A passenger had a
heated row with airline staff when they said her carry-on bag was too large – even though it fitted inside their measuring rack.
Natalia Rutkowski, 27, was checking in for a flight from Chicago to New Jersey with her mother Anna, 58, when United Airlines staff told her that her handbag was too big.
The account executive from Lyndhurst, New Jersey was asked to place the piece of luggage into a test rack at O’Hare International Airport.
But even though she managed to fit the bag into the rack, staff tell her it is oversized and that it will have to be checked for a $25 fee.
Video of the incident shows
airline staff removing the bag and putting it in sideways before claiming that it does not fit, despite the fact that there appears to be space below it.
After speaking with various staff members, the mother and daughter were eventually allowed to board the flight home to Newark Airport, NJ, with their baggage.
Ms Rutkowski claims the encounter was “like saying a dog is a cat”, and left her and her mother, a Russian-born maid service manager who speaks limited English, feeling humiliated.
