InfiniteCycle

Oh, what fun.

Flying LHR FRA this morning I boarded towards the end. First flight of the day and full. Had my 'fits nicely in Lufty's cages' trolly with me (not heavy - just underwear, trainers, and t-shirt), and a small leather bag which takes my 13" laptop and not much else.

Person boarding ahead of me puts his trolly in the business class bins, then goes right to the back of the plane. This was where I was heading too, but didn't want to do this, as I think it is a bit off. Long story short, no room for my trolly. Sent to the front to got in the wardrobe there. The FA then chastises me:

I say "I thought about asking to put it there on my way through"
FA "Well it is too big. It should go under the seat in front of you"
Me "It is not too big, and my laptop is under the seat in front of me"
FA "Well that is two pieces, you're only allowed one"
Me "No, you are allowed one and a laptop"
FA "Well the case is too big"
Me "Not according to your employer"

This annoys me, because the confrontation (which was unnecessary from the FA, as all it does is annoy a passenger) only came about because I was not abusing the system and doing what the person in front of me did. Of course, the flight connected to one to India - but it was me with my regulation sized trolly and obeying the allowance given who was chosen to be 'told off'.

Really the airlines have brought this on themselves. I believe that as they have cut costs removing check in staff, PYOBP, bag drops etc many people never interact with any airline staff until the gate. I am sure this results in many boarding with luggage that in the old days, having queued and been checked in by a person, would have been handed over to be carried as hold luggage just because you were standing right there, and the nice check in person asked "Is that for the hold?"

Left me aggravated for all of a second.

Thought it might entertain you lot though!

oliver2002

sorry to question your rant, but since when are you allowed two pieces in the back?

http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Carry..._p=DE&blt_l=en

InfiniteCycle

Pieces of carry-on baggage
In First and Business Class you may take two pieces of hand baggage on board. Please stow one of the pieces under the seat in front of you. Economy Class passengers are only permitted one piece of hand baggage. Please check for country-specific differences.

And further down on the same page.

Additional items which are allowed in the cabin
In addition to your hand baggage and technical appliances you may take the following items into the cabin:

A handbag, wrist bag or small bag (or small laptop bag) and their content
A coat, shawl or blanket
A small camera or a pair of binoculars
An appropriate amount of reading material for the journey
A infant carrier and baby food for the flight
Crutches or other orthopedic aids you are depending on

BA or bust

Well... further down on that link it says:

Additional items which are allowed in the cabin

In addition to your hand baggage and technical appliances you may take the following items into the cabin:

A handbag, wrist bag or small bag (or small laptop bag) and their content A coat, shawl or blanket
A small camera or a pair of binoculars
An appropriate amount of reading material for the journey
A infant carrier and baby food for the flight
Crutches or other orthopedic aids you are depending on

So technically the OP is correct because he states that he was carrying ' small leather bag which takes my 13" laptop and not much else.'

NewbieRunner

I think the OP's point is:

How small is small? In one of the recent "luggage" threads someone mentioned carrying a laptop bag weighing quite a bit more than what one expects a laptop bag to weigh. But in this case it's not the laptop bag which was questioned but the main carry-on bag...

InfiniteCycle

Indeed. And as the bag is a 'small laptop bag' (laptop, charger, magazine and you struggle to close it) and the trolly fits nicely in the cages (those cages are BIG in my opinion) the FA was just moaning without any real foundation. Which brought me to the point of what I wrote.

sindjic

Yap....OP is always entertaining...

InfiniteCycle

Sorry, I misread your post.

I don't know when the policies in place were first brought in.

madraida

Does the weight restriction mean "hand baggage + one personal item = 8 kg"?

Or does the 8 kg apply only to the hand baggage?

InfiniteCycle

That is a good question, to which I don't know the answer, however on a recent flight with Jet out of Hong Kong they weighed my trolly at check-in. It was 10kg. The check in agent then asked me if it had a laptop computer in there. I answered that yes it did. Her response was that as there was a computer in there, it was fine, but that their weight limit for cabin baggage was 8kg (I think).

This leads me to believe that they were happy with an 8kg trolly and a separate laptop outside of this weight limit.

If they hadn't allowed it the intention was to break it down into hand luggage for me, and for my GF anyway (combined for easy transport to the airport), but as it was this was unnecessary.

This wasn't Lufty though, and like I said, I haven't checked any of this.

vbroucek

Not very nice attack from one of the mods, particularly considering that it is actually one piece + laptop, which OP correctly stated in his post...