How Airline Baggage Fees Unfairly Target Women — But Courts Are Finally Starting To Fight Back
A European airline has been ordered to refund five years' worth of fees.
Hero Images | Getty Images | Canva Pro Pretty much everything about air travel is a nightmare these days, but among the most infuriating parts are the ever increasing, ever more sneaky, baggage fees. These fees are so ubiquitous now it's hard to remember that there once was a time when baggage flew free. Whether it was checked under the plane or in an overhead bin it just came with the flight. Because, you know, luggage is part of flying.
That line of thinking sounds absurd by today's standards, but they're similar to what a European court has just determined in the case of a woman who was able to prove that she was unfairly charged fees for her luggage.
A Spanish court ordered Ryanair to refund a woman five years of baggage fees.
Irish airline Ryanair is a discount carrier often called "the Spirit Airlines of Europe" because of its cheap, no-frills service. That no-frills service comes with a fee for basically everything, including carry-on luggage. Ryanair's approach is so draconian, in fact, that clothing retailer Primark sells a suitcase specifically designed to fit the airline's absurdly tiny luggage specifications.
Ryanair certainly isn't alone in charging so many fees, but they are among a very small list of airlines whose fees have become the subject of court proceedings, most recently in Spain, where a court ordered the carrier to refund a woman who fought back after claiming she was wrongfully charged luggage fees for five flights between 2019 and 2024.
The court ruled that luggage is an essential part of travel. Many hope it will set a new precedent.
The case resulted from a complaint the passenger filed about the baggage fees after Spanish consumer rights group Facua agreed to represent her. At issue was Ryanair's policy, similar to many airlines', that bags over certain measurements are subject to additional carry-on fees.
But Spanish lawyer Isaac Guijarro says this is in violation of a previous European Union court decision in 2014, which ruled that hand luggage "must, in principle, be considered an indispensable element of passenger transport and that its carriage cannot, therefore, be subject to a price supplement."
Spanish national law has similar rules, which state that airlines are "obliged to transport not only the passenger, but also, and without charging anything for it, the objects and hand luggage that they carry."
Basically, luggage is part of traveling, and you don't get to charge for it just like you don't get to charge extra to include doors on a car, the kind of common-sense approach to corporate policy you can't believe is even possible until you go live in Europe for a while.
Anyway, under that ruling, Guijarro says, "they can only deny boarding of these items for security reasons, linked to the weight or size of the object, but in this case they were typical cabin suitcases."
As a result of the decision, Ryanair was ordered to refund the passenger around $165 in baggage fees accrued between 2019 and 2024, which has been applauded by passengers and consumer advocates. As Guijarro put it, "it shows [that airlines] can't get away with treating passengers like walking ATMs."
Others have pointed out that baggage fees are also inherently unfair to female passengers.
Of course, here in America, it feels more likely we'll be jetting to Mars on flying pigs sooner than we'll ever see a common-sense ruling like this. But a 2024 Senate hearing on the Biden-Harris Administration's crackdown on airlines' "junk fees" saw both Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Josh Hawley upbraiding airline execs for their ever more absurd charges. The Biden-Harris rules have since been overturned in court, however, because, of course, they have.
Still, it seems this is one topic we can all agree on. As we should, because as The Independent's Zoe Beaty put it, baggage fees aren't just usurious, they're also "inherently sexist." In her piece, she pointed out that women almost have no choice but to carry more baggage than men, due to the necessity of carrying everything from period products and make-up to, often, their partner's and children's belongings.
"It’s no coincidence that my partner likes to boast that he 'just travels lightly' and then proceeds to spend the rest of the trip asking whether I packed things he 'just didn’t think about,'" she wrote.
Women with children also end up carrying far more luggage, having to pack everything from toys and formula to strollers. Even babies' toiletries require extra space, especially given the limitations on liquids in carry-ons. As one mom told Conde Nast Traveller, "You can’t just use general hotel shampoo and body wash on them — it’s basically impossible to travel without checked luggage."
It's hard not to argue that the entire airline business model at this point is just a giant bait-and-switch scheme: the airfare is the cost of walking through the door of the airplane and nothing else — more often than not, these days, it doesn't even include a CHAIR to sit on. It's never made sense, and the fact that it's gone this far is mystifying. Hopefully, Spain's decision is contagious.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
