Anyone notice people with hand baggage picked out?

I think we will all agree that as there are less winter flights the flights seem to be more crowded and if the flight is too busy there is always a lack of space for hand baggage. I've noticed that the staff will pick out all the customers in the queue with "hard cases" even if they are very small and ignore the persons with soft bags even if they appear "larger than life". So I think I may use a soft bag from now on?

Anyone else noticed this practice.

Yeah they done that too me at Murcia in October, I just took the yellow tape of my case and took it through as hand luggage

Yes they did it to us in December at Alicante - I had no keys to lock the case and the stewardess said we should always bring keys just in case (oops sorry for the pun LOL ) Anyway I managed to grab one of the cases back before it was snatched off me and said I would put it under my seat, which I did (good job we had extra legroom seats!) but I worried that our other little case would be lost or pilfered from (luckily it wasn't!) - In future I will just say they can go under our seats.

It's always a good idea to take a few spare plastic carrier bags in the hand luggage to place valuable items and laptops etc. I think I almost emptied my hand luggage case into the two carrier bags before they took it.


PS it's not much to do with size - our two cases are the smallest hand luggage size..there are larger ones!

I do find that some people abuse the system, they have a hard case or sports bag and then go shopping for drinks etc and end up with more bags, these are the people that should be stopped. I always fly Monarch and never had a problem, however Monarch from Luton only allow one bag regardless or what it is through into the cabin - I always have to put by handbag inside the case, but you are allowed to remove it once on the aircraft, its just to show that you have room in your case should you wish to purchase the odd item before embarking. I get so annoyed with passengers who have these extremely large holdalls which take up twice the space in the lockers.

the worse thing about flying during the winter months is coats, they take up half the space in the above lockers. i normally either wear a light sweat shirt type top or if i have a coat, fold it up and place it under the seat. i also book a seat at the rear of the aircraft so i am first on then i have room for my case.
different story coming back home though, the rules seem to lapse in the winter and it can sometimes be a free for all boarding the aircraft then they start announcing `please hurry and take your seat or we`ll be delayed`??
overall i have only had a couple problems during the last 9 years.
happy new year to the forums and jan.

bass2112 wrote:the worse thing about flying during the winter months is coats, they take up half the space in the above lockers. i normally either wear a light sweat shirt type top or if i have a coat, fold it up and place it under the seat. i also book a seat at the rear of the aircraft so i am first on then i have room for my case.
different story coming back home though, the rules seem to lapse in the winter and it can sometimes be a free for all boarding the aircraft then they start announcing `please hurry and take your seat or we`ll be delayed`??
overall i have only had a couple problems during the last 9 years.
happy new year to the forums and jan.

Happy New Year to you too.

We fly Monarch and at Gatwick on our outward journey they always board by seat rows (back first) which is sensible and the plane get boarded quicker but at Alicante, whatever time of year, they board as a free for all, even though we all have seat numbers, which is stupid.

I wrote to Monarch about this at the end of last year but no answer, I expect the boarding in foreign airports is out of the airline companies hands. However, it's mayhem - The people all seem to queue at once and it takes ages to get on the plane, although we just wait until the queue is nearing its end and then go to board, rather than standing in a queue for ages.

I really can't see how the airport officials at Alicante arranging boarding can't just call the rows in batches (back first & front last) as everyone, no matter where they are sitting blocks the aisle as they prepare to get seated, putting cases / coats etc into the lockers.

Mind you, last year just the once Alicante did the same as Gatwick by calling seat rows but everyone still queued really early, before the row numbers were called, and we noticed that the queue continued to go through in the same order. We think the officials just gave up! It may be something about some people or other nationalities not understanding what's going on - or not wanting to!


Jan
PS. I agree too about people using overhead lockers for things that don't need to be there, some people stand in the aisles and strip off coats and jumpers and take up space with them in the lockers. Also we've seen carriers bags and other small bags in there that could be under the seat. I know its everyone's prerogative to use this space as they wish but at very busy times it really blocks the overhead lockers.

We fly jet 2 they always make you put coats jumpers and small items under seats they won't even allow your handbag or coat on your knee they make you put it under seat, I often thought how silly, but after our first flight with Ryanair week before Xmas now understand why jet 2 insist on coats jumpers and handbags under seats.
It was chaos everyone scrambling putting everything in overhead lockers and some items on knees, I was waiting for the cabin crewe to put a stop to it but no nothing happened. The thing is had we all been caught in some kind if emergency,I am sure that there would have been a lot of stuff to hinder our exit. Doesn't bare thinking about.