'Baggage Excellence' Campaign: carry on rules check/enforcement [feedback]
Apr 10, 2011, 4:15 pm
#76
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: In transit TATL
Posts: 230
Have had the same reaction from the FAs I've spoken to. However, judging by the response to my first formal written remarks (wouldn't call my message a complaint, rather an observation, politely but plain-spokenly expressed), LH management has wrapped itself around the NEK in a position not even found in the Kama Sutra.
Apr 10, 2011, 5:53 pm
#77
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
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Of course, C pax and elites bring a lot of revenue. And why shouldn't rules apply for them? Do they consider themselves as God and can do whatever they want? That is exactly the egoistic behavior a lot of people are complaining about, even FAs and FMs: "I'm elite, I do what I want". With Lufthansa, no elite can complain about too little special treatment (Lounges, Limos, Check-In, FC/T, ...)! It's definitely a difference if a 8kg or 15kg trolley falls on your neck. As far as I recognized it, the gate staff had a tolerance until 10kg. And in C, pax can have 2 pieces of 8kg each.
After the introduction of NEK, the FA's union, UFO, took legal actions against Lufthansa due to the limited space for carry ons and more people on board. In consequence, Lufthansa restarted the Baggage Excellence campaign. All FAs I know are really happy about labeling hand baggage at the gate! It means less stress for them on board. Gate staff is annoyed bcs they have to argue with some little children, pardon me, SENs and HONs. In MUC, the Schengen gates are mostly staffed with one agent and two when the flight is almost full (or FRA flights). Of course they are annoyed when they have to board, answer questions, sometimes do an additional document check and label bags within 20min! The loader are annoyed as well as they have to climb up the jet bridge and collect all the bags several times. Therefore, the present situation is probably just an interim solution.
After the introduction of NEK, the FA's union, UFO, took legal actions against Lufthansa due to the limited space for carry ons and more people on board. In consequence, Lufthansa restarted the Baggage Excellence campaign. All FAs I know are really happy about labeling hand baggage at the gate! It means less stress for them on board. Gate staff is annoyed bcs they have to argue with some little children, pardon me, SENs and HONs. In MUC, the Schengen gates are mostly staffed with one agent and two when the flight is almost full (or FRA flights). Of course they are annoyed when they have to board, answer questions, sometimes do an additional document check and label bags within 20min! The loader are annoyed as well as they have to climb up the jet bridge and collect all the bags several times. Therefore, the present situation is probably just an interim solution.
I have never, ever seen a large piece of carry on fall onto someone by the way. Its usually only the small and light pieces which shift during the flight but not a 15kg rollerboard.
I just returned from a series of flights with 2 carry ons, each more than 12kg. Of course I would expect to be able to take this on board an LH plane when I was just able to use the same bags on SQ/SA/CX/JL/AA/BA without any problems. Even in Y.
It is very childish of LH if they try to "educate" and annoy their best customers, which only creates hassle and extra cost to LH but no gain at all. I have already stopped using LH on long haul flights. If I can't take my usual hand luggage on board anymore then I will not be able to fly LH short haul anymore.
Most people here think that the restriction should be on size and no of pieces but not so much on weight.
Apr 10, 2011, 6:49 pm
#78
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 73
This is starting to scare me. I have a flight from BHX to FRA next month and I need to bring my work laptop with me. The laptop itself weighs 4KG without the power brick. I also have a camera bag which should be small enough to be considered my "small bag". I have a feeling I'm going to have to print out the rules so that I can point out the small bag section. They also mention in there to pull out and carry any valuable such as your laptop/etc if the bag needs to go into the hold. If my laptop and power brick are 75% of the weight, what is the point?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
Apr 10, 2011, 9:54 pm
#79
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This is starting to scare me. I have a flight from BHX to FRA next month and I need to bring my work laptop with me. The laptop itself weighs 4KG without the power brick. I also have a camera bag which should be small enough to be considered my "small bag". I have a feeling I'm going to have to print out the rules so that I can point out the small bag section. They also mention in there to pull out and carry any valuable such as your laptop/etc if the bag needs to go into the hold. If my laptop and power brick are 75% of the weight, what is the point?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
The rules say you can have one carry on PLUS your laptop bag. So I wouldn't worry too much about this. As long as you don't have your main bag, a laptop bag and a camera bag you should be fine. And less than 8kg per piece of course.
Apr 10, 2011, 9:57 pm
#80
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 4,859
It's also a huge difference if a 50kg or 100kg person steps on your foot while going through the aisle. Or trips and falls directly on you - guess it's much more likely then trolley falling down. You think LH should start a "Passenger Excellence" campaign?
Apr 11, 2011, 1:04 am
#81
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 73
Congratulations on your first post, weaverjf!
The rules say you can have one carry on PLUS your laptop bag. So I wouldn't worry too much about this. As long as you don't have your main bag, a laptop bag and a camera bag you should be fine. And less than 8kg per piece of course.
The rules say you can have one carry on PLUS your laptop bag. So I wouldn't worry too much about this. As long as you don't have your main bag, a laptop bag and a camera bag you should be fine. And less than 8kg per piece of course.
I do plan on wearing everything I can in my coat to lighten the bag till I'm on the plane though.
Last edited by weaverjf; Apr 11, 2011 at 1:11 am
Apr 15, 2011, 12:42 pm
#82
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 15
It's also a huge difference if a 50kg or 100kg person steps on your foot while going through the aisle. Or trips and falls directly on you - guess it's much more likely then trolley falling down. You think LH should start a "Passenger Excellence" campaign?
Yesterday at the ATH gate they denied a man to board carrying 3 heavy backpacks and a massive tripod. Was flying Y and not willing to check-in anything.
