BA “inviting” passengers to put hand luggage in the hold

[MascaraGirl]

I’ve had this suggestion before with BA, but thankfully I’ve never had to part with my hand luggage.

We fly tomorrow, and the “invitation” email has arrived again, Its got me thinking. Even if your hand luggage ends upon the hold, you’re still allowed a small cabin bag, and I can get MOST of my essentials in this. But I’m wondering that if I pack a carrier bag, or similar, into my land luggage, would I be allotwed to de-cant my belongings into this? Not ideal, but (from BA’s point of view) it gets my bag out of the cabin, and from my point of view, at least I’m not risking anything important being lost in transit? Or am I overthinking this?

What EXACTLY do you class as essentials that you NEED whilst in the air? Assuming you also have a case going in the hold, what more than the following do you need whilst flying?

Passport
Purse
Boarding card
Phone
Book/game/kindle?

I can fit all of that into a small handbag. Everything else goes in the suitcase in the hold. Not a biggie

You’re overthinking it. They just want people to give up bags that go in the overhead locker because there isn’t space for everyone’s on a full or full-ish flight. If the contents of said bag mostly end up in a carrier bag under the seat in front of you then they’ve still achieved their aim.

You can still take an under seat bag with anything important in it

You'd check in laptop? Or medication? It's not just about what you need on the plane but things you don't want damaged/delayed/lost.

I had the same email today for my flight from LCY to EDI tomorrow. I’m actually ok with it as I struggle to fit all my cosmetics into the bag with the 100ml limit so they can take my small case into the hold, I don’t mind.
That said, I hadn’t really considered it could go missing and, reading the latest comments, perhaps I should be!

Essentials are the things you need for your fist couple of days at your destination, especially given BA's reputation for bag reliability. So pants, toiletries, clean tops, swimming stuff, sports bra.

When I travel to a sports event all my cabin sized kit is in my carry on bag and I accept that I might well be shopping for pants and PJs if baggage handling strikes again...

In flight essentials are minimal but hand luggage essentials is rather more than that when BA are involved, especially if connecting!

^^ This..

..and points out one risk with this system that some airlines like is there's a risk something ends up.on the hold his that shouldn't be hold loaded (e.g. power bank).

When I was travelling very regularly with BA I used to have a small bag for.under the seat, containing essentials and hand baggage only items, and then the bigger bag only contained relatively inert non-esssential stuff, so if "asked" I could give that bigger bag up.without having to faff around at the gate or on the jetty decanting items.

You'd check in laptop? Or medication? It's not just about what you need on the plane but things you don't want damaged/delayed/lost.

Exactly , I always keep items that I consider essential (realising opinions may vary on this) in my hand luggage, god forbid my suitcase goes missing. I can manage without these items for the duration of the flight, but would struggle if they got lost.

But my question was: would I be allowed to decant my hand luggage items into a carrier bag if they insist on putting my bag in the hold?

I flew last week with BA and both going and coming back they announced that they wanted people to volunteer to put hand luggage in the hold.

I only saw two people come forward to do this on the return flight (two small wheelie bags) - despite this, there was ample room in the overhead lockers - even space left over from what I could see sitting towards the back of the plane. I was bringing back an inherited clock so couldn't have put my carry on in the hold as it was so fragile, so I was relieved there was room when I boarded.

I suspect it might be something to do with boarding times, too, as people were being incredibly slow to put their hand luggage away and sit down, leaving us in the queue to board for a considerable time.

Was anyone “forced” to do this?

Not that I saw. A staff member asked me if I would do it, but I explained I couldn't due to the fragile clock - she moved on to ask others but people were able to say no.

I've been on one flight where people were simply told their cabin cases would be going in the hold because there was no room left in the lockers

I think airlines should be more strict about what goes in the overhead TBH. Coats, bags, Duty Free, umbrellas, you name it are shoved on top of the wheelie cases and often beside them meaning others can't fit their wheelies in. Strict rules that ONLY cases go overhead and all other stuff must go under the seat would help enormously with the space issue and the faffing around too.

Having said that I always check a bag in these days since by the time you get through the miles of airport corridors and through immigration the bag is sailing around on the belt anyway. I get that bags can go missing but that's a chance I'll take, as valuables and essentials will be in my underseat anyway.

Usually people are only forced to do it if the bag is too big or too heavy. I've seen people try to take things as hand luggage that should obviously have been checked into the hold.
They also have to balance the weight for safety reasons so if they need more people to check bags into the hold and no one volunteers they might not be able to take off. But I don't know if that has ever happened as normally enough people volunteer.

Medication. A couple of weeks of my prescription meds won’t fit in a medium handbag, let alone a small one.

It's happened to me and yes of course I was allowed ample time to faff around getting whatever I wanted out of my case and into the bag I was taking onto the plane - they don't snatch your case away and whisk it off immediately! So long as what I was keeping with me fitted under the seat they were happy, like a PP said it's all about space in the overhead lockers. It's a bit annoying and a faff at the gate to be opening up your case and of course then you have to wait at the other side to reclaim your case from baggage collection but not the end of the world. If you're worried about it happening it would be sensible to bring a handbag or backpack with enough space for your essential items in it and keep those essential items at the top of your case. Or if you really need to make a quick dash at the other side arrive at the gate early as seemingly the rationale for having to check the case was that too many people had already gone through with their cases and there wasn't going to be space?

We never check in luggage anymore. Got my packing down to a fine art and even for a two week holiday I can cope.

I do think though that passengers are increasingly taking liberties with what they bring on board and the size of the luggage. This is causing more passengers to be parted from their luggage, delays whilst the staff try to cram it all in etc.

Medication

baby formula

nappies

In case luggage goes astray: contact lens solution, toothbrush, hairbrush, change of underwear/ shirt/something to sleep in.

documents and laptop if business.

They can insist that it goes in the hold. It’s part of the conditions of carriage.

With another airline, l got told my bag had to go in the hold due to lack of overhead space, at least l knew my bag was at the aircraft; l’ve had hold luggage lost twice, so always try to avoid. When l boarded, half the lockers were empty. I sent photos with a complaint and received a voucher.

I’ve been forced to do it even though I objected fairly strongly. If they didn’t charge people extra to put luggage in the hold, they wouldn’t have this issue.

I’ve had it happen once and I did have to pull out essentials like my laptop and my medication. There was no way I was letting those be put in the hold.

at this point my bag is 90% essentials because it is mostly medically required items. They won’t fit in my personal item bag. It’s not obvious like a cpap. No idea how to handle it if they want the bag in the hold, I think I will just have to get off the plane.

You’ve never had an airline lose a bag and had to spend the first day of your holiday scrambling around buying things have you? This happened to me in china of all places where finding clothes to fit me was no joke! And I was travelling for work so had to purchase a whole smart outfit including shoes which was a lot more expensive than the £40 the airline offered me as compensation (my bag arrived after 48 hours).

I always make sure we have enough essentials in our hand luggage to keep us comfortable for a day or 2 while the baggage is located. This includes clothing, swimwear etc

You'll always be able to have an underseat bag and some time to decant what you need.

We never check in luggage either. We can pack for an entire week sun holiday in the underseat storage bags (we have bought properly sized ones to maximise the space!).

I don't think it's passengers taking liberties though. I see it more as airlines increasingly financially penalising people who want to check bags. I actually prefer no checked bags so as to not have to hang around to collect them (plus luggage can't get lost if it's not out of my sight), but If it was free to take a checked bag I might well choose that option in order to take more stuff with me that might be nice to have even though I can manage without it. But I'm not going to pay extra to check a bag when I can fit all my essentials into free hand luggage with some careful planning and folding.