Don't confused two issues here.
The PA asking for volunteers to put bags into the hold is just that.
In return the pax will get free speedy boarding.. oh and they won't get charged the £50 fine for having a too big a bag in the first place!!
For pax convenient and on time performance, I would much rather the ground crews were proactive and asked for volunteers rather than forcing people to pay or for bags to be offloaded from in the cabin which takes even more time.
I imagine we will see easy getting much more strict on hand luggage in the future though.
As for the diversion to Madrid, you can sure as hell bet that fuel was requested. The crew want to get back home too!
Last edited by EcamSurprise; 16th Jan 2013 at 15:11.