another reason flights can be delayed....

[Beverly Lynn]

http://cgi.chicago.tribune.com/travel/features/sunday/0,1726,0105120020,00.html

 

[Gillian]

I hate those rolling lug ons everyone has now. I have one, but I use it for everything except a carry on! Even travelling with an infant on my last trip I still had less stuff than most people on the plane.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[GrumpyOne]

This is why I usually fly with a carry on small enough to fit under the seat. I wouldn't regret it at all if they reduced the size of bags poeple could bring on.

 

[Goofyisme]

Passengers should be limited to one carryon which is required to pass through a template. I fly almost weekly and the things people try and shove into an overhead are unbelieveable. Since so many people break the current rules causing problems for everyone else on the flight the rules need to be changed and strictly enforced.

 

[CarolA]

This was a great article. I think I have flown with that man. Although I would have been the passanger telling him where he could go with his luggage and wine!

I was on a flight not to long ago with one of these men and he had a piece of baggage that would NOT fit in the overhead (Contrary to what your dept store says, Steamer trunks are NOT carryons!) The poor flight attendant was trying to force it in and my coworker and I were chanting (Rather loudly) BAGGAGE CHECK, BAGGAGE CHECK! The flight attendant kept trying not to laugh at us!

Personally I think that if these people pitch a fit they should be taken off the plane by security and told to find their own way home!

Also while those 22" pieces are carryon that is only if you don't expand the front portion! If you have to expand all the pockets and sit on the luggage to zip it, plan to check it!

 

[Gary M]

I usually sit in an aisle seat and am sick of people bouncing their baggage off of my head and body while trying to carry it by me or putting it in the overhead bin above me. I guess I could sit in a middle or window seat but I feel less confined on the isle.

 

[aide4]

Great article!!! Nothing annoys me more than a person like that, I know there are people like that on every flight that I've been on. One can only hope that it will end.

 

[bicker]

The problem isn't roll-aboards. You can have a duffel that is far bigger than a regulation-sized roll-aboard. The advantage of wheels is a matter of weight, which isn't the concern: the concern is volume.

The problem is simple: The airlines can't seem to figure out how to motivate the type of passenger behavior, vis a vis carry-ons, that their internal cabin configurations require.

Airlines can't guarantee that checked luggage will be handled by their employees as carefully as the passenger would handle them themselves, and can't guarantee that they'll be returned to the passenger without an additional delay for the passenger departing the airport as compared to when the passenger carries their bags on board. These are critical guarantees necessary to bring about the change in human behavior desired -- short of that, all the airlines can do is pass rules, and, really, we know that the airlines can't afford to do that from a marketing stand-point, so it is strictly left up to the FAA to pass regulations. The government shouldn't be passing regulations because companies don't provide the level of quality desired by the customers. (Remember, this is not a safety issue -- the current rules ensure safety, as demonstrated by the article Beverly posted.) So that's why we're in the situation we're in.

The passengers, themselves are also to blame here, in not being willing to pay the extra amount that it would cost for the airlines to provide kid-gloves service for their checked luggage.

The FA union has considered making it a bargaining point in their contract negotiations, but that's never gone anywhere because as frustrating as it is for FAs to deal with these scenes, they're unwilling to be the ones to pay the price (in terms of giving up other contractual considerations) for such changes. (I surely don't blame them. Resolving their frustration is probably not worth much to them when compared against how much money to feed their children getting rid of that frustration would cost.)

This problem is so convoluted that it will take outside interference to resolve. I don't see any viable route for such a resolution at this time.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

I can honestly say the only time the lugagge is handled with kid gloves is when they take out the extra insurance on it and when they are a selectee. but when you work in bags you have such a short time frame to get those bags in the bin in the correct order and get that plane turned around to meet on time performances its tough an duntil you yourself have actually worked it there is no understanding what its really like. Been there. done that.

 

[MinnieMe2]

I'm constantly astounded by the stuff people 'carry' (drag, shove, etc.) onto planes. I always bring one small carry-on which fits under the seat. If we ever purchased anything extremely fragile on one of our trips, we would pay to have it shipped home and insure it. Why can't people just use a little common sense and consideration?

 

[Riverview]

I agree that there should be a 1 carryon per person limit. Riverview

 

[travelcoupons]

Reminds me of a recent flight, a younger gentleman got on with a huge duffle bag, the kind that hockey players use. It was so bid he had to carry it over his head, because it wouldn't fit down the aisle. He found an empty overhead compartment and started trying to stuff it in. I could see the flight attendants watching in amusement. It was nearing time to depart and he continued trying to shoe-horn that bag in for about 3 or 4 minutes. The flight attendants began whispering amongst themselves. They probably were arguing over who got the honor of telling the guy the bag had to be checked. Sure enough, finally one of them went up to him and a long discussion took place and finally they stowed it somewhere in the front of the plane.
This was a NOrthworst flight so the rest of us passengers suffered the wrath of the flight attendants for the rest of the flight because of this moron. I can hardly blame them, because this probably happens to them on nearly every flight.