On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 08:14:35PM -0600, Stan Halpin wrote: > > On Feb 5, 2010, at 9:52 AM, Tom C wrote: > > > I've heard this .. 'The number one reason for late departures is because > > travelers delay > > departure by not handling their carryon items properly.' > > > > WHAT??? The CUSTOMER is responsible for late departures? Who decided > > to change their policy and charge an exhorbitant fee to check luggage, > > so that now 70% of the passengers bring the larger carrier on bags > > into the passenger compartment? THE AIRLINE. ... > > I travel frequently, my wife has been logging 1600+ miles per week for over > two years now. We have friends who are (former) executives at airlines, > friends who are current or former pilots for major airlines, friends who are > gate agents. One thing I know from my personal experience and from talking > with my friends is that there is no such thing as THE AIRLINE. For that > matter, I can't think of any organization with more than one or two persons > which is so monolithic that it could be described in such terms. The bean > counters at Delta, United, etc. try to figure ways to avoid too great a > financial loss. The PR folks establish schedules that seem to ignore the > possibility of weather, inadequate staffing of FAA controllers or other > disruption, in order to try and fill one more passenger onto the plane. The > cabin crew are left with trying to pleasantly cope with a bunch of frustrated > people who would rather save a few bucks than check their bags (and who > apparently are clueless a > bout size limitations). The flight crew is left with trying to get out and > away as fast as possible so they don't get a black mark with a "late" > arrival. The experienced traveler is left to recall when airline travel was > better than riding the Greyhound bus, as he sits with his knees in his face, > his obese seat mate's blubber spilling across the arm rest, just hoping they > get it together soon and get underway so that the torture will soon be over.
A point that Tom also conveniently ignores, when assigning blame, is that THE AIRLINE has to sell a product people will buy. As the great American public has consistently demonstrated, they will buy the product at the cheapest price point, no matter what other drawbacks there are. That means that THE AIRLINE will do everything it can to keep the base price down, even if this means add-on fees for checked baggage. That same spirit of cheapness is why people will try and bring on too many (or too large) carry-on items - they aren't prepared to pay an extra $10 for comfort, and so they make everybody else suffer. But I would certainly hate to be the agent that had to tell the worst abusers that they couldn't take *that* on board. I must admit I've stretched the rules myself - my Pelican 1510 case qualifies as a carry-on on most airlines, and I regularly flew with that and my computer bag. While technically within the rules, it does push them to the extremes. But I'm not really prepared to hand either pieces of equipment over to baggage handlers if I can avoid it. Sometimes it's unavoidable - the 250-600 has to go in the hold - but generally the "one bag + one item such as a computer or camera" is enough. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
