Just had message to say our hand/cabin luggage is now going into hold as flight is busy.Trouble is....

[bizzey]

..Our cabin luggage is not hold friendly !

Short city break.
The DC's planned(and packed!) luggage are small holdalls.

Will they treat this type of luggage differently to the big hold suitcases that you see th chuck around ?

Thanks.

A hold-all is perfectly hold friendly. If you had a bag without a zip or whatever I would agree!

I'd be more worried about your luggage actually being on the plane and arriving with you !

Having seen the way that hold luggage is packed and unpacked (thrown from the plane straight on to the tarmac at one airport) I’ve often wondered what we would do in these circumstances as DH usually carries £2-3k worth of fragile photographic equipment in his hold luggage.

Yes ! I am very worried about it arriving .
Purposely organised it this was instead of sharing 1 hold luggage between us , for piece of mind and speed when we arrive.

Cabin baggage, not hold luggage!

what can you do the plane is full just hope it gets there

I think it'll likely be fine in the hold so long as it zips up - but it might be worth contacting them to ask? IME they select people at random and I've previously been told (by Ryanair, standing in the check-in queue) that they'd like to put my cabin bag in the hold. Once I had a very fragile pottery bowl in there and the other time, my bag was a tote and didn't zip, and both times they were fine with me keeping them with me. It's not like it's in their interests for things to get broken/damaged either.

When I get this sort of message I usually just respond and say 'no thank you'!

I think you can probably at least attempt to refuse. Some people on the plane will probably volunteer.

Had this recently - an email the night before offering you the chance to check it in for free. Needless to say they didn’t have enough takers so this was requested at the gate. Very few people came forward so when it was time to board those with the biggest cases had them taken off them to be put into the hold. Normal sized holdalls were not being removed as far as I saw.

We had this recently with BA and they gave no shits about what type of bag you had, any of the contents etc. Only allowed on were handbag sized bags and carry on cases for those in business class.

Well I have just phoned BA customer service, I I need to check in on line soon..and I did not know whether to add the bags.

He put me on hold so he could check something.

He said he had never heard of emails being sent before flight.
Normally bags get taken at airport check in or gate

He said to check in without hold luggage as they were the tickets I bought , otherwise I will get charged.

I think we will need to get to gate separately so we are not a family with ,what looks like lots of luggage.

I am sure it will be very easy for us all to ignore each other for a few hours ☺️.

@bizzey

He said he had never heard of emails being sent before flight.
Normally bags get taken at airport check in or gate

For several years now BA have routinely sent out e-mails or texts to passengers travelling on very full short haul flights asking them to consider checking in items of hand baggage, rather than taking them through to the gate where there's then the risk they'll go in the hold anyway if the flight is utterly full.

Sounds like the tone of the message may have changed but in any event I'm surprised at the customer service agents comment.

As for the practicalities - holdalls, etc, can go in the hold..Usually for BA if those are handed over at check in they'll be carried in one of the standard baggage containers, not loose loaded..

Most importantly make sure you can properly secure any bags you do hand over, and if electronics are going to be involved watch out for the rules on transport of certain types of batteries in checked bags.

I've usually got prescription medication in my hand luggage, so I always say no

I know the flight is 100 💯 full ,as it has not been shown as available for quiet a few days .

As I boarded this happened to me - bags had to go in the hold. I refused at the gate and the steward tried again as I went into the plane

I cried and explained that I needed my bag with me as I was making a very quick exit of the airport to get to the hospital in Barcelona. My dad was seriously ill and I needed to be there before he passed away.
Steward was mortified and couldn’t do enough for me. Storing them on board, getting them for me as I got off.

Kiss three grand goodbye, basically.

I fly roundtrip from Manchester to Zurich nearly every other week and fully half the time they try to tag my carry-on bag for the hold on the way back to Manchester- the idea is that after you get off bus that takes you across the tarmac, you leave it on the luggage truck at the bottom of the boarding stairs and it goes in the hold. No fucking way am I waiting over an hour or longer to get my bag off the belt when I get home, I just rip the hold ticket off as soon as the staff turns their back, stuff it in my pocket, and take my bag on the plane as normal. It fits perfectly well in the overhead and has never once been an issue.

If a bag is open on the top they're no way they can put it in the hold- is that what you mean by a hold-all?

I fly with BA all the time.

Just check in as you had planned. If they don't have enough bags in the hold at the gate they will make announcements.

Usually they get enough volunteers. They offer priority check in to anyone that does it.

If not they just select people at random.

If a bag is open on the top they're no way they can put it in the hold- is that what you mean by a hold-all?

AFAIK a Soft bag, often sausage shaped, usually closed with a zip...often used for sports kit...

The email said they definitely will be putting your cabin bags in the hold or it was asking you to consider checking them in/volunteers will be needed? There’s a difference. On our recent BA flights we got an email saying the flight was busy and we were asked to consider checking in hand luggage for the hold. There was nothing in the email that said we didn’t have any choice, just that it would be appreciated if we could be flexible. We were flying business class, however. Not sure if they send a different email for different cabins.

We were flying business class, however. Not sure if they send a different email for different cabins.

Not sure if it has changed but it used to be a standard message regardless of whether you were living the high life up front or crammed into steerage...😄

The e mail said we were " invited" to put our luggage in hold free of charge .

Don't know whether to risk it .
But it then get taken at the gate anyhow.
Which is the safer option ?

(Would be nice not to have to faff around at security with the 100ml
stuff ?)

We were “invited” but it wasn’t optional when we arrived.

If you’re happy to have them checked, just do it and enjoy the extra space and toiletries. I was annoyed because I had none of that, and then still had to wait the other side, you might as well reap benefit.

I agree with the PP above. Rip the tag off when out of sight and take it into the cabin.

I've done that on Ryanair before.