VA cracking down on carry on 7kg limit

[jkbaus]

While no issue of course with people with injuries past or present or another disability, do you think it's a bit much to carry on a bag you can't put in the overhead yourself, after all that's why airlines have checked luggage?

Understand about the checked luggage but I can't get it off the carousel without help.

I really would prefer to be able to lift things without assistance.
Lucky for me that I only seem to come across lovely people when travelling.

 

[Dan_]

The wanton abuse of the carry on limits has brought this crack down about. I have sat down after boarding and placed my briefcase in the overhead (under 7 kg) only to see a late arrival struggle with their wheelie to find what little room is left in the overheads and summoning all their strength to lift their over weight case up into the bin, over my head, almost dropping it on to my head, on one occasion.
And then there is the problem when there is a full cabin, with little room left in the overheads after they are filled with these wheelies, for anything else to fit in, that meets the regulation weight or size.
It shouldn't matter if the pax are flying any class or status, we are all on board and have to be considerate of each other don't you think ?

It coughs me to tears when I get asked to remove my backpack from the overhead and put it under my seat, because somebody cant fit their oversize wheely bag in. I am struggling for leg room as it is, I don't need that room taken up with a bag well below the size and weight limit, because somebody else can't follow the rules.

 

[Regular bloke]

Well done VA. Hope all airlines follow suit. I fly both business class and economy regularly and find smug selfish people with oversized carry on luggage annoying. Unless you have special needs it's totally disrespectful of fellow passengers who do the right thing. You are no more important than anyone else

 

[Denali]

It coughs me to tears when I get asked to remove my backpack from the overhead and put it under my seat, because somebody cant fit their oversize wheely bag in. I am struggling for leg room as it is, I don't need that room taken up with a bag well below the size and weight limit, because somebody else can't follow the rules.

What do you say to them?

I had someone try to remove hubbys bag from overhead and my response was aggressive enough that the guy stopped.

 

[Dan_]

What do you say to them?

I had someone try to remove hubbys bag from overhead and my response was aggressive enough that the guy stopped.

It's always been FA that has asked me. They have enough to deal with usually, so I unhappily accept, but don't make their life difficult. If it was a fellow passenger then I suspect the situation would be the same as yours lol

 

[drron]

Flew the old Crash 8 from DPO this morning.Overheads have a 27kg limit.Would be hard to het 27kg in those bins.
But reminded me of another complaint-people with large backpacks-no way were they going to push them into the bins.Why didn't they leave them as premium hand carry at the stairs.
Again my beef is with the size and numbers of carry ons.

 

[clifford]

Why doesn't VA do what Ryanair does with carry-ons? You either pay extra for the privilege or it goes in the hold. Pure and simple, no exceptions.

I'm always happy to pay a few extra ₤ to be sure that my (legal) carry-on will be accommodated in the cabin, without any unpleasantness.

That would solve the problem instantly IMO.

 

[Danger]

Twice - I've removed the bag, put in the in aisle and said "Hey you forgot your bag". I'm immune from looks-of-death, and they can't flare up as the stream of passengers heading the other way keeps the process moving. Wife called me a dbag the second time but I don't care.
Thankfully VA now has the "Business Class only" signs in the overhead bins.

I wish I had the balls to do that.

I get weighed pre-flight every fortnight. I find it good as it's a reminder to keep up the fitness routine (which is up and down ). A few week back I was a bit slack and my weight had crept up, so that gave me the impetus to exercise more this fortnight, so I find it a real positive, believe it or not! Hopefully next week, it might be a bit lower again!

I can see a Qantas Assure marketing opportunity here. "Earn 1 Qantas FF point for every gram of weight you drop between flights".

 

[straitman]

Why doesn't VA do what Ryanair does with carry-ons? You either pay extra for the privilege or it goes in the hold. Pure and simple, no exceptions.

I'm always happy to pay a few extra ₤ to be sure that my (legal) carry-on will be accommodated in the cabin, without any unpleasantness.

That would solve the problem instantly IMO.

