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British Airways New Boarding Policy

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I am continually surprised at the ludicrous amounts of carry-on luggage some people have... and how rarely those people are pulled up by the gate attendants. I suspect that if the limits were enforced more rigorously, much of the problem would go away.

Perhaps a 2-tiered system would work better: free for a handbag or a small day-pack, but anything larger gets charged. If the larger piece has not been ticketed, then at the gate, it is taken from the passenger and goes into the hold.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
MSG101 wrote:
Always good to keep some basics with you in carry on - in case your hold baggage is put on the wrong plane and ends up in Cape Town instead of Geneva. It can be handy to have a change of underwear and some toiletries, especially if you could end up at your destination after shops have closed.
Schengen? We'll not have any of that remainer talk here, stanton... Toofy Grin


I understand the logic, but I can’t help feeling that’s going a bit far. Statistically, very very few bags go adrift. Approximately 1 in 200. If you take, for instance, 3 return journeys per year then you would suffer a lost/delayed bag every seventy years. Even if you are unlucky enough to lose a bag then it’s not usually that hard to buy some new underpants and a toothbrush.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@foxtrotzulu, I wouldn't ever call "1 in 200" very very few. That's not that far off saying one bag a flight goes adrift. I guess there is a big difference between adrift and lost though.
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@PowderAdict, Indeed. The vast majority are just temporarily ‘lost’. The chances of your bag actually disappearing completely are around 1:3,000. That’s about once in every ten lifetimes for the average traveller.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I've never fully lost a bag, but have had a bag not turn up on the carousel 3 times. Always delivered to my hotel/house within 24 hours. So within, err, underpants time limits Cool
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@snowdave, really enjoyed the video Smile
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
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Charliegolf wrote:


My cabin bag always has a pair of ski boots in it. Whenever I pitch up, I volunteer to help out by having it checked, 'if it helps' (ie for free!). They get the message and always agree. As with Mr Egg, if we have checked luggage anyway, it's no odds to dump a heavy bag and avoid the bun fight for lockers.


Sleazyjet and Ryanair both go for this without fail. They don't weigh your carry on either so you bung in as much as you can, offer to have it checked 'if it helps'* and they don't sting you for the extra fees.

*I like that phrase. I'm adding it to my scrounging paddy repertoire. Happy
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
I saw this in the news and - amongst the other things that have come in over the past 12 months - I think my relationship with BA is coming to a close. I've tried really hard to stay loyal to the airline despite Alex Cruz's best intentions to destroy it but I think it's just getting too difficult. There is nothing that the airline doesn't think can be monetised anymore - but they're forgetting that you already pay a premium on the basic fare. If you need to pay for everything separately, you can't justify the higher basic fare anymore.

I'm trying to spend all the Avios I can in preparation for that to inevitably be either shut down or weakened in value yet again.

With regards to hand baggage, BA asked me to check my hand baggage on a flight to Limoges in the summer. I was carrying a small backpack containing basically my laptop and camera. I told them in no uncertain terms to basically get bent, in light of my hand baggage being actual hand baggage on a flight where the whole reason they were asking me to check it was because half the passengers had checked in baby elephants - clearly in excess of the maximum size bag allowed. After some polite remonstrating they did come around to my way of thinking. Personally I think the answer to the cabin baggage issue is not to do with priority boarding - airlines need to renew their policy on hand baggage size. The current situation where half the passengers end up carrying on a decent size suitcase is reminiscent of the scene in the Great Escape where Sedgwick carries his 'piano' down the tunnel much to everyone's bemusement...

I don't really agree with the concept that you should have a suitcase of 'essentials' on your in the event your luggage goes astray. A personal bag should easily be able to hold actual essentials - unless you have some kind of serious medical condition - after that, every travel insurance policy I've ever had, has had a generous allowance on it for buying whatever you need when your bag goes missing. I get it on my credit card as well. There is no need to take the kitchen sink in the cabin.
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Scarlet wrote:
@Mr.Egg, I’ve seen Jet2 do that, and EasyJet forcibly removing cabin baggage when the flight is full and putting it in the hold. No charge.


Yep, I had this on an Easyjet flight to Geneva last year. To be honest, I was more than happy to give them my bag. As there were only a dozen or so items of checked luggage the wait at the other end was minor.

On the topic of BA and boarding, I'd proudly board last as a category 5 ticketholder if it meant I paid a 10th of what Cat A and Cat B paid to get to the same destination.
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FrediKanoute wrote:
.....
On the topic of BA and boarding, I'd proudly board last as a category 5 ticketholder if it meant I paid a 10th of what Cat A and Cat B paid to get to the same destination.


Yes. It seems reasonable that you get what you pay for. Equally if you don't want much, you should have the right to pay less. Good system.
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dp wrote:

I don't really agree with the concept that you should have a suitcase of 'essentials' on your in the event your luggage goes astray. A personal bag should easily be able to hold actual essentials - unless you have some kind of serious medical condition - after that, every travel insurance policy I've ever had, has had a generous allowance on it for buying whatever you need when your bag goes missing. I get it on my credit card as well. There is no need to take the kitchen sink in the cabin.

I don't agree with a suitcase of essentials either. If it doesn't go into a small carry on, I'm not carrying on. How much do you need to take for overnight? I also get a bit nervous about leaving the meds in the hold.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
dp wrote:
There is nothing that the airline doesn't think can be monetised anymore - but they're forgetting that you already pay a premium on the basic fare.


