Weighing on my mind

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane. It was only a few posts ago that I detailed the amount of luggage and how much we were carrying around, the whole scoop. I can’t even count the number of airports and flights that this hasn’t been an issue. Plop the million pound bag on the conveyor, spread papers and passports on the counter until everyone is duly impressed, pick up everything and move into the next line. Well apparently working the Ryan Air counter in Barcelona is very boring and since they are the new owners of the European cup they are also a little power hungry. I really don’t remember the counter “lady’s” name, so I’m just going to refer to her as “B”. I’m not sure if it was the Barcelona altitude, poor scale calibration, or a secret “Screw them” button that was in action, but all of a sudden our packs weighed 3-5 kilos more than they ever have. “B” also suddenly became the only Ryan Air employee to ever look at the scale. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Ryan Air, it is a discount airline in Europe that is known for its low fares and high fees for everything else. Overweight luggage is probably a line item on their P & L statement because every kilogram over the limit is €15. Now…let’s make a long story a little longer. The 15k pack became a 19k pack. There goes €60. The 14k pack became a 17k pack. €45 more. You get the picture. At this point we were directed to step out of line and check our bags on their other scales presumably to prove some sort of point. A British couple was watching this whole debacle and became quite amused that every scale we put our luggage on showed a different #. They even offered to act as witnesses. At this point I really will shorten the story as we returned to talk to “B”, who had hoped we had just gone away. She called over her supervisor, Mrs. BigB who didn’t have any interest in the scale story. We eventually settled on a €30 “Get out of Barcelona” fee, paid them and ran to the gate. I’m adding Southwest airlines to the things that I miss.