Because they pitch themselves as several steps above LCC such as Ryanair.

 

[Jack_OC]

Well done VA. Hope all airlines follow suit. I fly both business class and economy regularly and find smug selfish people with oversized carry on luggage annoying. Unless you have special needs it's totally disrespectful of fellow passengers who do the right thing. You are no more important than anyone else

Have VA started to crack down on people with over-sized carry-on? Not as far as I can tell.

Over the weekend on a VA flight, someone seated across the aisle from me struggled on with a large "rollaboard" that clearly exceeded the maximum permitted dimensions, plus a tote bag, plus a large-ish backpack. She then spent about a minute standing in the aisle (holding up boarding) while trying to stuff all of this into the overhead bins - ultimately putting 2 out of the 3 bags in the bin above J. The crew said and did nothing about it, despite the very blatant rule breaches - on at least three counts: size; number of bags; plus a Y pax using the overhead in the (fully occupied) J cabin. Sadly, I didn't find any of this to be unusual or surprising - but it's certainly annoying. And just to be clear, this was a young, apparently able-bodied woman travelling solo - so I don't think any special circumstances applied.

Anyway, I think size and weight are two very different issues. Carrying on over-sized luggage and/or multiple bags is indeed disrespectful of fellow passengers, as it creates various problems for others on board. However, IMHO the weight of someone's bag generally has no impact on anyone else.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Flew the old Crash 8 from DPO this morning.Overheads have a 27kg limit.Would be hard to het 27kg in those bins.
But reminded me of another complaint-people with large backpacks-no way were they going to push them into the bins.Why didn't they leave them as premium hand carry at the stairs.

Probably not familiar with the Dash and/or the gate attendant didn't proactively offer the tag. I've had to request it a number of times despite my HLO being clearly way too big to fit.

 

[drron]

They do actively ask if you want a tag at DPO-checkin,gate and at stairs or cattle ramp.

 

[BAM1748]

Understand about the checked luggage but I can't get it off the carousel without help.

I really would prefer to be able to lift things without assistance.
Lucky for me that I only seem to come across lovely people when travelling.

I'm ok with helping with a bag on a carousel as that's where is should be if the passenger can't lift it, but sorry, not keen on being forced to help because there is now no choice as its on the aircraft.

 

[Denali]

I think most people are generally nice and will assist. Most. But we all have our bad days where we are less than stellar people, it happens. Doesnt make us bad people unless you see someone with a real life limiting disability that really needs assistance and you ignore them. It often doesnt take much to help. Its helping with a bag for a few seconds, not a lifetime commitment to the person.

Hubby once carried a mum with sleeping toddler carry-on from International plane to baggage. He wouldnt offer this to everyone but sometimes there is a person that just needs a bit of help.

 

[kpc]

I think most people are generally nice and will assist. Most. But we all have our bad days where we are less than stellar people, it happens. Doesnt make us bad people unless you see someone with a real life limiting disability that really needs assistance and you ignore them. It often doesnt take much to help. Its helping with a bag for a few seconds, not a lifetime commitment to the person.

Hubby once carried a mum with sleeping toddler carry-on from International plane to baggage. He wouldnt offer this to everyone but sometimes there is a person that just needs a bit of help.

Last year on an Amtrak train in US, a lady said she couldn't lift her suitcase onto a storage shelf...I tried to lift her bag but it was very heavy so asked if she could help me....she refused so i just walked off leaving her bag on the floor! Why should I hurt my back lifting your heavy bag!? i'm usually happy to help but this one really irked me....

 

[drron]

If the reason is that the bag is just too heavy then I wouldn't assist either.
I have helped short people who just cant reach the overhead.
The commonest time I help is when someone sitting in front of me has had to put their carryon several rows behind.If I can reach it I will get it out and ask for it to be passed up though on a couple of occasions have had to deliver it personally.This has only happened travelling on domestic flights by myself as when with mrsdrron we are close to the front of Y domestically and if an international flight we are at the pointy end.

