transporter99

Recently cashed in some miles and flew FC to Maui on US. I have not travelled on US much lately and am not up on the latest procedures, but had two disturbing incidents I wanted to share.

1) I was originally scheduled on the later flight (34?) departing 70 minutes later. Since I arrived early, I inquired about changing to the earlier flight. I was told by the HA gate agent US technically did not allow switching between these 2 flights as a matter of policy. However, she said she could switch me for $50 despite being silver elite and flying on award travel upfront. Has anyone else encountered this? Seems inconsistent.

2) When I checked into the flight at the main ticket counter, I was told that HA gate agents had been trained that morning from US to start enforcing baggage size for carry on luggage. I had a standard Costco issue roller board and a backpack that was fine carrying on outbound (and have never had an issue carrying on with any carrier/flight I've flown previously). However, we measured it and my rollerboard was too thick. I moved my shoes to may backpack and was told it was close enough, my boarding pass was marked as such, and was told if they give you a hard time upstairs during boarding, to let them know I was flying up front. The HA gate agent also stated this was a new US policy and not TSA/FAA as HA would have been ok with me carrying that on.

About 10 minutes prior to boarding in the gate area, the HA gate agents went around to everyone and asked most folks to go get their bags measured to see if they can carry them on. Most folks, including myself, had to gate check their carry rollerboards. My elite status or the fact that I was flying upfront had no bearing on their decision (though I was able to retreive my back on the ramp upon arrival).

I was a bit miffed by this and the lack of consistency here in this policy and lack of communication to customers that this change was being made. Not sure if this is being implemented across all their terminals or not and the FA we had up front had no prior knowledge of this change and was equally surprised by seeing them us their "box" to measure bags. I was also mad since my bag was too big by such a small amount and easily fits into the overhead bin (even on the old 737-200's).

Anyhow, wanted to share this scenario with others here and am contemplating sending a note to Tempe about my dismay with the 2 issues noted above.

lougord99

The fact that you have never had an issue carrying it in the past, does not make it legal by the definition of US's legal carry-on size of 14 X 9 X 22. I suspect all US airlines are going to get stricter in the future about the size of the carry-ons.

PhxFlyGuy

I flew on that same flight on Saturday night July 3rd. They were measuring and weighing bags at the gate.

In respect to HA agents saying that they wouldnt have a problem with a particualr bag, I will add that I saw a saying that THEIR weight limit was 25 lbs, as compared to US which is 40. As you know that flight leaves late, it was horribly hot in the gate area, so I may have read the sign wrong, but I remember thinking that 25 lbs was pretty stingy.

The biggest problem is that there is inconsistency from station to station. This is a problem with every airline from my experieence.

itsme110

The Carry on Baggage policy is very simple.

Carry-on baggage
Size requirements
You're allowed one carry-on bag and one personal item. Personal items include a purse, briefcase or laptop bag.


•Up to 45 in/115 cm (14 x 9 x 22 in or 36 x 23 x 56 cm)
•Up to 40 lbs/18 kg


PLEASE........Never mind the oversized rollerboard, would someone tell me how a backpack that is big enough to stuff an extra pair of shoes into qualifies as a personal item such as a purse briefcase or laptop bag.

I am getting quite annoyed that people with one small carry on cannot put it into an overhead because all the overheads are full of rollerboards and backpacks (2 bags per customer) The intention of the ´personal bag´ is to go in the seat in front of you. When that happens there is lots of room in the overheads.
Planes are now taking 45 minutes to board because of all the problems with carry ons. The way to solve the problem is just to enforce the rule.
I hope U.S. airways expands the enforement of the rule that is already there. The fact that they have to enforce it, is due to the inconsideration of those who carry on rollerblades and backpacks and then wish to stoy both in the overheads.

beergolftile

duh,

big surprise that when it costs $25 bucks to check a bag, that more people try to cram bags into a plane ill-equipped to handle that volume.

formeraa

Then, I certainly defend the agent's right to enforce the carry-on policy. Not my problem if other travelers are too cheap to pay the checked luggage fees. It's not like the airlines are making tons of money here!!!

transporter99

Well, my first reaction was that they are doing this to make extra revenue but they did not charge anyone for checking in their bags at the gate.

And again....either enforce this on every flight or don't - just be consistent so I know what to expect.

