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?

I did and she quickly said I didn’t have to put my case anywhere - I then followed up with a dormal
complaint to BA which never got a response

Yes. We have been in exactly this situation with BA and I removed my toiletries, HRT and other meds. I keep a reusable tote bag in my handbag and they were quite content for me to put my essentials in that.

I’m glad they backed down but they should have apologised profusely and responded to your later formal complaint.

Someone less assertive might have felt they had to go along with what the first woman was saying. I feel they just try their luck and see what they can get away with.

Anytime I’ve experienced this and they are still asking at the gate the bags they tend to put into hold are the larger cabin cases.

I agree.

I've lost luggage before as well. It's awful and other places can be expensive. If everywhere had a Primark type shop, you could buy a couple of cheap bits to keep you going but it's not always that easy.

Further my previous post…this sort of thing.

BA is doing this for years now, a victim of their own success by offering so generous handluggage allowance.

You can take two pieces anyway. As long as the smaller one fits under the seat it's not an issue.

When we flew only with handluggage I anticipate their usual announcement and had my normal handbag and a fabric tote in my suitcase. When we volunteered to put the larger bags in the hold, I just use the tote for my laptop and ipad. Problem solved.

In my experience the passengers who get "picked on" at the gate to put their cabin bag in the hold are the ones with those small wheelie cases (which look quite big to me!) which have to go in the overhead lockers. It seems to be locker space they are concerned about.

We always take small rucksacks which squish under the seat and have never been picked on.

If it's a short break I wont have hold luggage at all and rucksack may be quite full. As a precaution I do have a small fold up bag inside the rucksack for emergency decanting if I am ever asked to put my rucksack in the hold!

Yep, it's been standard with them for maybe a.decade now, give or take.

I saw it a lot and suspected at times at least one station worked to a quota, almost regardless of booked load. TBH there was some logic to that because it reduced time lost if the overheads got full and only then was the problem addressed..

I use Ryanair a lot. They only sell priority boarding seats for the number of overhead lockers available. After that you have to check your bags or just bring the little underseat only. So book early if it's an overhead you want! That's why they are getting very strict with the chancers buying an "underseat" only ticket where the bag is bigger than allowed.

Maybe BA could do the same and only sell x number of seats for overhead storage, and after that you check in. Maybe even for free, although Ryanair charge.

It saves all this asking for bags to go in the hold, and the hassle, and the aggro etc. Why don't they do this? Maybe they do...

I’m ex BA cabin crew although it is nearly 25 yrs ago since I left. You wouldn’t believe what people try and bring on as hand luggage, some people are so utterly selfish and then other people are penalised, especially those getting on towards the end of boarding. It’s truly dog eat dog out there in that cabin, I certainly don’t miss it!

TBH I think it's a system that BA use that hack some passengers off,. But TBF most other airlines have their bespoke ways of hacking their passengers off....

AFAIK BA still allow two items of handbaggage, so it's easy enough to prepare, even before getting to the airport, by having essentials, power banks etc in a small underseat bag. That meand there shouldn't be need for any drama or even any real aggro the gatestaff decide to hold load the bigger bag but I accept it may be a PITA if you are going to be in a rush at the far end..

Would anyone risk a new Dyson Airwrap going into the hold????

Had to Google what it is but at that price - no way!

We had this with our connecting flight from Heathrow! We would be upgraded to group 3 boarding if we volunteered! Wow, BA are so generous (after a delayed flight after we’d flown from Tokyo on a horrible BA flight!)

I would definitely not put an airwrap in the hold.

Whenever I fly BA I pack a backpack with my essentials then a larger wheelie suitcase and offer to put it in the hold at checkin. It means I often don't need to buy a checked bag and I can fit a holiday's worth of clothes (and larger toiletries) in the bag especially as they have generous sizing (and if you offer to check it they never confirm if your bag is a tad larger than it technically should be )

I have seen easyjet crew counting thr number of wheelie cabin bags before and after number xx telling the passengers there's no space/they need to check.

You can be forced to give it up if you are in one of the later boarding groups and they are out of space. This has happened to me and I’ve seen it happen to others. I had to get out my back up battery as it can’t go into the hold, and yes you can definitely decant what you need into another smaller bag. I was embarrassed as I had my bag sprawled out to find my back up battery and my underwear was visible to passers by!

I wasn’t going to mention this, but you seem like friendly bunch of posters. but this, plus my new GHDs (Santa was very generous) is what came to mind when I got the BA email …

I was forced to put my hand luggage in the hold when we were about to board and I removed my real essentials/valuables and put them into my handbag and a carrier bag - passports, phone, iPad, purse, medication, and jewellery. I wasn’t as concerned about my case going astray because I could see it being loaded onto the plane.

We were offered it once at Glasgow and accepted. We got priority boarding, which was great, as the flight was rammed and my daughter has autism.

I'd want money/purse, phone, charger, passport, paperwork, book, a little bag of cosmetics e.g. hand gel, hand wipes, moisturiser, toothbrush, paste, a spare pair of knickers and socks in case my case goes AWOL, a hairbrush, snacks, a magazine.

BA base it on boarding group so sounds like you are in 8/9 if this is the case and they have already sent the pre warning this indicates a busy flight and it will go in the hold at the gate.

I travel regularly with BA

How do you know which boarding group you are ?

I've been on flights which weren't busy and still got this message. But I usually travel with a soft bag that can go under the seat - I'm a shortarse and don't need leg room.

I flew back from Italy on BA in October and they selected me and a few others to put our hand luggage in the hold even though I didn't want to. I did ask if there was any alternative as I had a tight connection to catch train on arrival back in London but the answer was an unequivocal 'no' if you want to get on the plane. It worked out fine as my luggage was last on, so first off and ready for collection as soon as I got to the luggage collection area.

Wouldn't have been my preference but all was fine, and still had a small rucksack in the hold with my travel essentials in it.