Furious Flybe customers accuse airline of changing luggage policy during their holiday with passengers being hit by £50 check in fee on return trip
FLYBE passengers have accused the airline of changing their baggage policy without warning with a number of travellers being charged £50 to check in their bags on their return.
Many took to social media to explain how they had to pay the steep fee despite previous flights allowing the bag.
Flybe passenger Ross Lewis told Sun Online Travel: "I have been flying back and forth to Belfast for the last two years with the same bag that fits easily in the over head locker.
"However in the last week Flybe apparently have started to make checks on these bags. The cage they use is clearly too small.
" I paid £50 to go to Belfast for the same bag but would have preferred for them to give me a warning that should I travel with this bag on the next flight then I should have to pay after being such a loyal customer."
He also tweeted: "I have made 39 flights with Flybe last year, flying with the same carry on bag.
"All of a sudden this bag is too big for the clearly too small basket, yet the plane over head size is the same?"
SNP MP Pete Wishart was also caught out by the charge: "First time I’ve flown @flybe to London for a while.
"Just been hit for £50 for a bag they insisted I put in the hold that fits all other airline cabins. Won’t be doing it again."
Flybw, , wrote: "I would like to advise you that our actual cabin baggage restrictions have not changed since April 2016, and these are provided during booking, on your confirmation email and are readily available on our website.
"A zero tolerance policy on oversized bags is being rolled out across our airports following a review of our customers' feedback, from which we identified that people were unhappy with the inconsistency of the cabin bag policy being enforced."
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Passengers travelling with Flybe can currently only take bags measuring 55cm x 35cm x 20cm - smaller than other low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.
The website warns: "If your cabin bag is too big, you will not be able to take it into the aircraft cabin.
"Your bag will be transferred to the aircraft hold and a £50 charge payable by card will be applied."
Janelle Trevelyan, who was travelling from Belfast to Southampton, also experienced confusing with sizing.
She told : "The sizer in Belfast was a different size to the one in Southampton.
"We had to pay £160 extra to bring the same bags back home to Belfast."
According to the , the airline even threatened to call police on passengers who refused to pay the £50 charge.
Passenger Danny Bownes said: "They were basically holding people to ransom because they were booked on the flight and felt they had to pay the charge."
Flybe said in a statement: "Flybe would like to stress that we have not changed our hand baggage policy, but are merely actively implementing with a zero tolerance policy our already existing one that has been in place since 2016.
"This is to make sure that passengers do not take on board oversized items.
"We accept we have in the past been inconsistent in applying this policy and, following customer feedback, have taken steps to ensure that all hand baggage is now fully compliant.
"This makes it fair for everyone and also speeds boarding.
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"Any hand luggage which fails to comply with the stated dimensions and so does not fit into the metal or hand held sizers, will be charged accordingly."
Flybe was recently put up for sale with talks of Virgin Atlantic buying the airline, which could mean more expensive flights.
Rob Burgess, editor of frequent flyer website headforpoints.co.uk told Sun Online Travel: "I don't see a Virgin takeover leading to lower fares."