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Easyjet’s bag bonus scheme causes outrage

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Brighton, UK
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A leaked email shows the budget airline has been rewarding staff for catching oversized luggage. 

We all have a love/hate relationship with budget airlines. From Ryanair to easyJet, these low-cost alternatives to pricey air-travel have saved more of my girls’ holidays than I can count on one hand. But they’ve also ruined plenty of trips. 

Whether it’s hidden costs or poor customer service, there have been plenty of occasions when – stuck in a queue at Stansted airport just past 3am on a Monday morning (the thought of work in a few short hours haunting me) – I’ve wished I’d just forked out the additional £50 it would have cost to go with a better airline.

And yet we continue to fall back on these budget-friendly brands because, well, they’re budget friendly.

One of the biggest bugbears when it comes to flying cheap is the infamous luggage issue. While it might save you a few pennies to avoid checking in a bag, budget airlines are known for cracking the whip on oversized hand luggage.

I’ll admit, when I see a Ryanair or easyJet employee fining a fellow passenger because the wheel of their tiny suitcase is sticking out of the measuring bin, I’ve questioned whether something else is going on. Well, it turns out that every time you might’ve suspected they were doing it on purpose, you weren’t exactly wrong.

A leaked email has shown that airport staff are earning cash bonuses for every easyJet passenger they spot travelling with an oversized bag.

Staff at Swissport, an aviation company that operates passenger gates across a range of UK airports, said that staff were eligible to receive ‘£1.20 for every gate bag taken,’ at locations including Birmingham, Glasgow, Jersey and Newcastle.

The email states that payments are there to ‘reward agents for doing the right thing,’ and that staff targets were closely monitored using ‘internal tracking’ to ‘identify opportunities for further support and training for individual agents.’

Described internally as the ‘easyJet gate bag revenue incentive,’ these bag bonuses have confirmed what many passengers have presumed to be true for years – airline staff really are trying to catch you out and drain extra money from you at every feasible opportunity.

Since the email came to light, easyJet has attempted to wash its hands of the issue. According to a spokesperson for the company, easyJet uses a ‘patchwork of different ground handling agents across airports’ with pay and performance incentives handled ‘independently’.

‘easyJet is focused on ensuring our ground handling partners apply our policies correctly and consistently in fairness to all our customers,’ they said in a statement released this week.

Meanwhile, Swissport echoed the sentiment with a similarly vague and evasive corporate response: ‘We serve our airline customers and apply their policies under terms and conditions for managing their operation. We’re highly professional and our focus is on delivering safe and efficient operations, which we do day in and day out for 4 million flights per year.’

But customers are impressed. The confirmation that staff are indeed being incentivised to fine passengers has – unsurprisingly – not gone down well.

‘I have repeatedly been convinced that flying low cost airlines is not that cheap as it can look from […] first sight [sic],’ wrote Violetta Polonis on LinkedIn. ‘Hidden luggage rules, poor service quality and insolent staff remind me always why its worth [choosing] to fly [with] solid airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss, AirBaltic, or TAP instead of garbage like Ryanair or easyJet.’

‘If we’re going to incentivise staff, shouldn’t we reward good customer service?’ asks Remco Weeda, a frequent passenger on board easyJet flights.

According to The Times, who first reported on the staff incentive this week, ground handlers employed by another aviation company, DHL Supply Chain, at major UK airports including Gatwick and Manchester, ‘also have a remuneration package for identifying non-compliant easyJet bags. The employees receive a ‘nominal amount’ per bag.’

EasyJet currently charges £48 at the gate for any oversized luggage, £1.20 of which is paid directly to the ground handler.

‘There is no rhyme or reason for why you get singled out,’ said Thomas Adderson, a passenger who was charged a total of £240 extra after he and each of his family members had their hand luggage seized by easyJet staff at the gate – despite every bag easily fitting inside the required dimensions.

‘I don’t know what the secret is but I am sure there must be an incentive to get people to pay extra. There is never any kindness or human approach to the process, you just get targeted in the queue.’

‘It is hard enough to travel now and it has just made us really question doing that sort of thing. We haven’t been away since.’

Since the reports emerged, other budget airlines have been questioned about similar staff incentive schemes, but brands like Ryanair and Lufthansa have vehemently declined any accusations.

Senior Remote Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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