orbitmic

I don't think you need to worry too much, because ultimately, not everyone is equal in this world. You mostly travel premium (and often very premium) and have very high status with pretty much all of the airlines that you fly. In that sense, I think that you are among the group that they are least likely to annoy with a control and/or strict enforcement. Frankly, an agent who would tell you that you'll need to throw your stuff if you have a Platinum card and travel F would likely get a deserved bullocking from their supervisor, rule or no rule! I'm sure that if you fulfilled your lifelong dream of flying FR ( ) you would be quite careful about your hand luggage before going to the airport because you'd know that you would be a nobody to them and it would significantly increase your chances of being "checked".

In my case, I know my risks vary. If I fly BA J or F, between my class of travel and my GGL card, I know that it would be extremely unlikely that BA agents would pick on me. By contrast, when travelling EK in Y, I know I am fair game (in fact, I had explicitly told my partner I would prefer not to go to the counter but as mentioned, the OLCI system gave us trouble and she wanted to see if we could change our seats. At the risk of sounding predictable, I had a bad feeling about that from the start!)

To give another example close to your heart, I have recently heard of multiple examples of people whose hand luggage has been checked, measured, and/or refused as hand luggage on LX flights to/from GVA. I have no doubt that with your HON card and a J BP you would be unlikely to be bothered, but a Y passenger without status had better be careful. This really is all a question of risk assessment. It is a mix of airline policy, individual circumstances, and ultimately luck. The balance has now become slightly less favourable to those with a liberal perception of their hand luggage allowance flying AF although in my estimate, particularly so if they travel in Y and have little or no status.