And you want me to put my hand luggage where??

[anewlife]

So, all airlines are trying to 'persuade' passengers to take hand luggage over when flying and not cabin baggage. Tell me something though, how does a family of 4 travel with hand luggage only when going on holiday if not staying with family or friends where clothes etc. may have been stored from their previous visit? And more importantly, how can everyone put hand luggage in the overhead lockers???? There is simply not enough room!! Impossible.... half of the space is taken up by cabin crew and emergency procedure equipment and we are all told not to put luggage under the seats if it is over a certain size..... Explain please???????????

I can see that at the end of the day if it carries on like this, all passengers will be transported in the hold with all hand luggage in the cabin ha ha ha!!!!!

[julian]

more than trying to persuade them to only take handluggage I think it has more to do with the airlines wanting to charge for hold luggage rather than giving it away free

[wendyakemp]

We all went on an hotel holiday last year and managed with hand luggage, the liquids were ok too and the things we couldn't decant we bought after security.
Ryanair are trialling a new baggage policy this autumn.
Hold luggage will have no weight restrictions but will have to be carried to the aircraft steps and collected the other end.
This will save the cost of baggage handlers.
I cannot lift 10kg over my head as I have a bad back but have always been helped by staff and friendly passengers when needed.
On my last few flights only cases were allowed in overhead lockers and any soft bags were put under seats, it worked well on the last half dozen flights, even the packed ones.

[ajtg1952]

"half of the space is taken up by cabin crew and emergency procedure equipment"; possibly a slight exaggeration.

If all passengers carry-on bags conform to the maximum size thay will all fit into the overhead lockers. Thats what they are designed for.

Incidentally, when a British Midlands Boeing 737 crashed on landing at East Midlands in 1989, one of the air accident reports recommendations was to remove overhead lockers from aircraft as most of the injuries were caused by the lockers collapsing onto the passengers. I think the fixing arrangements were strengthened instead.

[frank]

Hold luggage will have no weight restrictions but will have to be carried to the aircraft steps and collected the other end.
This will save the cost of baggage handlers.

No baggage handlers? Are you saying the passengers themselves will put it in the hold? That'll be fun! No weight restrictions? So a big strapping fella could probably lift say, 50 kilos in, and frail little old lady would be struggling with 5 kilos. Sounds like a fair scheme. They would have to have handlers unloading surely, can't see them letting a hundred odd passengers milll around the aircraft looking for their cases.

[wendyakemp]

Ryanair employ their own staff for baggage handling so there would be one person loading but you are absolutely right that it depends on your own ability to carry weight not on a preset limit.

taken from page 7 of the current magazine:
RYANAIR COST-SAVING PROPOSAL
UNLIMITED BAGGAGE
SYNOPSIS
Ryanair may soon allow passengers to bring unlimited baggage, as long as they can bring it to the aircraft departure gate. Passengers wil be allowed to bring one piece of hand baggage (10kg) onto the aircraft. Baggage handlers will load their remaining bags directly into the hold of the aircraft and place them at the bottom of the aircraft stairs upon arrival for retrieval by passengers.
BENEFIT
No more lost bags (Ryanair already leads the industry with just 0.4 misplaced per 1,000 passengers) and no more waiting at bag drop areas or at the baggage carousels. This will allow g reater efficieneis and cost savings, which will lead to lewer fares for all passengers.
OTHER:
Ryanair aims to test this proposal on selected routes by winter 2010.

[Miro]

I can see obvious flaws in this system, but on the other hand, it pretty much works OK for rail, sea and road transport, so why should air travel be any different? Perhaps if air passengers were treated more like passengers on other forms of transport, they'd start to act a bit more sensibly too.

[ajtg1952]

I support most things that Ryanair do but I see a few flaws with this one. Can you imagine the congestion at the gate if people are carrying hold baggage as well as cabin baggage.

[Campo Steve]

Going to be fun going through security. How will it affect the bottles of liquid over 100ml that currenly have to go in the hold baggage? If it is still allowed in the suitcase, how will they know that someone hasn't then transferred it to their cabin baggage?

I think this proposal has a long way to go before it is implemented.

[olive]

It sounds like a good idea but I suspect that it will fail on EU equal opportunities. My Mum and Dad would not be able to manage their suitcases to and from the plane. They have enough trouble from carousel to arrivals!

Plus I can't see take your own luggage to the plane working when it is icy, snowing or raining.

