Do US carriers not impose carry-on restrictions? Pretty much all the European carriers only let you have one ca. 55cm x 40cm bag and maybe one purse type bag (many don’t even allow that). There are usually weight restrictions too, though I don’t think they get enforced often. I’ve had to cram my laptop into my cabin bag at the gate on many occasions.
I’ve never seen any airline rep or flight attendant question the bags people bring on. From my perspective, the signs saying carry on bags are limited is kind of like the no smoking signs in Thailand hotels.
It has to fit under the seat… technically. They almost never care unless it becomes an issue.
They’ll question the size of something. I’ve seen that, especially on the small planes. I want to take those over fifty women sticking their 6 inch handbags and sweaters up there and throttle them though. They need to put those tiny damn things under the seat.
Yeah smaller planes will care a lot more, sometimes even about weight, though not often.
I find it absolutely terrifying when they shift people on a plane or move luggage to accommodate weight requirements. It makes me want to get off because I am question the accuracy of their equipment and their employees when really it should make me feel more confident they are paying attention.
Haha, that never bothered me as a kid. I guess I grasped the physics well enough, but I can see why it would.
“Oh God the plane wont fly straight if that chunky dude doesn’t sit on the left side, we’re all going to die.”
Most US airlines allow one carry on - the basic roller bag, softsided versions of it like my backpack, and some duffel bags - plus one personal item - laptop bag, messenger bag, book bag, or big purse - plus the unofficial fact that I have never seen them question a woman with a purse plus the other two items.
I have seen airlines question the size of carry on bags but mostly on smaller planes when everyone knows they will not fit so they cut to the chase and gate check them.
We went on on a river boat excursion, the kind of flat boats where the bottom is flat so they can actually throw the boat into a spin and get a good chuck of people wet. They asked a group to move one row back to evenly distribute the weight better. These people actually said no, no we’re with the group in the front. Stupid tourists. Our group said we’d move it would help. We’d only be one empty row from the rest.
But these people… it’s not as if they would just take off anyway. The boat would sink if it can’t just sort bouy the front up again but they acted like no not us was simply okay.
Over here, the budget airlines have a metal frame they make you put the bag in to prove it’s the right size.
They have that at every gate at every US airport, too, but nobody ever uses it. The only time anyone questions a bag before people get on the plane is when it is comically oversized. I think it must be an unwritten rule that carry-on bags are the flight attendants’ problem, not the gate agents’.
I think it’s more the fact that boarding order is basically a factor of how much you fly/how much you pay. Only the infrequent, super-econ flyers get stuck with no overhead space. The airlines don’t want to bother frequent flyers by enforcing the rules against them, but can’t get away with enforcing the rules just for some economy seats without enforcing it against others. So, they’re loose on the rules and let the order of boarding do its thing.
I’ve seen it flying Air Canada. They made everyone in the gate area check their bags against the template. If you passed, you got a tag. No tag = check the bag. I’ve seen it happen 3 or 4 times now and, as a frequent flier, I really appreciate it.
Oh we have those as well, but that’s just for size. I’m talking how people will bring on 3-4 bags…They are all ok on size, it’s the quantity that pissess me off
All the airlines have issues, but I really think, despite the claims from their CEO, that United does have a cultural problem. This child was actually put in danger per airline policies for this.
I flew on a cheap ass budget carrier out of Iceland (WOW Air). The flight was way under-booked. Lots of empty rows. So lots of people just moved up the arm rests and sprawled across the seats and slept. Others on the ground below the seats. Basically there were bunk beds throughout the cabin. Lucky for them there was zero turbulence too. So I guess in a way cheap-ass econ seats on sub-standard carriers can sometimes be an upgrade if you’re lucky.
Usually for long-haul flights I like to take more standard airlines that serve meals, offer entertainment, and alcohol, etc but this flight was too cheap to pass up.
I’ve been on plenty of underbooked flag carrier flights, but never a budget one. Unfortunately we basically have to fly budget (cheapest fare, anyway) for work, so 9/10 flights are rammed for me.
So she didn’t speak up because she was worried she could get bumped off the flight. Doesn’t exactly sound like she was “forced” to me.
Something is also fishy here - I’d be very surprised if the system allows the same seat to be assigned twice. My guess is she forgot, or the check-in attendant at the gate, forgot to scan the second boarding pass, thus triggering the available seat in the system.
If she spoke up, the other guy almost certainly would have been bumped.
Actually if she was carrying the kid (likely) and handed the gate attendant one boarding pass (likely) then its pretty much her fault, as it would look very much like the typical situation of travelling with an infant under 2.
I guess you didn’t read the story? United said they scanned her son’s ticket incorrectly and their system ended up thinking he was a no-show. That’s why they assigned his seat.
United appears to understand they have no leg to stand on here. The flight attendant should have realized the problem and asked the new person to exit the plane immediately. That he or she did not is a failure of training.
@Menzo What does that mean, “scanned incorrectly”. A barcode reader will not “scan incorrectly”. If the scan succeeds but the boarding pass is wrong, there is a big red alarm and sound - that’s how airlines try to prevent people from getting on the wrong flight. If it doesn’t succeed, then there no soft confirmation sound and green light. Like at a checkout, the cashier doesn’t put it in the bag, they try again until it scans.
That statement is very likely the airline giving the woman the benefit of the doubt to their own detriment, like a good corporate citizen should. “Sorry, we made a mistake” is easier and better optically than “it’s mostly her fault”. I could almost guarantee she didn’t hand over the second boarding pass, and the gate attendant would have thought “oh, travelling with infant” and moved on to the next in line. The computer system probably would see the lack of check-in, and perhaps check automatically if any bags were checked in. They may have announced it in the terminal “is passenger XYZ in the terminal? your flight is waiting.” Then after a while, given the seat to the standby person.
Still, even then the flight attendant on the aircraft would have no way of knowing. She sees a woman with a kid, and a man taking the seat beside her. The woman says something about the seat for the kid, and the flight attendant says “sorry, the flight is full”. The woman didn’t speak up, and say that she paid for the ticket, that her kid was over 2 years old and not an infant, and the seat was double-booked. I’m fairly certain if she spoke up, the guy would have been asked to leave.