Apr 17, 2011, 12:35 pm
#83
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AC*E
Posts: 318
Wow. Thankfully I read this thread just before my monthly FRA-PRG flight this afternoon - otherwise I wouldn't have known what was going on. Instead of hanging out in the lounge (around the bus boarding area), people were lined up and everyone's bags were getting weighed. Luckily, I escaped to the bathroom to transfer items from my rollerboard to my jacket pockets to lighten my luggage, and by the time I got back to the line, the handler weighing the luggage must have reached his quota (i.e. about 30 bags piled on top of a luggage trolley) - after he left, no more rollerboards were weighed (about 10 of us missed the 'test'). Surprisingly, the overhead bins were still quite full when I got on the plane, so I can't imagine how bad it would have been if they haven't forced all those people to check in their bags!
Apr 17, 2011, 10:20 pm
#84
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
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Wow. Thankfully I read this thread just before my monthly FRA-PRG flight this afternoon - otherwise I wouldn't have known what was going on. Instead of hanging out in the lounge (around the bus boarding area), people were lined up and everyone's bags were getting weighed. Luckily, I escaped to the bathroom to transfer items from my rollerboard to my jacket pockets to lighten my luggage, and by the time I got back to the line, the handler weighing the luggage must have reached his quota (i.e. about 30 bags piled on top of a luggage trolley) - after he left, no more rollerboards were weighed (about 10 of us missed the 'test'). Surprisingly, the overhead bins were still quite full when I got on the plane, so I can't imagine how bad it would have been if they haven't forced all those people to check in their bags!
Apr 17, 2011, 10:34 pm
#85
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: MUC/RJK
Programs: SQ G, LH FTL, UA S, Marriott Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,437
Another "chicken and egg" problem
Apr 18, 2011, 12:34 am
#86
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Birmingham, England
Programs: LH SEN, Hilton Diamond, AF/KL & BA basic memberships, Tufty Club Exec Plutonium
Posts: 1,668
This is starting to scare me. I have a flight from BHX to FRA next month and I need to bring my work laptop with me. The laptop itself weighs 4KG without the power brick. I also have a camera bag which should be small enough to be considered my "small bag". I have a feeling I'm going to have to print out the rules so that I can point out the small bag section. They also mention in there to pull out and carry any valuable such as your laptop/etc if the bag needs to go into the hold. If my laptop and power brick are 75% of the weight, what is the point?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
Or am I better off just switching my flight to something non-Lufthansa?
At check-in, the similarly disinterested staff may ask for a peek at the handluggage, but probably not, they find it difficult enough to grunt "Good morning" never mind manage such complex commands as "can I weigh your hand luggage".
Apr 18, 2011, 1:57 am
#87
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Aisle seat
Programs: M&M SEN
Posts: 2
@JayPS +1 from me, though I would also say;
It wasn't a problem until the hand baggage allowances started getting abused. If passengers from god-like HON's to bovine Y's don't follow the rules, don't be surprised if the airline steps in and applies a 'one-size fits all' policy. The airline didn't abuse the policy, the pax did. HON's SEN's and Y's in equal measure, in my experience.
Even C has rules
But the duty sits on the airline to maximise their offering for the client base, there's no doubt about that. So if the policy is being abused so blatantly it does imply that the LH service needs to better suit the customer needs...
It wasn't a problem until the hand baggage allowances started getting abused. If passengers from god-like HON's to bovine Y's don't follow the rules, don't be surprised if the airline steps in and applies a 'one-size fits all' policy. The airline didn't abuse the policy, the pax did. HON's SEN's and Y's in equal measure, in my experience.
Even C has rules
But the duty sits on the airline to maximise their offering for the client base, there's no doubt about that. So if the policy is being abused so blatantly it does imply that the LH service needs to better suit the customer needs...
Apr 21, 2011, 3:02 pm
#88
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AC*E
Posts: 318
Wow. Thankfully I read this thread just before my monthly FRA-PRG flight this afternoon - otherwise I wouldn't have known what was going on. Instead of hanging out in the lounge (around the bus boarding area), people were lined up and everyone's bags were getting weighed. Luckily, I escaped to the bathroom to transfer items from my rollerboard to my jacket pockets to lighten my luggage, and by the time I got back to the line, the handler weighing the luggage must have reached his quota (i.e. about 30 bags piled on top of a luggage trolley) - after he left, no more rollerboards were weighed (about 10 of us missed the 'test'). Surprisingly, the overhead bins were still quite full when I got on the plane, so I can't imagine how bad it would have been if they haven't forced all those people to check in their bags!
Apr 22, 2011, 5:34 pm
#89
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LED,TLV,DUS
Programs: LH SEN + many more
Posts: 550
Sadly, I was not so lucky on my return PRG-FRA flight - had to gate-check my rollerboard. My only complaint (and yes - I do realize I am unjustifiably whining, because my luggage does not comply with the LH rules) is that my luggage is the legal size on my home base airline AC (55x40x23), but the wheels stick out so it does not fit within the LH legal size (55x40x20). So I can either chop off the wheels from my rollerboard or buy a new one. Sigh...I really wish the airlines would have one consistent sizing rule so I wouldn't have to go out and buy another suitcase each time I get a client in a new country.
515-5600
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...i-got-hit.html
p.s. sorry, don't know how to insert a link, but it's on the page 5 of this thread...
wow, it worked.... cool....
Jul 24, 2011, 6:11 pm
#90
Moderator: Asiana & Qantas Frequent Flyer
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Just another data point:
SEN traveling on A380 F SFO-FRA. While roller board size is easily within limit, was made to unpack anything above 8kg into second carry on bag or had to check-in.
SEN traveling on A380 F SFO-FRA. While roller board size is easily within limit, was made to unpack anything above 8kg into second carry on bag or had to check-in.