focusondisney
DIS Legend
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
- Messages
- 17,042
Arrived at MCO this morning on a flight out of BWI. About 45 minutes before boarding time they made an announcement that plane would be full and asked for volunteers to bring their larger carryons up to counter to be gate checked at no charge. The same announcement Was made several times more forcefully each time saying that they still needed more bags brought up or boarding would be delayed while passengers holding higher B and C boarding passes would be required to bring their bags. Finally when it was time to board a few luggage handlers actually came up to boarding entrance to take a few more bags. So obviously there are consequences to SWA decision to end “free bags” and way more people bringing carry-ons. A passenger mentioned this to the SWA representative who was scanning boarding passes and she said that there was talk of SWA considering charging for carry ons. She said people know they can just bring their bags to the gate and get them checked for free. It didn’t look like many people were that anxious to check their bags at gate even for free today…. I certainly hope SWA doesn’t go further and start charging for carry ons.
We flew on JetBlue Monday & had the same scenario. They announced several times that there wasn’t going to be enough room for everyone’s carry ons. They finally announced anyone in the last boarding group could expect to have their bag gate checked. So it’s an industry wide issue, not just SW.