Originally Posted by
bd95
I do however see a big difference with BA's new sister airline, EI. EI allows regulation trolley size bag and a "small hand bag or small gent's satchel" with an appropriately small volume on the baggage gauge. This allows ladies not to worry about stuffing their small handbag into their main cabin bag, and allows a fairly slimline laptop bag or briefcase (but not those enormous laptop bags you see that could fit most of an office into them). They don't seem to have any problems with baggage on board, though will turn a blind eye to the odd infringement where it's not causing a problem. You tend not to see anyone carrying two enormous bags though. It's expectation management people!
After many months of this policy, I still don't understand a few things:
- Why bother making the second bag as small as BA's new requirement, or as what EI have? From my perspective, if the smaller bag will fit under the seat, then why make the size limit be half of the available space? Yes, a few passengers in bulkhead or exit row seats put both bags overhead, but it's not the smaller bag that is causing the issue of not having enough space for bags on board. The previous dimensions prior to this change were more than reasonable.
- Why do CE passengers have the same constraints for hand baggage as ET? Given the eroding seat pitch in CE, BA could give separate CE tags that allow larger bags, such as the previous dimensions. This would allow business travelers a greater chance to fly with hand bags only, which is how many business travelers on short trips want to fly anyway, in order to save time checking and reclaiming luggage. It would give back a small additional incentive for flying CE.
- The new size precludes the real dimensions of every laptop backpack on the market. But unless completely filled, they all fit within the new sizer. Unfortunately BA staff believe they will not fit, and waste time during boarding making you show that the bag does fit. If you go through the process of checking-in at the ticket counter, BA should probably tag each bag as fitting within the carry-on size limit, to speed up the boarding process.
- Reserve sufficient space over row 1 for the bags from row 1 passengers on short haul flights. This may mean moving some of the built-in equipment back a few rows, and asking crew to not put their bags over the scarcest area for overhead bags on the aircraft. This change would make it such that row 1 passengers would not feel the need to rush to board first. As this row is typically reserved for gold passengers flying in CE who would probably prefer to spend more time in the lounge, this would reduce the problem of row 1 passengers having to walk back a few rows to get their bags upon landing. (An even better option would be to to carve out space in the bulkhead to fit a carry-on bag in front of row 1, but I'm trying to be realistic at this point).