Mother-of-three, 43, reveals interesting way she escaped paying Ryanair’s £59 luggage charge

A mother-of-three has revealed the nifty way she dodged Ryanair’s £59 luggage charge when she returned from a sunny getaway. 

The additional charges faced by travellers when they go on holiday is often a point of contention. 

For Natalie Sadler, 43, all was well when she boarded her flight from Leeds to Palma de Mallorca with her 10kg suitcase. 

But on her return, despite having purchased priority boarding for the holiday, she encountered issues on May 20. 

Priority boarding meant she was entitled to a small personal bag (40x20x25cm) and a 10kg bag (55x40x20cm).

Although there were no issues with the suitcase on departure, when she was asked by Ryainair staff to place it in the baggage sizer, it was ‘a thumbnail’ too big with one of its wheels left dangling out. 

The mother-of-three was told she would have to pay €70 (£59) to board the aircraft with her luggage.

Dubbing the policy ‘absolutely ridiculous’, Natalie was keen to stand her ground, refusing to hand over the money as she claimed a staff member was rude. 

Natalie Sadler, 43, (pictured with her husband Michael Sadler, 50) was faced with a £59 fine on her return from Palma de Mallorca when her cabin bag was a ‘thumbnail too big’

Adamant not to hand over money for the fine, she headed to a nearby bar and used a bin bag, abandoning her newly purchased case 

With her sharp mindset, she marched towards a bar near to the boarding gate and asked them for an item which would help her cheat the system. 

Emptying her newly purchased case, she piled all the items into the bin bag, emerging victorious as she pushed it into the overhead locker.

The adamant traveller said it wasn’t about the money, but ‘the principle’ as the member of staff had been ‘so rude’. 

She said: ‘I opened the case at the door for boarding and she (the Ryanair staff member) was stood next to me and I filled the bag with everything out of the case. 

‘I flung it over my shoulder like Santa and I just went ‘there you go, you can keep that. And off I went onto the plane.’

Recalling how passengers clapped as she boarded her flight, triumphant with her bin bag filled with clothes in tow.  

She said others found it ‘amusing’ as she couldn’t make it down the aisle due to the epic size of the plastic bag.

‘I told them [the passengers on the plane] there was no way after the way she spoke to me was I giving her any of my money. Not a chance,’ she added.

Although she lost her suitcase, the mother-of-three was happy with the outcome as it was cheaper to leave the £45 cabin bag behind rather than pay the fine.  

‘I needed to solve my problem. I’m a fixer and I fixed the problem. I was fuming. I just had to laugh it off, as much as I was annoyed, it’s a suitcase, no one died,’ she quipped.

She revealed she was happy to forfeit the cabin bag as it was cheaper than having to pay the £59

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: ‘Ryanair’s bag policy is simple; if the bag fits in our bag sizer, which is bigger than our agreed dimensions, it gets on free of charge.  

‘If the bag doesn’t fit within our sizer, it will get charged for. This passenger’s bag exceeded the permitted dimensions, and they chose to repack their items in an alternative bag that would fit the sizer instead. 

‘There is a very simple solution to this, which is that passengers simply comply with their agreement at the time of booking and travel with bags that fit or are smaller than our agreed bag dimensions.’