The hand luggage argument – police called

Came through Munich Sunday afternoon connecting on a flight to Ankara Turkey, with Lufthansa.

Probably 50% of the people waiting to board were of Turkish extraction judging by their clothes and appearance it was noticeable their view of what constituted ‘cabin bags’ was very much at odds with a) the rest of us and perhaps more importantly b) Lufthansa.

The situation was clearly one that was well recognised by LH staff as all those with excessive baggage were placed in one line while those of us with the ‘approved’ amount were placed in another, regretfully this did give the appearance somewhat of a racist approach to boarding.

At this point as one person after another moved forward with in some instances four or five large cases and was told they would have to decide what went in the hold the arguments and shouting began. LH staff clearly having experienced this many times quickly contacted the police who threatened the first three shouters with arrest and calm was restored.
Congratulations to LH for having the guts to stick with their policies and to the check in staff for being trained to deal with the situation

‘KarlMarx’ you are of course right however that’s not how it would have appeared to somebody walking past. One line was clearly people of Turkish background, the second was of European peoples.

It spoke of a cultural difference but that was probably amplified by the German habit of closely following rules and regulations meaning German passengers were all fully compliant while few of the Turkish customers were. Having flown on both Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines I can understand the problem as both airlines routinely fail to enforce baggage regulations so their customers would have been very surprised by the firm line taken by Lufthansa.

Upon landing in Ankara we also had another example of the cultural divide between the two cultures where many Turkish people stood up just after landing and began to open the overhead bins resulting in some very harsh words from the crew which simply bemused the individuals.

‘MarcusGB’ fully agree. I had somebody come up into Business on a trip to Dubai earlier this year and remove my laptop bag so he could stuff his oversize suit carrier into the bin above my seat – a full and frank exchange of words ensued resulting in him being sent back to his seat (with said bag) by a determined Emirates stewardess. I understood from her this is now a much more common situation than it once was with crew having briefed on the problem.

Just love petty officials with delusions of power the world over. I always enjoy calling their bluff to see their world of minor officialdom collapse.

Recent examples have been:

i) Some fool in New York telling me I can’t take a photo of my daughter at JFK “What do you mean, Homeland Security ?”
ii) A security goon at Brussels wanting to know for what condition I was carrying some medication. “None of your business sunshine”
iii) A customs officer at Heathrow telling me my Belgium ID card was not sufficient for travel to the UK and that in future I should carry my passport. “Since when and show me the rule
iv) Eurotunnel private security trying to tell me that eight cases of champagne in my car was “excessive”.
v) The look on the face of the junior bag checker at Farnborough Air Show when my business partner revealed he had a model of an air defence missile system in his bag.

‘AnthonyDunn’ yes fully agree. One of my staff calls this the “1% excitement time”. An individual who spends 99% of his time doing nothing in real terms so when he or she does have the opportunity to ‘flex the muscles’ all common sense goes out of the window.

Your Airtour story reminded me of an ex girlfriend who used to talk about the hated BA Jamaica flight check in as it was common to encounter on each flight elderly people retiring back to the West Indies after a working life in the UK. They were always wanting to take some ridiculous package as hand luggage.
She talked about things as diverse as car batteries, a gearbox for a Land Rover, lorry tyres, a mattress and even a medical skeleton !

@ Charles-P – 19/08/2014 15:04 GMT

The “1% excitement time”…. Yes, I have had recent first-hand experience of this that left me shaking my head.

Going through outbound security a fortnight ago at SYD en route to HKG and I was swabbed for explosive residues. There was clearly a negative result but the security official then turned to me and said that I would now have to follow him for a full body cavity strip search. When, with a look of horror on my face, I queried this, he said that “there is no argument with the needs of security…” At that point, I protested loudly that he had no basis for such a search – at which point he smiled and said “the women normally enjoy the prospect. You can go….” I was so stunned and appalled that I said and did nothing about it at the time but I have since thought that I should have made a formal complaint there and then to his supervisor.

This made the utterly blatant racial profiling of me and my similarly white European/non-Han Chinese travel companion by security at PEK seem entirely inoffensive. Hundreds of Chinese and we were the only two pulled out for explosives swab tests.

Anthony, I’d lodge a formal complaint, and perhaps put one in to the government department that regulates this as well.