Originally Posted by
exilencfc
I agree with SWISSBOBBY's suggestion that only items which are labelled should be allowed in the overhead. I'd also divide aircraft into zones and have different coloured labels for each zone to deal with the people sitting in row 20 who leave their bags over row 2. For example CE could have blue labels, the front part of ET red and the rear part white.
I also think that there would be less of a problem if the existing rules were more thoroughly enforced; if people knew that they were unlikely to get away with bringing oversize/extra items aboard they would be less likely to try it.
Admittedly all of these measures would cost money - you'd need more staff at gates and/or boarding would have to start earlier but I guess that this would be cheaper than the delays that result from missing a slot.
The second bit is right. When I travelled from JNB to CPT recently the airline (SAA) had staff at the entrance to the plane with a handful of bag tags. The discussion was brief and to the point - your allowance is 1 cabin bag of xyz size, and unless the other bag is placed in the hold you will not be travelling with us today.
The coloured labels thing sounds great in theory, in practice a non runner as it's over elaborate, would delay boarding, and in any case there are insufficient cabin crew to police it whilst doing other jobs.