This is the one you've been waiting for
A Runyonesque Character
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: The South of France ... Not
Age: 74
Posts: 1,209
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
This is the one you've been waiting for
This is hysterical - watch the video.
We await Mr O'Leary's response.
Jaktogo The Suitcase That Transforms Into A Coat: Airport International News
PS this is not a product endorsement, nothing to do with me, Guv
We await Mr O'Leary's response.
Jaktogo The Suitcase That Transforms Into A Coat: Airport International News
PS this is not a product endorsement, nothing to do with me, Guv
Paxing All Over The World
Well, what goes around comes around, 15 years ago I used to travel with 'Cargo' pants and a photographer's jacket with more pockets than you could find on it and it worked. But people like to push and then try to break rules.
All this takes is one line of small text on the FR website and it won't work any more! Once they x-ray that, they will see what's inside and surcharge.
NEXT!!!!
All this takes is one line of small text on the FR website and it won't work any more! Once they x-ray that, they will see what's inside and surcharge.
NEXT!!!!
Paxing All Over The World
You know - we're really so lucky in the SLF forum. Just when the 'Airbus yellow brackets on the wings' thread dies down, along comes another bundle of joy. 
A Runyonesque Character
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: The South of France ... Not
Age: 74
Posts: 1,209
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Slightly off-topic, but I’m reminded of the year I spent on BOAC check-in at LHR. Individual flights had dedicated desks and there was one particular weekly flight (not BOAC but another airline we handled) which you dreaded being rostered on to. If you were on a late shift on a Sunday afternoon, you travelled into work with a sense of dread hanging over you.
The rule at the time was that hand baggage was part of the 20kg free allowance, and liable to be weighed, although most passengers didn't realise this. In fact if they put an 18kg case on the scale, that was good enough. If it was 20kg we might ask to weigh the hand baggage but another 2-3kg would be ignored, maybe with a friendly hint to bear it in mind in future.
But on this particular flight, which was invariably full, passengers would turn up with giant holdalls as well as their cases. There was invariably a fight to get them to put these on the scales, and another fight to extract the excess charge from them. There would be scenes of unpacking and repacking as they left stuff behind (they were invariably accompanied by seers-off who could carry it away).
Then we noticed that they were putting empty holdalls on the scales. We’d see them afterwards disappearing behind a pillar and filling them up. So we started writing the weight of the holdall on the handbaggage tag – 1kg, 2kg etc. The passenger would be warned, in no uncertain terms, that gate staff would check the weight of the luggage against what was written on the tag, and if the two didn't match they wouldn't be allowed to board.
Then we started to get word from the gate people that they were seeing handbaggage tags marked 11kg, 12kg etc where the figures appeared to have been written in two different inks. So we had to start spelling out the weight – one kg, two kgs etc. It was a war of attrition, and I’m not sure who won in the end.
I should point out that the flight, although its ultimate destination was XXX, continued with a change of flight number to YYY. Every single passenger was travelling on to this further destination, you never, ever saw a local origin/destination passenger. They would travel on the one other weekly flight of this airline. Also, they were all (treading carefully here) of a clearly identifiable ethnic/religious group.
Oh, and then there were the guns, between a dozen and 15 every flight. But that was another story.
The rule at the time was that hand baggage was part of the 20kg free allowance, and liable to be weighed, although most passengers didn't realise this. In fact if they put an 18kg case on the scale, that was good enough. If it was 20kg we might ask to weigh the hand baggage but another 2-3kg would be ignored, maybe with a friendly hint to bear it in mind in future.
But on this particular flight, which was invariably full, passengers would turn up with giant holdalls as well as their cases. There was invariably a fight to get them to put these on the scales, and another fight to extract the excess charge from them. There would be scenes of unpacking and repacking as they left stuff behind (they were invariably accompanied by seers-off who could carry it away).
Then we noticed that they were putting empty holdalls on the scales. We’d see them afterwards disappearing behind a pillar and filling them up. So we started writing the weight of the holdall on the handbaggage tag – 1kg, 2kg etc. The passenger would be warned, in no uncertain terms, that gate staff would check the weight of the luggage against what was written on the tag, and if the two didn't match they wouldn't be allowed to board.
Then we started to get word from the gate people that they were seeing handbaggage tags marked 11kg, 12kg etc where the figures appeared to have been written in two different inks. So we had to start spelling out the weight – one kg, two kgs etc. It was a war of attrition, and I’m not sure who won in the end.
I should point out that the flight, although its ultimate destination was XXX, continued with a change of flight number to YYY. Every single passenger was travelling on to this further destination, you never, ever saw a local origin/destination passenger. They would travel on the one other weekly flight of this airline. Also, they were all (treading carefully here) of a clearly identifiable ethnic/religious group.
Oh, and then there were the guns, between a dozen and 15 every flight. But that was another story.
