But I'm an accommodating kind of guy, and when the flight attendant asked me to put my rucksack under the seat in front of me instead of where I had stowed it safely overhead 20 minutes before, I said OK, though reluctantly.
"There's plenty of room for your feet," she said. Except that, when I had done it, there wasn't. But by then she had used the space above to push somebody else's trolley bag in.
And for the next two and a half hours, in a space already Ryanair cramped, I had to fight pains in my knees and ankles simply because there was no space for my feet under the seat in front.
I guess there's a business case for charging people to check in bags. But then increasing the charge by multiples over a couple of years is just plain extortion.
I travel a lot. I travel with the required one bag, usually my rucksack which is smaller than most. It fits easily in the standard overhead bin.
My ticket price includes bringing that bag on board. But now everyone is bringing their one bag on board to try and avoid the in-hold ripoff. And there simply isn't enough room in the overheads for everybody's one bag. On a number of flights recently, I've watched Ryanair cabin crew struggling to jam in bags, taking up extra time and subjecting themselves to physical stress that might well be beyond health and safety limits. Ryanair gain by not having to pay as much in baggage handling charges. But their employees are simply taking the strain instead.
And the passengers are too.
We pay for our seat. We pay for our bag to be stowed where they don't get in the way of our feet. Those of us who go on board in time get to put our bag overhead shouldn't have to compromise the little bit of leg and feet space we have, especially on any trip lasting more than an hour.
I could have said 'no'. I'm a reasonable man and it would have been reasonable. But do I have the right to, or would I be treated as a somebody causing hassle to cabin crew? Because that's not a good place to be these days.
Still, I'm figuring that the next time it happens, I'll be as reasonable as Ryanair are themselves.
Maybe they'll pay me €24 to take my bag down?
