Flying Home- cabin luggage

I meant to put this on last night after arriving home but  but we were late and I forgot, so for what its worth- we flew from Murcia and all companies were checking bags sizes. We were delayed so were able to observe this as it was the only available entertainment! Some companies were a bit less efficient at it on occasion but overall it would be fair to say bag sizes were being checked by Jet2, Ryanair, Easyjet and Monarch. Ryanair were most constant and we saw many people -women in particular- told to put handbags and duty free into their small suitcases then measure the bag. Holdalls were under scrutiny for the men. Quite a few people boarded the planes  wearing clothes they had packed. One lady put on a full size vivid yellow towelling bathrobe to board the plane in so she could get a handbag into her suitcase!

On our last trip we did see this also at Alicante and there were several people who had to pay for bags to go into the hold- to be fair to Ryanair on that occasion those bags were much wider than the size frame.

However this was the first time we had seen all companies doing it regularly.

Hi Jan

Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure we don't overpack our suitcase then.

I travelled with Easyjet a month ago from Newcastle to Murcia and they were trying to check the sizes of the luggage then however, it turned out to be an absolute shambles.  Many of the people who had paid for the Speedy Boarding had been held up while their luggage was checked but the staff soon got bogged down and everyone else marched through.  On the way back, I checked my luggage before entering departures at Murcia airport just to make sure it was the correct size.  This time they took my boarding card off me until I had my luggage checked.  Again the queue got backed up after a few people so they stopped checking and the woman behind me managed to get on the plane with 3 bags.

I will warn you to check the sizes of your luggage though.  Both Easyjet and Jet2 advertise on their websites that they accept hand luggage of 56cm but if you check in online the boarding passes state 50cm and it's that which they use.

We've been caught out with Easyjet a couple of times. Flying from Paris to Newcastle. They only checked the bags as we were walking onto the plane. One of the "small" cases we had was slightly too big. So, we were forced to go back to check-in with it. This meant going back through security checks etc. We were the last people to get on the plane after this... A few more minutes, and we'd have missed it. We saw people with bigger bags going on OK... Just the luck of the draw I guess..? To avoid any stress, be sure your bags are the right size.

Regards, Brian.