EasyJet’s hard line baggage policy caught me out too - Mary Kelly

FLYING is never an enjoyable prospect these days, but some airlines seem to enjoy making the experience so much worse, by requiring cabin baggage to be not much bigger than the average lunchbox.

EasyJet made the headlines last week after having to refund a local couple the almost £100 it had levied for a backpack that had been fine a few days earlier, because ground staff claimed it didn’t fit easily into their sizer.

I was on the same flight to London and watched in dismay as passenger after passenger was told you couldn’t squash your bag into the space. My soft-sided case had passed muster on several trips, one as recent as a month ago.

Admittedly it needed a little squeezing when it was required to go in horizontally as well as vertically, but it went in successfully, wheels and all.

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“No, you had to force that,” the unnecessarily aggressive woman replied. “It’s health and safety, you have to be able to put it under your seat and still be able to access your life jacket.”

I protested in vain while I got the “only doing our jobs” routine and was directed to the side with the others having to pay an extra £48. When I tore the ticket out of her card reader, as it stuck, she accused me of “snatching it” because I was angry at the extra costs, and when I argued back she said if I kept it up I wouldn’t be allowed to fly.

Now I have worked as a shop assistant and a waitress, and I know dealing with the public isn’t always easy. The customer is definitely not always right, but when they feel robbed blind, they can perhaps get a little tetchy.

I protested in vain while I got the “only doing our jobs” routine and was directed to the side with the others having to pay an extra £48

Before the return journey from Stansted, I paid an extra £20 to put the bag in the hold, albeit with gritted teeth. At the gate, another easyJet handler was also requiring bags to be placed in the sizer. But she asked in a pleasant way and had no problem if it needed a little shove or two to make it fit inside. A teenager whose bag didn’t fit was told she could put it in the hold, but no money was asked for.

There is a way of dealing with potentially difficult situations and the Stansted staff did it far better than those at Belfast International.

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YOU’VE really got to wonder about how some Stormont ministers fill their diaries.

We know that the comely first and deputy first ministers like plenty of photo shoots, but regrettably there were no snappers on hand when the education minister, Paul Givan, held his meeting with the representatives of loyalist paramilitaries, the LCC.

Admittedly, these folk from the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando don’t much like getting their photographs taken but since they were there to talk about educational underachievement in loyalist areas, you’d think they’d be glad to be seen as proud representatives of their people.

Luckily, before the tea and bickies ran out, there was enough time for them to voice their opposition to the Irish language primary school in east Belfast, because presumably hearing the cúpla focal on Montgomery Road will somehow have an impact on our wee Sammy’s prospects at his own school.

They argued that there was no “meaningful support” for the Irish school, even though it is already over-subscribed. Some underachievement in basic maths right there.

Maybe while they were at the meeting, they should have asked Mr Givan how his former party colleague, Peter Weir, managed to tackle the same problem of underachievement when he was education minister.

His brainwave was to commission another report, despite the fact that there’d been a previous seven reports done on the topic. The first, in 2011, was named ‘A Call to Action’. Hmm.

And maybe Mr Givan could have explained why the DUP still champions the transfer test at 11, which favours middle-class children with access to tutors.

But the LCC were already winners in having achieved a face-to-face with the minister, who was too busy to facilitate a meeting with the Irish language group, Conradh na Gaeilge, and was also accused of “misplaced and out of touch priorities” after 19 children with special needs faced delays in starting school.

But is his diary as busy as that of his colleague, culture minister Gordon Lyons, who took seven months to find the time to attend a GAA event?