‘Very sorry’ easyJet offers refund to Belfast woman charged £48 extra for backpack

EasyJet has apologised and offered a full refund to a passenger who was charged almost £50 extra to take a backpack on board a flight, despite the bag having previously been allowed on for free as hand luggage.

Belfast woman Clíona McCarney’s experience with the budget airline caused a stir on social media when she posted about what had happened at Belfast International Airport earlier this week ahead of a trip to London.

“Charged £48 to fly with this backpack by easyJet despite flying with it on same airline on Thursday,” she wrote in a post to X (formerly Twitter), which was accompanied by a picture of the bag she had placed in a sizer at the airport to show that it fits the airline’s requirements for hand luggage.

“Apparently you can’t push your bag to get it in bag sizer, it has to drop in by magic.”

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Ms McCarney said her husband was also required to pay the £48 fee before they were allowed to board the flight.

EasyJet had initially defended the decision to charge the pair for the bags, and they “clearly inform customers of maximum cabin bag dimensions when booking, via email before they travel and it is also clearly displayed on boarding passes”.

However, in a statement on Tuesday, an easyJet spokesperson confirmed the airline would be offering a refund, and said it was “very sorry” that she was “incorrectly charged”.

“This was due to a misunderstanding at the gate by the check-in agent and we are looking into her feedback about her experience as this is not the level of service we expect for our customers.”

They added: “We will be reaching out to Ms McCarney and will be processing a refund in full as well as offering a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused.”