Cabin baggage.

The BBQ Pit
41

(emphasis added)
I don’t know what you do for a living, but when I travel, I end up carrying most of my mobile office with me. This includes many documents, but most importantly, a lot of computer and other proprietary electronic equipment.

Often I can’t send it in advance. I get a call, and I go across the ocean. Or I’m not allowed to send it in advance due to IP issues.

And I am capable of packing almost all of it, or all of it, into my “wheelbarrow”. Which is, in fact, the official “approved” size.

If I lose this luggage, I may as well turn around and fly back across the ocean. Because I’m not going to be able to do my job. Maybe you can do your job if your entire luggage is lost, but I can’t. I flew all the way to Italy once, and booked a flight back the very next day because BA lost a bag they forced me to check (in violation of their own Club Europe policy). Thankfully, they found it and delivered it to my hotel before the next morning, when I was going back.

Never mind the fact that the airlines absolutely will not cover electronic items in lost luggage. If I bring 3 or 4 laptops, they all come in my bag. If I check them and they’re lost, the airlines say “fuck you, bitch! Not our fault!” You know, they won’t even cover a battery-powered travel alarm? It’s an “electronic device”, and you’re shit out of luck.

Even for the very few things they do cover, they argue, hem, haw, delay, obstruct, and do everything possible to not cover your items which THEY lost or THEY stole, and they will even outright call you a liar when you turn in receipts for your lost clothing. I’ve been told “Oh yeah, SUUUUUURE your outfit cost $800. Right.” Well, yeah, bitch, it did. And your fucking airline lost it. You admit you lost it. What is your possible defense for not paying me for something of mine you lost? Now fucking pay up!

I bring on my “wheelbarrow”, and my laptop bag, as is approved by the airline. And even little old 118-pound me can manipulate them just fine. And I’m going to continue to do so until the airlines take the legal responsibility which they SHOULD do and cover my checked luggage to its full value, no bullshit, no whining, no delays.

And since that ain’t gonna happen, I guess you’ll still be watching me load my “wheelbarrow” into the overhead bin, and stuffing my laptop under my seat. Sorry.

42

Yeah, then there was the time that my checked bag was broken into, and ALL of my insulin and syringes (minus my “emergency backup” I carry on me) were stolen. I really deserved that! And the airline telling me “Hey, bitch, we ADMIT your bag was broken into, but we don’t cover medicine. SOOOOORY!” - yeah, I deserved that too! Fuck me for daring to check a bag!

Oh, wait. I fucking didn’t deserve that. I didn’t do anything more terrible than choose to fly US Air. I guess the baggage people showed me. :rolleyes:

What ever happened to having some honor in the workplace? Why is it funny to brag about deliberately committing a dishonorable act of vandalism? Why is it acceptable to violate someone’s trust in you when they give you their personal belongings? Help me wrap my mind around that one…

Believe me, if the gate agent was really that bothered, she would just say “You don’t board. End of story.” and tear up their boarding pass. Seen it happen, more than once. No crime of “vengeance” need be committed on someone’s luggage.

43

::walks into post, hands in pockets, whistling::

::looks at Anth’s post, whistling stops, brow furrows::

::looks at OP, just to check, brow remains furrowed::

Erm, so you can carry it by hand. it’s the approved size, and it fits into the bins. Anything that doesn’t fit into the bins you put in the seat in front of you.

Just which of the above do you think I object too?

Now I now you travel regularly, so tell me honestly you haven’t seen exactly what I’m talking about - check in queues held up by one person refusing to accept to check their bags, or people boarding with enough hand luggage to fill a whole bin themselves, thenm mashing in other people’s gear to stow theirs.

Actually, I have one objection to your post. You rely on the airlines to redeem you for anything they lose? Pah, now you’re asking for trouble. Get a decent insurance policy and file away $800 buck outfit claims with abandon - shit it’s the price of 1 good suit, Amex wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow. My last claim for a complete loss of gear (thanks Continental and Houston IAH, good work lads) was closer to $3000 by the time it was all done. If I’d relied on the airline, I’d have been screwed. Most airlines explicitly state limits on their comp for checked luggage to around $20 a kilo internationally, and $1250 for internal US flights (can you guess I’ve had this argument once or twice with airlines) There’s no way around it, if you fly regularly you’re going to need insurance.

44

That would be great if that was what you said. I quoted the part that steamed me above in my post.

I’m not flaming back at you specifically, however, but the general feeling that “oh, just check the bags, what’s your problem, ASSHOLE!? Why are you so important that you can’t check the bags? We all know the airlines will take good care of them…” that I’m reading here and seeing IRL. I don’t carry as much as possible because I want to avoid waiting 5 minutes at the baggage claim (5 minutes??? Try 15 to 120 at Gatwick.) Then there’s things like this quote in this thread by someone else:

Hey, that’s great. That makes me so happy. The next time the Air France people stand there like a bunch of fucking wooden indians and shrug their shoulders when I ask “Ou est ma valise, s’il vous plait, assgoblins?”, I’ll tell them that.

Got no problem with preventing that. Most of that could be avoided if the cabin crew would simply stop them at the door, and deny boarding. But they don’t tend to do that to the frequent offenders - large, handsome males dressed in suits with a phone surgically clamped to their heads. I have a theory as to why, but it’s not worth repeating as it involves a complicated set of conspiracy theories involving sex, ex high school cheerleaders, and ex-high school football players continuing to try to dominate their way through society. And then MGibson would flame me, and I’d flame him, and I wouldn’t get any work done, and eventually we’d agree on some points…

But your rant seemed much more general than that, seriously. And there’s plenty of people in here posting about how silly it is for people to carry hardly anything on the cabin…I’m telling a different side of the story, which is:

  1. I carry valuable things. Things which fit in my large, but able to fit, bags.
  2. The airlines and baggage handlers are sometimes fucking criminals without honor.
  3. This next part…

Well, here’s the thing - my fucking company is so fucking fucked-up that they refuse to pay for insurance on their own gear. And I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to be underwriting a multi-billion dollar company’s attempt to scrimp a little money so some VP can buy a new fucking golf membership. But, of course, if the items are lost or stolen, it does reflect directly back on me - so I do get fucked if something happens to anything I take. So, I can’t win. Therefore…I’m fucked. I’m 24-karat fucked. I have to take whatever care I can of what they give me, and hope for the best. Oh, yeah, they’re not going to make me pay for the replacement of the items…unless, according to my company policy, I check the bags, which is outlined as a “negligent care act”.

Never mind the cost - if a client wants to pay me $25,000 to deliver 5 laptops overnight to France, and I get there sans laptops…I may as well have stayed home.

45

That sounds like my kind of job - got any vacancies?

46

I gotta say, Gary, that when I fly to clients I never check my laptop (or, indeed, projector if I’m carrying that too. It’s even smaller than the laptop, btw, how cool is that?) Exactly the same reasons as Anth, here. There is precious little point in making the trip if I can’t show them the thing that I made the trip to show them.

There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else, there is baggage handlers.

pan

47

Man, I would’ve liked one of those on the last flight.

I swear, a smallish woman stuffed a bag large enough to contain me in to the overhead. (I’m 6’1", 230 ) I’m NOT exaggerating.

48

My insulin and syringes are always kept in my backpack. I wouldn’t think of putting them into a checked bag, or a carry on bag, for that matter. It’s always under the seat in front of me (where I can get at it without disturbing anyone.).

49

I always use a backpack, and since I am young, after all, it’s always got:

food (granola bars and such, mostly), water, gum, mints, extra set of keys, cd player, cds, books, calculator, passport, extra pen, extra pencil, highlighter, extra lead, extra eraser, money, extra batteries, lip balm, Sharpie, mini electronic organizer, checkbook, inflatable pillow, change of clothes, Game Boy Advance, GBA games, headphones, work to do, tickets/boarding pass, printout confirming e-ticket, maps (if needed), spare clothes (just a pair of boxers, a shirt, and socks), facial tissue, alarm clock, pack of playing cards, first aid kit (mostly meds), flashlight, umbrella, DC adaptor if I’m flying on an airline that has outlets or taking the train as well, spare keys…

I guess that’s about it. I know it sounds like a lot but it always fits under the seat in front of me. The compression straps on the backpack help a lot too.

50

Anthracite, I don’t seem to remember saying anything about breaking into bags, which I never did, and if I saw an open bag I’d just close it. None of my business. Not that there weren’t people who would think “free for all” when a bag opened up. Losers.

otoh, your rant reminds me of this guy who packed ALL of his meds in his suitcase and started having a heart attack (maybe literally?) because his plane was delayed for three hours and he had to have the medicine. You know what? Too fucking bad!

It’s not the airline’s responsibility to make sure your dumb ass stays alive because you packed away your lifesaving medicine. It is the responsibility of the airline to get you from point A to point B, barring acts of God. Read the back of your ticket sometime, you might be surprised what you see. They’re not even required to fly you there.

At least you admitted that you had a reserve of your medicine, which is very smart. Good for you.

Insure your stuff, and let your company eat the loss on theirs. It’s not very difficult.

51

Ah, Anth, but may Gorgo have mercy upon you if besides your wheel-case you dare have an additional carry-on :wink: :stuck_out_tongue: (BTW, I never quite “got” what’s the big deal with duty-free. It’s not like anywhere I’m likely to go has a 500% excise on gin or Rado watches)

OTOH, travelling the SJU routes a lot, I have been soooo exposed that wonder of Caribbean checked luggage, the BOX. The big, formerly-occupied-by-a-37-inch-TV, corrugated cardboard box. Turn your entire luggage allowance into one single cubic piece, talk about efficency. Brings tears to my eyes. :smiley:

52

Except that if I understand correctly, if Anthracite checks the employer’s stuff, the employer WILL hold Anth responsible for being “negligent” with it.

Anyway it has been stated clearly that Anth understands all the restrictions and caveats fully and precisely because of that feels compelled to carry on as much as the rules will allow.

53

I have an almost overwhelming urge to book a flight on Air France, hoping they’ll lose my bag, just so I can say that line.

54

Absolutely correct, thanks.

And although the realities of the World say that the airlines are not responsible for my stuff, their standard baggage policy is supposed to cover my personal effects (minus electronics or anything they can try to allege is electronic, medicine, papers, business articles, etc, etc…read their list sometimes, it’s incredible.) to a value of at least the $1000 at most I have with me. The $800 suit was about all I had that time, well under their monetary limit under their written policy.

And “Gorgo” (Ego_Mk2) - you know exactly what part of your post was objectionable. It was this:

I never said that “Gorgo” broke into bags. I said:

So don’t duck the question. I would love to see you justify committing deliberate, criminal vandalism on someone’s baggage. That’s what you said you would do, wasn’t it? Aren’t those your words? Or is “Gorgo” a “friend” or co-worker, and not referring to you? If so, I do apologize, but it is difficult to tell from your post if that is the case.

55

Heh. Whatever you do, don’t fly KLM.

56

I have only one thing to say to pretentious assholes who think that berating people in service industries (be it wait staff, airline workers, return desk clerks, etc.) for policies that they have absolutely no control over whatsoever, and that the customer was completely aware of:

You reap what you sow.

Give nice, get nice. Give shit, get shit…in spades…in ways you’d rather not know.

I’m not advocating retaliation, but I’m also saying it’s not always undeserved when it happens.

But I’m sure all of us here are perfect angels and never get pissed at the first week on the job $3.85/hour clerk. :stuck_out_tongue:

57

Add “makes them superior to the rest of humanity” to that first runon sentence! :slight_smile:

58

I used to work as a flight attendant. I wholeheartedly agree with the OP, having been yelled at by businessmen all around the globe. And I’d like to respond with the following:

No, it is not my duty to provide ample space for any small elephant you want to take onto your business trip.

No, I am not telling you we have no wardrobe on this plane to spite you.

No, Delta won’t let you take anything that’s bigger than the Taj Mahal either. Not that I am calling you a liar or anything, mind.

No, the bin above your head does NOT belong to you, it’s just extra space provided by the airline for everybody to use.

If it’s too heavy to lift, it’s too heavy to go into the overhead bin. It’s that simple.

[aside]
By the way, the only human beings able to carry about 20 times their own weight (comparable to ants) seem to be small Indian grannies. They lug that big-ass suitcase onto the plane, smile at you and point to the overhead bin. And you know there’s no chance in hell you can even move that thing an inch off the ground.
[/aside]

59

Last flight I took, I had my small suitcase (fits neatly in the overhead with room to spare) and my shoulder bag (fits under the seat). I hate to check luggage especially when I’m flying somewhere I’ve never been before - I’d rather just meet whoever I’m there to meet and get out of the airport.
While I was checking in at the little ATM replicas - United offers them in the bigger airports for people like me who don’t check luggage - I overheard a man arguing with the clerk that he should be allowed to carry on his guitar in a hard plastic case because it was Very Valuable.

When he sat next to me and started ranting about his poor poor Les Paul, I just smiled, picked up my cross stitch and said “I’m a Fender chick myself” :smiley:

60

The ones I will never understand are the ones who take oddly shaped pieces of luggage with them onto the planes, and then literally cram them into the overhead bins.

I once saw a poor guy - at the end of the flight, after the contents of the bins had shifted - get beaned not once, not twice, but THREE times in the head.

The first one was some weird ass picture frame. Time number two looked like a funky metal pole. Time number three was a small bag.

Yup, they belonged to the same traveling group (a couple, IIRC). Why do you ask?

Me personally, I have a luggage set. The big suitcase, the wheeled carry on (and yes, it DOES fit, I use it all the time), and the even smaller shapeless shoulder bag.

(Fricken hamsters)