[Shamsh1]

A “standard” cabin bag measures approx. 45x35x20. So does mine, just recently bought from Samsonite. If BA really enforces their unique 40x30x15 rule I am not going to change my cabin bag, but change the carrier! Bye bye BA then.
Why is BA so keen discouraging their business travellers? Some time ago they implemented their “strict” 23kg rule, meanwhile its again rather 32kg, now its the hand luggage; what will it be next?

[AnthonyDunn]

@ Shamsh1 – 30/07/2015 23:41 BST

Sorry but I don’t think you have properly comprehended BA’s tightening up of their carry-on rules. The following is lifted from the BAEC email received this evening:

Changes to hand baggage

In recent months we have seen an increase in customers travelling with hand baggage that exceeds their allowance. We always try to accommodate our customers where we can but to make sure the aircraft is ready to depart on time we are making the following changes:

• You can continue to carry 2 pieces of hand baggage. One bag should be a handbag/laptop sized bag which should now be no larger than 40x30x15cm.

• The size of your additional cabin bag remains unchanged and should be no larger than 56x45x25cm and can weigh up to 23kgs. ENDS

As for checked baggage, if you’ve bought a Club ticket, then this is still an extremely generous 2x32kg.

[Cheeryguy]

The 40/30/15 rule is for the second piece.

[BALoyalty]

@Shamsh1 – your 32 kg allowance in business class is not affected (you can have 2 pieces of luggage as a rule and a third one if you are a Goldmember), the 23 kg rule refers to the weight of your overhead carry-on luggage (and you get the luggage you put under your seat on top of that).
So: buy a hand luggage only ticket and you get effectively 23 kg (as part of your overhead luggage allowance), buy the cheapest (non handluggage ticket) and you get an allowance of 2 x 23 kg (1 allowance in the hold and one as overhead luggage) – looks like a fair deal to me.

[MartynSinclair]

I am really curious about this – would a traveller really change their entire travel arrangements and avoid an airline, purely on the basis if needing to buy a new piece of luggage to comply with modified rules?

[BALoyalty]

Martynsinclair – I wondered about that, too.
I guess you’d be unhappy If your handmade Hermes carry-on luggage had to be replaced due to measurement changes (but I haven’t seen too much of that on BA flights). I think people don’t like change – it will be a storm in a tea cup.

[handbag]

BA don’t always get it right, and as an employee, I often feel it is not appropriate to always comment, but in this instance I am 100% behind them.

I don’t know of anyone who has had a larger size handbagage allowance. BA have not reduced the size of the piece you can take, so not sure why anyone is having a problem with this.

I have looked on Skyscanner for a comprehensive list of sizes of hand baggage allowable.

They came up with the following:
http://www.skyscanner.net/sites/default/files/680x1067xcabin_baggage.png.pagespeed.ic.Q8m9bOJ3Nw.png

BA, Easyjet, Iberia, Jet2 are all the the same

Aeroflot. Air Berlin, Air France, Flyby, Germans Wings, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Ryanair, Scandinavian, Thomas Cook, Volotea, Transero And Vueiling, all have a smaller size bag allowed.

So if someone is looking for an airline with a bigger size handbagge, think they may be going on a private jet.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

And that, people, is as good a definition of ‘handbagging’ as you’re likely to get – bravo!

[KarlMarx]

handbag – 31/07/2015 17:39 BST

Where BA is wrong with hand baggage is pretty clear to me and it does not involve the size of the personal item.

BA is a legacy airline with economy and premium classes and should be offering a differentiated hand luggage allowance to travellers in the business class cabin.

Instead, BA offers the same allowance to all passengers, just like Ryanair.

IMHO, this is creating the problem on short haul aircraft and since my switch to Swiss, where the allowances are different, I note much less stress with cabin stowage.

Edited to add that BA’s enforcement of hand luggage rules (when I experienced it, twice monthly) was inconsistent and often ineffective. Yellow tags are no substitute for ground personnel who are thorough and will enforce the limits.

[jazzcharley]

This morning on BA1432 (the red-eye from T5 to Edinburgh) I saw the first inkling of the new policy being put into practice. As usual the Fast Track queue formed almost as soon as the gate was announced, although the big signboard that used to say ‘Fast Track’ has now been replaced with one called ‘Priority Boarding’ listing the order in which people would be allowed to board.

All the Silver and Bronze people were refused permission to board until all the Gold EC members had got on. We Silvers went next followed by Bronze and so on. I have to say there was very little visible irritation. and the process was much quicker than normal and there was none of the usual fracas trying to get bags into the overhead lockers.

I always sit at the very back of the plane on the way up to EDI and – joy – they put steps up at the back of the plane for disembarkation from the rear door before the front door was opened so I was first off! Result.

I think it might actually be a good thing if it’s controlled properly by the gate staff. We’ll see.

[canucklad]

I’m just back from a wedding in Ireland, requiring to be resplendent in the full Scottish get up (Kilt, Sporran, Jacket, Skean Dhu etc), and flying FRrightenscare I opted to pay extra and check my bag.

Dropping my very heavy suitcase off, I was slightly concerned that I might be over my 23Kg’s allowance, and was dreading , having to remove my brogues and toiletries into my wee rucksack.
But my suitcase weighed just under 16kg’s,,,..,,,which surprised me and got me thinking about a few of the comments here……

“23KG’s …..You’re having a laugh……why OH, why. Would anyone burden themselves? Air travel is now such a pain in the arse.
Too me ,it’s a simple rule of thumb….If you pack enough clothes for a 7 day stay, you have enough time to collect your bag at the other end.

It’s made me an even stronger advocate of further limiting cabin luggage further. Especially weight allowance. And my main concern is safety. ..

[TominScotland]

canucklad

I fully agree with you when talking about point-to-point services but if you are connecting, then it can be a very different story. Within T5, bags generally transfer OK. With BA, if you are arriving into T5 and leaving from T3, it starts to get iffy; if your connection is with AY or CX, problematic unless you leave about 3 hours. I am connecting from an early BA to AY next week and will carry a case that will be right at the margins, no option!!

[Carajillo2Sugar]

Update from BA:

As part of our on-going commitment to punctuality, we are making some changes to our hand baggage allowances, as well as the order our customers board the aircraft. Following on from last weeks’ awareness email, we can now advise that these changes will be implemented from 18th August 2015. All changes to the hand baggage policy have now been updated on ba.com.

[canucklad]

And Tom, the irony is that , on the journeys you describe, probably the last thing you want to do, is cart a heavy bag with you between terminals !!

[BigDog.]

Talking with CC am surprised that not more incidents of luggage falling onto passengers are reported.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/12052984/BA-passenger-hospitalised-by-falling-locker-bag.html

Imo BA put their CC between a rock and a hard place, CC have been instructed not to lift bags – methinks many back and shoulder injuries and sickness played a significant role. Yet to hit their slot time there may be passengers still standing in the aisles, struggling with bags whilst the aircraft is pushed-back, if CC assist and get injured in the process they apparently are not covered, whilst CAA regs require passengers to be seated.

[Author]

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