[LuganoPirate]

AnthonyDunn
+1

[MartynSinclair]

The excess cabin baggage is caused by:

1. Too much hand baggage entering airside from landside – causing lines at the security check points with cases being constantly opened, closed and then searched..

2. Transit passengers arriving with too much hand baggage – same problem as (1)

3. Passenger shopping once Airside.

1. is very simple to resolve. Stop passengers entering the security line with too much hand luggage. Airlines will probably not like this as they will have to process more hold baggage.

2. Transit passengers – somewhere in the process, passengers carrying excess hand baggage, need to check the excess in – bus transfers and even on the transit trains can be difficult, manoeuvring around all the bags

3. As for the shopping – this is the part the airline has to be strict about. Why not charge passengers at the gate extra…. after all, they are using more space in the aircraft.

From a logistics point of view, I wonder how much faster passengers would be able to get through the airport process, if hand baggage was correctly policed. I am totally convinced that the security lines would be processed 50% quicker……

[TominScotland]

While I fully agree on the need for sensible policing of excess cabin baggage, it is equally important that airports and airlines restore passenger confidence in the checked baggage system. We transferred through LHR last weekend and, thankfully, our bag did arrive in Glasgow. But that was not the case (pun intended) for everyone and I understand that there were about 40,000 misplaced items at LHR at one point last Sunday. It is not just LHR – I have had many bad experiences at AMS as well.

This hardly gives passengers confidence in checking bags if we can avoid doing so – hence the excessive cabin clutter.

[JohnHarper]

Tom, I agree. Confidence in checked baggage is poor and although I have now been lucky for many years I have had bags go missing in the past.

I don’t think it is the job of security to determine how much is too much, the less responsibility they have the better particularly at LHR. The BA yellow and green tags are a joke, have you seen how many of them litter the jettys?

BD used to very proactively go around the boarding areas taking bags that were too big or excessive and that worked very well though it did lead to some disgruntled passengers.

I still say one in economy and two in business is what should be allowed with a size gauge that is used at the top of every jetty with anything that does not fit taken away. If it was done consistently people would soon get the message.

[Charles-P]

‘JohnHarper’ fully agree it is consistency that is the key. We have all heard the stories about easyjet and Ryanair’s luggage policies and for all the criticisms of them I have they do stick to their own rules and everybody knows where they stand.

[Stowage222]

Unfortunately the buzz word for all airlines, because we demand it, is punctuality. Once you start having arguments about excess baggage at the gate you are looking at delays. Where ground handling agents are involved this costs them money. The attitude is, get them all down the jetty and onto the tube asap and let the crew deal with it.

I’ve been on many flights that have pushed back and pax/crew are still stowing ‘hand’ luggage.

Can it just be one lifetime when aircraft had an overhead net running down each side of the aircraft filled with only hats and coats. Sigh!

I like the solution of the security x-ray scanners being the size of the baggage limitations plus,say, 10%. If it doesn’t fit back you go. At least you don’t get into any discussions. If they can’t scan your bag you can’t fly.

[MartynSinclair]

the problem with X-Ray scanners being the size of the baggage limitations is that it only solves half the problem, the size, but not the amount of hand baggage. This can only be solved by human intervention at the entrance of the security channel “sorry sir/madam, too much hand luggage, please check in”…….. as well as at some point in the transit process…. “sorry sir/madam, you have too much hand baggage to take through to departures, please check it in over there”… Really quite simple..

If you start redesigning X Ray machines the cost needs to be factored in..

[IanFromHKG]

Has anyone else been on the US commuter planes with tiny lockers, where you are only allowed to take on a personal item? Anything larger – including my roller bag, which I have been able to take aboard on every other flight I have been on – is taken on the departure jetbridge, and returned to the jetbridge on arrival. This usually means a few minutes’ wait (but only a few minutes) for the bag.

The great thing about this system is that nobody seems to mind. No doubt this is because it is free, but I would be wholly in favour of a similar system in Europe with perhaps a 5 euro charge for each bag – just enough to deter people from taking the mickey without penalising people who have genuine reasons for taking a slightly larger bag or buying duty-free. Combine that with the idea of a “sizer” on the X-ray machines, and I think the problem would rapidly be solved (and Martyn I don’t think the machines would need to be redesigned – all that would be needed is trays of a particular size (limiting length and breadth) and a bar across the entrance to the machine (limiting depth)

All this would provide a modest extra revenue stream for the airline, as well as the possibility of increased sales of in-flight duty-free, and all in all it could be very positive for the airline and passengers alike

[MartynSinclair]

Size of hand luggage resolved but not the amount. How would you stop multiple bags of an allowable size being schlepped through?

