THE ESSENTIALITY OF A LARGE HAND LUGGAGE 379 6. CONCLUSIONS The judgements under analysis allow us to reflect on the legal level and on the level of practical relevance. From a legal point of view, the issue shifts from the principle of negotiating autonomy and tariff freedom to that of transparency and fairness. It is precisely in these principles that tariff freedom finds its first limit. The tariff is free, but it must be communicated in a clear and complete manner and must at the same time pay for a performance which, in addition to the main benefit, includes ancillary but essential services, like having all our personal belongings. On TAR opinion the two airlines have not violated the obligation of transparency and fairness, and have not therefore perpetrated an unfair commercial practice. From the legal point of view, therefore, there are no infringements. What is certain, however, is that regardless of legal assessments, passengers having boarded a low-cost air journey under certain conditions may not be able to declare they had a good experience. Beginning with the objective discomfort that they suffer in reading and understanding the contractual content and all its clauses that are almost always difficult to comprehend (whether contained in a condensed contractual model or in a more lengthy contractual model), and until the journey is over (with the arrival of their baggage in the hold), it cannot be stated that everything was comfortable and agreeable. There is a lot of anxiety when passengers realises they have purchased a ticket that does not provide them with enough space for their personal belongings. The anxiety starts from calculating and estimating the measurements of the small luggage (backpack or purse), buying all those “modern products that allow to be compacted” so as to take up little space, to the anxiety of running to the gate and arriving before others to be guaranteed the right to take your own trolley on board if you have not bought a priority ticket or you have not compacted your luggage well into a small one. All this makes the journey a source of stress, worry and even more competition with other passengers, who, from simple travelling companions, become competitors in the race for space in hatboxes. If it is true that travel today costs less in terms of money, what is the real cost in terms of stress, anxiety and time? And if airlines are free to restrict transport services more and more, what will be the journey of the future? What should not be forgotten is that in carrying out its service the carrier has a duty of protection towards the traveller and the goods he brings with him, as well as a duty of good faith and diligence that find their basis in the general principles of law.
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