AJet Charges €50 Gate Fee After Allowing Bag Through Security at Sabiha Gökçen Airport
I am currently experiencing a serious issue with AJet’s baggage policy at Sabiha Gökçen Airport before my Hamburg flight. The baggage control system at the airport seems designed not to inform passengers properly but to put them in a difficult position at the last moment.
Airport staff forced me to try to squeeze my backpack into an extremely small measuring frame. However, at the initial baggage check and control point, where the inspection should normally take place, no warning or information was provided. I was allowed to proceed through all stages without being told that there was any problem with my bag.
After passing all checkpoints and reaching the final boarding gate—where turning back was no longer possible—I was suddenly told that my baggage was “not compliant.” At that point, I was effectively cornered and left without any real option.
Under normal circumstances, the baggage fee would be around $16, but at the gate I was forced to pay an excessive fee of €50, which was immediately charged to me. I was told that “the system is closed and the process can only be done this way,” and no alternative solution was offered.
This situation clearly feels like a last-minute fee trap, where passengers are allowed to proceed without any warning and then charged a high fee at the gate when it is too late to fix the issue. If such a rule truly exists, it should be clearly communicated at the very beginning, at the baggage check and control point.
Allowing a passenger to pass through every stage without issue and then declaring the baggage non-compliant only at the gate while demanding a fee is unethical and puts passengers in a deliberately difficult situation.
I request that AJet urgently review this practice, ensure that baggage checks are conducted clearly and transparently at the beginning of the process, and take steps to prevent similar incidents from happening to other passengers. I also request a refund of the €50 fee that I was forced to pay at the gate.
