Just Check Your Bags at the Counter
 

I understand that non-elites have to pay for their checked baggage, but, I was on CO800 today and the flight could have pushed back way ahead of schedule if so many people hadn't brought humongous suitcases on board that didn't fit in the overhead bins. The agent had to collect money from passengers on the plane and this seems to be happening more and more often. It's not that there wasn't enough space---the bags were just too large. Has anyone else seen this? CO really needs to step it up to avoid flights being delayed due to agents collecting money, tagging bags and putting them under the plane.

I've never seen agents collecting money on the aircraft for checking bags that would not fit. Regarding the huge bags on the flight, nothing surprises me about those jetway-healing flights to FLL.

Wow - are you 100% certain about this? I see bags being checked due to full overheads on CO all the time, but not once have I seen the fee being charged. I've even heard announcements encouraging people desperately trying to find a space to bring them up to the front as there is no charge.

There is a bit of chasing that goes on sometimes when the pax has to retrieve the tag receipt after it's been put on the bag but that's the only thing I've noticed that adds to the delay in this case.

Worrying development if this is going to be the process going forwards...

Yes, they were taking money, I am positive. It makes sense that money was being collected because there was not space availability issue...it was a SIZE issue.

If there really was money collection at the gate, I'd say it's probably due to the size of the bags, not due to lack of space. If they're too big to fit, they should definitely be charged. If it's due to lack of space, I think it should be fee-free because why should an early boarder get it free when someone coming in on a delayed connection get charged... at least that's my theory.

Paging sfogate....have you collected revenue for large bags at the gate before??

Once upon a time we did for those going to Central America. We started getting too many oversized/over weight bags down at the boarding door.

We have not charged for bags, at the boarding door, since we started with the baggage fees. The TSA at our check point is very good about sending people back to the counter when they have more than two bags. When the bins are full, we check bags free of charge and we will also make announcements, prior to boarding, offering to check bags before you board.

It's not the TSA -- This is done by power-hungry drones supplied by SFO.

I stand corrected. That is done by Prime Flight, the same people that push the wheelchairs in Terminal 1.