Ridiculous amounts of hand luggage on short haul flight

[Printedword]

A feeling of deja vu and beyond on our flight back from Florence to London City Airport earlier this week. Im back on the topic of hand luggage.

A BA flight on BBC a small plane where everyone has got a decent baggage allowance.

The flight was not full but the overhead lockers were and about 15 suitcases had to be taken off the aircraft and go in the hold before we could take off. One person had somehow got as far as boarding the plane with something that didn't even fit properly in the overheads.

Has budget airline travel conditioned us to be unreasonable about luggage?

You can’t possibly actually care about this.

Some people are utterly inconsiderate, but I blame the airlines for allowing it. I was on one flight where you had to put your luggage into a crate: if it didn’t fit, you weren’t allowed to take it into the plane. Fair enough, I say. It’s infuriating if your properly measured and reasonably sized hand luggage won’t fit in the overhead locker because of someone else’s minster sized case. I would never fly with Ryanair because their luggage allowances are so stingy that it often works out cheaper to fly with a different carrier with more generous allowances. But some people really do push the hand luggage thing to extremes.

Why? Delaying take off not enough of a reason?

The amount of hand luggage also caused issues after we'd landed. Bags that had made it into the overhead lockers were - in some cases - a few overheads beyond where their owners were seated. Cue impatient barging back to extract cases from overheads in crowded gangway. Some people just don't realise when it's time to admit their strategy to be off out and on the way home first has failed 🤣

You should have seen the face on the woman who jumped up the minute the plane landed and opened the locker over my seat, at which point my walking stick fell out and hit me on the head where my sunglasses were perched.

She tried to blame me.

You board some 45 mins before departure time to allow for luggage logistics. Staff also count the amount of luggage that goes on and tally it against the available spaces, then inform the rest of the passengers their bags are going in hold. It doesn’t cause delay. In your OP you say the flight wasn’t full so they were probably more lenient but IME I’ve not seen people with more bags than they’re allowed. People will buy additional hand luggage / priority so they’re not doing anything out the policy…

Neither my recent long haul or short haul were as long as 45 mins. What you describe is nothing like what happened on the flight this week.

I do think allowances should be tightened. If they have to announce that all back packs, rucksacks, handbags and coats/jackets should go under seats in front of passengers then there really are too many suitcases being used as hand luggage

What a silly comment

But every row of three seats has three spaces for luggage in the overhead locker and everyone is allowed 1 bag on the more premium flights for free so the allowance isn’t the issue. You can pay to have more which will push someone out but that is at a premium. So are you saying there shouldn’t be the ability to buy extra hand luggage?

So, firstly, that's not an accurate representation of the baggage space or seating arrangements on on all planes. Secondly, that's not an accurate representation of the baggage allowance on a scheduled flight that's not a budget airline. Thirdly, the hold, cabin baggage etc. allowances are not charged on the flights I was on. Fourthly, my post was responding directly to a query

I agree with you Op - on BA the usual allowance on board is one of a certain size (up to a small wheelie suitcase size) and then one other small bag. In reality I've seen people with three bags or two small wheelie suitcases. On a flight recently we were 20 minutes late pushing back from the gate because it took that long to get everybody's luggage into the overhead lockers and the flight wasn't even full. On another eight hour flight I had to have my one carry on bag under the seat in front of me so I had no leg room for eight hours. All because BA don't enforce their own policies.

We fly fairly regularly domestically and I’m astonished at the size of the big easy jet carry on bag. We bought 2 as it means we don’t have to wait ages at Gatwick for hold luggage to turn up and you can fit a week’s worth of luggage in it.

for weekends away we normally take just a small backpack that fits under the seat in front.

but yes we are those people who take a huge bag on board rather than wait for baggage reclaim.

it is ridiculous.

I'm one of these ridiculous people with giant hand luggage. I literally take the biggest possible bag to meet airline requirements (soft ones work best as you can really squeeze them in).

Why? Well because I can. The airline allows it and I don't want to wait for my hold luggage. I put my other bag under my seat. I can do 10 days away with cabin bags only using packing cubes and some of DHs allowance. Hate away. It's so convenient 🤣

Isn’t the issue that BA have a wonderfully generous hand luggage allowance, but the BA Cityflyer planes are much smaller than the main short haul fleet. From memory they’re a 2-2 configuration vs the 3-3 on an airbus. I think you get more leg room but less head room, hence less space for bags.

I came off a flight yesterday and a lot of people seem to only holiday with hand luggage hence there were some imo very large cabin bags, rucksacks, flight bags etc .

Big easyJet carry on bag? Are you joking? We fly easyJet quite often and the carry on bag is absolutely minuscule . To avoid luggage charges we try to travel with hand luggage .

When we fly for cruises, it’s normally charter flights and luggage allowances are more relaxed and people really take the piss! The overhead bag plus another big bag and handbag and coat then shove it all in the overhead locker! That can cause an issue!

I find scheduled flights are generally much more rigid or the economy airlines I use are! We flew easyJet this week and they were definitely checking bag size.

We had under the seat size bags but the lockers were empty so we just shoved our bags in🤷‍♀️

I wish they would do away with overhead lockers completely and just allow a small bag that fits under the seat. Sadly won’t happen though.

@MarchHare339it really isn’t minuscule. The carry on bag you pay for is really quite big.

I agree with you OP, it has got absolutely ridiculous. Personally I think wheely suitcases of any size should have to go in the hold. If you want to bring luggage on board it should be a soft/squashable bag or backpack.

That may be your view but airlines really do not want you to put them in the hold. It increases their costs and creates potentially longer turnaround times.

It's the delay in boarding and exiting the plane due to the hassles over luggage that bothers me.
I was on a long haul flight recently and was really surprised at the amount of hand luggage.
So much hand luggage that people were stowing it away from their over head lockers and really slowing things down.
On arrival people were like coiled springs, desperate to get at their luggage and ignoring the seatbelt signs.

You book the seat, not the overhead. The overheads are communal. The coiled spring or jack in a box situation occurs on arrival regardless of where people’s luggage is stored.

l am not suggesting people flout “luggage rules” though. But 2 lost bags and one set of broken wheels makes me avoid hold luggage if l can.

Yep, that’s exactly it. Last time I flew out of LCY they made everyone in groups 5+ check their wheelies at the gate. But they have much less control I think on return flights.