An airline passenger, who became irate over the “rip-off” $76 luggage fee he faced at the airport, decided to exact swift revenge — much to the delight of fellow travelers, who cheered him on. Was it worth it? You decide.
A man named Daniel was preparing to board a short flight to the Spanish mainland at an airport in Palma, Mallorca when he was alerted by a Ryanair agent that he owed an extra $76 because his carry-on bag exceeded the airline’s hand luggage dimensions, The Sun reported. Daniel was immediately alarmed and irritated to be hit with the surprising surcharge, which he said had risen steeply over the last decade.
“I told Ryanair it cost me 30 Euros [roughly $32 USD] ten years ago and I wasn’t going to pay the 70 Euros [approximately $76 USD] they were asking me for,” Daniel recalled.
Frustrated, Daniel decided to exact swift revenge — but not on the airline. Instead, the irate passenger’s luggage bore the brunt of his annoyance when he decided to beat the system and save a bundle by breaking the wheels off of his suitcase to avoid the charge — much to the amusement of fellow travelers, the NY Post reported.
“So I decided to break it…It would have cost me more to check the case in than I spent on the flight,” Daniel explained.
Recruiting the help of his buddies, Daniel and his pals held down the suitcase while breaking the wheels off, effectively knocking the luggage down to size. Surprisingly, the passenger remained in good spirits, laughing as he broke his suitcase to avoid the charge as he and his friends joked about taking such drastic action.
“Imagine [if] it doesn’t fit after this,” one of Daniel’s companions joked.
Not only did it work, but Daniel was also met with a round of applause by other travelers inside the airport, but he’s not the first to take such drastic action. In a video posted to YouTube by Dogtooth Media, a frustrated EasyJet passenger is seen destroying his luggage to avoid paying excess baggage fees, tearing pieces off his suitcase to ensure it would fit into the airline’s bag check frame.
In yet another similar incident, a passenger was captured on video smashing up his suitcase to fit the airline’s size requirements at Edinburgh Airport, Deadline News reported. According to the outlet, “The man was allegedly told by airline staff that his luggage was too large to fit on, and so had decided to take matters into his own hands to reduce the size of the case.”
In an attempt to fit the suitcase into the demonstrated size box, the man is captured destroying his carry-on suitcase, kicking off the handle in an attempt to forcefully wedge the bag into the allotted space as other passengers move past him to check in. Unfortunately, his initial efforts prove unsuccessful, leading him to remove the wheels by stamping on them until they are loose enough to be removed by hand.
Still unable to achieve the required size, the man eventually wrenched the handles off his luggage, finally managing to fit the suitcase within the tester slot, gaining the nod of approval from airline staff. He too receives a round of applause for his efforts from onlooking fellow travelers, who were amused to see the lengths he was willing to go to avoid the fee.
Of course, one has to wonder if destroying the suitcase to avoid the fee might cost the passenger more in the long run since luggage isn’t cheap. Perhaps, if you are a cash-conscious flyer who wants to beat such fees, the best option would be to purchase a suitcase with removable wheels, which can be easily found on Amazon — and it doesn’t cost that much more than the surcharge Daniel faced with Ryanair. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.”
