BA carry on

A snowHead

Question 1. Am I pushing my luck to use a 49x36x11 boot/laptop bag as my second piece of carry on luggage ( max dimensions 40x30x15) with BA. I will also have a pull along maxed out to size 56x45x25.

Question 2. Does anybody carry their bindings in hand luggage?

A snowHead

I assume you mean something like this boot bag. I took it as my second cabin bag, but keep my jacket over it so it looked like a large laptop bag. Also which cabin, and how full the flight is may make a difference. Fly Business/Club in the middle of the afternoon, maybe not an issue, flying Economy on a 07:00 100% full flight at Easter, may be more of a problem.

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I’m sure some have mentioned taking bindings in cabin bags, but that may have been Snowboard bindings, rather than ski bindings. I’m not sure I would risk it, as you never know what the security staff will do.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@WASHOUT, The limits for the second piece of hand baggage are clear, and you know every well that this bag does not comply. You knew that when you booked the ticket. You may well get away with it but that is not the point, why did you book a ticket with clear terms and conditions and then decide you wanted more than you paid for? Are you so special that you think that any rules or restrictions inherent in the product you have paid for should apply to everyone else and not you? I really dislike this attitude, which I see far too often. Have you even considered the fact that if you take a second piece of hand baggage that will not fit under the seat in front of you, you will be denying overhead locker space to someone else (who is considerate enough to not try and get more than they are entitled to)? And that if everyone did it, the majority of the plane load would not be able to travel with hand baggage in the cabin? Of course not, because you think it will be ok because you are more important/special/entitled so it is ok for you to do it but not for everyone to do it. What a selfish toad you are.

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@zikomo, What did you have in your breakfast this morning? Calm down a bit Shocked

@WASHOUT, Fly BA quite a bit, as said above if its not busy you will probably be ok, the smaller bag may be tagged to fit under the seat in front, so they may ask to see it to do that, that is when you may have an issue, we just use 2 bags that are exactly the size limits and boots go in the bigger bag. other stuff in the smaller one. Security may get grumpy about the bindings however, especially if there any screws with them, do you need the stress?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@zikomo you sound like my mother, she always referred to me as "special" Very Happy

Never being called a toad before....

Probably right with bindings not worth the hassle.

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@zikomo, firstly the OP didn't say they "had already" booked a ticket and wanted to contravene the T's and C's. In my view they are asking before.

Secondly, they didn't indicate that they intended to put the bag in the overhead. I fly BA a lot 240,000 miles last year and I see a lot of contravention of the rules.

The OP is only asking if they can get away with taking it on and I assume putting it at their feet. It will fit under the seat.

I contravene the rules by 5cm on every ski trip with my Rab 50L as overhead carry on (it is 30cm tall), but because of the squashable nature it takes up less room than my Hartmann 7R aluminium cabin bag. So I don't see a problem.

Calling someone a toad is out of order on snowheads. Rather than a go at the OP, simply say to the OP that they won't be allowed this bag.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Not really worth the risk ,stick to correct dimensions .I was travelling to Zurich with 2 mates we all had exactly the same luggage except mine was a blue colour carry in rather than black , bA check IN STAFF asked me to mine in the sizing cage ! She said mine looked bigger . @WASHOUT,

After all it is free

My gut feeling, based on this winter’s experience, is that they are getting more strict. I check everything apart from a little day- pack so I don’t have an issue, but I have seen more vigilance and passengers being asked to size their luggage this winter than ever before. Not based on anything concrete, just an observation.

