elitetraveler

Doug Parker spoke today at a conference for in DEN for travel managers.

The moderator Peter Greenberg of CBS asked Parker about overpacked overheads and delays in getting planes out as travelers try to avoid checked bag fees by hauling more carry-ons to the gate.

Parker said he believes a lot of the delays in going through TSA screening is related to an increase in carry-on bags.

He suggested that TSA is going to "take the lead" in terms of clamping down on oversize carry-ons. He specifically mentioned those sizers that used to fit over the screening machines.

Overall Parker was quite funny and articulate, but on this issue he clearly inferred the airlines are happy to let the TSA be the bad guys.

SFOSpiff

Hmm, if only there was a way to keep more bags in the hold so people would take fewer onboard...

Sometimes I feel like we're in a Three Stooges film. It's as if Pennsylvania were to close all the major highways to force us to use the (overpriced) Turnpike, and oh, by the way, the Turnpike is going to be staffed with stopping checkpoints to look for vehicle safety infractions and alcohol transport violations.

I'd be most interested if someone could estimate what baggage fees are costing the country in lost productivity and then staple it to airline execs foreheads.

14940674

I am pleased that someone is taking action on hand baggage enforcement. The current situation is ridiculous. Oversized bags can injure cabin crews. No flight should ever require gate checks, yet all of them need it because of the absurd quantities of bags brought by passengers. The American airline passenger needs to be taught rule obedience. If the rules say 1 carry-on and one personal item, that is all you should bring, and if you want to bring more, check it.

My only concern is the bags sold as carry-ons while their wheels cause the bag to be more than 21 inches tall. I wish the bag manufacturers would measure the whole bag.

dsquared37

Cry me a river.

You're glad that TSA might be tasked with one more job? Seriously?

gj83

I flew WN the other day and on my 5 flights not a single one had an issue with overhead space. Free checked bags is the most logical conclusion.

Don't force your job on someone else. If you are charging for checked bags, expect people to carry on whatever they can.

SDF_Traveler

Like many of us here, I don't have to pay for checked bags when flying carriers where I have status, but I typically do not check luggage.

I'd be happy to check a small bag if air carriers did a better job with checked baggage.

I shouldn't have to deal with a "delayed" baggage fiasco on a 2 hr connection, but air carriers manage to misplace luggage. Often it takes 1 to 3 days to be re-united with luggage when this happens.

On the same token, I shouldn't have to wait an hour for luggage to hit the belts at some airports in baggage claim.

Until then, it's a legal roll-a-board carry-on (fits into overheads, wheels first) and a laptop backpack, which goes under the seat in front of me.

14940674

I agree they are certainly not ideal candidates, but the issue is quite severe. It is also indicative of a cultural dysfunction in the US, in which the importance of obeying rules is unappreciated.

OldGoat

Where is TSA's statutory authority to be the bag size police?

InkUnderNails

They can say it is part of the screening process, just like the requirement to say ones name and destination.

Furthermore, it may justify more expense and people which allows a further expansion of the scope and size of the TSA.

NotaCriminal

I would prefer if the TSA told the airlines that it's their darn job to take care of the baggage. If the airlines are going to force pax to pay to send a single suitcase to a destination, then the airlines can have a system in place BEFORE security to check the size of a bag. How hard would it be to simply have airline employees at the counter or prior to security have the pax put the carry-on into a sizer and tag it if it meets the requirements or send the passenger back to the counter to check it? Or, here's a concept, quit charging for the first bag! The airlines started the mess, the airlines can fix it themselves!

The TSA has enough to keep them busy bullying passengers without adding "bag police" to the list of ways to harrass us. Until the TSA mission changes from WEI hunters and gatherers to bag size enforcers, I am not down with the airlines passing off their responsibilities. No tax dollars should be used to subsidize airline profits (or desire for profit).

InkUnderNails

Sending people back to check non-conforming luggage will lead to logistical nightmares at many airports. They will be half way through the screening (unless they set up yet another stop in the TDC line for which there may be no room) and will have to be escorted back. In many airports there is not a clear pathway backwards. They will have to be re-doc checked adding to the TDC load.

The TSA line will increase. The bag check lines will increase. Passengers missing flights will increase. Irate passengers will be more common.

The only reason to do this is so the GA and OA letting you on the plane can deflect the passenger anger to the TSA when they complain that they had to check a bag that had been fine for the last umpteen trips. On this one, the TSA would not deserve it, unless they had clearly acquiesced to the airline demands.

I agree with most of the posters here: if the airlines need to have this done, they should do it themselves.

jkhuggins

Mom told me a million times never to exaggerate.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for gate checks. If every passenger brought "one plus" items of legal size, most aircraft wouldn't have the storage space to carry them. Passengers with wheelchairs or strollers are allowed to gate check those items to allow them to move through the airport with ease. Official size requirements ignore the smaller space capacities of RJs. And so on.

As has been noted up-thread ... the "absurdity" is in part caused by the airline's insistence on charging checked bag fees for the masses (excluding those with affiliate credit cards, elite status, etc.). If carry-on bags are such a problem, there are plenty of things the airlines can do to alleviate the problem. Eliminate (some) check bag fees. Improve issues related to the delivery of checked bags. Use sizers more consistently at the gate itself, in order to train passengers as to what size bags are really allowed.

IrishDoesntFlyNow

^ +1

I also flew WN twice within the past week. Not a single issue with overhead space, and this despite the fact that I saw several clearly oversize bags go into overheads.

The "pay-for-every-bag" airlines need to accept responsibility for their own messes.

~~ Irish

halls120

What makes you think TSA cares about having actual authority to do what they feel like doing?

cottonmather0

I don't know if I would call it a "cultural dysfunction" that Americans don't obey rules. Americans have ignored rules since before America was founded. Some people would say it's a defining characteristic of this country and its citizens.

(and, truthfully, America is probably more orderly than most of the rest of the world... outside of Germany and Scandinavia, rules and laws are routinely ignored with abandon... you must have never been to Russia or Italy or Brazil, I am guessing...)

That said, I think the problem, as others have pointed out in this thread, is that the AIRLINES don't want to enforce THEIR OWN RULES and would rather pass the buck to TSA. If the gate agents and flight attendants would just stand up and make people gate check bags - and bear the brunt of the market response to the their own checked baggage fees - this wouldn't be as big a problem as it is.