A young woman alleges that she was unable to say goodbye to her grandfather because of RyanAir.Photo Credit: Tom via Pixabay
A young woman has posted a TikTok denouncing RyanAir and claiming she was unable to say goodbye to her grandfather as he died or go to his burial because of the airline.
Díaz’s Story
Carmen Díaz, a young creator on TikTok, going by the handle @carmendiazguadamuro, sat down in front of the camera on Tuesday, June 10, to share a serious claim: she was unable to go to Asturias and see her grandfather before he died because her carry-on luggage was just two centimetres too large to fit horizontally in the measuring box.
“With this video I don’t seek attention or likes,” she began. “It’s so this doesn’t happen to anyone else and so urgent measures can be taken.” Díaz alleges that on Friday, June 6 she had bought a ticket with RyanAir for the following day, from Brussels, Belgium, to the Asturias community of Spain, because her grandfather was in hospital and had few days left to live. According to Díaz, she paid €285 for just one way and only a carry-on, with no additional luggage. Although she found the flight to be quite expensive, there were no other flights available until the following Monday, June 9, and she needed to get to Asturias before her grandfather passed away.
At their gates, RyanAir provides measuring boxes that show the maximum dimensions for a carry-on bag so passengers can see if they will fit on the plane itself. A representative of RyanAir attending to Díaz told her that since her carry-on did not fit in the measuring box horizontally, she would have to pay a €60 extra bag fee. However, according to Díaz, her carry-on actually did fit vertically.
Díaz told the representative it seemed crazy to charge her €60 for the alleged two-centimetre difference, but ultimately agreed to pay. The representative told her to step aside for a few minutes and wait to pay the fee, and Díaz waited with card in hand. However, after ten minutes, the representative suddenly told her the gate door had been closed and she would not be able to get onboard the plane, and that she had understood that Díaz had actually refused to pay the fee. According to Díaz, the representative also lied on the official document related to her flight, claiming Díaz had “refused to pay for her luggage.”
Tearfully, Díaz explained to the flight attendants that her grandfather was dying and she needed to get to Asturias to say goodbye to him. “They didn’t care,” said Díaz. “I lost the flight, the money, and worst of all, I lost the opportunity to say goodbye to my grandpa forever.”
Díaz alleges that no one helped her to find a solution, whether it be on that flight or another, and that RyanAir does not even have a help kiosk in that airport to cut costs. When investigating the matter, she discovered that the European Union is proposing to support low-cost airlines such as RyanAir with regulations that allow them to manage luggage fees freely. “That means more confusion, more surprise fees, and more cases like mine in which they have the power to leave you out for two centimetres,” she said. This particular matter will soon be voted on in the European Parliament. “And honestly, I hope it doesn’t pass, because the rights of passengers should be more important than the benefit of airlines.”
“RyanAir, I demand an explanation, an apology, and compensation,” said the TikTok creator at the end of her video. “We deserve to travel with dignity.”
So, who is at fault?
As of the writing of this article, the video has accumulated more than 8 million views on TikTok, and although the overwhelming majority of her comments are supportive, there are still some commenters that say RyanAir is not at fault for the sad turn of events; after all, RyanAir’s luggage regulations are stated clearly on their site, and anyone who has bought a RyanAir flight knows that they provide you with several chances to upgrade to an extra bag. RyanAir, being a private company, is able to charge what they want for their services, and commenters pointed out that flight passengers are in effect, customers. Others put Díaz’s story into question, commenting that it’s very strange that they’d leave her off the flight completely. Some have postulated that the flight was already overbooked and RyanAir simply needed an excuse to leave her aground.
TikTok Takedown
Commenters are also spamming RyanAir’s official TikTok account. “JUSTICE FOR CARMEN DÍAZ,” they read, and copy a brief explanation of what happened to the young creator. RyanAir’s official TikTok posts mainly silly and humorous videos in hopes of appealing to a younger audience, as ridiculous and nonsensical videos, colloquially dubbed “brain rot,” tend to do well on TikTok, especially for well-known brands. Coincidentally, RyanAir posted a joking video about this very topic the day after Díaz posted her viral video: in it, a woman is trying to sneak an extra bag onto the plane by hiding it under her jacket. “Oh my god, genius!” says a RyanAir plane, in this case a mascot for the company, “Now, pay up.”
RyanAir has not yet officially responded to Díaz’s claim.
