Our next 2000 mile vacation is by car. Take that, airlines!
CEOs for luggage companies everywhere suddenly got the urge to rub their palms together and cackle, and aren’t quite sure why.
Anyone know if this holds true for international travel on those airlines? They’ve been pretty loose with carry on size for those flights…
The weird thing is, it’s not like they’re making the overhead bins smaller. If they fit before on a 737, they’ll fit now. This is pure dickery as far as I can tell, forcing more people to check bags for $35 a pop or whatever it is now.
That said, I don’t mind a little more frontloaded enforcement of the carryon bag size limits. I hate that guy in row 11 who needs 10 minutes to shove his bulging carryon into the overhead bin.
That almost sounds like the old “official” dimensions… Ever notice the go/no-go bag jig that still sat at the entrance to most ticketing areas – it is much smaller than the average carry-on.
Why would you think that? I’m sure that it is motivated by a pure desire to maximize safety and customer service value!
The next time I’m flying one of those airlines, I’ll tell the check-in attendant that “The last time, the lady kept assuring me over and over that size didn’t matter”.
Actually, I think the bins are getting smaller on newer planes. I’ve had the same roller bag for 10 years and only in the last couple years have I found that it doesn’t fit in the bin like it used to. Plus more airlines are now using regional jets as well and the overhead space is much smaller on those planes.
On newer mainstream jets (Airbus and Boeing) I think the bins if anything are getting bigger. Regional Jets (CRJ and Embraer) are always stuck with cramped bins though. If you’re flying on one of those you’ll always see people gate checking their bags.
I look forward to 2025 when the class-action price-fixing suit will be settled, and we will all be eligible for a credit of $5.05 on our next flight.
“back to check-in, I went. And the line was so long, I almost missed my flight.”
For somebody who claims to have flown a lot, that’s kind of an odd thing to do. Why not just gate check the bag? Several times I’ve arrived at the airport too late to check a bag that is obviously oversized. Simple solution - take it through security and gate check it.
Gate checking is often associated with exorbitant additional fees these days.
Measurably lowering quality of service to opportunistically squeeze a few extra bucks off of unsuspecting customers; they’re literally cutting corners. Behold the great corporate anti-quality status quo, why have quality when you can negatively affect a sizable minority of your customers and squeeze them for extra cash; brought to you by upper management, completely unavailable for comment. They’ll lure you in with low prices, then gouge you for extra margin. Go ahead and put your memo about improving service over time as opposed to making it worse to the customer service department; they’re trained to do their very best to help you without any means to do so. For extra cash, they will give your complaints priority in the same department. Service will improve once there are viable alternatives or actual competition, but otherwise, expect those with authority to intentionally make things as shitty as possible when a few dollars are to be made.
Gate checking is often associated with exorbitant additional fees these days.
Interesting. I’ve gate checked bags several times over the last few years and never had to pay a fee. In fact, I’ve done this specifically to avoid the fee for checked bags. Granted, I’ve only flown United, Southwest, Alaska, and USAir over that time frame and it has been six or eight weeks since I’ve done this, so things may have changed.
Even if they don’t charge now, they will start charging for gate check soon.
He was stopped before going thru security and directed back to the check-in desks. Was not allowed thru to gate check.
As someone who does fly a lot this doesn’t ring true. If he was flying business, he uses the premiun checkin lane and there is rarely a line at those.
Of course, maybe I’m being extra suspicious, because lord knows service has fallen for even premium customers.
If the person wasn’t a “real” airline employee or TSA, I would just have kept walking.
So… how does this affect guitarists, who only recently have been guaranteed the right to carry on their fragile and precious instruments?
I have never ever been charged a fee for gate checking.
