NYTA

I have traveled through Changi although didn't have a checked bag to deal with so didn't get the chance to marvel at the efficiency of their luggage system. If the whole world was like Singapore, however, we might not have such luggage issues. I was not using Aeroflot as an example of luggage issues, only as an airline that was run "for the greater good". I'm sure you'll admit that Aeroflot is much better today than it was back then.

NYTA

Are Lufthansa, Austrian, Turkish, United, and Swiss considered full service by your standards? Most of my flying is on those. I fly Easyjet and Ryanair intra-Europe quite often as well. On Star Alliance I get priority baggage so mine are often in the first 30 as well. The issue is - how long do you have to wait at the carousel before the first bags come out? I waited 90 minutes last month for my Air Canada bags at MCO and about 45 minutes for my bags at EWR on United. Waited about 30 minutes in Montreal last month for my bags from Lufthansa (all on vacation where I had to check bags because it was a 2 1/2 week trip to several climates with kids).

Again, this isn't really the point here. People here have said that passengers should wait 30+ minutes for bags and not take rollaboards just to be courteous to other passengers who want to put their personal items in the overhead to have more legroom. Sorry, not going to happen.

NYTA

At just about any UK or US airport and TLV, due to various fast track passport control plans, I'm usually in the taxi with my rollaboard before most people from my flight are even through passport control, let alone at the baggage claim, so not likely. Your idea of win-win is one where I lose time for you to win space.

sethweinstein

I understand this and have a tendency do the same except for blocking the entrance. Each person in line in front of me at a car-rental station has the potential to mean a 10-minute delay. These travelers may have been able to bypass the check-in desk, but there is always a risk that they're one car short.

Seth

NYTA

Did those guys get in the line with everyone else? Many of the hard core business travelers I know are members of the elite programs of the rental car companies where their names are posted on a board with the space number and they can go straight to the cars and drive off.

sethweinstein

I agree for this and at least one other time-saving reason: On two separate trips (MUC-PHL-NYC and GUA-MIA-NYC) I saved about three hours each time by not checking a bag. In each case my connecting route had an earlier flight that was delayed enough that I could just make it and not wait for my scheduled connection. That wouldn't have happened if I'd had to reclaim and recheck.

Seth

NYTA

This is, in fact, an important point that I forgot. When my business travel used to consist almost exclusively of US domestic travel on AA or on the DL shuttle, I often found myself either standing by for an earlier flight home or (much less frequently) rushing from a meeting to catch my scheduled flight - neither of which of course would have been possible with checked bags.

rankourabu

Exactly. You would think they don't need to do that. But for whatever reason they do. If you are in zone 1 or 2, is there really a need to jockey for position half an hour before the flight boards.
Like its a big plane, there will be space for your 4 bags. So it cant be about overhead space, only about compensating for something else (or lack thereof)

skywardhunter

If the bag isn't on the belt when I get there it's usually there within 5 minutes, 10 in some less glamorous locations. After 18hrs of travel that's bearable.

SFflyer123

I would love nothing more than to never, ever travel for business again. I would travel only for leisure with my family and to destinations that I actually want to go to.

For the most part, business travel sucks. Ask any business traveler (someone who has a family, not some single person who has no life at home and flying is their only source of stimulation), and the majority will agree that they would rather be home with their family.

If I were a single person with no life at home (or I hated my family), sure, I would be into the business travel. But as a person with a family, business travel sucks hard.

evergrn

I don't know, since the shuttle drops you off at the large rental car facility with numerous agencies and people sort of disperse. I went straight to the cars with National Emerald club, and so I wasn't really paying attention to where others were going.

If it's just one guy standing near the door, then you wouldn't really be blocking much. But when you've got 3 guys there, each with rollerboard, collectively they will be substantially in the way of others. I understand why you and they would do this. I would do the same myself (especially when I have to line up at the counter), but I never do because I don't like it when others do it. Instead I put my stuff on the rack and try to sit close to the exit door.

dulciusexasperis

Ah, time is money, time is money. For those at least who do not have any time, as they do not have enough money. When you have enough money however that time is not an issue for you, getting through Passport control, baggage claim and into a taxi 10 minutes quicker, really doesn't matter.

I always feel sorry for those I see rushing like little worker ants as I stroll along. But someone has to do it I suppose. Otherwise who would there be to serve my needs?

deniah

Let's pity those who don't have enough time to go onto forums and bemoan not being able to find Premium Economy airfares....

Athena53

This is just one of Murphy's Travel Laws. If you carry your bag on, baggage service at the other end will be supremely efficient and your fellow passengers who waited at Baggage Claim will be on the same shuttle bus with you. If you check your bag you'll have a long wait.

Ask me about the time I was trusting enough to check my bag from ORD-LHR, the flight was cancelled at midnight and I had to wait till 2:30 AM for my bag to show up before I could find a hotel for the (short) night before finally flying out the next evening.

PaxALotl

The business travelers seem much more mellow in the line than the casual travelers, so I don't see your point.

I think you just have some resentment towards business travelers.

Let me tell you why I always wait in the line in group 1, even there there is very little benefit to doing so. The reason is: before a flight I don't really like to sit around. I do enough sitting on airplanes, and I'm not young enough notice that sitting for a long time can make my back hurt, etc. So, I rarely sit down at the airport. I am happier standing.

But, I'm not bothering anyone. Just as the leisure travelers in group 4 aren't bothering me. Why is it necessary for anyone to be so bothered? It's a flight, and there are a lot of different types of people doing their own thing. So long as nobody is ruining my flight,, I don't care that much. If you want to see air travel as some kind of us vs. them, then go for. I am just a guy standing in line for 10 minutes because I don't feel like sitting before a 9 hour flight DEN to FRA and that seems as good a place as any. Sometime I like to be first in line - you know why? Cause I like chatting with the gate agents.

This whole thread trying to figure out who is 'worse' so we can hate them is kind of sad.