A Ryanair customer has become locked in a £4,500 two-year legal fight over a lost suitcase which contained a very special sentimental item.
Rosie McGrane, 56, from Kilmarnock in Scotland, is still waiting for compensation from Ryanair after the airline lost a suitcase containing a sentimental item she had carried in memory of her late brother.
It has been two-and-a-half years since her luggage disappeared during a flight.
The dispute has dragged on despite a court ordering the airline to pay her almost £4,500 last year.
The saga began on 15 September 2023 when the 56-year-old travelled from Edinburgh Airport to Copenhagen to run the city’s half marathon, the BBC reports.
When Mrs McGrane arrived in Denmark, however, her suitcase failed to appear on the baggage carousel.
The 56-year-old runner and her friend say they immediately reported the missing bag to airport staff and contacted lost property.
They were told the suitcase had never left Edinburgh and would be forwarded to the house where they were staying within a few days.
Mrs McGrane and her husband raised the dispute to Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March 2025.
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But the bag never arrived and was ultimately declared lost.
The suitcase contained running gear, clothes, headphones, a tablet computer and other belongings for her five-night stay.
However, Mrs McGrane said the most important item inside was a Scottish flag she carried to races in memory of her brother Derek.
The flag featured his photograph and the words “Remembering Derek”, and she had planned to cross the finish line of the Copenhagen half marathon with it.
The airline were absent in the case and by July the court ordered it to pay over £4,000 in compensation
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She said: “That was the most valuable thing for me in that case.”
After returning home, Mrs McGrane reported the loss again at the airline desk and was given a reference number before being sent a claim form.
She was required to list every item inside the suitcase along with any replacement purchases made during the trip.
The process took days rather than hours, she said, particularly because she could not find receipts for everything that had been packed.
Her husband, Chris McGrane, then began contacting the airline repeatedly to ask for updates on the claim.
He later said he emailed Ryanair “twice a week for months” but received little response.
Five months after submitting the paperwork, the couple lodged a complaint about the delay.
They said the airline responded by telling them to submit a claim – the very issue they had been complaining about.
When Mr McGrane pointed out that the claim had already been filed using the company’s own form, the airline replied saying the wrong form had been used.
He offered to resubmit the paperwork if needed, but the couple say the airline never responded and closed the case in June 2024.
The dispute then moved to court, with Mr McGrane, a retired sheriff clerk, helping his wife raise a claim at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March 2025.
The airline did not take part in the case and by July the court ordered it to pay £4,425.37 in compensation.
However, the dispute did not end there, as the airline later lodged a recall in an attempt to overturn the ruling, arguing Mrs McGrane had not reported the loss on arrival – something she and her travelling companion strongly dispute.
GB News have reached out to Ryanair for comment.