No such rumor at TS/S - one incident where someone confused the airline line person with TSA. TSA will not be enforcing bag sizes and have no mandate to do so, and if a screener tells you that your bag is too big, you should remind them it's none of their business.

I'm all for reducing the size of some of the massive bags being dragged onboard, but it needs to be within reason - if they enforced the old rules, that would something, but they didn't. So now there are new rules which are likely to be unenforced as well.

Also, I believe Elite members should be given larger allowances for carry-on.

I downsized to a Travelpro 22" bag, but there is no way it will fit in the sizer - on the plus size, it's smaller than the 26" rolling duffel I used to use, but at least that larger bag was soft sided and could be manipulated into tighter spaces than some 22" hard-sided bags.

I'm curious to see if they start enforcing it. It seems that they never give anyone any grief about bag size. And this is something I love about CO. My typical travel bag is a backpack which probably doesn't fit in the sizer, but is still smaller than the rollers everyone brings on boards and fits very easily in the overhead (the narrow way, which takes very little space).

If they do start enforcing it, I've lost the thing I appreciate most about CO (I hate checking luggage, even for free).

Bingo.

And for starters why'd CO just up and decide to change the bag policy? From my (very limited) perspective the system seemed to work...so why fix something that a'int broken (unless we're missing a problem here...)

Yes!

Though would love to see that enforced. I never speak to a check-in agent as I always do OLCI. I doubt the gate agents are going to start policing this.

I noticed this recently as well... not sure how it relates to this thread, but still interesting.

Boarding time for all 737's is 35 minutes.

Boarding time for 757 and larger is 50 minutes.

Been this way for a long time.

You're not wrong. When the first checked bag fee appeared, so did the extra five minutes of boarding time printed on the boarding pass. And you know what? Boarding is taking longer now, and flights are being delayed at the gate while bags are gate checked. It used to be rare to see more than one or two gate checked bags toward the end of boarding; in the last seven days I've had six mainline flights and two Express flights and all but one flight has left the gate late, in part due to the fact that boarding took longer than it used to because of all the carry on bags. And I've seen as many as 10 bags come back up the aisle of a 735 during boarding to be gate checked. I've also witnessed more than 25 gate checked bags on an ERJ that had fewer than 40 passengers on it.

This is total nonsense, and the industry would have been far better off to just increase the base fare across the board.

I agree. My work schedule was going to necessitate a switch to DL next summer. I was dreading it.

But if CO keeps this up I may be perfectly happy telling them to take a hike.

Sorry, but until a few weeks ago boarding for 737s and smaller aircraft was 30 minutes. I have a few boarding passes from the summer that show a 30 minute boarding time.

Indeed. It's downright shameful how long it takes to board flights in the USA because so many people abuse the carry-on rules to bring on the kitchen sink, and because the airlines have been loathe to engage in any reaosnable enforcement.

Our policy was always to start boarding 737s 35 minutes prior whether it said that on the boarding pass or not. Also we have no way to take cash at the gate unless management expects us to write out manual charge forms and run up to accounting to get change :rolleyes:

I agree that the rules should be less stringent for elites.

When AA introduced the payment system for checked bags, they enforced the carry on issue with varying degrees of strictness. SFO was one of the worst, where the rent-a-cops were sending people to check-in even elites. It happened to me and, as a result, I found out exactly what AA's policy was. I learned from the duty manager that they're not supposed to hassle elites (within reason).

LOL

What do you do when a passenger wants to declare excess value?

This is likely a prep for joining *A, as most *A carriers have this heathen lower standard. I absolutely HATE checking luggage and try to travel light to avoid putting my luggage in the hands of the baggage mishandlers, luggage throwers, and baggage losers employed by the airlines. It is a royal pain to be forced to travel even lighter. I like the carryon policy of EasyJet, which is that if it is okay sizewise, and I have always gotten my 22" onboard, then as to weight the only restriction is that one person has to be able to heft it into the overheard by himself.

Still, all things considered, it is better to be with *A and their luggage policy than with SkyTeam and its DL!

So much truth to this statement. Even with no premium/elite advance boarding, the boarding process infinitely less stressful.

Sadly, I doubt there really is any amount of enforcement or policy changes that will ever change this in the US. The concept of "never, ever check a bag" has just become way too much a part of the American psyche to change... an attitude that airlines themselves played a large part in cultivating with inept baggage handling. "It is what it is" as they say, though decidedly less civilized.