Our checked bags were 51 lbs and 49 lbs and we were asked to repack and even up the weight. United Denver to Calgary regional flight. Business class. I’ve never been asked to do that before...,I won’t be going out of my way to fly United in the near future either....

lynnecha What a bummer having to equalise weight, such bureaucratic nonsense, you will had the same total weight between the two bags so this seems a pointless exercise, a total jobs worth looking for gold stars!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

“if you take a second piece of hand baggage that will not fit under the seat in front of you, you will be denying overhead locker space to someone else“

Got to agree with this. As a BA pilot if I had a tenner for every time we were late pushing back because all the cabin bags won’t fit in the space available, I’d be a lot better off! They are cracking down, but at the same time there seems to be an increase in the number of people trying to push the boundaries. If you don’t need it during the flight, why not check it in? Unless you’ve planned your flight to transfer situation so tight you are only going to lose 10-20 mins of your holiday to standing by the carousel. Relax a little bit and free yourself from having to drag all your luggage through the airport with you!

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@pandora, though of course we took this approach with our laptop because the laptop bag was outside the allowable dimensions and we had to have the bag found in the Salzburg as they refuse to let us check in laptops.... though only asked the question AFTER she had sent through the first case!

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@pandora, while I agree with the don't push it point, and I don't push it, I carry what's valuable and important to me. What I "need" on the flight would fit into a shoebox and I guess many people are the same

Given that BA once flew to Turin without ANY checked in luggage on the flight due to delays in baggage handling at Gatwick and not wanting to miss their landing slot, I am now paranoid about always taking essentials for the first day or two of the holiday in hand luggage.

Also, given the exorbitant fees for having luggage checked in that budget airlines (+BA/Swiss/Norwegian etc) charge, it incentivises you to travel with hand luggage only. If the whole plane is doing that, you're going to run out of overhead locker space on every flight that's nearly full.

I travelled on Air Corsica last summer for little more than easyJet. Included in the price was checked in luggage, pre-booked seats and snacks and drinks on the flight. That is the model the non-budget airlines should follow - offering a clear distinction to the service on budget airlines for a slightly higher fare. BA used to do that for European flights, but its offering now is as bad as most budget airlines.

You know it makes sense.

But suggul, "given the exorbitant fees for having luggage checked in that budget airlines (+BA..."

BA only charge for luggage on some Basic tickets, where it is made clear on booking that a checked piece of baggage is not included in the fare price, and it also makes clear what the permitted dimensions are for your cabin baggage. Why you would book a Basic fare, knowing you have more than your hand baggage allowance to try and squeeze on is beyond me. Are you saying that you would like to airlines to take the hit for the extra fuel required to carry your luggage, rather than the passengers paying for it? The fact is that the set up and running costs of £75m airliner, the crew to fly it, the fuel to power it, and the ground staff and facilities to support it, cost money. Everyone wants high quality services for less than ever before, and the airlines tap into it by shaving away the things that used to be free, such as bags, meals, even the ability to check in at the airport, then they incrementally add these costs back on. You can't get away with not paying for it if you want it - if you want to eat on board these days you usually have to pay for the meal. So it stands to reason that if you want to take an amount of baggage with you (and let's face it, skiing is not a sport which lends itself to travelling light!) then you'll either end up paying the fare for a flight that includes a piece of hold luggage, or you'll have to pay a fee for your bags if you choose a ticket that doesn't include a baggage allowance.

Everyone has a story about the time a bag didn't turn up. I have had my bag left behind 3 times in 20 years of flying round the world as a passenger and a staff member, and in that time I know of only a handful of situations where we left passengers' baggage behind. It often falls to me to go and apologise to these passengers even though baggage handling is nothing to do with me, so these instances stick in my head. Far more often we miss a slot and delay a flight (which leads to knock on effects of passengers missing connecting flights and more) than go without bags. There are massive security implications surrounding bags travelling without their owning passenger which means it is much more preferable to delay the flight than leave them behind to be sent on at a later time. The exceptions to this are when an airport closes and the flight is due to arrive close to this time. In these circumstances it is better to go with no bags and actually get there that day than to delay while the bags are found and be turned away from an airport because it has closed for the night. Trust me, there is nothing you can do to get some airports to stay open for you if you do not get there before they close!

