Carry on Limits
 

I have the opportunity to travel Swiss 2-3 times a year, usually on awards in C.

When not on an award I usually connect through AA on a codeshare. On these flights I generally fly AA in C and then Y on Swiss on a codeshare. Notwithstanding what AA tells me, Swiss insists on their own more restrictive limits on carry on on their continuing flights. I may not like it but must admit that even though the ticket says AA, the personnel and plane do say Swiss.

Still I cannot help but notice that many of the Y passengers on Swiss are allowed on with more than the one bag officially allowed while both my wife and I are repeatedly stopped for our single carry on bags which are in fact measured to be within Swiss allowable limits. On a return flight last week I suggested to my wife that we hand in our boarding passes separately to see what happens. Despite many others with multiple bags, we were both stopped with our single bags within a few feet of giving in our boarding passes. In my case I insisted I take this bag on Swiss regularly over the last ten years and they always let me board with it (we were boarding an A340). My wife however whose bag is within the measurement limits was stopped and pretty much humiliated with her bag being consigned to baggage rather than being allowed on the plane. This was a great inconvenience as we had no checked baggage going to ZRH and as a result we had to wait to retrieve the one carry on bag on arrival.

I note that the issue was never one of weight, merely size.

I am curious for your insights and experience on this. Do you think we are singled out for travelling on a codeshare? This was not raised at the ticketcounter and only arose AFTER we were returned our boarding passes.

Do you wear a badge saying I HATE SWISS ???
They are normally pretty good as long as your bag is not too bulky

Maybe I should have one printed up. ;)

Seriously, I have been flying and enjoying Swiss and its predecessor for years.



Never had a problem in C, flying with them at least twice a year with the same bags which are both within their size requirements.

My sense is that your observation on bulk is correct, that seeing one "large" bag (even though it is within size requirements) was a trigger as opposed to multiple soft sided backpacks or shoping bags that others boarded with.

It is also quite frustrating that on one leg of a codeshare you are welcomed without a problem and on the continuation your bag is objectionable. Had this been on an A320 I would have been more understanding, but on an A340 with much bin space we were surprised.

At least we were prepared. My wife and I carry a large plastic shopping back in each of our roll aboards and in such event can transfer our immediate needs to the plastic bags and check the rollaboards.

We intend to fly this routing again in 2 months. I think I will pack a tape measure in the bags next time :D

yeah, tape measure sounds like a good idea...

i fly IST-ZRH-MUC tomorrow, let's see how they like my bags... :p

well, oceanrider,
seems you really have special luck with LX and carry on.

on my IST-ZRH-MUC flight in Y I had no problems. at check-in in IST they looked at my bigger bag and weighted it. had almost 10kg and is slightly above size limits, but no problem, i got the carry-on "sticker". and i had a notebook bag as well. (flight was ~80% full)

but good luck to you for future trips.

As it turns out, I had to fly unexpectedly this week (on 3 hours notice) and flew from JFK through Istanbul on Turkish. I have not flown Y transatlantic in over ten years and was expecting the worst on an unknown airline. I was very pleasantly surprised with the entire experience and particularly the very pleasant professionalism of the FAs. And, they did not care about the size weight or number of carry ons. Aside from the coach seating ( which I think may be slightly more spacious that the norm) I had a very pleasant experience. They even were nice to let me recharge my laptop in the galley area.

In two months I do the Swiss codeshare again, tape measure in hand.