A woman with diabetes was abandoned at a Spanish airport after Ryanair said her hand luggage was "too big". Teresa Bruce had to sleep alone overnight at Alicante airport without her medication after she was not allowed to board the plane with her suitcase.
The 63-year-old Scot had been on holiday with her friends in Benidorm for five days. She was refused entry on to the flight headed for Prestwick Airport unless she paid €69 to have her suitcase placed in the plane's hold.
Teresa was plucked from the queue at the airport by a member of staff for the airline and told to pay the fee if she wanted to return home with all her luggage. The Type 2 diabetic was baffled by Ryanair's stance because she had flown out with the same case just days earlier.
The Asda worker couldn't afford the charge because she had spent all her cash during the trip. By the time one of her friends transferred some funds to her bank account she was told it was too late to board.
She told the Daily Record: "We were at the gate queuing for priority when a woman came up to me and told me to go with her and bring my suitcase. I went with her and she told me my suitcase was too big to go on the plane. I said 'how can it not come on the plane? I travelled here with it'.
"She told me I would have to pay €69 but it was the end of my holiday and I didn't have any money left. I couldn't understand why I needed to pay for the case when I had flown over from Prestwick with it just five days before."
Teresa requires a weekly dose of medication to manage her condition. But the airline didn't budge when she explained her next dose was waiting for her back in the UK.
She said: "I need to take a jab every Thursday for my Type 2 diabetes and I didn't take it with me as it needs to be refrigerated. I was expecting to get home that day.
"I asked to speak to a supervisor and said I was diabetic and had to get home for my medication. She said no and if I wanted to speak to anyone about it I would have to go back out through security to find someone, but by that point my flight would have already left.
"My friend then messaged me to say she had transferred me the money to pay. I told them and they said I was too late and I couldn't board as the flight was closed.
"There were people still waiting to go on the stairs to get to the plane. If someone was running late they would have called out after that point and let them board. The flight attendant was determined I wasn't getting on that plane."
Recounting her overnight stay alone at the airport, Teresa described it as scary and said she was frightened to close her eyes.
"I tried to find somewhere in the airport safe and I dozed on and off on the seats," she said. "To think Ryanair left a female in a foreign country on her own is absolutely shocking."
Teresa returned to Scotland the next day. But she had to pay for a flight to Edinburgh because there were no direct flights to Prestwick for another three days.
A Ryanair spokesperson told the Daily Record: “This passenger’s cabin bag exceeded the dimensions permitted for her flight from Alicante to Prestwick (26 May). As per Ryanair’s T&Cs which were accepted by the passenger at the time of booking, oversized cabin baggage must be placed in the hold of the aircraft for a standard fee. This passenger initially refused to pay the charge, but later changed her mind and returned to the gate, however boarding for the flight had subsequently closed, and the passenger missed her flight.”
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