PushingTin

I sometimes think that the RJ gate check is going to go away or be really restricted. So many people do it, and it takes forever for bags now to get to the jetbridge. In the old days/places where they roll the cart over as you stand outside, it worked. But with jet bridges and 40 people waiting for bags, it just doesn't work. Yellow tags help, but not that much.

I don't know how many bags get gate checked for mainlines, but I guess it might be around what they have for an RJ, so I guess it would work, I just see the pressures to move the other way.

Tchiowa

99% of my flights are international so I have Immigration to deal with. More often than not I wait less than 5 minutes for my bags. It has been longer. But 1/3 of the time my bags are already on the carousel when I clear Immigration.

channa

UA at AUS did this to my flight last year. It resulted in a 15 minute delay, which when combined with some headwinds and ATC at SFO, resulted in a more significant delay.

Whatever they earned extra fees was easily offset by delay and misconnect costs.

jpezaris

In a previous, related thread I made the following argument which I am making here again, on the outside chance that UA Insider (or someone similar) reads through this thread.

I belong to a scientific society that has an annual conference with about 30,000 attendees, held in the US. A significant fraction of these attendees carry poster tubes with them, mostly students and post-docs. Our society is far from the largest, and I have yet to encounter a cabin crew that is not familiar with the needs of storing a poster tube on board, leading me to suspect that a non-trivial amount of UA's business must be from scientists and researchers attending conferences. I see someone carrying a poster tube on about half of my flights, but perhaps I'm more aware of such items than most people.

These poster tubes routinely fit ON TOP of compliant bags and don't prevent anyone from bringing their compliant luggage on board. They also routinely fit in the front closet with whatever more outrageous non-compliant stuff people bring like wedding dresses, guitars, etc.

Poster tubes can't be checked -- being damaged, delayed or lost would be disastrous to the career of the owner. But the issue countering the drumbeat I'm hearing of "if you packed responsibly and played by the rules, you wouldn't have a problem," is that despite occupying about as much volume as a handbag, poster tubes are not sizer-compliant.

So, I'd like to hear a proposal that includes handling exceptions in a reasonable way, rather than the zero-tolerance stance being espoused here.

bldr1k

Good point - there are definitely reasonable exceptions to the sizer that don't cause any problems.

physioprof

Foldable cloth posters are becoming more and more common.

fastair

There are, but they also do cause problems some of the time. All it takes is a single bag in any bin to be large enough to maximize the fit in the bin and no medium tube will fit in that bin. So just 1 out of 3 bags in the bin will block a good sized tube.

The musical instrument policy (which changed in the past year due to regulatory changes) is another example. A medium sized musical instrument will take up a full bin (although some small personal items that should be under the seats may fit around them.) The current policy allows them on, if they board in their boarding group and can fit when the owner boards. Last week, a quintet went on, 2 guitars in good cases, a full size keyboard in a case, one other interments I couldn't tell what it was and a cello. The cello had it's own seats, but the other 4 items displaced 9-12 suitcases. They were in boarding group 3 but wanted to preboard so they could guarantee themselves spaces. I did not allow that, explained the policy, and let them board during their group. They got all the instruments on, but the number of bags that needed to be gate checked was above the normal number. My guess is this "exception" policy, as applied to the letter of the rule, forced an additional 10 people who also conformed to the policies to check their bags against their desires.

Exceptions can be good, but if the poster says he travels to conferences (likely others go to the same conferences) and many people are traveling with these, then, if they aren't sitting together, and don't coordinate their tubes, it can have the same impact. If they boarded together and coordinated their tubes, they could monopolize 1 bin and get a massive number of tubes in a single bin, but individually placing 8-10 tubes would likely not be as efficient.

Perhaps there should be a "loadmaster" who stages all of the carry on bags and plans their stowage in a manner that would maximize efficiency. The test for that position would be someone who is very good at Tetris. (I am kidding, but it WOULD work, just would cost more time and inconvenience more than it would be worth,) I've played overhead bin Tetris to get a few extra bags on and seen some flight attendants do so as well, when boarding has ceased and the pits are closed and there are 1 or 2 bags still needing space.

The foreign airlines have it down. At checkin, your bag(s) are cleared for cabin both for quantity and for size. Most of them also check for weight, but that isn't a current issue for UA.

drewguy

I get the idea that being punitive will give incentives for compliance, but it's really in no one's interest to boot people otherwise willing to board off the plane. It's generally going to be too late to add standbys and United will spend more time accommodating them on the next flight (granted they could charge for that).

Depends on the size of the personal item - once you start getting things like laptops, cords, work material (or a camera on vacation) that bag can get pretty large . . .

drewguy

1/2 of my international flights return to the US. I am typically through immigration and to the curb in 5 minutes using global entry.

zombietooth

Certainly this happens all the time in Japan, with their motivated and efficient workers, but I have never once had my bags waiting on the carousel after I cleared immigration in the US.

Once, at ORD, it took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get my bags coming from Asia. But it usually takes 15-20 minutes at ORD.

Domestically, DEN has been consistently terrible for wait times-45 minutes is common (1 hour is not unheard of) and MCO is not much better.
SNA, which is my primary domestic destination, is usually very good at 15-20 minutes. I love SNA.

Vulcan

+1

Vulcan

I have a rollaboard that fits in a 175 and does NOT fit in a lot of A320 bins.

Edited to add: It appears that the problem is that each airframe is different and there is no way to tell until one is physically on the plane.

1P

One complicating factor for "personal space" items is that those who sit in bulkhead seats have to park their personal items in the overheads. I've often thought that airlines might well consider having designated space for bulkhead pax in the overheads at the front of each cabin. It would solve the problem of gate lice at a stroke.

LaserSailor

On the scientific poster issue, my clients too.

Most conferences have print services nearby and an academic can probably present in a format that can readily be both US-aBle and locally printable.

PushingTin

That is my experience too, especially with Plus you have to recheck, which isn't that much of an issue, unless the re-check backed-up or not working, which I have buddies tell me happens.