BA Hand Baggage

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Viewing 12 posts - 46 through 57 (of 57 total)

  • SimonS1
    Participant

    A company with an outdated culture says “crew cannot deliver their bags at the jetway, so that’s tough”.

    A company with a service culture says “there is an issue here, however we need to change the way we deal with this to free up space for our customers”.

    Which culture would you say exists at BA?


    canucklad
    Participant

    It was me that made the point about the strollers, and I linked the strollers because they do this anyway.

    I definitely can’t comment on T5, but I have seen hand luggage confiscated at the aircraft door due to all available space being taken (It happened to me at BOS) at LHR.

    The offending bags were then returned to their owners on arrival.
    Though Northwest did ticket mine, only as far as MSP unfortunately!

    Also, I’ve watched arriving passengers disembark off BD’s Embraer’s and I recall they collected their bags on the apron at T1
    So I agree with Simon, must be a BA thing !

    FDoS, you’ve made me laugh with your comment below…
    The system is different on long haul – if you wish to see the concept of priority baggage delivery, crew bags are the ones to watch 😉
    EK crew are treated like royalty when they arrive at their destination, In Hong Kong and Dublin I’ve noticed porters scurrying around to identify their rather natty luggage and collect it onto trolleys for them as they stand back from the masses chatting. Who said air travel had lost it’s glamour !


    Chiantikid
    Participant

    Hi everyone. As a shorthaul in charge crew member I’ll try to answer some of your points. But please remember I’m just crew and not the CEO.!

    1) BA brought in stroller delivery onto the jetty in T5 on arrival some two years ago. It is IMO one of THE best things we’ve ever done, albeit something many airlines have done for years. We also deliver at pretty much 80-90% of the outstations too.

    2) Crew bags on shorthaul flights. It’s been many years since we put crew bags in the hold. It was done on the 737 many moons ago. Not sure if they’re still doing it at LGW. We were told when T5 opened there’s no way we could hold load our bags on shorthaul. ( it’s a totally different process on longhaul. Please remember BA is still run like we have two airlines – BEA & BOAC! ). I’m not sure why, but it’s something perhaps BA could look at again. They could go into hold 5 where the strollers and any loose bags go now. I will put the question to one of our managers.
    As for crew bags in the front rows, we’ve been told to place our nightstop wheelies not in the club cabin or near the front. I make a point to the crew in the briefing not to do this. Our cabin day bags are slightly different as we need access to them during the flight, so that’s a tricky one.

    3) Cabin baggage. Now as far as I can see it would be easier to solve the the Middle East problem! As far as BA are concerned I believe we made a fundamental mistake 4-5 years ago when we allowed Eurotraveller to have a wheelie PLUS a ‘laptop’ bag. That translated now means two bags. There’s a whole conversation going on now on our internal intranet talking about this. BA thought that they’d solved the problem by introducing the ‘yellow under seat’ tags to be put onto the customers second bag. The first problem is that old BA chestnut – inconsistency. Although the outstations have been pretty good by doing this since the introduction in November, at LHR it’s not the case. It’s very hit and miss.
    Secondly, many of our ( regular) customers simply rip them off pre/post boarding ( yes you!!! ) thus meaning they go into the overheads. We find the cabin littered with them when you’ve disembarked!
    Thirdly some 30-40% of wheelies would never fit into the gauges at the gate IF the ground staff used them. There’s a particular brand favoured by our American friends which are just huge. But it’s the second bag that causes the problems as that’s often a large rucksack or medium bag. On top of that we see all those high end shopping bags plus the real killer – coats. We simply have few problems in the summer months but come mid October it’s 5 months of hell. Of course to make things worse we’ve introduced hand baggage only fares, and if BA carry out the expected reduction in CE seat pitch and remove the wardrobe, we’re going to see 12 or more seats possibly on a A320.
    To stop those naughty people putting their bags into the front lockers when sitting down the back, I always close the CE ones pre boarding. It does help, but there are still those that do it. IF I see anyone do it, I do challenge them politely but generally I’ve just been given a mouthful back. Sadly it’s all ‘About me.com’ nowadays. ( I do have a colleague who if he sees that happening, removes the bag and sticks it in the wardrobe. The customers face apparently is a picture when they think their bags been taken on disembarkation. He has them running up and down looking for it before several mins later putting it quietly in the corner by the bulkhead at row 1. The customer is so relieved they never ask how it got there! But I bet they don’t do it again and they are now of course at the back of the immigration queue. ) . Of course I don’t advocate that kind of behaviour!

    I like the idea of stickers on the business class lockers but personally can’t see BA introducing that one.

