Originally Posted by serfty
This thread is quite amusing to me. IMO, it really is a "Storm in a Teacup" and 50 posts is completely out of proportion. (Although I have now contributed.
)
The gripe is along the lines that the bags' content had to be rearranged to comply with regulations; presumably if one bag originally weighed 10kg, the other four would have totalled ~20kg.
That the OP was travelling in business is of no account here. According to Post #1, there were five people travelling with five bags with a total weight of 30kg.
For what it's worth, total carry-on weight
is not an issue here; those same 5 travellers
could have had 10 bags between them with
a total weight of 70kg; this for either Domestic or Business class! Yes, that's correct, 40Kg more - over double what they actually had.
As posted by
perthite, it just so happens that this week CASA had launched a crackdown on the size and weight of carry-on luggage and the OP and family were caught up in it.
Not much, other than regulations state maximim item weight of 7Kg and the staff member checking your weight might not have wanted to
risk losing their job.
See above about employee retaining employment ...
No point in singling out Qantas here; given this week's CASA crackdown, the OP would have found the same issues with just about all Oz Airlines.
Thank you for your well thought out post.
After thinking about how the agent acted, I am sure it had to do with CASA crackdown you mentioned.
As someone that did not grow up in Australia, nor entirely in the USA I find this thread interesting because highlights differences in social and business interpretations of rule following, common sense, safey/freedom.
As I mentioned earier I find Australians more progressive on the social scale. It is my observation that it seems the general citizen is open to not follow rules, but look at the big picutre when dealing with other fellow citizens. This does not generally seem to follow in the business world...average Australians seem really not to question any rule.
Likewise I find the average US citizen not to want to look at the big picture when dealing with their fellow citizens, but more apt to question rules in the business environment.
I find this interesting and a big difference between what I see as an average Australian versus an average US citizen. This does not mean one is better than the other, but that there are differences in the fundamental way of thinking.