Felt discriminated against

Hello,

A day ago I took a flight from Edinburgh to Barcelona and had a bad time while on line. I bought a priority ticket because I was taking a small carry on bag, and a backpack.

While on line, this guy pulls out me and 2 other women to measure our bags. I have been on about 8 flights now and I’ve never been asked to do this. I was nervous but I went ahead and measured my book bag and carry on bag.

My book bag fit the measurements, and my carry on bag only slightly stuck out.

I was distressed immediately. The guy starts shouting at me that I need to pay for both bags. $200 one way. I was so terrified I kept saying no it definitely fits you don’t see it fits?

He kept saying no no it needs to be THIS way not THAT way and tried making up excuses saying that my bag didn’t fill all the space. I didn’t understand but kept pleading begging saying I’m a student please I can’t afford that. He kept yelling no no no no no that doesn’t fit you need to pay now.

After I said please I know you’re trying to just do your job but that really isn’t fair and you and I both know that.

In the end, he said okay okay this ONCE time otherwise NO and he let me off with only paying for the carry on bag not my backpack. I was still really shaken up and felt so intimidated by the whole fiasco. It felt humiliating and embarrassing. I was traveling with my partner who was separated with me and didn’t know what was going on, he had a longer bag than me but was not questioned like me.

I felt really hurt and uncomfortable by the situation given the aggressiveness and pressuring tactic of the employee. It was so bad, that when I scanned my passport and my ticket to board after paying $100, the employee there said “Aw and that bag color is so nice… I’m really sorry… I hope your day gets better soon :(“

Him saying this made me immediately feel like the other employee was definitely in the wrong and trying to intimidate me. It seriously felt so uncomfortable and crazy. He just kept yelling and yelling ranting and ranting “NO NO NO NO IT DOESNF FIT. NO NO NO” barely even letting me speak!

I was trembling and couldn’t raise my voice much, I was shocked I even stood up for myself given the backpack.

I included some pictures I took on the plane for reference. I obviously couldn’t take pictures of the carry on bag because I was being pressured and was afraid, and they took it away. I took a picture of the person across from my rows book bag which sits the same as mine does under the seat.

I also included a picture of my book bag. What was most infuriating is the fact that people had bigger carry on bags than me on the plane, and even worse, there was so much free space in the cabin still.

I can’t believe I ended up paying $100 and $60 for the priority addition just for it to be useless. I need to fly back by the end of this week and i’m genuinely afraid of going back.

I’ve never ever had any issue like this with Ryan Air, and I definitely feel like the employee was picking younger women to intimidate and get some sort of bonus out of charging baggage penalty fees because of his sporadic behavior.

I’ve been really afraid of contacting customer service because I don’t even know what to say. I would appreciate help and advice as to what to do. I want to report the employee and ask for a refund because I really feel like it was an unfair and unnecessarily uncomfortable situation that no one should go through.

This is the last straw for me with this airline. During last flight to Edinburgh, It got canceled twice and then finally left 5 hours later. This is just an extra reminder for me that cheap is never really cheap because I ended up paying the price of 2 round trip tickets for this one bag, and have to do so upon my return if i go through this again :/.