[justloveflying]

My friend who travels a lot for work, raised an interesting point after his recent flight.

He was one of the first to board the widebody aircraft and noted many trolley cases already placed in overhead lockers with CREW tags.

Some overhead lockers, he said, even had stickers “For Crew Use Only”.

Which made me think. Other than those Airlines that do not enforce checks on hand luggage, surely this is the reason why many a time,if you are boarding mudway or last, that a roulette is played and you have to put your handluggage in a locker behind you or several rows in front etc.

For all the amazing features that newer aircraft seem to have, it is surprising that manufacturers have not thought of a dedicated area for crew hand luggage (checked baggage in the cabin for those crew on shorthaul flights).

Anyone have similar experiences ?

1 user thanked author for this post.

MarkCymru

[cwoodward]

Stickley speaking there is no reason for crew to bring large suitcases on to the aircraft at all certainly on long haul flights as their bags can be very quickly accessed from the hold imminently on landing – a small satchel on bourd would be adequate.

I would have thought that this was a declining problem given the increased size of the bins on newer wide and narrow body aircraft and the stricter policing (outside if the US) of the amount of carry-on luggage by most airlines.

I know that on older particularly B737 aircraft crew used to often store their bags behind the food trolleys in the galleys. ( against the rules I am sure)but it did save space.
LCC have very few cabin crew thus their few bags should pose little problem.

Some airlines require crew bags to be hold stored but these are always immediately available on the tarmac on arrival.

Crew bags are not I feel the nub of any problem though. What is the problem is lack of policing by the some airlines and or their cabin crews that allows pax to bring aboard too much often very large cabin luggage.

Any problem re baggage aboard aircraft is of the airlines own making and needs to be solved by them.

4 users thanked author for this post.

fatbear, Olneyflyer, fqtvgla, justloveflying

[justloveflying]

Hi cwoodward.

You are right that large cases should not be brought on by either passengers or crewmembers.

The Airlines definately need to solve the problem these larger and crew bags cause.

Thank You for your detailed and courteous response 🙂

[DavidSmith2]

The other thing that could be done would be to improve the baggage delivery speed. At heathrow it is not unusual for bags to take an hour or more to get to the belt. Quite a few regular travellers take cases as hand luggage to save hanging around.

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MarkCymru, justloveflying, fqtvgla

[ViajeroUK]

A good number of B737 that KLM use have the larger overhead bins which allow trolley bags to be stowed on their side allowing almost twice as many to be accommodated. Verbal reminders of the extra size bins are given by c/crew and how to stow trolley bags. Almost always lots of pax ignore the c/crew and stow their trolleys as they always used to.

Can’t ever remember a problem with crew bags in forward bins on s/haul KLM flights, I’m sure I’ve seen crew trolleys in the front lockers sometimes used to hang jackets.

Agree with the comments that gate agents should have the time to stop oversize baggage being taken on board, but this seems to be ignored, seemingly with the aim to get the flight boarded as quickly as possible, let the cabin crew sort out any problems on board.

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justloveflying

[fqtvgla]

My bugbear is when travelling on a shorthaul flight and crew wheelie bags have been put into the overhead lockers in the first few rows of the aircraft. As passengers we cannot have any bags at our feet at row one. Having crew bags around it’s sometimes hard to find any space at the front because of it.

6 users thanked author for this post.

fatbear, MarkCymru, Jacob, justloveflying, tomyam42, Rferguson2

[justloveflying]

For all the millions spent on designing modern aircraft, not one person has, at least publicly, thought to look into this issue to help speed up the boarding process !

Both Airbus and Boeing face controversies of their own right now so maybe one will outdo the other and have dedicated space for crew hand luggage.

[MartynSinclair]

“He was one of the first to board the widebody aircraft and noted many trolley cases already placed in overhead lockers with CREW tags.”

Would be interesting to know which airline – personally finding overhead locker space on long hauls has never been a issue for me.

Short haul is a different issue, especially where airlines have removed the forward cupboard/bulkhead to allow for an extra row of seats. If crew have filled the overhead at the front and above my seat, I will either politely ask them to move the bags or move them myself. The old argument crew need to get off quickly is rubbish, as they are always the last of the bus.

Crew bags are also stored on the flight deck when the jump seats are not occupied.

I don’t think this is an aircraft mfg’ing problem, it is more about airlines trying to squeeze as many passengers on board.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, ASK1945, cwoodward

[SimonS1]

I can recall a few BA Europe flights under a former employer’s travel policy where the first few lockers were full of crew bags. A particular problem in row 1 where there is no under seat storage.

The crew argument was they contained valuables so putting them randomly through the cabin was an issue.

[FDOS]

“The crew argument was they contained valuables so putting them randomly through the cabin was an issue. ”

Lock them?

1 user thanked author for this post.

cwoodward

[SimonS1]

Overheads don’t have locks as standard and I doubt Walsh would pay the extra.

[justloveflying]

MartynSinclair – After finding out who my buddy flew with, I will give you a clue as to who the Airline was. It is an Airline based almost exclusively at London Heathrow and has gone downhill in most ways imagainable over the years.

[BackOfThePlane]

@SimonS1 – I think @FDOS meant lock the bags!?

[SimonS1]

That wouldn’t stop someone moving it, and most locks can be opened in about 30 seconds particularly TSA ones.

I could understand a locked locker though.

[PatJordan]

Aer Lingus “AerSpace” product is exclusively the first few rows of the Airbus A320 fleet.

And of course pax seated in Row 1 must have all belongings stowed in the overhead bins….these are very clearly marked “AerSpace only”. And in fairness, I have found it pretty well policed, and rarely had an issue.

[Author]

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