Mini Rant
As a few may recall I have cut down my BA flying as much as possible. That said there are still some reasons to choose BA and I found myself in such a situation on Wednesday -ARN. Namely flight time.
Arrive to gate and take a seat - Priority line already stretches past the seating area in C gates. Friendly lady walking around yellow tagging and occasionally size checking a few bags.
As the queue grew the size check became requests for check in bags. I was initially approached, asked to check in, she then asked if I had any status (Silver) and then in a very friendly way said "oh thats fine, you know boarding has started" The queue at this point was back to the shops so I responded with "Yes, but I'm happy to sit, will join as priority is finishing.
True to my word I was the last priority boarder. Behind me a collection of around 70- 80 people.
I then get stopped at the desk and asked to check my bag as it was too big (put it in the gauge, fitted fine). Passport and also phone (boarding card) were then held onto unless I checked my bag. I protested saying "I appreciate the plane is full, why not check the bags of all these people behind me". (I accept here I have no knowledge of total bag capacity of the plane/number of people it takes to fill the overheads, but on a 200 odd seater to be out of space by 100ish seemed strange.
Lady finally relents and allows my bag on board.
Theoretically seating gives me a spare seat and the 5 rows around me all missing the middle person. Plenty of bag space all around. 2 people were stuck without space and bags moved to the front.
I'm not entirely sure of my argument here.
Is it a DYKWIA wanting shiny card people to get slightly special service or is it a bash BA thread for not enforcing luggage properly and stuffing their planes too full or is it simply a normal bad experience with air travel.
Surely there has to be some line that says after 150 people we have to check bags, or some communication from onboard that says bags nearly full please start checking. As an airline that handles thousands of flights, can they not have a fairly good idea of the exact number of bags that require to be checked on each flight to guarantee the remainder all fit.