Virgin Australia to Reconfigure 737 Fleet - Spend $110M

[SeaWolf]

Weight versus Item count has always miffed me… sure, I get that weight sometimes becomes a WHS issue, but the volume of a bag 7kgs v 10kgs is often the same.

This is the bit that frustrates me as well. If I could stand in the gate lounge of a totally full flight, wave a magic wand and reduce the weight of every bag there to just 1kg, it would solve nothing, there would still be too much baggage for the cabin. The weight isn't really the problem here.

 

[Luke B]

A lot of the reason to change policy is from union. Crew are sick of dealing with brunt of disgruntled pax unable to find place for their bag.

Good. I'm on VA346 at the moment and our departure is delayed due to bags unable to fix into the overhead lockers with some pretty big bags taking up quite a few lockers.

 

[MooTime]

They have started weighing bags on some flights, particularly on ones that are very full. I'd say it is a volume issue more than anything. On the weekend in BNE, I watched as they made anyone with a wheelie bag put it on the scales before making their way down the airbridge. Any that were over 7kgs were gate checked free of charge. I've seen this happen quite a few times now, mainly in BNE and MEL. Also noticed that they didn't start weighing bags until after they started with general boarding.

My VA trip from Mel on Saturday I saw them weighing some bags.
Was full flight.
I don't see much wrong with it, cabin full no point taking your bag on with little to no room, take it under free of charge, unlucky for boarding close to last.

 

[moa999]

The weight isn't really the problem here.

True. But it is a proxy given most luggage is of fairly consistent density (consisting mostly of clothes).

It would take much longer at check-in to pull out the tape measure , take three measurements and then calculate the volume or make every bag go into one of those dimension checkers.

And then we have certain LCCs who have smaller dimension limits as well.