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One item of hand luggage restriction to be outlawed by EU.


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The EU Parliament has voted to outlaw the 'excessive' one item of hand luggage restriction imposed by some low cost carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet.

Instead airlines operating in the EU will be compelled to allow passengers to bring on board other items such as a handbag, laptop and duty free purchases.

The new law is expected to come into effect on a date to be announced after the consultation period ends on the 11th March.

This brings the low cost carriers in line with scheduled airlines such as BA and although it may surprise some, the origins of the one item of hand luggage restriction was a post 9/11 security measure that some low cost carriers decided to retain as a revenue raising exercise when the security rules were eased some years ago.

M O'L must be spitting blood!
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Actually Sprogster - it wasn't a revenue raising exercise at all - not sure where that came from?!

The maintenance of the hand baggage restrictions by some airlines was specifically to reduce aircraft turnaround time and increase utilisation. The less hand luggage, the quicker the boarding / disembarking process - i.e. less people faffing about in the aisle and overhead lockers.

Chiefluvvie
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[quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Actually Sprogster - it wasn't a revenue raising exercise at all - not sure where that came from?! The maintenance of the hand baggage restrictions by some airlines was specifically to reduce aircraft turnaround time and increase utilisation. The less hand luggage, the quicker the boarding / disembarking process - i.e. less people faffing about in the aisle and overhead lockers. Chiefluvvie[/quote]

Oh yes, don't you just love 'em!

And on the recent RA flights we've taken there simply wasn't enough space in the lockers; coats had to be removed from the overhead lockers and even then some items of hand luggage were removed by the cabin staff and placed in the hold! What's happened is that everyone now appears to bring a "regulation" sized cabin bag, whereas in the old days they may have had a smaller soft bag for the cabin and a case in the hold. Once you've experienced this the temptation to book "priority boarding" becomes stronger just to ensure that you keep your bag in sight.

I'm fairly confident that Mr O'L will find a solution... which satisfies him. I'm still a RA user.

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[quote user="Sprogster"]The EU Parliament has voted to outlaw the 'excessive' one item of hand luggage restriction imposed by some low cost carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet.

Instead airlines operating in the EU will be compelled to allow passengers to bring on board other items such as a handbag, laptop and duty free purchases.

The new law is expected to come into effect on a date to be announced after the consultation period ends on the 11th March.

This brings the low cost carriers in line with scheduled airlines such as BA and although it may surprise some, the origins of the one item of hand luggage restriction was a post 9/11 security measure that some low cost carriers decided to retain as a revenue raising exercise when the security rules were eased some years ago.

M O'L must be spitting blood![/quote]

From what I have seen, what has happened is that the European Parliament Transport committee has voted in its review of the Air Passenger Rights legislation to ask the Commission to bring forward legislation to have the effect that you describe. The public consultation webpage is at

http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=APR2

if anyone wishes to comment.

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Chiefluvie, if putting duty free purchased at the airport in your hand luggage was about turnaround how come Ryanair were the only airline that implemented this requirement.
Having personally met and spoken M'OL and Stelios on several occassions recently I do know a little bit about this.
Ryanair also have a smaller unique hand luggage dimension limit, unlike Easyjet and most other airlines who conform to the larger IATA standard.
In fact the one item restriction can and does cause delays because ladies are forced to put their hand bag in their hand luggage and the first thing they often do after boarding is block the aisle whilst retreiving their handbags from their hand luggage so they have access to it during the flight! Chaps are also offenders retrieving laptops and ipads!
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On your analysis I'm a double offender with a handbag and a laptop. I've really hated this rule and rather than block the aisle I've left my handbag in my hand luggage and sulkily refused to buy anything.

I do approve of some sort of restriction though because if the rule isn't clear someone will always go over what the majority thinks is reasonable. I bet I'm not the only one who can remember people causing delays for the rest of us with fragile cardboard cases of wine held together with string.

