This thread and my comment below, was inspired by one on the UA board, from a posting made by a UA flight attendant about the size and number of bags she needs to deal with daily on US domestic flights, and how RUDE the main offenders can be, at the same time as delaying the flight for everyone else. :
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/003764.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
WHEN the CEO's from the 10 major US carriers sit down, work out a carry-on policy they ALL agree to live with,
and ENFORCE, the better the entire system will be IMHO.
If they ALL do it starting April 1st or whatever date they agree on, no-one loses ANY customer patronage as the playing field is level. It worked with non-smoking and it will work with carry-ons, if the airlines have the WILL.
Try carting on some of this junk onto
Qantas domestically and you are in for a BIG surprise. It simply does NOT get past the gate agents .... they MAKE you walk down and check it in. You miss your plane due to that - too bad. You'll only try that stupid trick once, and you'll CHECK it next time. Works like a charm.
The FA's I realise can only raise their eyebrows so much .... it is basically too late once these cretins have boarded late in many cases, as the Captain is screaming for all seated an push back. It needs to be signposted heavily at check-in and then further ENFORCED by gate agents as much of the problem is the business "supremo" who goes straight to gate for check-in. YES, there are carry-on "templates" all over US airports, but it seems to me there is no WILL from management and most staff to
enforce the carry-on size they dictate is "legal". Does anyone reading this believe many of the pieces of bulky junk in the overheads has any chance of fitting into one of those templates?
The United "rules" for instance say TWO pieces is the maximum with certain size and weight parameters. (But Rudi states that Star Gold pax are permitted an extra piece on top of this.) The maximum weight is set at
50 pounds. That is an INSANELY high limit for carry-on as it is IMHO. Many here would have truble physically pushing something of that weight into an overhead. A bag weighing that and falling on someone in the aisle seat in flight or on takeoff/landing
could easily kill you. Think about it. 50 pounds is exactly what
17 bottles of champagne weighs. Overhead bin doors DO regalarly fly open, (especially on a hard landing) and contents DO fall on passengers - ask any FA. 17 bottles of wine or equivalent weight of anything else can easily kill ... especially if it landed on a child or elderly passenger.
NO airline in the USA wants to be first to "get tough" as they will lose business customers. And I know about the CO/UA fracas and X-Ray machines etc. That is the root problem .. no
consistency agreed by all majors. And yes, many here are business guys who do not have "time" to check bags or wait for them at the carousel and want to wheel/haul their 50-75 pounds of stuff plus suit pack on board to save them time, and delay the rest of the 150 passengers. Too bad in my view.
Nothing will stop weather delays, equipment hassles, and the inevitable labour disputes during each year - they are all facts of airline life that can't be predicted or really avoided. However, ensuring EACH pax boards with precisely the carry-on allowance they are entitled to by their seating (and QF has larger allowances for J and F) will do more to get a loaded 182 seat Boeing 757 taking off on-time than ANY other single factor.
What do others think?
------------------
~
Glen ~