The EU Parliament will vote to ban carry-on baggage fees from airlines

Long considered a source of frustration among air travelers, carry-on baggage fees may soon become a thing of the past within the European Union. This development comes as a response to inconsistent hand luggage policies across airlines and unclear advertising practices, often leading to unexpected fees. In fact, the European Court of Justice had already ruled, back in 2014, that cabin baggage was an integral part of air travel, one for which passengers should not be charged extra. The official vote to adopt this resolution is scheduled to take place in the European Parliament in October.

According the Yahoo! news portal, one of the core issues the European Union aims to address is the lack of uniformity in hand luggage policies, which can oftentimes lead to confusion and added expenses for travelers, since weight and size standards for cabin baggage can vary significantly among different airlines. This also poses a particular challenge for passengers with connecting flights on different carriers, since they may end up paying unexpected fees at the boarding gate due to these differences.

Plus, the EU is also urging airlines to be more transparent in their communications with passengers and pricing structures, especially when it comes to additional costs on seat allocation fees and flight timings. Naturally, this can result in rather misleading fares, which is why, earlier this year, Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs initiated an investigation into several low-cost airlines over their hand luggage fees. The investigation revealed that separating these fees from ticket prices allowed carriers to advertise artificially low fares that did not reflect the true cost incurred by passengers.

As the end of the luggage fees’ era may be drawing near, it remains to be seen how airlines will react to these potential changes. If the vote does pass, though, base fares may simply go up in order to cover the difference, meaning everyone may end up paying more… even those who never traveled with any carry-on luggage in the first place!