Hoddy
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The previous flight add ons didn't used to bother me as the screenscraper sites always showed the final price - so you started out with a reasonable comparison.  Now Ryanair has blocked screenscrapers from accessing it's timetables etc., made it extremely difficult to look at the flight schedules and prices on it's own site (you can no longer see whether there is even a flight on a particular day never mind the pre add on price), and kept kicking off you the site so you have to keep inputting Captcha data I have given up.  It is just too cumbersome, time consuming and damn irritating to go though all the hoops.

Also, having used Easyjet and Jet2 a few times now, we find them so much more pleasant and flexible (viz no weight limit of Easyjet cabin baggage.)

Mrs R51

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Until the finest palates and noses on the planet can tell the difference between soft cheese and Semtex and the pilots are not too scared to fly with people carrying nail clippers I am not flying to France. Much more usable ferries and tunnel and I can pack what I want.
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I was stopped at the gate at Nice airport a couple of years ago whilst boarding an Easyjet flight and told my soft hand luggage case was too big, which it was not. Anyway, I was so annoyed I jumped on the case a couple of times to squash the clothes inside and it fitted in the size gauge nicely. The expression on the face of the gate agent girl was priceless!!

The big rip off with Easyjet is the annual speedy boarding pass, as by definition you cannot capacity limit the number of passengers that might have it on any one flight and on some routes as a result you can end up with over half the passengers stepping up for speeding boarding. Not surprisingly Easyjet will be rolling out  paid for allocated seat reservations, as indeed are Ryanair.

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[quote user="Sprogster"]Chiefluvie, if putting duty free purchased at the airport in your hand luggage was about turnaround how come Ryanair were the only airline that implemented this requirement.
Having personally met and spoken M'OL and Stelios on several occassions recently I do know a little bit about this.
Ryanair also have a smaller unique hand luggage dimension limit, unlike Easyjet and most other airlines who conform to the larger IATA standard.
In fact the one item restriction can and does cause delays because ladies are forced to put their hand bag in their hand luggage and the first thing they often do after boarding is block the aisle whilst retreiving their handbags from their hand luggage so they have access to it during the flight! Chaps are also offenders retrieving laptops and ipads!
[/quote]

Well Sprogster - if you've been chatting to both Michael and Stelios recently you'll know that the one item of cabin baggage restriction was purely around consolidating all your bits and pieces to help improve turnaround times - quite a simple concept which works splendidly with most low cost models around the world. So yes - putting your duty free in your cabin baggage is indeed about speeding things up - after all, duty free is generally for export only and can;t be consumed on board.

I can't count my number of lost departure slots due to cabin baggage issues.......happens to me a least one a week.

Chiefluvvie 

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I used to fly regularly and I have never ever seen problems due to hand luggage. I have seen problems due to imbeciles checking in and then not hearing or seeing the flight called. That is all. I always had  a handbag and hand luggage. Now I always get my handbag out of my handluggage on board and in consequence take up a little more time doing that.

 

Once when leaving Luton our flight was very late and we were getting on as the passengers who were landing were getting off and we all had handluggage. The quickest turn round I have ever seen and we were all happy to be leaving.

 

Surely this is all a bit of nonsense about 'bags' and purely a money making scheme. So  well done Easyjet for being a little more flexible. 

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idun - when you say you flew regularly - how often was that I wonder - or maybe you were crew? I would call more than 4 times a week 'regular'! I guarantee that delays due to cabin baggage issues are commonplace - whether you witness it or not!

Missing a departure slot doesn't always make us late arriving but it's the 'pushback' time we're targeted on - strangely not the arrival time, which is much more important to the passengers.

Please explain how on earth having a 'one piece of hand baggage only' policy is a money making scheme?

Most people don't need hold baggage on a day return or short trip. Much longer than that and you would need to take hold luggage in any case - and with low cost carriers, pay extra for it.

Why on earth should those NOT wanting to take hold luggage subsidise those who DO? The whole issue of baggage 'handling' or 'transfer' is incredibly labour intensive, time sensitive and costly for all airlines and to be avoided wherever possible to keep costs down.

The amounts of excess / hold baggage fees taken at the gate are negligible - most people can read and understand the Ryanair booking conditions and don't arrive at the gate fully laden.

