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?

It's on your boarding pass.

We just had this, we offered to put ours in the hold, I had a separate bag so put all important things in there (I do anyway)

They will ask for volunteers at the gate before boarding too, which is when we offered to put it in the hold, we got 'priority' boarding for it - there were a number of people who could not fit their bags in the overheads so ended up putting them in the hold anyway

Completely agree. If people stuck to the well advertised guidelines and if staff enforced them there would probably be enough room for everybody’s stuff. But people dont hence this situation..

It will be on your boarding pass.

This is a really helpful thread. I think I’m going to get one of those Tourister bags for future flights.

I love when airlines say this. I happily give them my bag. The plane is in front of you so you can see your bags going on
I never use the overhead lockers only under the seat but it's so freeing having just a small cross body bag.
Wish they would go back to free hold luggage allowances.

I was asked once but I said I had EpiPens etc in there and they were find. It’s a rucksack (smallish) but I think people with huge wheelies, umbrellas, coats and a handbag are taking the piss

Free hold luggage is unlikely to return for those airlines that are not currently offering it.

In charging they are really not trying to rip you off; are trying to put you off taking it. If there is space in the cabin, they don’t want you to check bags in. This can lead to faster turnaround and fewer baggage handlers. Whether that is a good thing is a separate issue.

No but it should fit in the under the seat back.

Just organise yourself accordingly, the sizes are generous enough.

They will also ask/tell people who have already hold luggage and just added the max size handluggag they are allowed and still have to hand that over.

Just checked in, we are in boarding group 4, so fingers crossed!

You should be fine 👍🏻 that’s the first group after priority as bronze is group 3 👍🏻

I have just boarded and still have my hand luggage!

Am I the only one who really doesn’t mind checking a bag even on short haul? The last couple of trips I’ve taken I’ve had the pre-flight email offering a free hold bag; dropping off before security means I’m free to waltz round departures with only my essentials and not have to lug my case to the gate. I prefer to pack light anyway, and can keep it down to what would fit in a cabin bag, but if I’m offered the chance to drop that bag, I’m taking it!

Am I the only one who really doesn’t mind checking a bag even on short haul

Problem with the BA set up at at our local regional airport is check-in is almost always busy and slow, so checking anything in at the desks is time consuming (and it adds up if you are going through the airport several times a month).

It's not so bad if you can hand a bag over at the gate/on the jetty but by that stage you've done all the hard work and you might as well take it on board if circumstances allow.

Fair enough - I'm usually travelling through Heathrow, so self-check in and self bag drop, rather than waiting for a staffed desk. I've only had a bag go missing once, and that was BA-Marrakech, and it was a bit of a pain having to buy essentials until it turned up four days later. On the other hand, I've noticed that since passport control takes longer these days (thanks Brexit), by the time I get to baggage claim my bag's waiting for me!

I don’t understand why people lug so much on board anyway (unless small child or medical issues) I manage with a normal midsized handbag that fits under my seat, I check my main bag

I also don't mind putting my bag in the hold. It's been such a bun fight for overhead locker space on recent short haul flights that I've been on that i'd much rather just hand my bag over and not have to deal with that! It's often big tall blokes crashing about and huffing and puffing and shoving... no thanks.
Also as previous posters have said, passport control seems to take so long that the bags are usually there already on the carousel by the time I get through.
I've only had a bag go missing twice and it's a chance I'm willing to take.

For info I used to travel to/from work by air, timings were sometimes tight on arrival so I didn't want to risk losing time at a baggage belt if I could help it..I also wanted to reduce the risk of losing anything work related if a bag went adrift.

I could manage a week plus of working away from home whilst staying within BAs carry on allowance, as could many of my colleagues...there are lots of folks in various lines of work who do similar.

I travel regularly for work and I have got my packing down to a fine art so I can fit it into a cabin case plus a small backpack.

I flew back from Istanbul last week on BA and the A321neo had the new cabin so cases could be stored upright and you can get 4 into a locker instead of the usual 2. You wouldn't believe how many people failed to put their case up correctly. I hope they roll out more of those (outbound was an older A320, inbound was a noticeably more pleasant experience).

I was forced to put my carry on LV suitcase in hold on a BA flight !!
it obviously came out with some damage (scratches etc) I would never ever have put this in the hold but was told

Yes, you can take a large hand bag or small rucksack that will go under the seat. I normally do this because you effectively get a free hold bag with full size bottles of toiletries

I’ve watched them target people at the gate if no-one volunteers: women over 50, minority ethnic travellers, younger women, older men. Younger men almost never get targeted. A friend of mine was told to check in her bag at the gate, it got stolen from the carousel and BA denied all liability. It had all of her clothes for the weekend, plus her cancer meds. BA couldn’t have been more unhelpful.

Op we've had this a few times and it's annoying because we delibertly didn't go with a large case just so we could get on and off the flight /out the airport fast.
So to have to put our cases in the hold was annoying.
Also the times we have been asked ,there has been plenty of space on the over head luggsge

I am group 1 on BA
What I have consistently noted is that they target women and ask them to check their bags rather than men (to avoid conflict).

We flew with them last week. I had a small case (tiny) and a handbag, dds had their rucksacks. We could have had 3 cases in the hold at 23kg each, but we used 2 cases. They just need the overhead locker space. One chap had two bags that were pretty big. His rucksack was larger than his wheelie case ffs. One should have gone in the hold, he was in peasant class like me.