... it would postpone the delay to "on board" when the people have to be reunited with their bags lacking the magic tag.

Given that there is nothing the crew can do with a bag whose owner doesn't turn himself in and that such tags are easy to print for one's excessive use. All such ad hoc measures will achieve is to lower the honesty of the passengers and educate those determined to follow the rules to bring max-size single hand luggage trolleys rather than a small bag and a small personal item.
Entirely agree. The legacies need to provide some bennies and handluggage induced delays are negligible.
If they become more regular it is due to the shrinking seat sizes and added rows on the plane.

In the past I've often thought some of the moans here about cabin baggage have been a bit over the top (yes, really!) but I have to admit that one or two recent flights in the new configuration for A320 have been tricky.

I haven't had a single departure late due to this issue - over the advertised departure time - and frankly there are loads of other things that make for substantial late running, particularly at LHR. One recent flight would have got away sooner (before the advertised time) but for a late kerfuffle getting extra bags into the holds, but that's it so far on my slate of BA flights. I am sure my time will come at some point. T3 and some Gatwick gates have an access and/or staffing issues to contend with too, if they have to do late hold checking.

It has always been worse in Winter with the coats /Xmas shopping/presents situation, also HBO passenger tend to pack more clothes in winter I guess. But it is getting more difficult on certain routes if the aircraft is full or close to full. AMS, EDI, MAN, GVA, ZRH spring to mind.

I've long advocated abandoning the yellow label and simply presented one single green label to every passenger as they pass the boarding gate. Apart from bulkheads/emergency exits that would be a better solution than now and everyone would be keen to put on their tags! To prevent label reuse the colour could change from time to time.

What happens on AA is they combine it with the extended Priority Boarding process. So for starters anyone with one or no bag without status is able to board after the status passengers but before the 2 bag crowd; secondly the crew proactively close full lockers during boarding of busy flights and at the point when all the lockers are shut anyone in the last groups to board who has a bag that cannot go under the seat must gate check their bag, no argument.

I've seen BA try a bit of that at T5, proactive hold checking of the last passengers, plus there are now baggage collection points at T5 at the gate - these are not always used but gate staff can offer the collection process before boarding and thereby keep the flight on time.

I would endorse this on BA 100%

My original post covered two topics - one, the delay caused by most passengers having their correct allowance and two the safety implications of heavy weights being placed in the overheads.

The article is entirely relevant because of the severity of injury a lightweight item caused. Now imagaine a 23kg trolley bag had fallen, or a ski boot - the pressure would have been a hundred times worse and may have killed the woman.

It is time the cabin baggage allowances were reviewed.

Just have the security "bucket" with the maximum allowable internal dimensions, with the X-ray machine 'mouth' at the right maximum height.

"It doesn't fit in the bucket? It's not going on board." "It fits the bucket but does not go through the mouth of the X-ray machine? It's not going on board."

Not even a single "dragon" needed.

For clarification: this is for T5.

A simple solution which seems to escape the majority. Although how that copes with different carriers' parameters is a small issue

BAGS ARE TOO BIG .... so don't allow them. Simples?

Essentially, size restrictions are NOT applied [and possibly too generous, but that's another topic]

I should have mentioned, that was a suggested solution for T5 only, where I assume IB would have the same limit as BA (although I don't know, as I've never been on IB yet so I have had no reason to look it up).

Of course, other airports and terminals would be more problematic, although I think BA's allowances in terms of size and weight seem to be one of the most generous, so they could use BA's max size for BA's purposes and it shouldn't affect any others adversely (they can do their own size policing if their allowances are smaller than BA's ).

I had two hand luggage-induced delays > 15 min last winter although I have had none this winter yet. I would not consider them negligible.

When T5 opened, we were supported by a team of "Blackjacks" who referred large bags back to the BA staff members on the floor. They would, in turn, refer the passenger back to he Bag Drop desk where the bag would be tagged for the hold and if applicable, an excess baggage charge would be made.

With staffing cutbacks, we no longer have the Blackjacks or staff to look out for large bags.

Recall around 2007 the staff in T4 very strict with 1 bag only no matter what cabin and they also checked size of the suitcase. However quiet a few Pax complained to BA.

This is why I have stated that common sense be applied.
Clearly any object in the overheads bins can be potentially hazardous hence the crew announcement about been careful when opening the bins. We're never going to get rid of the overhead bins so let's be practical about it.

The current hand baggage limit on weight is already unrealistic. 23kgs the same as a checked bag, come on

BA really don't help themselves and something easy like sorting out the hand baggage rules and having some mild interest in actually enforcing it would go a long way to pleasing both crew and regular flyers.

Everybody knows there's an issue but why are BA so disinterested? Surely enforcing a reasonable baggage allowance is not going to drive passengers away...

There is absolutely no way I am putting my coat under the seat where other people's dirty feet have been.

There are coat hooks on every seat on the shorthaul fleet.

I usually either keep it on (short flights) or it goes into the wardrobe, or strapped onto my lap under the seat belt. I don't want it on the floor or in the overhead locker because the overhead locker has dirty wheels and the floor is dirty.

Like many people I don't check in at the desk or visit the lounge. Also it's not the responsibility of security staff, as security is slow enough already. Cue bottleneck at the gate.

Amidst the hurly burly of people getting on board/seated you really think the 2 or 3 crew on SH have time to work their way up and down the plane pulling out untagged bags? Non runner I'm afraid.

The second bit is right. When I travelled from JNB to CPT recently the airline (SAA) had staff at the entrance to the plane with a handful of bag tags. The discussion was brief and to the point - your allowance is 1 cabin bag of xyz size, and unless the other bag is placed in the hold you will not be travelling with us today.

The coloured labels thing sounds great in theory, in practice a non runner as it's over elaborate, would delay boarding, and in any case there are insufficient cabin crew to police it whilst doing other jobs.