Size matters: Canadian airline’s baggage sizer smaller than dimensions listed online

Flair Airlines is starting a network-wide audit of its baggage sizers after a case custom-built to the company's published sizing requirement didn't fit. CTV Ne

A Canadian airline said Friday it is reviewing the dimensions of the airport sizers its staff uses to measure carry-on luggage after an Edmonton man said they don’t match what is advertised online.

Andre Grondin had custom luggage made in order to comply with the dimensions given by Flair Airlines and avoid a $78 oversize fee, something he had to pay about a half-dozen times before, but when he tried to fit it into a sizer at the Edmonton International Airport in April last year, it was too big and didn’t fit.

He had commissioned the $400 hard-sided suitcase to be slightly smaller than the dimensions for carry-on luggage Flair provides on its website.

A measurement of two sizers at the airport confirms the sizer is smaller than what Flair has advertised online.

Grondin contacted Flair about the discrepancy but was “sent down some rabbit hole with no real response or no real solutions,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Friday, leaving him “extremely frustrated.”

When contacted by CTV News Edmonton about the difference in dimensions, a spokesperson for Flair said in a statement that the airline reviewed the case and found Grondin’s “experience fell short of our standard.”

As a result, Flair has “initiated a network-wide audit of all baggage sizers to verify that their internal dimensions align with our published allowances and to address any wear or damage,” the spokesperson said.

“We are taking steps to ensure greater consistency across our network.”

Grondin said Friday he received an email Friday afternoon from Flair saying he will receive a refund but calls the gesture – while “something’s better than nothing” – “too little, too late.”

“There’s still been a lot of people who have paid for their mistakes at this point,” said Grondin. “They’ve had this system in place for how long and how many thousands of people have paid this fee?”

Grondin also scoffed at Flair’s claim in an email to him that they found the sizing rack in question to be “damaged.”

“I don’t believe that to be the case. There’s nothing damaged about that sizing rack,” he said. “Any of their racks I’ve ever seen are the same.”

Grondin said he has talked to lawyers about the possibility of launching a class-action lawsuit.

The Canadian Transportation Agency, an independent federal regulator and quasi-judicial tribunal on several modes of transportation including air travel, told CTV News Edmonton in an email if a passenger believes an airline has breached terms and conditions such as those regarding charges for oversized baggage, they could file a complaint to the agency for consideration of “whether or not the airline failed to apply its tariff and any expenses incurred by the passenger as a result.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg