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Easyjet has launched a new service that, at first glance, appears to be a bad joke. According to this Easyjet press release,

for the price of £4 per person, or £10 for a group bundle per flight, easyJet gives passengers a stress-free experience, as they do not need to take baggage through security or carry it around the airport. ‘Hands Free’ hand luggage will then be among the first to be delivered at the baggage belt at arrivals.

Our friends over at Head for Points mocked the idea, but I just wanted to point readers in the direction of the Easyjet luggage fee policy.

Of course, the business traveler is going to laugh at paying £4 to check-in their hand luggage, but what about us regular people? I suspect that Easyjet will be checking to ensure that you indeed are going “hands-free” by checking in a bag no larger than 56 x 45 x 25cm.

But perhaps you are going to the beach and want to take some sun cream with you. Or you want to take your regular-sized bottles of shampoo and other toiletries. Perhaps on the way back you want to bring a couple of bottles of the local wine, the kind you can’t get at the duty-free. None of those over-sized liquids would make it through security. Sometimes you simply do prefer to check in your roll-aboard. Even I have done it, when the bad backs of both myself and my partner were acting up…

So what should you do? Pay £13-30 in advance to check in hold luggage, OR arrive to the airport and say “on second thought, I fancy checking in my bag…” and pay £4 instead. Nobody is going to check through your belongings to determine whether you ever intended to carry it on board.

It’s worth noting that this policy is being implemented across the full Easyjet route network, with the exception of London Gatwick. I suspect there may be some hiccups as check-in agents try to charge the full £35.

Not such a silly idea now right? I wonder how long this new policy will last once Easyjet passengers start “travel hacking” it…

P.S. I would mock, however, the decision to quote a gentleman with the job title of “Ancillary Revenue Director”, as if it wasn’t obvious enough that Easyjet and its low-cost peers are trying to gouge passengers at every turn…