Tag Archives for overhead bins.
Southwest has given up its advantages over competitors, its unique selling proposition. They’re becoming much more like less financially successful peers like American and JetBlue. But they’re worse.
American’s new Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden offhandedly mentions that “we’ve seen a 10% reduction in gate checked bags just within the first few weeks” of the carrier’s new boarding process.
If they’ve made changes to consciously drive down the number of bags they’re gate checking, that’s actually a huge win for customers and they should be shouting it from the rooftops! I just can’t figure out why they’re seeing this result.
Confiscating carry-ons unnecessarily is one of the things that outrages passengers most. Their bag has been taken and it didn’t even need to be! There was plenty of overhead space left! Stop the madness. And stop it, especially, at United Airlines where you have to pay a higher fare to bring on the carry-on bag in the first place.
f you aren’t at the boarding gate when your flight is called, you probably aren’t going to get overhead bin space. If the flight is full, and you aren’t among the first half of passengers on the plane, your carry-on bag is likely going to be taken away from you and gate checked.
Half the time when you get onto the plane, though, you still see overhead bins with plenty of space. You were lied to! The bins weren’t full after all. So what gives?
Airlines should charge for guaranteed overhead bin space. Most tickets come with a ‘license to hunt’ for space, rather than overhead bin space proper. And customers who believe they are entitled to bring a carry-on bag on board get stuck gate checking their bag and wasting time at baggage claim at the end of their flight.
I experienced the most interesting gate agent strategy I’ve ever seen – a passenger threat that helps align incentives with passengers to get the plane out on this, but that seems like the last thing the airline would want to be telling its customers: if you don’t do what I say, we’re going to lose your bags.
Unfortunately larger bins aren’t a panacea. Even where bins are in theory large enough to accommodate a full sized carry on bag per passenger, that requires turning carry on bags on their side, and too many passengers don’t know to do this.
Now, United Airlines has a solution. They’re trying to teach passengers how to use overhead bins properly, to get the most bags in.
Airlines also need to explain how to close these bins, too – because when properly turned sideways and all these bags are inside, the bins get quite heavy! Pull the bin down and you get a bit of an assist in closing them. They’re designed for ease, but nobody knows it!
The woman said to the crewmember that she “went to college with” Delta CEO Ed Bastian. The Delta flight attendant snapped back, “you should have kept in touch” then! I guess they weren’t that close. Attempted ‘don’t you know who I am’ failed.
At the end of the day overhead bin space is first-come, first-served. The polite thing to do is to place your personal item under the seat in front of you. Flight attendants often announce this instruction. But there’s often little enforcement – and taking matters into your own hands often won’t end well.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
