EasyJet given stern warning over ‘misleading’ £5.99 cabin bag fee

EasyJet has been told to stop advertising cabin bags ‘from £5.99’, after consumer watchdog Which? found there were no options to add a bag for that price on any of the 520 flights they analysed.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said customers would assume from easyJet’s wording that they could purchase a carry-on bag for £5.99.

The claim on easyJet’s website was flagged to the ASA by consumer group Which?, which said airlines often advertise low fares but have additional fees.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the budget airline couldn’t provide ‘specific data to substantiate that price’ and determined it was ‘misleading’ its customers.

The ASA wrote: ‘Whilst we acknowledged easyJet’s assurance that large cabin bags could be purchased for £5.99, we considered that alone was insufficient to substantiate the “from” pricing claim.

‘Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to demonstrate that large cabin bags were available to book for £5.99 across a range of flight routes and dates, we concluded the “from” pricing claim… was misleading.’

As a result, easyJet has been told it cannot claim cabin bags start ‘from’ £5.99, and large cabin bags must be available at the advertised cost across a significant proportion of flights.

The airline’s website now states: ‘Fees vary with demand, route, flight date and time of booking. You’ll see exact price at time of purchase.’

An easyJet spokesperson told Metro: ‘We always aim to provide clear information to our customers on pricing and the purpose of this page was to display factual information on fees and charges to customers.

‘We always have some large cabin bags available for the lowest price. In light of the ASA’s feedback we have made some changes to the page to ensure the information is as clear as possible for consumers.’

This ruling follows an extensive study by Which? that claimed not just easyJet, but Ryanair, and Wizz Air, had all been creative with their luggage pricing — and called for carriers ‘to be called out’.

After analysing the cabin bag costs charged by the three airlines, it found their lowest advertised rates were not available in the vast majority of cases.

The investigation checked the cost of travelling with a bag designed to fit in an overhead locker on a total of nearly 1,500 easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air flights, spread over eight popular routes for each airline, including peak and off-peak dates.

Here’s how each airline fared…

EasyJet cabin bags

Before the ruling, easyJet’s website stated it charged ‘from £5.99’ for a cabin bag, but Which? researchers were unable to find a price that low among the 520 flights it checked.

In fact, the cheapest option found was £23.49, while the average was £30, marking a whole £17.50 difference between the lowest price and the one customers are typically charged.

You could get nearly three cooked breakfasts at LEON in Heathrow Airport with that.

In response to the study, a spokesperson for easyJet previously said its bag options and pricing are ‘transparent and well understood by our customers’ and the airline allows passengers to ‘pay for only what they want’.

Ryanair cabin bags

When it came to Ryanair, the consumer watchdog found its lowest advertised cabin bag rate of £12 was only available for two out of 634 flights.

The average cost of a cabin bag with the Irish airline was £20.50, which £7.50 more than its cheapest price.

That’s the cost of your Costa hot drink to wake you up before your flight.

Ryanair said in a statement the number of flights analysed was ‘too small to be representative or accurate’, adding its cabin bag prices are ‘transparent and optional’.

In August, the airline said it planned to raise bonuses for staff who spot passengers attempting to take oversized bags on flights, from €1.50 (£1.31) to €2.50 (£2.18) per bag.

At the time, chief executive Michael O’Leary said he made ‘absolutely no apology’ for catching people ‘scamming the system’.

The ASA hasn’t yet released rulings regarding other airlines regarding this issue.

Wizz Air cabin bags

Lastly, Wizz Air’s lowest stated cabin bag price at the time of the research was €15 (£13.11), but again, that cost was only found twice across the flights in Which?’s study.

Across 338 fares, the average cost of adding a cabin bag was £28.93 – that’s £15.82 more expensive than the lowest advertised price.

A Wizz Air spokesperson said its prices ‘vary by route, season and demand’, and insisted it is ‘fully compliant with consumer protection laws’.

What does Which? think of this ‘failure’?

The consumer watchdog said travelling with a bag that can fit in the overhead lockers is ‘likely to be considered an essential by many passengers’.

It claimed airlines’ ‘failure to provide transparent fees’ means consumers ‘don’t know what they are paying’ until they have gone through multiple stages of the booking process.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: ‘Our research shows that the tens of millions of passengers who need to take a cabin bag will pay much more than the cheapest price advertised.

‘Rather than a few pounds, prices for bags can often be more than the flight itself. The tactics used by these airlines deserve to be called out.

‘That’s why we have shared our findings with the regulator.’

A version of this article was originally published on December 11, 2025 and has been updated with new information.

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