Flying Gator

If airlines had provided reasonable bag retrieval over the years there wouldn't be this problem. Nobody wants to wait 40 min. or longer for their bags.

dchirsch

That's my main beef. If the bags would be on the belt within 10 or 15 minutes of my walking there I would check every time. But waiting and waiting and waiting (when I walked, and the bags got a ride) causes me to swear never to check bags.

dc333

They need to emulate AS's 20 minute baggage guarantee. One flights bags had literally all been displayed with the belt already shut down, before passengers arrived. I was in the second row of Y, and a pretty quick walker. Since it was introduced I've only been able to collect on the guarantee twice.

Obviously, people were happy. This needs to spread!

jerseyfinn

This thread is very interesting because it touches on several issues and I find myself agreeing with several POVs here.

Just thinking out loud, but might the more stringent carry-on policy on this specific route have something to do with how much "stuff" mainland-bound Hawaii paxs bring back with them which in turn is choking the bins worse than they already are in today's wretched flying environment? This might explain the seemingly incongruent response by US as I've not seen this sort of thing happening with other mainline flights ( the commuter routes do have some cabin constraints associated with carry-ons).

But as others note, the carry-on vs. checked bag paradigm remains a real problem and an annoyance for any FFer who's just trying to fly hassle free. Not knocking the OP here, but they sort of illustrate the problem in that you're allowed one specified sized luggage piece and one personal item -- a back pack could be accurately characterized as second luggage since they are now much larger, are packed to the brim and do indeed end up in the bins more often than under the seat. So I could see how bin space disappears quickly which in turn slows the boarding process ( and delays a timely pushback ).

We elites mostly get peace of mind with preferred boarding by which we secure our bin space, but heaven help you if you're running late to the gate. US and other carriers try to deal with this by boarding sooner. But how well things go also depend upon how proactive ( or invisible ) the FAs choose to be during the boarding process as some folks walk in, jam their bag in the first empty bin they find, and take their seat in the back -- creating a new problem for the folks in that aisle when they finally get there ( flying IB domestically in Spain we've always noticed how the FAs space out during boarding and are assiduous about bin etiquite -- and this does smooth out boarding and OT depatures ).

I'm not quite sure what the true airline take on the baggage paradigm is because with the infrequent flyer crowd jamming everything but the kitchen sink into their bags, there has been a reduction in checked bags which in turn makes the baggage handlers' task somewhat easier ( which in theory should mean faster bag delivery ). Of course we do not always see this at the belt.

I'm wondering how Spirit Air's decision to charge for all carry-ons is working as they seem to be going the other direction in making folks choose how to pack and check. But they're a smaller operation which can also better control baggage handling.

I too would like to see boarding proceed smoothly and to see a reduction in bin chaos. One area I think that airlines could better control is having the GAs identify folks with big, oversized bags prior to boarding and to empower these agents to compel pax to check the bag -- at the walkway for no charge. This would speed up boarding and relieve some of the bin competition and the pax at least knows their bag is indeed on the plane with them. Ideally an airline would screen pax before they get to the gate, but that ain't gonna happen any more than Congress and politicians are gonna remember that they work for taxpayers and not themselves.

Hopefully airlines keep tinkering with the baggage paradigm and come up with refined procedures and slowly introduce policy which reigns in the infrequent flyer crowd which is making boarding and bin space an experience of angst and agida.

Barry

itsme110

Well said Barry......except for one dilemna. The GAs now offer to check bags for free at the gate......and that adds to the overall problem. By doing this, the airline is encouraging the passenger to NOT check bags at check-in, but wait until they get to the gate. Then if they get caught, they just check the bag for free, which they couldn't do at check-in. It´s kind of like the penalty for theft being to have to give back the goods........This sounds weird, but they should enforse the carry on rules......AND HAVE THEM EXPLAINED CLEARY AT THE CHECK IN PROCESS.........so 'I didn´t know' doesn´t enter into the conversation. THEN, if the passenger`s carry ons are not withing regulation, they will be charged a premium price for checking their bags. Everyone on the airplane and at the gate has a credit card machine.
If these rules were followed, within weeks, I think there would be a noted change.
I fly a lot, and I´ve seen more problems for EVERYONE because of the carry on problem. I believe it is a bigger problem than even the plastic glasses in F. lol lol lol