Indeed. I don’t fly very often (I’ll have taken three trios by air by the end of this year, which is a personal record) and when I do it’s almost always from SeaTac to a similarly large airport and back.
Like I said, I will be flying into Yakima this summer, but even that’s on a mid-size jet, as Alaska retired the last of its propellor planes earlier this year.
Our resident aviation experts will correct me if I’m wrong, but IIRC, Southwest intentionally implemented a number of policies and practices to lower its operating costs so it could offer lower fares than the competition, such as a fleet consisting of only one aircraft type.
To the point of the OP, other policies included no passenger classes and no assigned seats, so that boarding would be open, which as the Mythbusters found, is the most efficient real-world option.
The result of this, I’m told, is that Southwest empties and fills its planes than other airlines, so it can cram more flights in a day.
Am I wrong about all of this?
FYI, I fly SWA almost exclusively, and I like the open boarding process and find other airlines’ processes very tedious and time consuming.
I wonder why the size restriction isn’t standardized such that it can be enforced at the security checkpoint, where there are trained people with weapons, or some place farther upstream.
TSA wants nothing to do with that poisoned chalice. Their mandate is to move people through checkpoints ASAP while guarding against carryon weapons. They don’t even much care about contraband.
Airlines have established procedures to do all this. They just turn more of a blind eye to it than they ought. At least from the POV of somebody who works on the jets, not in the terminal.
Airlines that really care can do this. I’ve had airlines weigh and measure my bag before issuing a boarding pass. Once, i even had to move some items from my carryon to my personal item to keep the carry-on under the maximum weight. (the agent suggested this, as my personal item was well under the max.)
I bought a roller board for the slightly smaller European standard so mine always fits easily.
Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking the x-ray machines could do the dirty work, by installing guards that limit what can pass thru, and a sign “If your carry-on will not fit thru this here hole, you need to take it back to the check-in counter for checked luggage”, which would relieve the TSA from decision making. At least people trying to bring full suitcases would be filtered-off there.
That doesn’t really work, because different planes have different limits. Also, it would allow down the line as a lot of soft luggage that does fit overhead would get jammed.
KLM for example (random choice) allows carry-on
55 x 35 x 25 cm including handles and wheels;
Delta (random choice)
Individual length, width and height measurements may not exceed 22” x 14” x 9” (56 cm x 35 cm x 23 cm) respectively
and Air Canada:
55cm(21.5in) x 23cm (9in) x 40cm (15.5in)
Southwest uses 10 inches. So that extra inch (23cm vs. 25cm) specifically excludes some bags purpose-sold as carry-ons. Europe uses a bigger standard, perhaps - maybe they just enforce it. And I’ve seen so many carry-ons well above the 9" thickness (which still fit wheels-in in the bins). The problem is not lax enforcement, it’s erratic enforcement.
I’d have no problem with gate-check, but the checkin people wouldn’t give us that option - maybe because so many people would take advantage and say they’ll check but don’t.
(go to the Samsonite site, look at carry-ons, and there’s a link to a chart of airlines and sizes - none standard. Plus, some of those hard-cases have a zip-to-expand option. )
Yes, as I said - the key is to have the lowest price for the ticket on the travel sites. If that means that you need to pay extra to actually fly, well, they’re still the lowest price on the site and once you bought your ticket it’s too late. Perhaps the same level of intellect that figures they can treat customers like cattle did not think what behaviour their extra charges drive - surprise, you charge for checked bags, skimp on reliable baggage handling, twice as many people bring carry-ons.
This hits the nail direcly on the head. But, the airlines evidently aren’t feeling enough pain from travelers to make any changes and are probably laughing all the way to the bank - “suckers!”.
I just flew on Spirit airlines. They solved this problem by charging $55 for a carry-on. Then they made it a problem again by charging $95 for checked bags.
See, if they were smart, they’d charge the full amount of the seat and all baggage, then offer a $95 discount for no checked bags, and another $55 discount for no carry-on bags. “Spirit Airlines - the ‘real’ discount airline! No games and no surprises!”
The problem is that the top-line price is the one that will be displayed to everyone on the travel sites. That’s why they do this crap in the first place. They look like the cheapest option for flights, but when you add everything in that they leave out, it turns out they are no cheaper than anyone else (unless you don’t need any of the extras).
They didn’t even give out peanuts or a coffee on the flight. It was all for sale. If you were thirsty, get out your credit card for a water.
I’d rather pay a little more up-front and not have to sweat all the details.
I don’t know the statistics, but I’ve been on through flights on SW where I have been on the plane during a stop, and they seem damn efficient. (You also get the benefit of moving to a better seat if you want to.)
I have seen SW take a very big carry-on from someone who was in a C boarding group, when there was just no space for it. He wasn’t very happy, but they weren’t about to delay the flight to find room for him.
When my daughter worked for Star Alliance, we tried to go standby on a Lufthansa flight from SFO to Frankfurt (and failed.) But in the boarding area they had agents weighing and measuring carryons to make sure they were not too big or heavy. This is after they did it at check-in.
I also have an expensive Briggs & Riley case I bought because it is (was) carry-on size. I too was pretty bummed when many airlines reduced carry-on size by an inch or so.
Briggs & Riley suitcases are warrantied for life so I expected to use this thing forever. What to do now? Well, I’ve noticed that because it looks like it’s the right size no one really hassles me about taking it on-board.
Still, it pisses me off that my expensive “for life” case is now considered too big.
I thought bags were supposed to go in “wheels out” as that way there is slightly more space. But no one ever does it this way except me.
ETA: I just looked this up and see that there are some aircraft with Boeing “space bins” that ask you to put wheels in first instead of wheels out.
I would think “wheels-in” makes more sense because that way the handle is facing out, making it easier to put the bag in and take it out. But I may be wrong, because I don’t use a rolling carry-on. My carry on bags are my CPAP and a small shoulder bag; The former goes in the overhead bin and the shoulder bag easily fits under the seat.
They often tell you to put the bags wheels in.
In about 2008 in DFW we were going through security again after returning from a trip overseas. To my surprise the TSA agent at security flat-out told someone their suitcase was way too big and they were going to have to go back and check it.
One question. Did the problem get worse when airlines started charging to check luggage? I always check one bag and carry on a small backpack that, thanks to priority boarding, I put in the overhead bin, just above my seat. But then I see people getting on with luggage larger than what I checked and forcing it into an overhead rack that is supposed to be for three people.
I never check a bag of i can avoid it. Airlines lose luggage. I’ve missed flights waiting for my (not lost) bag to show up. (I had to carry my bag through customs.) It’s just stressful to me even when everything works.
Thus, the roller board that’s a tad smaller and fits on all widebody flights.
I can’t say for absolute certain. There was already a trend for ever more and ever larger wheeled suitcases as carry-ons. Which seems to have accelerated not far from the time the checked bag fees became commonplace.
OTOH, a lot more people, even leisure travelers, now travel with something akin to a laptop bag / briefcase for all their e-toys, designer water bottles, etc. Which was something substantially nobody carried in 2000 or 2010.