Ridiculous amounts of hand luggage on long haul

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Flew long haul for a week away recently and I couldn't believe that there were so many people with huge soft sports type bags, four wheel hard cases and even 55cm suitcases that were the same size as the suitcase I checked in.

Is it just that Ryanair et. al have conditioned travellers to think that they must carry all their belongings in hand luggage and they just don't realise long haul is different?

I was in the last wave boarding and the amount of overspill in the closest overhead locker was so ridiculous that I only just fitted my coat in.

We’re more amused by the ridiculous amounts of checked in luggage. Everything about people at airports seems exaggerated, great for people watching

Who wants to have to do laundry or pay for laundry on holiday?!

Me!

Who wouldn't want clean clothes on holiday or wearing sweaty smelly clothes travelling home.....!

And to add, Southern Europe is getting into the high 30's now in the summer.....

I don’t understand the rationale ‘it’s much quicker’.

We’re talking long haul here, so international.

I can’t remember the last time I arrived at an international airport, walked from one end of the terminal or another, cleared immigration, and my bag wasn’t on the carousel within minutes.

Excessive carry on just isn’t worth all the faff for me.

I don’t understand the rationale ‘it’s much quicker’

Well firstly you can arrive at the airport later as you don't have to queue for check in. Then if you book a seat near the front of the plane you can walk quickly and be first in the queue for immigration. Which means with no luggage you're first in line for a cab. You might only save half an hour but at the end of a long haul flight every minute counts!

I try to max out my hand luggage, have had my luggage go msissing once (and never got it back) and another time missing and got it back at the end of the holiday. Where possible I try to only fly with hand luggage

On lots of flights you pay extra to put luggage in the hold. This has been the case for all BA flights that I have booked in the last 10 years. When I have flown Emirates, it has been free and there is a lot less hand luggage.

If you have a connecting flight your luggage doesn’t always make the connection. Some flights with short connections only let you book with hand luggage.

@crankytoes when we were in Japan most hotels had self service washing machines, either for free or for pennies. Stick one on and then head back up to the room until it's done! We also went to New York and our (quite nice) hotel in down town Brooklyn also had free to use washing machines and dryers. Good send when travelling with small children. We also used manual vacuum compression bags to half our clothes size.

I don’t own enough clothes to pack for 14-16 days without washing. 16 pairs of socks? 32 if you want to change in evening.
Just pack 10 max and wash as we go along

This makes sense. But if people are staying in expensive hotels without this option the laundry prices can be crazy. US $5 for underwear. Typically I hand wash underwear and socks but I'm not going to hand wash and iron all my clothes in holiday. Especially when they have sun cream on them. Handwashing doesn't get that stuff out.

In addition, if your long haul is to US and you're connecting, you need to collect and re-check your checked-in luggage. Adds quite a bit of time if you have a short connection.

We stay in an apartment in Spain with washing machine facilities. I'd much rather pack light and wash as I go/everything before I come home than face the laundry mountain when we get back!

We did 3 weeks in Morocco with carry on cases as we couldn't be arsed with collecting bags etc, we were travelling around a lot and wanted to pack light and we didn't want lost luggage. It's the way forward for us.

European flight with BA last week we had to put our hand luggage suitcases in the hold at the gate as there was no room left in the overhead lockers.Luckily it was outbound and they were last on first off so no hanging about waiting for them as it was efficient at the baggage carousel at the other end.

I do think more and more people are travelling hand luggage only as I don't remember battling to find luggage space in the overhead lockers as much as you have to now.

l’ve had this. At least if you have taken your bag to the gate, you are pretty sure it is on the aircraft.

Agree with a pp, not everyone flying is going on holiday. It’s easy to use the whole carry-on allowance if you are relocating - important keepsakes/photos, documents, passports, medications and expensive items/gadgets. There’s plenty of stuff I wouldn’t risk checking.

I'm surprise that I'm saying this, but I recently flew with Ryanair and was grateful for their ferocious monitoring of cabin luggage. I only had a small bag which left plenty of room by my feet, but I noticed that, even on a full flight, no one seemed to have trouble getting their bags quite swiftly into the overhead lockers. They didn't seem to have allowed on more than there really was room for. No delays over boarding and we took off dead on time.

Stressful at the gate, but a better experience on board.

Recently flew long haul with BA. overnight flight on return and, with the time difference, we were exhausted. Really didn’t appreciate having to wait an hour and a half for the bags to be delivered to the carousel. It was also very inconvenient (and expensive for parking) for the person picking us up.
A friend returned from holiday and had a just under three hour wait for bags at Gatwick. In the end she went home with the kids as it was getting late, and her husband stayed behind and waited for the bags.
I wish these were isolated incidents, but in my experience, it’s a reasonably frequent occurrence.

BA also have a habit of losing hold bags (worse than many other airlines in my experience). I always make sure I carry on at least my essentials and a few outfit changes in case this happens.

Was checked luggage definitely included? Sometimes through third party sites there are added fees, and some airlines even. And if a connecting flight has charges, it's simpler to stick to hand luggage.

I stuck to hand luggage on a flight this weekend because I never want to risk my bras to lost luggage (K cup, impossible to replace in most destinations), and I like a speedy exit. I always stick to a soft underseat bag.

I check in bags every time, if it's free that's great, if not I pay. I cannot do the frenzy of trying to locate an overhead that's near my seat, and have often had to put it down the back somewhere if nothing free at mine. That defeats the whole advantage of getting off and out quick! I really hate the rush to find an overhead, will there be one, will they all be full etc. and so on. So I check it all in now. It's a bloody dream.

By the time you get off the plane walk and walk and walk, queue at passport control, walk again - the checked bags are usually on the carousel. Perfect.

Never had bags go missing, and I put airtags in them now. I just take a regulation size underseat bag/backpack with a change of clothes, meds and electronics/snacks and whatever else I need for the journey. All good.

Each to their own though, and good luck whatever way you do it.

Never in my life of reasonably frequent travel most long haul but also short haul have I ever had to wait 1.5 hrs let alone 3 hours

It’s short haul, but try going to Rome.

yup, spent 2 hours there just recently.