Flights where Groups 3 to 9 are required to check in hand baggage
 

Has the seemingly relentless effort to relieve people of their hand luggage at the gate gone too far now.

Today's delayed 1394 has the message in the title displaced, with several people feeling this is actual required. I estimate 40 people have done so filling the pre boarding area.

They then sent the whole group down to the aircraft before they'd even opened boarding to group 0, much to the vocal displeasure of one such individual.

Now being a a lowly group 2 I guess I'm grateful for the extra overhead bin space when I eventually reach the aircraft, but does it really make any difference what so ever.

I've flown KLM, LH, AF amongst others recently and none seem to do this, yet on none of those flights have we suffered a delay due to issues stowing bags - what is BA trying to achieve here and is it actually achieving anything?

Ignoring the overall rights or wrongs here, Bronze members are Grp 3 and surely they should be afforded some protection given whatever loyalty they have shown. This should start at Grp4, if it has to start somewhere.

So far all the announcements I have heard in this regards always have been group 4 - 9, but maybe this flight was so heavily booked by group 1/2?

It was the same earlier today on the 1370 (also to MAN) - other than it was Groups 4-9.

The gate-checked-hand-luggage group was probably 25 - 30 people, all went before any "priority" customers (Groups 0-3) and one of them dumped two still-tagged bags right above my CE seat then headed down to ET.

I wonder if hand baggage is BA's "boarding edict of the week"?

I had a KLM AMS-CDG flight with the gate agents trying to take bags from people in Group 2 [roughly equivalent to BA, though KL only count to 5]. They'd delayed boarding trying to threaten people into giving up bags and then seemed to resort to grabbing passengers as and when they could during embarkation. They didn't hold up the line though, so it was solely down to bad luck whether there was an agent free to confiscate as you passed them. Sometimes it's impressive to see employees ad-lib a system which seems maximally likely to annoy customers while being not even slightly more efficient.

Anyway, I expect this will get folded into one of the other threads on the subject.

Yes, the group 3 surprised me. I should have taken a picture of the screen, i looked several times to check and it was definitely GP 3.

We still havent left anyway, something about a px not fit for travel......flight crew and gate staff seemingly in dispute.over what needs to happen.....seems we are now waiting for LHR security managers to come and clear some baggage, however they are busy with something somewhere else.....

I've only ever heard foced gate checking "threatened" to Groups 4 and beyond- but only if they do not get enough volunteers. I have not seen or heard the same offer/instruction on KL , OS or LH, but with the former two I have seen gate agents prowl around looking for and selecting passengers to check in their bags- not sure what criteria this was based on. Clearly the problem itself (i.e. of too much hand luggage and not enough space) is not unique to BA.

Maybe other airlines are better at enforcing the rules so passengers don't take the mick in the first place. On BA I think you can get away with just about anything. Also, I've never seen this down from NCL-LHR, just the other way round

Is this an unintended consequence of technology - the ability of check-in online, to have mobile boarding passes, etc? The first time BA staff see any bags is at the gate which is really too late.
Surely the easiest option is the enforce the current limits on bags - i.e. the size (with the 'old' sizer cage). I presume that this would be part of the terms of carriage if any pax got stroppy. If pax know it is strictly enforced they (at least most) will not try their luck.

It's the lack of strict enforcement which leads to ambiguity. When I fly Ryanair I know exactly what to expect, and on one level that makes the whole process a little less stressful. Kids need boundaries, but so do grown ups ! God help the staff trying to deal with this every day among customers who are getting ever angrier.
Remember Airline when easyJet customers used to get caught out and upset on camera? This sort of crying and shrieking thing doesn't happen so often anymore as the orange experience is more aligned with the customer expectation. BA's brand is not aligned with their service offering, hence drama, passive aggressive nonsense and detached and uncaring staff.

Was this just for large wheelie cases or even small laptops / shoulder bags etc?

You are not quite accurate about LH not doing this. I flew LH BUD/FRA months ago and the gate staff in Budapest were ruthless about making pax check their hand luggage. It did not matter your class or boarding group. You were made to weigh and check the size of your carry on. If it exceed one of the measurements, you were made to check the luggage. No allowances, no quarter given. Then you got on board and more than half of the overhead bins were completely empty when flight departed.

The biggest issue with this policy is that many pax have got wise to the lack of enforcement on the jet bridge and then just carry the tagged bag on board. So in fact you end up pre-boarding 40 people plus most of their bags.

I think that going "by the rules" in regard of hand luggage measures/weight it's a bit different from trying to take any cabin bag, even compliant ones, to make room onboard.

There’s quite a difference between enforcing a published policy that was communicating to the passenger during the booking process and again at check in and BA’s “make it up on the day” approach. As said above it is the lack of predictability that is the most annoying element of the BA approach.