Don't know if it happens more commonly nowadays at HEL but for me, last week was the first time I saw people's hand luggage dimensions being measured at the gate for a HEL-MUC flight. Anyone with an oversized hand luggage had to leave the bag to be checked into the hold. This happened at a bus gate, making it easier do all this as people were collected to the boarding area after the BP check. One person was checking the BPs and luggage and another one handled the oversized bags.

I can easily see how this creates annoyance within the passengers that exceed the dimensions by 1 or 2 cm here or there, thus failing to be able to fit their bag in the metal frame. Especially if this control occurs very rarely, and anyone travelling even once a year have also seen people being allowed to carry virtually everything that they own with them as hand luggage.

At the same time the gate agent did her job well. She was polite, efficient and assertive just in the right way in order to avoid the lengthy negotiations that would have started with every passenger with oversized bags if the agent would have allowed this discussion to start.