Originally Posted by
swanscn
Sitting here in the PHL airport waiting to board a US flight, the light bulb went on. Moving baggage size to TSA does not solve anything. The flight I am about to board has quite a bit of baggage. Most people have 2 bags of the proper size. The agents are already offering free gate check. SO they would have gone by TSA and the problem still exists.
Why does anyone pay attention to this man?
Good point. Carriers simply don't have the will to enforce their own rules (which have the force of law once filed with FAA), even though FAA inspectors have been issuing citations to carriers and to individual GA's. FT itself is full of posts from outraged DYKWIA's who swear that their over-sized steamer trunk actually can be stuffed into an OH.
This is easy conduct to deter. Penalties to carriers for violations of their own rules need to be radically increased and the fees + penalties for over-sized bags should also be increased and collected at the destination so as not to delay boarding process. When some DYKWIA pays $100 for a first over-sized bag and has to wait an hour to collect it from the destination baggage office, it won't happen again. And, if the DYKWIA jumps ship to some other carrier, it won't be any different.
The key issue is to make it clear to pax that the sizer governs, not the question of whether the specific aircraft can possibly handle the bag.