You might have seen some recent news stories about airport staff being incentivised to spot oversized bags.
Well, Ryanair has just raised the bar – literally – and announced they’re upping these incentives. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.
Ryanair Oversized Cabin Bags
A Ryanair small cabin bag should measure no more than 40x30x20cm, and fit under the seat in front of you. But what happens if it’s bigger than that?!
What's the Ryanair staff bonus for spotting an oversized cabin bag?
Ryanair staff earn a bonus for every oversized cabin bag they successfully spot at the gate.
This bonus is soon being increased to £2.20 per item (or €2.50) – it used to be £1.30 (€1.50).
This is an increase of more than half – 67% to be exact!
What’s more, employees can now identify an unlimited number of bags. So there is no limit on the amount they can earn in bonuses. Before now, there was a monthly bonus cap set at £69.50 (€80).
What does the Ryanair staff bonus increase mean in practice?
We’ll have to see how things play out, but you would expect the increase in bonus to result in an increase in spotting oversized cabin bags, since this is about incentivising staff to catch them.
As a passenger, if your bag is found to be too big at the gate, you have to pay £75 to check it into the hold there and then.
Now that staff can earn an unlimited amount of extra cash by spotting as many oversized bags as they can, it doesn’t bode well for those of us who like to take a risk and overpack our hand luggage when we fly!
When the monthly cap was in force, to hit it an employee would need to spot 53 bags or more. This isn’t all that many – on average, it’s fewer than 2 a day, so we have to assume this is going to rise.
Catching the scammers
Now Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO, claims this isn’t about ‘typical’ small cabin bags.
He says that if you have a bag that fits in the baggage sizer, but something like a zip is poking out, it’s not going to cost you and it won’t prevent you taking it on board for free.
He says their focus is on catching people who are ‘scamming the system’ and taking obviously oversized luggage on board.
And yet… a lot of us have either seen first-hand or heard anecdotally that some staff interpret the baggage sizer dimensions very specifically. So we will have to see how the new incentive impacts their approach.
Why does Ryanair pay a staff bonus for oversized cabin bags?
There are a few reasons as to why Ryanair are keen to incentivise staff to catch oversized cabin bags.
For one, they’re struggling with the amount of luggage that gets brought into the cabin, and this is one way to get a handle on it.
Plus, they’re looking to keep boarding times down. So, knowing that staff have a beady eye on baggage dimensions should deter passengers from risking bigger bags. Which in turn saves time spent checking, repacking and generally squabbling over it at the gate.
According to O’Leary, it’s under 0.1% of passengers annually who end up paying the £75 fee at the gate to check a bag that’s too big. So it seems it’s not going to impact the majority of passengers.
Do other airlines pay staff bonuses?
Yes, it’s been reported in the press that other airlines offer staff incentives for identifying bags that are too big. For example airport staff working for an agency called Swissport, which handles easyJet flights.
How can I stop Ryanair identifying my bag as oversized?
You might be wary that with a boosted incentive to spot too-big bags, you’re more likely to have the size of your bag questioned when you fly with Ryanair.
A few things can help you stay on the right side of staff at the gate…
Choose a bag that fits the dimensions
The surefire way to avoid being nicked for your bag is to ensure it’s within the dimensions allowed by Ryanair.
Ryanair has actually quietly nudged these a teeny bit bigger recently. You can now take a bag measuring 40x30x20cm into the cabin for free (it used to be 40 25 x 20cm).
This is an increase of just 5cm, but it can equate to as much as 4L extra volume. So being savvy about the exact dimensions of your bag can help you maximise your luggage space.
Choose a bag you can squish to fit the dimensions
Ryanair’s CEO might be saying that a zip poking out of the baggage sizer is no biggie. But we’ve all heard horror stories of people being required to fit the bag entirely into the sizer, zips and all.
So it’s up to you if you want to risk a bag that’s just a smidge too big. If you do, then it’s a good idea not to pack it completely full, to help with squishing it into a sizer if required.
Also, if you’re doing this then ideally choose a bag with really flexible material – something like a holdall or a soft backpack will be better than something more rigid.
Be brazen
And as for blatantly too-large luggage… it sounds like Ryanair are going to be MUCH hotter on this going forward. So you need to think about whether you’re prepared to take the risk or not.
If you can just swagger through the gate and get through on blind confidence – well we salute you!
Check your bag into the hold
If you know you won’t be able to travel with a bag that fits the Ryanair small cabin bag dimensions (or close enough), then remember that you have a couple of options when you book: you can pay for a large cabin bag, or to check a hold bag.
Because we are now so used to bringing our luggage into the cabin with us, prices for hold luggage can be pretty competitive compared to prices for large cabin bags, and in some cases are cheaper!
What we think
It will be interesting to see whether airport staff start to enforce the rules more closely now they can earn a higher bonus from doing so. Will Chelsea’s trusty Patagonia bag still get through? Only time will tell…
The comment from Ryanair’s CEO is interesting – that their focus is on catching the obviously bigger bags, and not ones that are a tiny bit over. We’ll have to wait and see whether this ends up being the case now that the bonus has gone up.
It’s worth remembering that if you do have to travel with a large bag, you don’t have to bring it into the cabin. Checking it into the hold can be cheaper, because lots of us want our luggage with us in the cabin these days.
I recently wanted to book a suitcase with a Ryanair flight, and when I checked the app it was just £16 extra each way to add a 15kg hold bag – in the current world of luggage fees this felt pretty decent!