Umm, what exactly are they monetising here? They are just bringing BA boarding 'groups' in line with those used by their partners; American, Iberia and Qatar.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Quote:

Umm, what exactly are they monetising here?

I think dp was referring to the other ways Cruz has moved BA to a budget carrier model, monetising everything else, and speculating that this change is perhaps the first step towards charging for carryon.

The only reason I ever favour BA these days is that I am in Reading and so Terminal 5 is more convenient. But that's about it. And I won't fly them long haul if I can avoid it (the last time was on one of their 787s coming back from the USA. It was one of the worst flights I have been on, due to the ridiculously cramped economy cabin).
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
foxtrotzulu wrote:
Whether one likes to board first or last is just a matter of personal preference. I much prefer to board early. I don't have to stand in a long queue shuffling forward and when I get on the aircraft I have plenty of space to put my hand luggage where I like. I can then sit down in far greater comfort than in the departure lounge and relax while watching a film / reading a book while everyone else boards. The only drawback is that you have to suffer the idiots who forget they are wearing rucsacks while walking down the aisle and smacking everyone else in the face as they do so.


Personally I always choose to board last. Once everyone else has unnecessarily stood up just to make a queue there's plenty of room to stretch out in the departure lounge and read your book, without having to watch out for other people trying to squeeze down the aisle with their bags. Join the queue when there are 5 people left and board last, and choose whichever leftover seat has the most room for the flight (often whole rows free at the back).

Though yeah, doesn't apply when flying business.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I stopped flying British Airways when they changed to become London Airways so perhaps I shouldn't contribute to this discussion.
Anyway
Quote:

(the last time was on one of their 787s coming back from the USA. It was one of the worst flights I have been on, due to the ridiculously cramped economy cabin)

This is probably a problem with the 787, the world's most uncomfortable aircraft than with BA
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Quote:

This is probably a problem with the 787, the world's most uncomfortable aircraft than with BA

Well, it's a problem with those airlines, BA included, that decided they wanted 3-3-3 rather than 2-4-2 as was originally intended. Coupled with the lower seat pitch in BA compared with other companies.

The 787 itself is a lovely aircraft. It's just been ruined for the passengers by airline execs in a race to the bottom.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Bus with Wings

Note.

Boarding Last nowadays with only handluggage can be problematic finding any space & you are likely to end up with your luggage under your feet. If thats ok fine otherwise it will go in the under belly.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Mjit wrote:
dp wrote:
There is nothing that the airline doesn't think can be monetised anymore - but they're forgetting that you already pay a premium on the basic fare.


Umm, what exactly are they monetising here? They are just bringing BA boarding 'groups' in line with those used by their partners; American, Iberia and Qatar.


It was much more sensible to allow boarding from back to front. Quicker too by at least 15 minutes IME.
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@foxtrotzulu, We went to vancouver via LHR the luggage went to Paris. We went to Seattle via LA. luggage went to ?? who knew were but 5 days into a cruise it turned up at Skagway, 7 days after we had left UK. Next we went to Vancouver luggage took 4 days to arrive, next year we tried Calgary luggage went to Hamburg. 2 years of luggage making it then left by BA at LHR we were in Kelowna, then the next year we went to Vancouver and the luggage went to Moscow that took 5 days to catch up. I wanted the airmiles but ba did not want to give us those... got $100 cad for emergency supplies. I am one of those people with the big bag. Ski boots a change of cloths and a set of thermal and ski pants socks and gloves. i have learnt my lesson....
Mr joneski is 6'5" so we have to go premium econ any way or we have to pay for extra leg room then you dont have any were to put your bags so we pay tall tax as he calls it.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Since we are looking at boarding strategies I thought I would look up the scientific papers and see what was there and wow this is a really big area of research with over 25,000 papers.

I particularly liked this comment

"In September 2003, America West Airlines implemented a new aircraft boarding strategy that reduces the airline’s average passenger boarding time by over two minutes, or approximately 20 percent, for full and nearly full flights. The strategy, developed by a team of Arizona State University and America West Airline’s personnel, is a hybrid between traditional back-to-front boarding and outside-inside boarding used by other airlines. Field observations, numerical results of analytical models, and simulation studies provided information that resulted in an improved aircraft-boarding strategy termed reverse pyramid. With the new boarding strategy, passengers still have personal seat assignments, but rather than boarding by rows from the back to the front of the airplane, they board in groups minimizing expected passenger interference in the airplane. The analytical, simulation, and implementation results obtained show that the method represents a significant improvement in terms of boarding time over traditional pure back-to-front, outside-inside boarding strategies"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699708000239

It looks as if BA is going for the optimal strategy
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Commercial airlines are becoming ever more like cattle trucks.

Private jets are tumbling in price and a much better place to be.
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I fly BA all the time. Business UK (for economy price) typically £160-70. I then fly WT+ premium economy on long haul. I get 1st class lounge access and boarding anytime/1st as a gold. Company policy is to not fly business on long haul and I won't do Economy on 12 hour flights anymore. So my only option is BA or CAthay (CX). Because I use only BA I end up with mega miles and this gets me all my holiday flights for taxes only.

Anyway, back to boarding. Went smoothly at GLA on Monday and wait until LGW tomorrow night. I have a Rab 50l this time but normally have a tote for 2 days with laptop as carry on or if going long haul I have a small laptop bag with some equipment in case it gets lost and a large hold bag with other kit .


I don't want to go to Asia for 5 days of meetings without a guarantee of at least some kit coming with me. I've had a few bags delayed for 3 days in the past and on the away back from the BBash. My skis have went missing 2x.
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