SWISSBOBBY

Simply put the rules apply to everyone just not me.

Radiation Station

I honestly think I could gate check bags faster than the staff at LHR, with no training. The pace is impressively glacial.

David_Doyle

LHR-DUB last weekend.

Announcement #1 "We are operating a very busy flight today so invite passengers to check in bags" etc.

Announcement #2 - 2 minutes later, same as #1

Announcement #3 - another couple of minutes later same, but this time expliclty mentioning Group numbers "We invite all passengers in Groups 7 - 9 to check in bags free of charge and preboard"

Pretty much a mockery of 1) Baggage, and 2) Status affording priority boarding.

Telegraph

Gate bags have to go down ASAP as the bags need to be loaded in to a bin next to the lift, then. driven around to the aircraft.

If they don’t get volunteers they have to make people check in cabin bags as only the under seat item is guaranteed in the cabin.

Gate bags are done as part of pre-boarding children and wheelchairs so should not affect priority boarding.

bd95

Exactly.

Ryanair claim that their B738s have room in the overhead lockers for 90 trolley bags (at FR dimensions) but the plane holds 189 ish passengers. A BA A320neo is similar. At least Ryanair is honest and only sells tickets guaranteeing cabin bags for the number it knows it can accommodate. BA suggests to all that they can bring two bags then panics at the gate when they won’t fit.

Telegraph

It doesn’t though. It guarantees zero bags in the overhead lockers. It isn’t managed well which is what causes the delays.

percysmith

Is it an inverse function of how good checked baggage delivery is?

1) Unlike BA, QF includes baggage in all fares. But IME QF domestic pax take baggage into cabin as much as BA pax. Seems like they don't trust the airports.
2) Where costs are low eg VN, TH, whether a bag is checked is a function of the the fee involved, with a view to fee minimisation.
3) Contrast this to HK and Japan FSCs, where bags are generally checked. Baggage delivery is generally good and airports receive good government investment.

SxMan

Uum … how do we get this message through to staff though? Because, it has never happened like this in my experience on any British Airways flight from any airport, ever.

Telegraph

That’s how it’s done 80% of the time in my experience at Heathrow. They get there around 50 min before departures and start taking volunteers for bags in the groups 4-9 queue along with families while doing passport checks and filling the group 1 queue with group 1 only ready for self boarding.

corporate-wage-slave

No, I don't think that's right. Post 213 is an example of it happening, even if Group 1 would have been less than impressed with it. It wouldn't happen on an aircraft which was half full. It doesn't really need to happen on the new NEO aircraft but I'm not sure gate staff know about they fit into the process. Nor if perhaps both the aircraft/crew and the gate staff were late and there was pressure from the slot timing to get everyone on board and then sort it all out there. Unlike with USA airports, you got to try and minimise gate-to-hold baggage movements at the last moment since you have to get them to the back of the aircraft, hence the spiel from the flight deck "we are just waiting for the last of the baggage to be loaded..." - that's the gate checked bags. So they need to be on the airbridge collection point ASAP. So for the period T-50 to T-20 the gate staff will first deal with assistance passengers, then call children under 5 and gate-check for pre-boarding. Assistance and children is usually about 10 passengers on shorthaul, gate-check for pre-boarding from 5 to 25 depending on a heap of circumstances. If you get to a gate early but then board last you will see this happening more holistically.

SaturdayKid

So isn’t it time to have hand luggage limits related to the class of travel? If you are flying long haul F which with an 8 seat configuration means you probably have a bin to yourself should that not warrant more flexibility?

KARFA

It's not long haul where there is a problem though. And what happens with your long haul passenger in F when they connect to/from a short haul flight with their 4 carry on bags?

Personally I think there should be one carry on allowance across all aircraft, and this should apply to all passengers regardless of status, cabin etc.

PUCCI GALORE

What I have noted is that the Gate Agents in LHR are being much more proactive in insisting on two bags and enforcing same. All of this came home to me when we flew from LGW to NTE to get home. It was the Orange Peril. Everything that I see complained about on this Forum was exemplified there. If you buy Speedy Boarding (and oxymoron if ever there was one) is supposed to allow you to take a roller bag. There was a general kerfuffle due to the aircraft being dragged onto stand from wherever it had been parked late. Boarding was a scrum. I will not go further and take this off topic but I never saw such complacent service from a scruffy crew.
What I also have noticed is that though BA crew may be night stopping as did our crews to and fro LIS - there were no crew bags in the overhead locker - I suspect that they were in the garment locker. Maybe, just maybe the message has got through.

decowie1903

On the 953 from Munich his evening - aside from the zoo that is boarding, almost every passenger that came on had 2 bags + coats.
Awaiting the inevitable bags delay.

This is not hard to sort out!

Markie

They were doing announcements for GVA flight fhis morning from Gate 10. Nothing for the SOF flight except the offer of early boarding in exchange for your bag.
We were on buses so it made little difference. The first bus filled a lot of the Club bins but in the end we left without having to check last minute bags.

At LHR today I saw people with two roller boards and no small item, and one guy with three roller boards. I have to hope they were not all his! (All on the escalator going to the South Lounges)