss and was allowed onboard, because Ryanair is not in the business of charity.
But I think she was on to something in speculating that she was pulled aside and told she had to pay because older British people (though I don’t think 63 makes you a senior citizen…) tend to be polite and follow rules…hey, that’s generally a good thing and Ryanair staff probably figured she would not put up a fuss, unlike the young woman…
Ryanair should treat all passengers equally, even if it is equally bad.
image: Maxine Kelly Haughian / Facbook
Looks like a small suitcase . Ban them all , and if they complain , escort them off the flight .
She said “young(gorgeos) and good looking”, you said “hot”. She is “hot” for you, fair enough. I do not see any “hot” girl in those pictures.
Not hot for me at all…I’m not into tattoos, fake nails, and fake lashes…
I’m chuckling. You and me both. I think the older gal was quite lovely with her more natural look and demeanor.
Truth be told, senior citizens known as “Karens” often get special treatment because they ask for it compared to others. After all, she did get the bag and board and STILL complained afterwards. If the gate agent gave me my way, I’d count my blessings and quietly go on with my life.
One thing I’d like to see (more often, if not yet invented I should patent it) are bags that can fit into sizers and then be, er, resized. Such as the ability to remove wheels from the bottom to fit into such sizers or overhead bins and then re-attach them (and REPLACE them when they break!).
Hard suitcases are an issue because if they don’t fit in the sizer, not much you can do about it. When we travel, we pack about 4 cloth shopping bags so if something happens, we can remove items if we need and still carry them with us. Also, at our destination, we still need shopping bags. 🙂
I guess a woman in her 40’s who has that skinny too-old-to-still-be-a-stripper junkie look could be construed as young and hot by some.
Yeah… someone’s definition of “hot / attractive” is suspect. Seems like some (not you Matt) have a pretty low bar for that category.
At 63 the complainant ought to know better than to fly Ryanair.
The woman on the right is a MILF. The one with weird died hair, not so much. I would have allowed any size bag for the 63-year old hottie.
I would add as well that these sizers are perhaps not always accurate to the specifications on the website. I have a small (convenient) tape measure and would recommend bringing along to measure the, er, measurer. It’s possible that they skew it a quarter inch, or more, to throw people off and force them to pay baggage fees.