I noticed some signs posted at Phoenix Sky Harbor by NorthWest Airlines stating " New FAA Regulations Limits Carry on Luggage To One piece Per Person " I question if this is fact or is NorthWest Airlines just making it sound as if the FAA is to blame for a NorthWest policy? Does anyone out there know the FAA Rules?

> NWA says .... New FAA Regulations Limits
Carry on Luggage To One piece Per Person

To my knowledge there is nothing in 14CFR
(FARs) that imposes this limit.

Limits could also be part of NWA's Part 121
(sched airline) Operating Certificate, and
never published as a "regulation" per se,
but nonetheless carry the full force of
regulation.

The other possibility is that NWA happens
to be the victim of an errant FAA Inspector.
There are as many interpretations of the
regs as there are inspectors. What one will
pass, another will as certainly fail.

The more (most?) likely scenario is that
NWA is simply lying to its customers - again.

-doug

I am in total aggreement with you! I will report this to the FAA on Tuesday!

What the FAA says is that all airlines are to set their own regulations and these regulations have to be approved by the FAA before taking effect so in a way the FAA is responsible for what restrictions the customers are given.

Here's a link that explains the procedure.
http://www.faa.gov/apa/pr/july/july_22.html

or
http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/atos/docs...i/s3_1_5op.pdf
http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/atos/docs...T2R0rg-Ops.pdf

(you need acrobat reader with the last 2).

So technically the carrier is right because their regulations are approved and then enforced by FAA.

What the airline is doing is setting an unnecessarily restrictive, inconvenient carry-on rule solely for its own operational convenience... then trying to deflect pax dissatisfaction to the FAA. This is also known as lying... a method of dealing with customers that is so integral to Northwest's DNA, they probably don't even recognize it as such.

Speaking of demented carry-on policing, I was flying AS SEA-LAX last week. The MD-80 was half full. A gate agent in the jetway was forcing every passenger to check their cube-shaped rollaway carryon, whether or not they fit under the seat. When we got into the cabin the overhead bins were 75% empty, containing only laptops and coats.

We were ten minutes late pushing back because they had to run all those gate-checked bags from jetway down to the ramp, and when we got to LAX we had to cool our heels for 40 minutes to get our bags back.

Net result of policy: late plane, mad pax, no discernible efficiencies or safety improvement.
Nobody us

I find if odd how Northwest is going the opposite direction as Continental. Continental has taken United to court over the templates it has installed over the x-ray machines.

Indeed!

For the last decade-

CO - up
NW - down

Just an observation!

I for one think it is about time something
is done about the carry-on abuses. Last weekend I witnessed a few carry-ons which took up over half the overhead. Another
passenger said that it looked like there were
a few more "kitchen" sinks coming on board.

And, if some of the passengers can hardly
place their carry-on wheelies in the overhead
bins, I wonder what they are even doing
bringing them on board.

Yes, I am surely one who is a little fed up
with carry-on situation - especially with a full load and time wasted trying to find space for those huge wheelies.