That is exactly the way I handle it, mistree.

I am glad you have taken the steps to meet the rules, but I really wonder you (and some others) really care if the FA's do not. So what? If is only a few people, not the 100+ others.

I also think they should be exempted and carry corkscrews too, but that would get off on another subject.

I always enjoy the dialogue here and thought I may be able to help in this instance....

Speaking as a F/A, I can generally squeeze everything I need into one roll aboard bag. It can be tough though, especially as we travel in and out of different climates (Alaska's 10 degree weather to Mexico's 80 degree weather) all in the course of one working trip (which can last sometimes up to 5 days). The FAA requires me, however, to carry several other items that I have to carry in my second hand carried bag, jsut as a Pilot carries their "map bag". I am required to carry a (rather thick and heavy) manual and to have a flashlight easily available to me. In addition, there are tools that I use in my job that I am required by the airline to bring with me.... pot holders or oven gloves, corkscrews, airline timetables, that months scheduling booklet and our inflight service guide. These are all things that I need to be available to me throughout each flight that I could not fit into my suitcase. As a matter of practicality I also carry my toiletries in my hand carried bag though I could squeeze them into my suitcase. Women will carry a purse with them in most instances. I have seen crew carry a small thermal bag with food items in it since we often times don't have the time to step off of the plane to get something to eat. The airlines do provide crew meals in most cases but not always when we need it, not to mention at the $20,000 per year we start at it's not easy to pay for restaurant food all of the time.

As to the checking of bags - it's just not possible. As a reserve Flight Attendant you are sometimes asked just to sit at the airport and wait to see if you are needed. They often will grab you at the very last minute and send you running to a plane that is several minutes from departure. Many times you will be in a particular airport and get a call from scheduling that you are going to go somewhere else. I, for instance, just did a two day trip that had me overnighting in a completely different city than that which I was scheduled for. And to top it off, when I returned to base I was grabbed and sent on another overnight, which incidentally was in a very warm climate after I had just left a damp, cool climate. For us to have everything with us and to be ready for anything makes it very convenient and cost efficient for the airline.

Hope that helps understand what some of those bags are for. I do question fellow crew when they have excessive bags but I think that to impose the same restrictions on working crew would be impossible. I realize that we have many frequent travelers on board that may be traveling quite a bit and it's not convenient for them to check bags. I don't have the answer for that. Unfortunately the FAA didn't make exceptions for Frequent Travelers as they did for crew.

Thanks AS Flyer. I was hoping a FA would jump in and help clarify things.

Welcome to FT AS Flyer.

Very good points and well explained views. Hope to see you around the board and on flights in the future.

Dick

I flew on Air India this afternoon LHR-JFK along with my dad and his crew. All crew CHECKED one bag and carried aboard just one other bag. The one carry-on rule was enforced STRICTLY to the extent that pax with lap babies were told that the lap baby counted towards the carry-on limit and they could not carry-on anything else beyond a purse.

We were chatting with the Aer Lingus crew while waiting for the crew shuttle to our respective hotels. They too had checked bags and only one carry-on each.

At our layover hotel, we ran into EgyptAir and PIA crew checking out, all of whom intended to check bags.

Just some observations.....

I would suggest that an overseas flight is a bit different than what so many of us take each day. Those flying these 8+hr flights KNOW they are going either home or a hotel at the end of the trip vs. the short domestic hops where checking may become impractical.

And speaking of crazy - keeping a mother with a baby to one bag...yikes. But if the baby is the "personal item" then the other carryon could be a rollon which could include the needed diapers, bottles, change of clothes, toys, etc. I would guess that most moms are going to get caught offguard, since they tend to carry lots of smaller bags to keep things separate. And don't forget the stroller to get to the gate. I assume she can gate check that.

Many overwater airlines do check their crew bags. Several reasons for that. Int'l F/A's most times carry very large bags, due to the length of their trips (7 days or more many times). So large that they don't fit into the overhead bins or the closets. Generally large, hard sided bags. Also, they have to go through customs and immigration at their arrival city and their bags are handled seperately from the passengers. There are fewer chances of mis-directing a bag as they generally only have a handful, at very most, of flights in or out of a particular destination city (ie; one nonstop from New York to Delhi). They have special facilities for the crew members to check their bags as well, they don't have to go through lines at the counters. To this point, U.S. crew members typically only carry a small, soft sided roll aboard and not a large, hard sided bag. It's the same size whether you travel internationally or domestically. International carriers do carry their bags with them when they are working domestic flights or short hops that don't take them away from home for 7 or more days. It would appear, on the surface, a reasonable comparison to say that if Air India Flight Attendants can do it, why not Southwest. You wouldn't be necessarily comparing apples to apples though.