[Miro]

I agree, there are probably a few too many flaws for this one to be implemented any time soon, but I do remember sometime in the late 80s doing precisely that - depositing and collecting luggage from beneath a clapped out Tupolev plane in sub-zero temperatures and slithering on the ice in the middle of the night at Bucharest airport, all the while being closely watched by sinister looking, Uzi toting "guards" who strangely wore plain clothes, making them all the more scary. After that, nothing O'Leary can throw at me will bother me much!

[bajamar11]

I have travelled exstensively in the US the last 2 years and it is common practice for passengers to carry their luggage to the plane. In some cases luggage can be brought on board and others it is tagged and put in the hold by airline staff and then on arrival it is collected at either the foot of the gangway or collected inside the terminal building.

[Campo Steve]

That surprises me, especially in US. I haven't been there for about 4 years, beforethat I went at least 3 times per year, and always found their security checks over the top. Does the luggage go through a security check, given that airports are supposed to be installing equipment that will scan all luggage, both hand and hold baggage.

[katy]

I have travelled exstensively in the US the last 2 years and it is common practice for passengers to carry their luggage to the plane. In some cases luggage can be brought on board and others it is tagged and put in the hold by airline staff and then on arrival it is collected at either the foot of the gangway or collected inside the terminal building.

Which part of the USA? never heard of it. I do a couple of flights a year, Brother does at least 2 flights a month to different places there and he says he has never encountered it either

[ajtg1952]

It sometimes happens in the USA on small local commuter planes in some of the mid-west States. Generally no more than 10 passengers, and usually everyone knows each other.

[scotty]

The real issue now is the lack of storage for each passenger for your carry on luggage. For each row of three seats there is only one locker. Returning to Dublin on monday night and while boarding I saw another passenger put their bag in the locker over my seat "row 3" and then proceed down the aisle to his seat "row 18" . I removed it and put my bag in its place . Then I told the nice cabin crew where the owner was. He was handed his bag & told find a locker.

[Campo Steve]

My wife and I don't rush to board. The flights from Malaga are never more than 3 hours for us so, if we don't gt sitting together, it isn't a problem. We can live with it.

However, the one reason why we would not want to board last is so that we can get our hand-baggage close to us.

It is normally a squeeze but, to be honest, I have never seen anyone not be able to get their bag somewhere. It used to be a problem when people boarded with more than one bag i.e. duty free or a second bag they have managed to get on, but now that thy are stricter about that it seems to work.

Maybe we have been lucky, of course.

[anewlife]

I think certain people have missed my point here. What I am trying to say is that every time I have flown with Ryanair, they are always rushing you to put your luggage in the overhead compartments so they can take off on time and there is always a problem finding space. I always take hand luggage within the size restrictions, I have seen other passengers with nearly a suitcase size 'hand luggage' and it is still allowed on as hand luggage.

Quote: "half of the space is taken up by cabin crew and emergency procedure equipment"; possibly a slight exaggeration. - I don't think so. Watch them next time you fly. All cabin crew travel with trolley dolly type cases, so they must take up more space than intended.

And JAWG - what is your point - Quote - 'first post. Maybe a little a suspicious'?

I am not talking about luggage on US airlines - their rules are different - I am talking about Ryanair and other cheapie airlines. And of course, we all need to learn about security issues in the USA don't we? Not.

How can a family manage with hand luggage only staying in an hotel for a holiday? Would love to know...

And I suppose Health and Safety issues don't matter if you have to carry your own baggage weighing between 5 and 50 Kg to the aircraft departure gate. The onus will then be on the passenger, not the airline or baggage handler. Mmmmm

Rant over, and I don't mean to offend anyone, I am just having my say..

[concorde]

I find it is first time fliers with Ryanair who seem to have the most problems and I do feel sorry for them at times.

They board the plane but then walk up and down trying to find their seat numbers! By the time someone has explained to them that there are no allocated seats, they end up frantically trying to find somewhere to sit and stow their luggage.

Meanwhile, they clog up the aisles, and bash everyone with their bags as they charge up and down getting more stressed and stressing everyone else.

Surely it wouldn't be too hard for Ryanair to play a message over mentioning this. They keep telling you to get seated so they can take off. They also have no problems with their voiceovers trying to flog you allsorts, and it's usually is Spanish and English

[katy]

I don't understand all this, what do you expect for £10