Italy opens probe into Ryanair hand luggage charges

I sympathise with the consumer associations: charging for largish hand luggage makes price comparisons deceptive, distorting the market.

On the other hand, storing hand luggage overhead is one of the most time consuming parts of the boarding process, which is even worse with Ryanair's short intereuropean flights. All that time spent on hand luggage costs money, and it seems only fair to make those pay that cause the delay, incentivizing people to take less luggage (bags that can be stored under your seat are still free). It makes economic sense for everyone.

To satisfy both sides of the argument, you could show the price with large hand luggage fee included, and offer a discount if you show up without hand luggage. If you extend that concept, you arrive at a "base feature set" that has to be included in the base price of any flight, and from there you can add surcharges and discounts.

Firstly, travelers are consenting adults that should understand and accept the baggage policy - or use a different airline. The market is extremely competitive.

Secondly, as a person who has traveled backpack for years, I find the whole "luggage is an essential element of air transport" line quite offensive. It's a service I want to purchase but you won't let me because some guy might be confused by a price comparison app to buy a baggage-less ticket (mind you, not even by Ryanair themselves, on their website it is very clear what you get for the price). It's revolting.

> incentivizing people to take less luggage (bags that can be stored under your seat are still free)

So how far and for how long do you think someone can fly with a luggage that fits under their seat?

You can't honestly say you're selling a transportation service and let people take almost no luggage.

If a fee is unavoidable, then it's not a fee, it's part of the price.

Not sure how I feel about this. It annoyed my greatly on my last RyanAir flight that in order to take a slightly larger than laptop sized bag (35L) I had to pay for priority which was 8 quid or whatever. A Primera flight I've just booked is now doing exactly the same. Small bag free, bigger bag not so. But, as some of the comments here, I think it sped things up once on the plane. However, adding the extra charge leaves a bitter taste in my mouth - "here's the price for you cheap flight, but here's the actual 20% more price now you have to add a bag". It'll be a smooth win for the first aggregator (Skyscanner or whoever) that adds a 'taking max size cabin bag' option to their search and includes it in the price.

The only reason people store so much hand luggage is that the airlines charge for checked baggage. This wasn't always the case.

> offer a discount if you show up without hand luggage

Realistically, how many such people are there going to be who are travelling without a change of clothes?

And if they win on this one, where's next on the slippery slope? Differential pricing for handbags and laptop bags? Could they maybe start charging based on the contents of the bags?