Chiefluvvie
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I find the 'one piece' of cabin luggage really irksome. I would happily carry my computer in a small carrying case if I could have my handbag too. They force me to take a larger cabin bag which will contain both and I think that makes me slower than I would be with the two separately.

Hoddy

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Chiefluvie, with all respect the one item of hand luggage restriction is not the international standard model, as outside Europe with most low cost carriers including the worlds biggest which are in the USA, such as Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue, each customer is allowed one personal item (e.g. purse, briefcase, laptop) that has to fit under the seat in front of you and one carry-on bag for the overhead locker.  It is the European low co's like Ryanair and Easyjet that are out of line, hence the EU involvement to impose the standard international model.

Flybe allow a second item of hand luggage if you pay for a more expensive ticket, so what is not revenue generating about that?! As for Ryanair why do they have a dimension size restriction for carry on which is unique to that airline being marginally smaller that the standard IATA model, which is difficult to find in the luggage shops, if it is not to catch some passengers unawares.

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Regularly for me was about every four to six weeks. And compared to once a year, that felt very regular to me.

How is it money making, well, if you cannot get all your stuff in a handbag and cabin bag, then surely you have to pay for hold luggage. Well that is what I have had to do sometimes. I could hardly 'ignore' this extra bill I ended up with, it cost me money.

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Sprogster - I'm all for passengers being able to take more into the cabin - but I dispute that only allowing one piece into the cabin is a revenue generating exercise.

The reason for it is simply operational - improving turnaround times - Southwest in the US were the trailblazers in this respect and fell foul of their passengers over-consolidating and slowing things down - hence the subsequent provision for laptops, handbags, briefcases etc so long as they are properly secured by the underseat retaining bar - i.e. to avoid items flying forward and damaging legs during rapid deceleration. To be honest - the fewer the items lying around in the cabin the better - they can all become lethal projectiles during an aborted take-off at around 160mph!

Flybe and just about all scheduled airlines have a ticket price paid : baggage allowed ratio - nothing wrong with that at all - the more you pay the more you can have. Totally a revenue generating exercise - but that's not what we were talking about here. The issue was Ryanairs policy of ONE cabin item being revenue generating - it simply isn't!

By the way - one of the main causes of lack of space in the overhead bins is due to passengers laying their cabin baggage sideways instead of longways (i.e. handle facing the aisle) - pretty simple concept to grasp one would think.......

Chiefluvvie

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[quote user="idun"]

Regularly for me was about every four to six weeks. And compared to once a year, that felt very regular to me.

How is it money making, well, if you cannot get all your stuff in a handbag and cabin bag, then surely you have to pay for hold luggage. Well that is what I have had to do sometimes. I could hardly 'ignore' this extra bill I ended up with, it cost me money.

[/quote]

Absolutely idun! So - if you need to check hold baggage with the low cost carriers then you pay more - what's wrong with that ? Why should those that don't have any hold baggage subsidise those that do?

Chiefluvvie

 

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[quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Sprogster - I'm all for passengers being able to take more into the cabin - but I dispute that only allowing one piece into the cabin is a revenue generating exercise. The reason for it is simply operational - improving turnaround times - Southwest in the US were the trailblazers in this respect and fell foul of their passengers over-consolidating and slowing things down - hence the subsequent provision for laptops, handbags, briefcases etc so long as they are properly secured by the underseat retaining bar - i.e. to avoid items flying forward and damaging legs during rapid deceleration. To be honest - the fewer the items lying around in the cabin the better - they can all become lethal projectiles during an aborted take-off at around 160mph! Flybe and just about all scheduled airlines have a ticket price paid : baggage allowed ratio - nothing wrong with that at all - the more you pay the more you can have. Totally a revenue generating exercise - but that's not what we were talking about here. The issue was Ryanairs policy of ONE cabin item being revenue generating - it simply isn't! By the way - one of the main causes of lack of space in the overhead bins is due to passengers laying their cabin baggage sideways instead of longways (i.e. handle facing the aisle) - pretty simple concept to grasp one would think....... Chiefluvvie[/quote]Anything that speeds up turnround time increases the profit for the airline so IMO it is revenue related.

