Air passenger shocked by ridiculous ‘money-making’ baggage fee: ‘I thought he was joking’

Blame the wheel of misfortune.

A Ryanair passenger was left fuming after being forced to pay a $60 baggage fee because a wheel was sticking out of the size checker.

“I thought he was joking,” Elizabeth Keenan, 31, told Jam Press of the “ridiculous” sentence she suffered while traveling from Dublin, Ireland to London, UK aboard the budget carrier.

The Dublin native, who had paid nearly $16 for priority boarding, said she specifically bought her carry-on suitcase because she knew it was within the airline’s specifications of 40 x 20 x 25 centimetres.

However, as he waited to board, a Ryanair employee pulled him out of the line and asked him to put it in the meter box.

Thinking her bag was large enough, the passenger complied with the clerk’s request, finding that her luggage fit like a glove.

“I put it on and took it off again because it fit perfectly,” said Keenan, who works in marketing.

Despite apparently sticking to the luggage parameters, the employee declared that her suitcase was too big because “the wheel was coming off,” the Dubliner said.

“I couldn’t believe she was saying it was too big,” said Keenan, who was told she would have to pay a £50 ($64) fine.

She said she found the sentence particularly ludicrous as “there were a lot of men with bigger cases than mine who boarded the flight without stopping”.

Unfortunately, missing the flight wasn’t an option because the flyer had a conference in London, so she soaked it up and threw in the dough.

While the fellow employee apologized, Keenan has vowed to file a “money-making scheme” complaint.

“I want a refund,” she said.

Keenan said the ordeal makes her not want to fly her Ryanair, pointing out that “at €60 extra it’s no cheaper than other airlines”.

She’s not the first to be hit with an embarrassing baggage fee from the low-cost carrier.

Last month, an elderly passenger claimed she was discriminated against by Ryanair after having to pay a $100 fee for checking bags, while younger, “attractive” passengers boarded without penalty.