A WIZZ AIR passenger was left in tears and nearly forced to miss her flight after a disagreement over her bag size.
Katy Hayward, 21, was at London Gatwick Airport heading for Santorini with Wizz Air when she was told she could not board her flight.
Travelling with her two friends, the group reached the gate at the airport and a member of staff pulled them to the side and informed them that their bags were too big and they would not be allowed to board the flight.
In a video shared on her TikTok account @katyhaywardd, Katy – who was in tears – passed the phone to her best friend of four years, Kelsea, 26, who explained what happened.
She said: “We have just been through the gate at Wizz Air and this woman has just screamed in our faces saying we can’t fly because we have these bags – apparently these bags are too big.”
She then turns the camera back to Katy who is showing a holdall-style bag often seen when flying on budget airlines.
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Kelsea adds: “Bear in mind we bought these bags specifically for Wizz Air, we’d measured them and everything – there are people that have got bags just as big.”
The camera then pans to other passengers who have similar sized bags.
Kelsea continued: “She was screaming in Katy’s face.
“I’ve just gone up to her and said, ‘excuse me, my friend is really scared of flying, can you speak to us with a bit more respect please, we are happy to take things out of the bag, you just need to speak to her a bit more softly because she’s already anxious’.
“She started going ‘I don’t care, I don’t care’.
“She said if I don’t get out of the area, I won’t be able to fly – my heart is beating so fast.”
Kelsea went on to explain that another member of the gate team stepped in to try and calm the situation, despite the other member of staff still shouting at the group of girls.
Other members of staff nearby also did not intervene while this happened.
Several travellers can then be heard in the background of the video commenting: “That’s unfair. Disgusting. They shouldn’t do that.”
Katy told The Sun: “I think it’s also important to mention how humiliating the whole experience was.
“I was left sitting on the floor on my own having a panic attack, and my friends weren’t even allowed to come over and comfort me.
“They did not measure our bag in the bag sizer at all.”
Kelsea added a photo of the bags under the seats on the plane in the comments section.
She said: “For everyone asking, the bags WERE the right size. Bought specifically with the right measurements and measured before flying!
“Absolutely no comment from the other staff at check in, literally just this one woman at the gate!”
The bag the girls bought was from Amazon costing £13.99 and measures 40 x 30 x 20cm.
The allowance for a Wizz Air under seat bags is 40 x 30 x 20 cm.
In the end, the Katy and her friends were not made to pay for oversized bags as another employee spoke to them and let them through.
Other social media users also flooded to the comments, with one person stating: “Shocking airline. Flew with them once and they ripped my case and wouldn’t replace it! Overcharged us, will never use them again.”
Another person commented: “Every bag that went past was literally bigger than yours – horrible service!! Hope you girls are okay.”
A third person said: “Shocking airline we had problems with them flying back from Rome we had to pay €150 for our bags which were correct size also but unless we paid we weren’t getting on the flight.
“The whole manner and customer service was disgraceful first and last time we will ever fly with them.”
A Wizz Air spokesperson told Sun Travel: “Wizz Air apologises for the customer’s experience, which does not reflect the standards of service we expect all customers to receive.
“While the member of staff involved is employed by our contracted ground handling partner rather than directly by Wizz Air, we expect everyone representing the airline to follow our procedures correctly and treat customers with respect and professionalism.
“We take any suggestion that these standards have not been met very seriously and have raised this issue with the relevant ground handling partner to determine what happened and ensure it is addressed appropriately.”