MrM2016

On LHR to NAP today. Blanket rule of checking in all economy passenger bags - no exceptions based on status or boarding group. We were relatively early to the gate as well.

On the aircraft now (delayed as cabin crew arrived late) and overheads have ample space.

Simply absurd that this is happening when we are seeing reports such as this of flights taking off without checked bags. I can see from Twitter that a flight to TLS yesterday also took off without bags.

I understand that on full flights you often run out of overhead space, but surely they should be trying to maximize use of the cabin in the context of flights taking off without checked bags! The American carriers all seem to manage it.

KARFA

i don’t understand, did that mean all the economy overhead bins were empty then?

crazy8534

They were also waiting for "one more piece of paperwork" at the time, so I imagine this was it.

Edit: I see it has been beautifully explained by jumbodriver and Waterhorse upthread- thanks, we love you!

Irreverent Medusa

I've had that on a ZRH-LCY back in January. They forcibly checked in hand luggage at the gate "because we're operating a full flight today".
​​​​Granted it can get a bit cosy in the overhead bins on the E190, but the result was they they were empty.
I am on a LCY-NCE next week, and my cabin bag will, on purpose, be something that is completely unsuitable for the hold.
ETA: the LCY-ZRH was also completely full but they were more sensible and only checked in a few of the largest cabin bags

ceej123

Yes QR are done by Cobalt

BOH

That's all that matters surely? I don't take a SH flight for any kind of "experience", nor does it either make my day or ruin it if the CC don't smile. The most important thing is surely an airline that:

1. Gets you to your destination on the day and the time that their timetable states.
2. Your luggage arrives on the same flight as you.
3. They do 1) and 2) consistently.

I often think 99% of the problem when folks criticise LCCs is they happily pay the £9.99 fares - but have expectations of a legacy full-service carrier?

DYKWIA

Indeed - my experience of Easyjet and Ryanair is that you queue up, get on, take off, land and get off - pretty much always on time. If you want anything to eat or drink, you buy on board with minimal fuss.

With BA it's :

- Queue up when the screens say boarding
- Wait 30 minutes until the they actually start boarding
- Arse around for another 30 minutes while they sort out everyones bags
- Wait for a bit longer for no fathomable reason
- Push back and the queue 30 minutes waiting to take off (at LHR)
- Land an hour late

Misco60

You missed the bit where you have to wait for 10 minutes at the aircraft door because the crew isn't yet ready.

dragonflyer10

Quick question re. Bags not being loaded.
I have a positioning flight to CDG on Monday before doing a CDG-LHR-LAS trip the next day.
now if my bags don't make the original CDG trip can I get BA to deliver them to my hotel in Vegas or am I S.O.L and will have to have them waiting for me when I get back to CDG in a weeks time?

orbitmic

i would say that this really isn’t my experience usually and I do normally fly ba weekly. Vast majority of times it’s completely fine, professional and well organised.

it’s only this year that I have experienced issues and quite specifically what I reproach ba is that whilst many flights are still totally fine, they have not, in my view, done enough to be able to mitigate any random issue whenever it occurs, so if there are a any hiccup, instead of being “absorbed” by the system with some successful resilience, it turns, instead, into chaos.

so whilst I realise others have different opinions, my qualm s not with ba’s routine operations in hi guys I personally consider fine, but rather for their ineffective contingency planning. They remind me of those people who are always late and not invariably tell you that they left at the last minute but should have been on time by their calculations if all the lights had been green, they had found a parking space right away and it had not rained. Well, sometimes on a 1 hour trip, you will get a red light and I find it rather nuts to plan to function only if you don’t and provided the sun is always shining in London.

in this case, the red lights are staff being infected by a pandemic which was not expected to have ended and the rain is it. Fix the problems that are within your responsibility (it) or define protocols that will enable you to better function when they occur (or both). We are all affected by the difficult current context and I find it unfair and unprofessional to expect customers (and for that matter staff on leave) to act as insurers for BA.

corporate-wage-slave

You can get them delivered to LAS, or anywhere else.

traveler202

So what exactly is compensation then for UK to EU flight for a situation like this? Does 261 apply?

hsmall

On my BER from LCY yesterday, which was almost completely full (in J at any rate) they said they needed ten volunteers to check their hand baggage in, with the usual bribe of priority boarding. Tis seem to me sensible: presumably someone has worked out an algorithm for calculating on average the ratio of booked economy passengers to overhead space available (it would be overhead as they only asked for wheelie suitcases).

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

You obviously don’t mind being scowled at - I do! As my post stated EasyJet were delightful. No frills and I didn’t expect them but just a pleasant demeanour. I’m happy not to have full service if I haven’t paid for it; that was not what my post was about.
Anyhow this is all OT.

BOH

Always seems an odd bribe to me. What's the point whatsoever of boarding early if you don't have carry-on luggage? All you then do is sit in a cramped seat in a cramped metal tube for an extra 15-20 minutes than you needed to whilst everyone huffs and puffs past you.

Baffling as to why anyone thinks that is an acceptable trade-off, particularly at the moment when you run the real risk of having to wait very extended periods to get your luggage back at LHR