 

[clifford]

Perhaps the answer to all of this is to weigh the carry-on AND the passenger. Would get my vote every time, as overall weight is what's important to the airline.

And, not forgetting, the SIZE of the carry-on is paramount.

 

[clipped_wings]

I get weighed pre-flight every fortnight. I find it good as it's a reminder to keep up the fitness routine (which is up and down ). A few week back I was a bit slack and my weight had crept up, so that gave me the impetus to exercise more this fortnight, so I find it a real positive, believe it or not! Hopefully next week, it might be a bit lower again!

What a pity that the "Spin Class" announced on April 1st - was just that.

 

[wrcmad]

My stubbornly entitled mother found an easy work-around to this rule on Monday when I accompanied her on a JQ domestic flight out of Sydney. We were sitting at the gate and they were checking carry-on weight for our flight - I carry nothing, so my mother goes over and has her bag weighed while I wait. She returned, cursing that it was 8kg and they told her she would have to check-in her bag. Unperturbed, the cursing continued as she opened her bag and started dumping a few kg's of stuff into my lap. She then closed her bag up and returned to the pleasant attendant at the scales, who proceeded to again weigh her bag and happily tagged it as correct weight, with a smile. Mum then returned to me - still scowling, repacked her bag, then proceeded through the gate on her way to the flight. My mind boggled at what the point of weighing check-in was?

 

[straitman]

No I definitely didn't answer it myself. You said:

Can you please provide a source to back up your claim that their "black-art method .... is surprisingly accurate and all but eliminates the error"?

The airlines are required to use a system that is realistic in how it looks at aircraft weights. In Australia that authority is CAR 235 and from that CAAP 235-1 How each airline does it is up to them so long as they comply.

Sorry, are you saying that being 10% out when estimating carry-on luggage weight would mean "we have an accident waiting to happen"?

I'm assuming that's not what you meant, as if that was even close to being true, then it would unquestionably be necessary to weigh every piece of luggage. Furthermore, since we know that people weigh much more than their carry-on luggage, and that there is huge variability in the weight of people (even among those within the same category, such as "adult male"), it is clear that an x% error in estimating passenger weight would be a much bigger problem than an x% error in estimating carry-on weight. As such, if it was important for safety reasons to know the weight of carry-on luggage, then it would have to be important to know the weight of passengers too. It makes no sense to say we can just guesstimate the much larger number but then worry about the smaller number.

It is most certainly not what I meant. I left out a couple of words which changed the context to ambiguous. (I knew what I meant as did several others) The percentages were referring to total aircraft weights. If you now read what was said in that context it makes sense. You will also note the requirement on smaller aircraft to weigh everything. The CAAP explains the logic. I will add though that unlimited weights as you suggest will overload the overhead lockers and that in itself would be a breach.

I think it's pretty clear that the safety margin regarding weight is much larger than the potential error associated with their estimates, and therefore there is simply no safety issue here - hence many airlines do not even bother to impose a weight limit on carry-on bags, and most make little effort to reliably estimate passenger weight. Simply asking everyone for their DOB or even to self declare an estimated weight would dramatically increase the accuracy of their calculations - but it seems clear they don't think this is necessary or worth bothering with.

I disagree with you here as would the airlines. As has been mentioned several times there are some airlines that always weigh carry-on bags and that is due to aircraft performance limitations. (The higher the temperature, the shorter the runway and the higher the airfield the lower the aircraft performance.)

Remembering that airline regulations frequently overlap from country to country, this makes interesting reading from the FAA: ‘Under FAA regulations, anything that is larger than your airline’s carry-on bag weight/height restrictions must be checked.’
This would overlap into Australia as the FAA regulations apply unless there is a specific local regulation on the subject. So if airline 'A' imposes a limit of 7Kg then that is the legal limit.

There are many links so I’ve only included a few. There is plenty more out there if you search a little.

CAAP 235-1 - Standard passenger and ... - Civil Aviation Safety Authority

CAA NZ AC119_4.pdf

Survey on standard weights of passengers and baggage - EASA

How do pilots determine the weight of a passenger flight before taking off?