Mini Rant
As a few may recall I have cut down my BA flying as much as possible. That said there are still some reasons to choose BA and I found myself in such a situation on Wednesday -ARN. Namely flight time.
Arrive to gate and take a seat - Priority line already stretches past the seating area in C gates. Friendly lady walking around yellow tagging and occasionally size checking a few bags. As the queue grew the size check became requests for check in bags. I was initially approached, asked to check in, she then asked if I had any status (Silver) and then in a very friendly way said "oh thats fine, you know boarding has started" The queue at this point was back to the shops so I responded with "Yes, but I'm happy to sit, will join as priority is finishing. True to my word I was the last priority boarder. Behind me a collection of around 70- 80 people. I then get stopped at the desk and asked to check my bag as it was too big (put it in the gauge, fitted fine). Passport and also phone (boarding card) were then held onto unless I checked my bag. I protested saying "I appreciate the plane is full, why not check the bags of all these people behind me". (I accept here I have no knowledge of total bag capacity of the plane/number of people it takes to fill the overheads, but on a 200 odd seater to be out of space by 100ish seemed strange. Lady finally relents and allows my bag on board. Theoretically seating gives me a spare seat and the 5 rows around me all missing the middle person. Plenty of bag space all around. 2 people were stuck without space and bags moved to the front. I'm not entirely sure of my argument here. Is it a DYKWIA wanting shiny card people to get slightly special service or is it a bash BA thread for not enforcing luggage properly and stuffing their planes too full or is it simply a normal bad experience with air travel. Surely there has to be some line that says after 150 people we have to check bags, or some communication from onboard that says bags nearly full please start checking. As an airline that handles thousands of flights, can they not have a fairly good idea of the exact number of bags that require to be checked on each flight to guarantee the remainder all fit. |
They should not be targeting card holders but picking out non card holders IMO. As for holding on to your passport and boarding card....let's not start that one up again :)
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Originally Posted by Flyingturkey
(Post 28327589)
... I'm not entirely sure of my argument here.
Is it a DYKWIA wanting shiny card people to get slightly special service or is it a bash BA thread for not enforcing luggage properly and stuffing their planes too full or is it simply a normal bad experience with air travel. Surely there has to be some line that says after 150 people we have to check bags, or some communication from onboard that says bags nearly full please start checking. As an airline that handles thousands of flights, can they not have a fairly good idea of the exact number of bags that require to be checked on each flight to guarantee the remainder all fit. |
1 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by Flyingturkey
(Post 28327589)
Theoretically seating gives me a spare seat and the 5 rows around me all missing the middle person. Plenty of bag space all around. 2 people were stuck without space and bags moved to the front. |
I agree they need to come up with a better system, but I do feel sorry for the gate agents who are only following the system we have.
This discussion has been done to death in here, appreciate people still have strong feelings about it however; so I'll fetch my popcorn |
Did they specifically refuse to return your passport and phone unless you checked your bag, was it made that conditional?
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This is my top annoyance with BA lately. Let the card holders on without hassle and let them keep their bags! Why is this so hard!?
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Originally Posted by Flyingturkey
(Post 28327589)
Surely there has to be some line that says after 150 people we have to check bags, or some communication from onboard that says bags nearly full please start checking. As an airline that handles thousands of flights, can they not have a fairly good idea of the exact number of bags that require to be checked on each flight to guarantee the remainder all fit.
I was only caught out by this once, but I only arrived at Stansted 20 minutes before departure so was exceedingly relieved to be boarding at all, even with my bag in the hold. Of course, once on board, there was actually a fair amount of room in the overheads, and a good 10-15 more big bags could have been brought on board. Baggage delivery was pretty swift in ATH, with bags coming around as people were walking past to the exit, so it didn't actually lose me any time. |
The issue as OP sets it forth has nothing to do with status, but size of his bag. He had a factual dispute with the BA agent which the sizer is there to resolve. The bag either fits the sizer or it does not.
Presuming that the specific sizer in question meets the BA dimensions (let us presume that it is standard and does), there is simply no dispute. The fact that the bag fits the OH or that there is space in the OH is not relevant to this immediate situation (although I can appreciate that BA, like most carriers, cuts off larger compliant cabin luggage when the OH bins are nearly full in order to avoid backup problems. Holding the BP and phone seems silly. I can;t imagine that anyone would physically disobey a directive not to board or that, if that ocurred, BA does not have easy recourse. |
Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 28327984)
The issue as OP sets it forth has nothing to do with status, but size of his bag. He had a factual dispute with the BA agent which the sizer is there to resolve. The bag either fits the sizer or it does not.
Presuming that the specific sizer in question meets the BA dimensions (let us presume that it is standard and does), there is simply no dispute. The fact that the bag fits the OH or that there is space in the OH is not relevant to this immediate situation (although I can appreciate that BA, like most carriers, cuts off larger compliant cabin luggage when the OH bins are nearly full in order to avoid backup problems. Holding the BP and phone seems silly. I can;t imagine that anyone would physically disobey a directive not to board or that, if that ocurred, BA does not have easy recourse. Anyway, popcorn refilled back to the cheap seats. |
An airline employee holding a passenger's phone and/or passport for leverage or any reason unrelated to critical official duties such as scanning a mobile boarding pass or checking a visa is completely unacceptable. Personal property can now be held hostage in a very minor baggage dispute? Unbelievable.
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Originally Posted by C W
(Post 28330418)
An airline employee holding a passenger's phone and/or passport for leverage or any reason unrelated to critical official duties such as scanning a mobile boarding pass or checking a visa is completely unacceptable. Personal property can now be held hostage in a very minor baggage dispute? Unbelievable.
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Overhead storage space has long been an issue particularly in winter months because of coats as well as bags...long before some asshat in Waterside thought HBO fares would be a clever idea, probably without having ever been on an actual short haul flight and appreciating the boarding carnage and customer dissatisfaction that driving behaviour towards hand baggage would cause. (or perhaps realising it, but full well knowing their annual bonus is not based on these measurements so they don't care). The BA office staff I knew back in the day all used their staff discounts on long haul J travel anyway so they would have no clue what the inside of an a3xx or 737 looked like. And that's my whole theory about what is driving the increasing number of rants we see on this forum: BA leaders and policy makers don't "eat their own dog food" and don't fully appreciate the consequences of their actions, which is putting front line staff under pressure to make up for it, and so , status members like the OP are unfortunately subjected to the shortcomings that inevitably arise. Not clever.
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Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 28327984)
The issue as OP sets it forth has nothing to do with status, but size of his bag. He had a factual dispute with the BA agent which the sizer is there to resolve. The bag either fits the sizer or it does not.
Presuming that the specific sizer in question meets the BA dimensions (let us presume that it is standard and does), there is simply no dispute. The fact that the bag fits the OH or that there is space in the OH is not relevant to this immediate situation (although I can appreciate that BA, like most carriers, cuts off larger compliant cabin luggage when the OH bins are nearly full in order to avoid backup problems. Holding the BP and phone seems silly. I can;t imagine that anyone would physically disobey a directive not to board or that, if that ocurred, BA does not have easy recourse. |
Popcorn
Folks, just a reminder : if you've nothing useful to contribute to a thread other than your own opinion of its worthiness (or lack of), then there's really no need to keep interrupting the thread to tell us so.
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