BA Hand Baggage Allowance - Really?
 

Mrs ONB just spotted that BA's website says that on a Eurotraveller ticket each passenger is allowed 2 pieces of hand baggage (as well as 1 hold bag, 23Kg).

Yes, well, I knew that; what I didn't know is that the maximum allowed weight of each piece is 23Kg, ie 46Kg per person. Size restrictions apply, of course.

Now if, say, 100 passengers on a flight use that allowance that would add 4.6 tonnes, quite a lot, even if they could manage to heave it into the cabin in the first place.

t's unlikely, of course, to put it mildly, that anything like that would or even could happen.

But I am wondering why BA set the figure so high. Can anyone throw some light on it?

If it did say that it would be a typo. However, I can't find anything on their site which suggests you can take 2 pieces of hand baggage, each weighing 23Kg. On certain flights you can take 2 pieces for the hold, weighing a maximum of 23Kg total (not 23Kg per bag).

Yes, I thought so too, and said so to Mrs ONB. Then she showed me the webpage she had seen. I then searched the site and found Hand Baggage Allowances.

This was a different page to the one she had showed me, but it says exactly the same.

So I called Customer Services, got through promptly (now there's a first), and was told that the allowance is indeed 23Kg per item, for 2 items of hand baggage, ie 46Kg in all. I asked her several times to confirm that is is correct, which she did.

Exactly.

You would have to try fairly hard to cram 23 kg into a bag sized for the overhead bin, let alone one that will fit under your seat (unless you're a bullion dealer:O). So it's a pretty safe assumption on the part of BA that only a small proportion of pax will fall into that category.

In other words it's basically marketing, to differentiate the airline from LCCs.

Slight thread drift maybe ..The wife flew with BA short haul last week and chose hand baggage only. She received an e mail the day before saying that it would be allowed to be check into the hold at no cost and then at LHR told it would have to go into the hold no choice in the matter. Several other passengers with hand luggage were told this also. Having valuable items that she did not want to be placed in the hold she was reluctantly alllowed to take her hand baggage on board, it was nowhere near the weight limit. This particular German destination always has issues with hand baggage... so be prepared if your in the last boarding group!

I'm still trying to get my head around the 2 x 23kg CABIN baggage. Despite having now seen it with my own eyes, it just doesn't equate. Certainly never heard of before, other than the old Aeroflot days of course! :) The highest hand baggage allowance I have personally ever seen in my travels was 10Kg. Many restrict it to as low as 6Kg! I'm still wondering if it's a monumental cock up and should read 23lbs (just over 10 Kgs).

I don't think I've ever made a 23 kg single bag in the hold.. maybe if I had gold bars...

And not just on BA, I've seen the same thing many times on EZY and RYR.

Well, as far as most completely full flights are concerned, most carriers now do this. I've seen it on numerous different carriers, both loco and legacy. The main space consumers are all the bloody wheelie bags, many of which are the size of a medium suitcase! I still carry a soft shoulder bag and no one has ever tried to take it off me.

Delta from Boston to New Orleans. Last pax to board. "You can't take anything on board. This flight's completely full"

"This fits under my seat"

"You can't take anything on board. This flight's completely full" ad nauseum
At some stage, a grown-up appeared........

Agreed last time out of LGW with EZY the cabin crew asked certain people after we had boarded to request that their hand baggage be put in the hold. One person flatly refused to do this . A standoff occurred until another passenger kindly volunteered their baggage to be put in the hold instead. It had got to the stage when the pilot came to ask his crew what the problem was as we were in danger of loosing our slot. I am concerned about this as I often travel with very expensive camera gear as hand baggage ( within BA weight limits), this would be not covered by insurance in the hold and am very reluctant to let it out of my sight.
BTW the passenger concerned who refused to let their hand baggage go in the hold was of the view that a) if you book hand baggage that is what youve paid for and should receive. b) Aircraft type selected for the route should be capable of doing so without inconveniencing passengers to this degree. This is not my POV but just thought it may prove of interest in one way or another.........

So do I, always, which is why I will never surrender my bag to the hold. However, as it is a relatively small soft bag (but which I can gets loads of stuff in) it never attracts the attention of gate staff who tend to focus on the wheelies.

A guy I worked with once was on an SQ flight out of Zurich where a passenger had a dis-assembled racing bike (with wheels) as cabin baggage - what was weird was he was only challenged when on board... and it took the arrival of the Captain before the thing was taken away......

I'd say this is a typo. But, any pax taking any item of baggage with the intention of taking it into the cabin - needs to read the small print! If you do not cooperate - they can remove you from the flight without compensation. Unfortunately, many pax do not read the small print and "'But when I travelled out with BA last week - it was OK!" Is not a valid argument. :rolleyes:

well it is TBH but they won't accept it................

Unless and until the National Authorities enforce baggage limits we'll continue to have this nonsense

Point taken, the event I witnessed there wasnt really an argument the passenger flatly refused to let the baggage be put into the hold. As you said it could have resulted in offloading. I guess we would have missed our slot etc etc.
Having travelled often with valuable camera gear and irreplacable family heirlooms I hope you can understand my extreme reluctance to have them it put in the hold. If I have to of course then thats it or I get off the flight ..but hopefully it wouldnt come to that.
Has anyone read the small print on this as a matter of interest?

Small print or no small print, if they force a customer to be off loaded because that person wouldn't allow $$$$ worth of camera equipment, in a soft bag which meets the airlines cabin baggage dimensions, to be thrown into the hold, I would be very interested to see the legal ramifications. There's always a need for small print, as long as it allows staff the prerogative to use a little common sense according to the circumstances. That never used to be a problem in the distant past. Unfortunately these days it is all too common to see low paid handling agents' staff using any initiative. Indeed, they are often severely discouraged by their employers to do so!