 

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I agree chiefluvvie, BUT that smallish cabin bag I would take along with my hangbag was suffient. I didn't need to pay extra for hold luggage. The question was, by whoever, how is it money grabbing, well from my point of view it is. Sometimes I need hold baggage and I pay.

 

I remember the times before the budget airlines when it was always £120 return (or more and that was a lot of money then) from Lyon or Geneve to Heathrow including hold luggage. And then we had to get north, a very dear do.

edit and I have never seen people stacking their hand luggage as a problem ever or holding a flight up. Maybe on RA it is if there isn't enough room, but on the airlines I have used, it isn't.

 

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Can I just knock on the head any perception that low cost carriers are always low cost. The fact is that they are a business and will charge as much as they can, as a result of which in peak travel times, or when you need to travel at short notice, you can end up paying just as much as you would on a full service carrier. Ryanair are particularily opportunistic in that they double their checked in luggage fees during the school summer holidays to catch families who are unlikely to be able to travel with hand luggage only.  

If you are a retiree, which most members of this forum are and can travel off peak and are not bothered about priority boarding to keep the family together, you can probably benefit a lot more from low cost airline fares than most families and business travellers can. Personally, now that BA are recommencing a three times a day Gatwick to Nice service I will avoid Easyjet, as with the forward bookings I have made BA were cheaper.

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We are only 'just' retirees, still our kids haven't been school age for ages, so it's a while since we have been stuck with dates. And the truth is that when my kids were still kids but not 'small', we have often been on flights for just an hour or two when we were not always together.
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[quote user="idun"]

I agree chiefluvvie, BUT that smallish cabin bag I would take along with my hangbag was suffient. I didn't need to pay extra for hold luggage. The question was, by whoever, how is it money grabbing, well from my point of view it is. Sometimes I need hold baggage and I pay.

[/quote]

OK got it - you think it's ok for everyone to pay a similar price regardless of whether or not they have hold baggage - fair enough! I guess you're probably more likely to travel with one of the 'full service' scheduled airlines then.

[quote user="idun"]

I remember the times before the budget airlines when it was always £120 return (or more and that was a lot of money then) from Lyon or Geneve to Heathrow including hold luggage. And then we had to get north, a very dear do.

edit and I have never seen people stacking their hand luggage as a problem ever or holding a flight up. Maybe on RA it is if there isn't enough room, but on the airlines I have used, it isn't.

[/quote]

You've obviously never been to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Islamabad, Lagos, Abuja, Friday night Nice, Tampa or Orlando during school holidays - I could go on...:-)

Chiefluvvie

 

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[quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Why on earth should those NOT wanting to take hold luggage subsidise those who DO?  Chiefluvvie[/quote]

 

What a Eutopian world you live in CV.  Unfortunately the whole model of Locos - and many other airlines - is built on some customers subsidising others.

 

Or do you really think they can offer 9€99c tickets with no taxes to pay without the last minute businessman paying 250+€ for the same trip and subsidising the give away ticket.  Same for Business and First class subsidising the three/four in a rows.

 

While I don't doubt your credentials and knowledge of the industry, I think it is about time you climbed out of the pointy end of the cigar tube and joined the great unwashed back in stowage.  You may well be right that operationally the airline makes no attempt to make money out of the one piece of handbaggage, but when you have seen (as I have) a passenger sent to the desk to book in a bag because it was 100gm over the limit as handbaggage, and then be charged something like 40pounds, it certainly seems like a money making exercise from the side of those who pay your salary.

 

Come to the back and smell the coffee - oh that'll be 2€50 for the smell.

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Oh I have been to Orlando during the summer school holidays. Flew back, Orlando, Detroit, Amsterdam, Lyons. Only the main flight from Detroit to Ams were we sat together, me and two sons, 11 and 13 at the time. No problem with the luggage on any of the planes. Only driven to and from Nice.

You'd never catch me at the other places mentioned.

I obviously don't fly with the same sort of passengers on the same sort of airlines as some other posters do. It sounds awful. I have flown most to and from Geneva.

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