New process / algorithm for determining if some bag gate checking will be needed
 

For my flight today, at the gate, the GA said their "algorithm" told them that they needed to pull 18 carry-on bags to be checked and if no one volunteered, they will be "forced" to do so. (Overhead bin issue, not W&B.)

I have never heard this before. is this something new?

Unfortunate choice of words given the recent incident :rolleyes:

How do you know it was not related to Weight&Balance??

Because they said they would run out of overhead bin.

Oh, so this was before you boarded? Maybe they run a calculation like (space in overhead bins) / (average carryon size) - (# of passengers).

I think the GA was making up their own algorithm. If I have 24 bunnies and 6 run away how many bunnies do I have left, ok 18, gets on PA, we need to have 18 carryons checked per the algorithm because they won't all fit in the overhead bins.

Right, before the flight. I should have been clearer.

The agent at the gate made an announcement first. No takers. Then the agent at the podium did the announcement and used the same number. Both were staring at their computer when they said it. Maybe they are just good actors :D

I guess this will be the new normal. "Sir, you will have to check that bag" *dude curls up on floor and yells "make me"*.

Well, if airlines actually enforced the 1 carry on and 1 personal item thing overhead bin space wouldn't be a problem. Every airline I fly on there are quite a few people with 3-4 items and the GA's just let them on the plane even though that very same GA just made the announcement over the PA. And if you do have 2 items, put 1 under the seat in front of you, not both in the overhead, but FA's don't enforce that, even though they just made an announcement to that effect.

Yeah, well, you be the GA who makes Dr. Dao gate check his bag. Good luck with that.

This has been around forever. I think they generally don't cite the specific number of bags, but I've certainly heard it often enough. The idea is to solicit gate checks early so they don't have to do them at the last minute.

I've never heard this phrasing before. Since BWI has no lounge, I'm always at the gate when they make the baggage announcement and they usually say they'll run out by group 5, so if you check your bag now it'll be free and you can board between groups 2 and 3. There's always people who take them up on the offer.

Yes they can close the flight faster if the last 20 pax all gate check.

Then the flight goes out with substantial open overhead space.

There is a relatively new addition to our software that takes historical numbers of gate checked bags based on day of week, equipment, dptr time, and route, along with load booked and estimates the numbers that will need to be checked based on overhead space. It's still far from perfect, but it isn't terrible (I think it needs more data to be more accurate.) Things such as large school groups with only backpacks throw it off. Clearly on a full airbus to LGA, the numbers are far higher than on a widebody or a flight to any place other than LGA.

Second this. The first thing needs to be to enforce the existing rules on the elites.

They will never learn:eek::confused: