My experience suggests that this very rarely happens. Some people bring on wheelie bags that are almost too wide even to get down the aisle, and i can’t remember the last time i saw someone asked to check it instead of bringing it on board.
Having the policy is rather pointless if it’s virtually never enforced.
I’ve seen it countless times. I mostly fly United, second most Delta. Maybe it depends on the airline.
We must fly different United flights then.
I admit, i’m not exactly in the air every week, but over the past four or five years, just about every flight i’ve been on (mainly United, but also America West, Southwest, and ATA) has had a whole bunch of people with excessively large rolling bags.
The last person i saw stopped for excess carry-on was not stopped for a large bag, but for having too many bags. She had three bags, instead of the allowable two.
Funny thing was, her three bags were, in total, smaller than many of the wheelie bags being toted by dozens of people.
I have one of those wheelie bags. It’s rather short and not very deep, but it is a little wide. It does fit in the aisle, but it can sometimes be a little bit of a trick to not run into the sides of seats, etc. But mine does fit in the guideline thing, and meets all their measurement requirements, and easily fits in the overhead compartment while still allowing other people to put stuff in there too. When I flew Iberia, though, I will confess to testing my luck, and had both my laptop and printer in there (two things I just didn’t trust to check). I failed on the weight requirement, so I had to go buy a separate bag to store the laptop (and about 5 pounds worth of other stuff) in and stow under my seat.
I will admit that they can be lax, though. My last flight, I had said wheelie bag, a camera bag, and a laptop bag. I stuck my handbag in the wheelie bag so that I wouldn’t be really pushing it by carrying four bags on. Didn’t have any problem, but the laptop bag stayed under my seat and the flight wasn’t very full so I wasn’t taking up anybody’s space with the other two. I think flight fullness really dictates a lot of it. I think a lot of times the point of the policy is to have something to point to in the event that they do have to request someone to check their carry ons as well as to try and curb the problem a little bit. Inexperienced flyers seem to take allowances a lot more seriously than those who have flown a lot and know what they can usually get away with.
I personally think all the airlines should have all passengers and their bags on a scale just before boarding and their ticket price is by the total pound.
That way the aircraft weight is easier to control, the cost of operation is about weight not numbers of people.
I’m 6’4" and 300 #'s so I would pay a lot more then some but I would also get a seat suitable or just get two seats.
Everything that gets carried by the airlines goes ( tis the nature of flight ) by weight except people. That is just silly.
People will never go for it because there is discrimination ( in their opinion — clothes, food, medicines, takes more for big folks and we have to pay but ) …
And that is bad except when it gets you what you want or an unfair advantage… Then it is ok. ::: sheesh :::
Not strictly true.
Yes, there are weight limits for bags, but there are also dimension restrictions.
Next time you fly, try to check an empty box that weighs only twenty pounds, but measures 10 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet. Let me know how you go.
The thing is, this is how I always thought that they determined things:
1 Seat = 1 person (and they probably use some ceiling average weight, like 300lbs), 50lbs of luggage, 10 pounds of carry-on.
In paying for that seat, you cover the costs of transporting all of those things, plus the airline’s profit. I could easily be wrong, but in an aircraft that weighs who knows who much (someone does, but not me) does a 100lb difference in body weight make a sizeable difference in the costs of transporting the plane? Does a flight full of 100lb people cost significantly less than a plane of full of 150lb people?
Yes and no. When you fly cargo (IIRC from the International Transport class I took) there are two equations for what they charge you: one for the weight of your items, and another for the space they take up. Whichever one costs more is the one they charge you for, such that 10 pounds of tennis balls costs more to ship than 10 pounds of lead.
I think the implication is that passenger seating should work the same way. I personally think it’s a silly idea; I would think the system is the way it is because humans are of a similar basic size and shape (mostly) and there is no tennis-ball/lead-ball dichotomy.
But there are, of course–especially in these days where many peoples’ idea of a diet is a Carl’s Jr Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce–exceptions, which are a small number of people who take up substantially more space than their peers. So charge 'em for the extra seat. I think that’s a great system, and charging on a sliding scale by weight would just be silly. In fact, it would be discrimination. Men would generally pay higher prices, and there would be age, ethnicity etc. factors too. The system SWA is putting in place sounds a lot better to me: if someone takes up one seat, sell 'em a ticket. If they take up two seats, sell 'em two tickets. Works for me.
Yeah, but can they guarantee that you can sit next to yourself?
You reminded me of something I thought of earlier - all through the policy they mention how open seating prevents the possibility of sitting next to a willing family member or sharing the extra seat with a second “of size” person. But the customer is guaranteed to have the seat next to him if he purchases it (or a portion thereof) anyway, I imagine…
(IMO) If he’s paying for two seats, he’s paying for the right to bring twice the luggage, unless the airline is offering the refund for underbooked flights.
In my experience it depends on the flight. I usually have a roller case and a laptop bag, and I always ask if I can take them both in the cabin. They almost always say yes unless the plane is packed, in which case they make me check the case. This is on intra-europe scheduled flights, btw. On LCCs it can be a bit of a lottery depending on whether they have fresh trainees manning the checkin and/or the plane.
Indeedy. There are IATA standards but some airlines or alliances have their own (e.g. Oneworld. Always a delight to find that an expensive IATA-sized piece of luggage is oversize by 2 cm for a particular carrier. :mad:
One click away from the IATA page you link to:
Quite so, on both points.