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?

In all the years of flying, only once has my luggage not arrived. Very fortunately it was a return flight.

Even so, I can understand 100% why anyone would want their luggage within reach, even before you consider the wait for baggage, or any unreasonable extra charges (not just Ryanair).

I agree.

Budget airlines have very strict rules about hand baggage - presumably the likes of BA don’t want to emulate them for fear of putting potential passengers off.

I have zero sympathy for anyone trying to get around budget airline rules - when they are made so crystal clear.
People kicking up a fuss at the gate are a monumental PITA.

Yes and no. The BA flights to and from Florence were on a small plane. The baggage allowance was 1 handbag and one further piece of hand luggage. But I don't think much checking was going on so loads of people were either breaking the rules or had paid extra. Didn't see anyone being asked to say what hand luggage they had so I doubt they had paid. Technically World Traveller tickets offer a bigger baggage allowance, but that's usually in relation to hold luggage, I believe. I also thought World Traveller was mostly a long haul ticket option.

I recently flew long haul back from Japan on BA. The allowance was 2 cabin and 2 hold. It was chaos trying to fit all the hand luggage on and don't think much checking of how many pieces of luggage people had was going on. Big plane, not Airbus and there were empty seats.

I flew out to Japan on JAL. Near front of Economy seats on an Airbus. I don't think there were empty seats. The overhead above us was already full. Although this is partly because we were last group to board, cabin suitcases is partly to blame. The JAL flight didn't seem to have any passengers with 55cm cabin suitcases. So the comfy JAL Airbus struggled to fit everything in even with cabin suitcases smaller than 55cm. BA do allow these. As a frequent train traveller, 55cm can do fortnights worth of hill walking or summer hols and be lifted on and off a train easily. Generally, I can manage most short trips on a plane with just one of these and check it through.

I think airlines mainly have themselves to blame for this. They have monetised the cabin experience to such an extent that passengers are now conditioned to expect the "optimal" experience if that's what they have been charged for, eg upfront seats condition people that faster exit is desirable, extra legroom is better, faster through the airport is preferable. People were a lot more considerate before airlines started trying to grab every last penny off them.

Agree

Agreed. You would have 'loved' the woman with the fat yellow suitcase. It probably was a 55cm cabin bag, but with its massive extension of about 4 inches in the middle manipulating it along the aisle was tricky. Then she couldn't lift it into the overhead, then it wouldn't close. Off to the hold it went 🤣

Of course there are suitcases used as hand luggage! Many travellers don’t want the risk of losing their stuff or the faff of a 20-minute wait at the airport. I routinely travel long-haul with hand luggage only, as I can pack efficiently for a trip of up to 5 nights away in a small cabin bag plus a backpack or large handbag.

I repeat what l’ve said up thread. Carriers are not trying to grab every last penny off you. They don’t want your last penny. They want to put you off checking luggage in.

I’m also confused to the “big plane, not Airbus” logic up thread. Different aircraft come in different sizes but for commercial flights they don’t come any larger than an Airbus A380.

The "large cabin bag" for Easyjet is more generous than some other airlines and is the same as BA.

I'm flying to Canada soon with BA and hold bags aren't included 🤷‍♀️ but large cabin bags are so that's what I'll be takinh.

Point is that too many people have suitcase type bags or bulky bags where once they would have been satisfied with a much smaller carry on.

Also, what do you do re toiletries and cosmetics if you don't check a bag in?

Duh, in direct response to mention of Airbus I mentioned it was a big plane that wasn't an Airbus. Not all large aircraft are Airbuses. The Boeing in question was a big one on a long haul and I can't remember what number it was

They have created this situation themselves by making you pay to have hold baggage.

I’d far rather check baggage in, I’m not willing to pay huge amounts extra for it.

Do a click and collect boots order and pick it up after security 😬

The problem with you saying put things under the seat in front is that some people (over 5’10 let’s say) need that space for their legs! I put my handbag under the seat, coat in the locker above and never take a case onboard as I prefer to check them, dh puts his laptop bag above with his coat due to leg length. That said combined we use less space than one rolly case!!!

oh and a lot depends on the plane model, the newer wide bodied airbuses have really large luggage bins same can’t be said for older Boeing planes so Ryan air is a problem

If it’s recent with BA on the route you described (? Tokyo - London) was probably a 787-9…not the largest Long Haul aircraft, but reputed to be well equipped with over head stowage. If you go further back it would have been a significantly bigger 777-300 and that really doesn’t lack stowage. I’m honestly surprised you’d have capacity problems on either of those types…but…

As a general point, on aircraft with some of the bigger overhead bins passengers have a habit of not loading their kit into the lockers with the optimum orientation (for roll on bags that’s usually wheels towards the aircraft sidewall, top handle facing the cabin…) that doesn’t help and often results in the cabin crew having to perform a bit of errr..”gentle rearranging”..to get everything in place.

Do a click and collect boots order and pick it up after security

That's all very well, but if you are ordering things over 100ml then you have to consider how/if you will bring it back.

We're off on a long haul holiday next week and will still only be taking hand luggage with <100ml toiletries in the clear bag, even though we are flying business class and have a generous allowance.

Once we are at our destination, we have 4 internal flights booked and these have a very limited cabin allowance so any large toiletries would end up being chucked away anyway.

Given the anything in the ‘small’ hang luggage category is supposed to fit under the seat in front, then it’s perfectly reasonable to request that people do that.

The issue generally lies where people try to put under seat luggage into the overhead bins.

What’s unreasonable about it?

I always used hand luggage for short flights because I don’t have the time to hang around the airport for 45 mins on a hold bag.

I agree. I was on a flight where they announced that backpacks, handbags and coats should go under the seat in front. The stewards were shoving coats roughly into the footwell. Meanwhile the overheads were full to bursting as the wheelie suitcases take up so much space.

They'll still be out of the airport faster than you if you're waiting for hold luggage.

Allocate the time you need, not the time you want it to take

Having made things uncomfortable for other people

I know not all big aircraft are manufactured by Airbus, l work in the industry. I was merely pointing out not all Airbus are small. x