[IanFromHKG]

Either allow people only two items at security, or leave that to be resolved at the jetbridge

The weekend before last the Memsahib, Senior Offspring and I went to Bangkok for the weekend. SO was connecting through to LHR on the return, but we had a couple of hours, so on arrival we entered HK, beetled up to the BA check-in desk in departures to ensure her checked-through bags were in BA’s system, and then we all went off to the SkyCity Marriott in HKG for dinner. Naturally, SO’s two carry-on bags – a medium-sized handbag and a cloth shoulder bag – were surveyed by the check-in agent and a tag attached to one indicating it had to be put under the seat in front, despite the fact that both bags together were smaller than the average roll-aboard. Guess how long that tag stayed on the bag….

I should add to my comments above that I regularly exceed carry-on allowances. This is because one of the small pleasures that airline travel affords me is catching up on old newspapers (strange, I know, but fairly harmless!). This means that my rollaboard is normally quite heavy at the start of a trip. Only once has my hand luggage ever been weighed (SYD, by airport staff rather than airline staff as I recall). My rollaboard is also larger than some airlines’ limits, although smaller than others’. Fortunately, it is designed in such a way that it looks small compared to its capacity, and I am tall (6’3″) so it probably looks relatively smaller anyway, and therefore the only time I am not able to take it on board is on those US commuter planes. But I would happily pay that 5 euro charge to have it gate-checked provided I can take a bundle of those newspapers on board with me…

[MartynSinclair]

Ian, surely the issue needs to be resolved BEFORE entering airside. Its all very well suggesting the matter is resolved at the airbridge, but the problem exists well before the airbridge.

Passengers would go through security far more efficiently if hand baggage limits were enforced at that stage, rather than at the airbridge.

[SimonS1]

I agree Martyn. Schedules are tight these days and there is not enough time at the gate to faff around tagging bags, collecting 5 Euros (have you got change for a 20 etc).

It might work at places like Antwerp where there is little or no traffic, but at LHR it would all collapse in disarray.

[IanFromHKG]

Well, Martyn, all I can say is that it works efficiently at very large US airports. The key here is that I suspect many airport operators aren’t going to want to get involved by having it done at the landside/airside point. They would no doubt prefer airlines to do it. In addition, each airline may operate its own rules. Furthermore, since (as you yourself pointed out) part of the problem is purchase of duty-free and other items within the airport itself, that also militates towards a jetbridge filter point

SimonS1 – they don’t recall them tagging the bags. They are taken at the jetbridge, loaded directly onto the aircraft, and vice versa at the other end

[MartynSinclair]

It works in the States as nobody is able to educate an American about checking bags in and/or understanding the definitions of correct cabin baggage.

Boarding passengers once they get to the gate is the airlines responsibility and it is in their interest to get it done fast..

However, getting passengers through to airside is the airports responsibility. Reading through various threads on the forum, there are more concerns about the security Q’s than the boarding Q’s… One of the key complaints by forum contributors are the number of bags being taken through to airside, blocking the security conveyor belts and passengers not being prepared for the checks and having to go through caseS getting out various items, DELAYING the passengers behind.

My view remains, the airport should enforce hand baggage rules at the landside to airside points… (transit passengers somehow included as well).

[SimonS1]

I honestly couldn’t see it working at LHR, Ian, either taking the bags away or getting them back. It’s one thing doing it on commuter aircraft (I have seen it on LCY/Antwerp flights for example) but quite another on an A380 or 747 where the volumes of baggage to be taken and handed back could be massive.

All I could see happening is a bottleneck either at the gate or in the jetbridge, the plane departs late, misses slot etc and before you know it everything goes pear shaped.

Plus I must be honest, there is no way my bag would leave me without some form of receipt/tag. What happens if it goes missing, gets left on the tarmac etc and is unlabelled? We have seen on here in recent weeks how our national carrier tries to weazel out of things at the slightest sign of difficulty. Plus would you seriously allow your baggage to travel untagged to somewhere like Johannesburg?

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