Jed

Sounds like another BA staff member that doesn't care for dealing with customers courteously. Im not sure whether the OP was trying to get 2 bags on or 3. Regardless, the staff member's behaviour sounds very odd. Did the OP get the staff member's name to complain to BA? Now that the product seems to be on the mend at last, Cruz, Warfield et al should focus on flushing out staff who are not suited to delivering good customer service. They give a bad name to the majority of BA staff who are very good

rickg523

Counting the sandwich bag against the carry-on allowance in an attempt to get a roller bag checked is overly officious bad customer service.
Refusing to return the property of a passenger who has left the check in desk - for whatever reason - and is not boarding the airplane? That's just theft, isn't it?

navylad

Except a Mary Poppins bag that required the OP to find multiple pockets to put the stuff in doesn't sound like a Sandwich bag and, as highlighted by other posters, we regularly see posts on here complaining when the baggage policy hasn't been strictly enforced.

The OP didn't, as I understand it, leave the check in area (assuming you meaning the gate check area); repacking beyond the boarding card check desk. Ignoring the fact that the OP had already been warned whilst queuing, the gate agent could have returned the phone and passport, asked them to go away, repack and then rejoin the back of the queue, but that would seam worse customer service in my mind.

SvenAge

I just wanted to pass on my best wishes to OP. Sometimes we have unpleasant unexpected experiences like this which shouldn't happen. This kind of treatment happens as airlines cut costs, put more pressure on their staff and with morale low, some staff may lose pride in their work. The best staff end up leaving if they can, which leaves some others to work harder to cover this shortfall. It is a very sad situation as far as I can see.

wolf72

It could be considered theft though i seriously doubt any judge or magistrate would take it forward.

But i would think the staff in question has gone overboard holding passport, boarding card and phone. He had already literally been "chased away" and told to repack

KeaneJohn

The way I see this is the op had their roller case, their Mary Poppins bag and the boots sandwich bag. The agent said she could not have 3 bags on boarding and would have to check one it. The op said Id rather not as I have medication in but I can put my sandwiches in the Mary Poppins bag. The op was told to do this behind the agent, asked for their items back and were refused which upset the agent.

We all know the boarding process and cabin baggage is broken and BA won't fix it and there is inconsistency which doesnt help. A while ago there was a guy on her, Gold I think going to Dublin when the boarding team targeted all prioirty customers to check an item in on a busy flight. A guy on a flight to Milan the other week was having a right rant about the same thing happening and the bag not being tagged as a prioirty so it seems maybe at busy times this is causing problems. This guy was asked if he actually wanted to travel so it seems the boarding agent was trying to enforce the rules.

We all know the rules and CoC but when they are inconsistently enforced it makes it very hard the next time the same situation ocurs which will understandably aggrieve customers.

With the changes to HBO fares recently announced this may mean a surge of these bookings so it wont make the problem go away if anything they will make things worse.

Maybe on busy flights make an announcement asking for volunteers to check an item of luggage and incentivise them by giving them priority boarding for example or a voucher for a snack/drink on board. This might go someway to alleviate this problem and then they can hopefully look a solution for boarding and kill two birds with one stone.

wolf72

The problem would not be a problem if the check in counters checked with passengers which bags and sizes/quantities they planned on bringing into the aircraft or to the gate.

It would not only give passengers who don't adhere to the rules time to do something about it rather than be at the gate, ready to board and then be told "sir, you have too many bags" or "sir, your bag is too big/too heavy for the storage bins."

It's common sense.

navylad

I agree with the issue about inconsistently enforcing the policy; whilst I applaud the idea of the carrot rather than the stick, you'd be pretty annoyed if you'd paid more for a fare to include hold luggage and subsequently didn't have hand luggage and someone who paid a lower fare got a sandwich voucher and you didnt; indeed this would erode the cost saving of BOB. The priority boarding when gate checking is already often done, with similar mobs and groans on here when those pax are allowed ahead of Club europe/status passengers.

The check-in reminding people of the baggage allowance is a good one, except pax on HBO fares don't need to go to the check in desk and, in this case, the pax had the correct amount of hand luggage upon arrival at the airport.

Perhaps a proactive team member going through the queue before boarding letting people know so they can repack if required prior to the boarding process starting would be a good idea but as demonstrated in this case, - pax may choose to ignore it and then get angry when denied boarding until it is sorted.

Overall, 8; BA strictly enforced their policy on all flights, irrespective of how busy it was, then everybody would know where they stand. We all know we should take some responsibility and start by reading the emails that an airline sends us.

windowontheAside

Surely most passengers with multiple bags are HBO and wouldn't go to a checkin desk?

​​​​​​