Originally Posted by
moondog
This is the reason planes have luggage storage at the bottom of their fuselages. Charging passengers money to avail of them (for your standard travel bag) is ludicrous when it clearly costs us aggregate time. I get the fact that some airports are slow at delivering bags; put more pressure on them.
ETA: If you had a choice of boarding your flight 30 minutes earlier than needed or waiting in baggage claim at PDX for 30 minutes, why would you choose the former?
That’s sort of a false choice. Checking in baggage — unless perhaps at the gate, if it gets that far — means having to show up earlier at the airport than when not checking in luggage. Also, checked luggage’s mishandling rates are pretty bad and seem to get worse as airlines go down this route of trying to increasingly monetize hold luggage space and charge for what was accepted as cabin baggage without issue even on full flights 15-25 years ago during the busiest periods.
Putting pressure on airlines and airports over baggage handling to get major improvements anytime soon? That’s like trying to find a natural snowball — not hail — on the steps of the Capitol in DC in June.