It is not unreasonable to be cautious and take a clean change of pants and a toothbrush. And your laptop should never be packed into the hold. But 'needing' to have your boots and bindings in your hand luggage is nothing short of ridiculous.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@pandora, laptops from certain countries they were insisting on having them in the hold and from those countries which DO let you take them in hand luggage we were advised to endure sufficient charge to power up at security. We put it into the hold to avoid having issues in security and to reduce the amount of hand luggage we were taking through.

It is also inline with this advice:

https://www.gov.uk/hand-luggage-restrictions/electronic-devices-and-electrical-items

Our boot bag which was technically hand luggage we took the invite to check it in with our stuff rather than keep it with us.

A snowHead

@pandora, I can live without the toothbrush and spare pants (shops exist in ski resorts) but I "need" my boots as they are set up to take my ski mojo, which I also put in my (within size) carry on, as well as my hefty knee brace. Without that trio I would not be able to ski so yes... I "need" them in my hand luggage.

A snowHead

@pandora, 2 consecutive years flying BA from North America to Switzerland and my ski bag didn't arrive with me. I arrived Saturday, ski bag arrived Tuesday night this year, last year it took until Wednesday night. Fortunately, my ski boots were in the overhead with me both times (and always will be when going on a ski trip).

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pandora,

How is it ridiculous to need your boots in hand luggage?

We've had checked in luggage (including skis, ski boots, mountain bikes, ski clothes and ice axes) delayed over 20 times in the past, so now travel with our ski clothes and ski boots in our hand luggage. The past 2 years in a row our skis did not turn up in the USA - last year with United and this year with KLM.

It's usually taken at least 2 days to have our missing luggage delivered to us, with it twice taking 4 days to deliver our skis.

If airlines delivered our luggage on time we wouldn't "need" to travel with ski kit in our hand luggage.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I've had my bag misplaced on 3/4 birthday bashes. Thankfully ALL on the way back but now I don't risk it. I even fly GLA-LGW collect my bag and recheck. It is worth the extra few hours in LGW 1st class lounge (very nice) just to make sure. Happy

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Another vote for ski kit in hand luggage. My cabin bag does not exceed normal dimensions but, if my main bag goes missing, all I have to do is hire skis and I'm good to go.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Well, I will bow out. Either you lot are incredibly unlucky or I am very lucky indeed. I currently ski 3-5 times a year, only ever fly on my own airline, and have had skis misplaced once. They turned up later that afternoon. They had only gone missing because they had been chucked on at last minute on standby and had not quite made it to the aircraft in time.

After all it is free

@pandora, Maybe employees get a special sticker on their bags??

Honestly, I've only had luggage delayed 4 times in over 40 years of flying hundreds of flights. 3 of those 4 have, however, been ski bags and 2 of those in just the last 12+ months. but, 1 day of skiing in rental boots is too many.

@mr. mike,

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I've had ski bags miss flights at least 3 times most recently returning from the US which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as delivered to home via taxi next evening was far better than lugging them on train n tube.

So yeah I take my ski boots in hand luggage. One might suggest a BA pilot's stuff is handled rather more prefentially than joe schmoe's.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

3 bags gone astray in my family over 40ish years. Most years that will be about 4 people and 2-5 trips a year (excluding business travel and I used to fly out every week). One on those was a summer trip, bag delayed about 2 days and was couriered to the hotel. Another was a return ski trip and that bag actually beat me home. Only one lost bag in all those flights. Not a terrific service, but I do appreciate the difficulties involved especially given my line of work.

1 BA, 1 Air Canada and I think the other was a TO trip (probably Inghams).

As Pandora says, baggage handling is next to FA to do with the airlines. Take you complaints to the baggage handlers (and possibly my colleagues).

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@pandora, BA and UK baggage handlers on the way out are great. 240k miles/year and one one bag delayed. VCE to UK 3/4 delayed.

LHR T5 is great. great system.

@GlasgowCyclops,
That's the one my mates worked on wink

Help!!

BA carry on

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