Originally Posted by Riverboat
Charging for checked-in baggage seems logical to me, as it allows fares to be lower for people that only have hand baggage.
This is a bit of a non sequitur, speaking as a very regular business travel pax, as those without bags tend to be the business travellers who book the day before and are travelling at high fares. It is the families who manage to book long in advance for the "penny" fares who are the ones who bring everything with them. I would guess that maybe carriers are finding it is costing them more just to handle the bags for these passengers than they are taking in revenue. But lower fares for those of us in a suit with only a laptop ? Can't quite see that.
Originally Posted by sky9
This clever idea will backfire badly when the first heavy landing drops 20kg bags onto the heads of some unsuspecting passenger.
I cannot understand how the CAA show a continuing blind eye to this one. Many of us will have seen the bins open in turbulence or a firm landing and some contents come out. Myself I often have a heavy laptop up there, sometimes two (once three and a projector). We can't send these by hold baggage with mechanical handling as they would be broken, yet the airlines make no other provision for them. Don't forget I was saying we are the ones paying the highest fares in the cabin.