Passengers are allowed one carry-on bag (a roll aboard or something of that nature) and one personal item (a purse, briefcase, laptop or diaper bag). In fact they have gone so far as to define personal item as also a small back pack.

Those of you who know me may well attest that I am a "high maintenance" woman who has a lot of stuff, a whole lot of stuff, but I am still quite capable of making a 10 day international trip with one carry-on and one personal item.

It would be marginally more convenient for me if I could have a roll-on, one personal item and still carry my purse. If I need to get a little bigger personal item and toss my purse into it to go through security, so be it.

My point is that if I can do this, why can't any frequent flyer, including crew, do it.

I was recently asked to develop a seminar called, "What to wear, How to pack" for frequent women business travelers. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me that somewhere along the line female crew members haven't already learned how to do that at least as well as I do and even far better.

I'm sorry, but counting a baby as a "personal carry-on" item sounds like bureaucracy gone insane. Use a little common sense and let the poor parent take the extra bag. Lord knows they need it more than the average traveler.

Now with that plato, I must wholeheartedly agree. Babies take more "stuff" even that high maintenance women.

However, when I compare my current travel pace (very, very fast) with my travel pace when I had a one year old and a two year old (what on earth was I thinking), we are talking two totally different stories.

As a mom with babies, I traveled less and had the option of checking baggage. As an old lady with tons of meetings/speaking engagements all over the country/world on a very tight schedule, I am living at a different pace that just doesn't allow for checked baggage.

Ah, what the hey, do you know that they actually sell clothes in Paris?

AS Flyer: A flashlight? I have seen two charged flashlights mounted to the wall next to the first flight attendant's seat up front on many of my UA flights. If a flashlight is required, would certainly think the airline would provide that
on-board. Do not think it it should be the crew's responsibilty to individually carry on emergency-type equipment.

Punki , thank you for your response a few notes back to my preveious note on this thread. But again, re your remarks about "pace" in your current post, I would again reiterate my earlier observation:

...for those who travel the kind of horrid schedule that you describe, Punki, that business will have to be done a new way. Given the FAA rules, we simply no longer can do business as usual, and clients et al will have to adapt to what they expect of business travelers, and business travelers are more and more going to simply have to re-think in every aspect how their business gets done -- including prior flight habits that just don't work anymore. Punki, you say "I really can't keep up MY pace and check baggage any more than an FA can check baggage" ; well, the way things are now (and I don't think we yet fully know what that means completely) may mean for us all that old habits about pace and our routines and preferred styles of doing business just must change. I don't like it either, but it's probably reality.

I think the carry-on issue is simply an index of just how much our assumptions about what is and isn't possible anymore are in flux and must be re-thought.

Of course it's the airline's responsibility to provide that equipment. But if an FA's (and my and your!) safety may depend on it, I'm very, very glad that a FA wants to have his/her own equipment that is known to be working, whether it's his/her "responsibility" or not. That's the kind of initiative that should be rewarded not discouraged.

Believe it or not, the airline is not responsible to supply my personal flashlight. I am responsible to have one and carry it in my bag with me. I don't really know what the function of this flashlight would be. Maybe it's intended that we use it when we do our preflight safety checks, or possibly for other non urgent inflight uses, I don't know. The FAA requires that we have one and I, personally, will be fined if I am found without one. As for the flashlights on the wall, you will notice they are only near the jumpseats that are at a door exit. They are only to be used in an evacuation. We are strictly prohibited from using them for anything else. Look around next time you fly and notice that there is a flashlight at each jumpseat, if the jumpseat seats two then there will be two flashlights. Additionally, ask the Flight Attendants if they are required to have a flashlight - quite sure they will concur with me. Be careful though, seems like any odd or probing type questions these days are treated with extra suspicion.

Safe travels......

[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 10-15-2001).]