    At least with BA we invite the exec cards and CE to board first thus meaning you have a fighting chance of stowing your bags. The downside is if sitting on an aisle seat you being battered by the rest when they board. What would help especially in CE is for customers to put their smaller bags under the empty middle seat.

    That’s all I can think of for now. Can’t see it getting any easier unless we start to CONSISTENTLY use the gauges at the gate.

    My beliefs here are my own and not necessarily from my airline.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    excellent and comprehensive contribution – many thanks CK


    Travellator
    Participant

    Likewise Chianti – Thank You.


    DerekVH
    Participant

    One vote for Chiantikid as CEO !


    SimonS1
    Participant

    Interesting summary there. On the bag tags side I have often wondered why there aren’t tags issued for the bags that do go in the lockers. That was it would be easier to control – and remove bags with no tages.

    Then again I suppose so many people check in online and go straight to security that this inevitably is a flop.


    Chiantikid
    Participant

    That’s been fed back actually. The ones that are missed or checked in online could be tagged at the gate perhaps.


    FormerlyDoS
    Participant

    Chiantikid – 22/01/2014 12:39 GMT

    Thanks for the #2 info – I’m relieved I’d got the right end of the stick!


    canucklad
    Participant

    Cheers for the insight Chiantikid.

    Going to correct you though

    You’re not just crew, CEO’s need to start listening to people who have to put up with US face to face in their work enviroment

    BA would survive without a CEO, they wouldn’t survive without you and your colleagues : )


    Chiantikid
    Participant

    @Canucklad. Thank you for those kind words and from the others too. It’s nice to know that you all seem to realise we’re all in this together. As an aside we are having a customer service conferance at the moment for three days being attended by 500 staff on each day. This is not for ground staff, just those of us in cabin services and our internal partners. I haven’t been invited but my mate went yesterday. It seems as many of you are already aware that there’s going to be big changes regarding shorthaul on BA. Apparentely Easy was mentioned more times than us!! So it looks like the extra 12 seats on a 320 for example will be happening and the wardrobe probably removed. ????. If that does happen, our current handbaggage policy must be changed. There’s simply NO way we can take an extra potential 12 wheelies+ extras. Also the current oxygen and small wheelchair that are currently in the wardrobe will inevitably go into the overheads like on our BMI 319/320’s. So watch this space. BA know they’re between a rock and a hard place here competing with Easy/Ruanair and other legacy carriers in Europe. But something’s got to give. I get the feeling by some posts I’ve been reading that Luftie have already reconfigured their shorthaul aircraft. May I ask how they for example deal with handbaggage?


    ChrisJR
    Participant

    I think you have to consider why people take so much hand luggage on-board. Personally if I am going on a business trip for two weeks or less, within BA’s (or ay business class) hand-baggage limit I can usually easily take enough clothing (work, casual and sport), toiletries, computer, ipad, etc to last me (obviously with some laundry costs).
    I don’t have to go anywhere near check-in (as I check-in online) so this saves me time (even BA’s visa check is quick). Even if I am travelling a European airline with one bag allowance, I admit I will always try to take case and laptop bag (but will only ever store one in the overhead locker). If you have flown KLM, Turkish and some of the other airlines from LHR, this can save 30-45 minutes.
    Travelling with two pieces I have to board earlier (short-haul only) as I know there will be an issue with the overhead lockers, which is sometimes an inconvenience as it means being at the gate earlier, but I would have to do this even if I had a case only.
    At the other end it saves a lot of time in many airports. In Nigeria, Lagos particularly, you can wait two hours for your checked luggage (even with a priority sticker on it). If you are connecting on a short time frame, there is a fair chance of baggage going missing which is a real inconvenience.
    On some itineraries (particularly obscure places) I have had to change carrier and been unable to check luggage through – which means clearing immigration, collecting luggage, re-checking it and getting back through to airside – very inconvenient and makes some itineraries impossible or very risky. Again – with hand luggage you negate this.
    Also, the packing and unpacking process is so much easier if you have limited luggage (this is particularly relevant if you are travelling on a multi-location trip).
    So – some of the above issues cannot be rectified or are not in the power of the airlines, but some are – more reliability and quicker delivery of luggage, better check through policies, quicker check-in for luggage. I will continue with my policy of hand luggage only until regulations change, at which point better (more allowed) hand-luggage policy will be a key decider in who I fly with.
    PS I must admit I do look in envy at those people who float through the airport carrying nothing at all, but cannot see the day when I have the confidence in the airlines to do that…..!

Viewing 12 posts - 46 through 57 (of 57 total)
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