Stand-by: Payment for Overhead Locker Use is on the Way

[fountainhall]

In their efforts to continue increasing the extra amounts they can screw out of passengers, one airline - United - will next year charge those buying its cheapest economy tickets for use of the overhead bins. Your single carry-on will have to fit under your seat or you'll be paying yet another additional fee to store it above you. And where United goes, you can bet other American carriers will follow.

Delta's cheapest tickets will also no longer permit itinerary changes and seat selection.

Presumably these charges are for internal flights and not intercontinental. - yet!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/united-carry-on_us_582b3a6be4b02d21bbcab640

[Nirish guy]

I'm sure their poor overworked, stressed and already time pressurised cabin crew will just LOVE this new rule and attempted money gouge from passengers.

On the no frills stack em high sell em cheap airlines staff already seem to struggle to turn flights around in the required 10 to 15 minute slots made available to them so I can just imagine them now having to stand and argue with even more passengers, perhaps standing getting credit card machines and demanding payment to more than 3/4s of the planes passengers who find of course that you can't fit jack shit under your seat in the first place !

Plus I always thought that that under the seat option was generally a safety no no anyway and was always used only at and as a last minute "oh fuck it just put it under your seat sir we need to take off" and hadn't time to sort things in any other way.

So hopefully this is at least one stupid money gouging rule that simply won't "take off and fly" for the airlines, we'll see I guess.

[fountainhall]

In the good old far off days there were no overhead bins, just a sort of shelf where coats and other small items could be stashed. Under the seat was the norm. Mind you, seat pitch then was at least 5 to 6 inches greater than now and there was plenty of room to move from a window seat to the aisle without requiring the passengers next to you to get up. I think it was the advent of the 747s that started the overhead bin concept.

I've been often enough on US domestic carriers to know that many passengers getting on quickly will just place their bags in bins much further forward than their actual seats thereby creating all manner of havoc later in the boarding procedure. Having persuaded passengers to take only carry-ons by charging for checked baggage but without having enough bin space for everyone, the airlines are now in a bind, so I suppose paying for use of bin space was the next logical add-on cost.

As for British Airways mentioned by Scottish, it is now a painful shadow of its former self - far worse than most of the other European legacy carriers. I did a transatlantic economy round trip last summer on a new 777 and it was ghastly. Try its once lauded business class with 8 across forward/backward seating and you know what a sardine feels like in its can. I'm told Finnair's A350 now has great business class seats and about the lowest fares to Europe, so there's at least one decent competitor to the Gulf carriers.

[Nirish guy]

In the good old far off days there were no overhead bins, .

OMG for once I'm delighted to be able to say I honestly don't remember those days as that was it seems "before my time" - oh I like this thread now, it's not often one gets to say that these days anymore on this or any board ! :-)

[GWMinUS]

Well the charges for checked luggage have compelled many travelers to resort to carry-on and overwhelmed those bins. On my recent trip on Delta my partner and I booked their "upgrade" to Comfort Class. And even thought the overhead bins were clearly marked for the seating section, they were already full. Our carry-on bags had to go 10 rows further back. So much for being the first to deplane. Wish I was rich like some of you guys and could actually book Business Class. SIGH...

[goji]

The 737 and A321 could benefit from reworking to suit their use. Under the floor is a large empty space for checked luggage. Above the passengers are luggage bins which are just too small. What they need to do is lower the floor and then put in larger overhead luggage bins.

My carry on luggage always goes under the seat in front, except for when I'm in an exit row seat. If I'm in row 1, I make use of the early boarding rights so the bag can go in the locker nearest my seat.

Charging for the use of overhead lockers will be difficult to enforce.

[fountainhall]

I agree with goji that lowering the floor under each seat to enable a bag to be properly stored there would be a great idea. However, scheduled airlines also carry freight and the freight containers fit very tightly into the cargo space below the cabin. Equally some smaller aircraft also stow luggage in containers. Lowering the floor would immediately reduce freight revenue - so the airlines would be no better off.

Perhaps this might work in the low cost carrier business model since the short turn-around times make it difficult to load/unload freight.

[goji]

Perhaps this might work in the low cost carrier business model since the short turn-around times make it difficult to load/unload freight.

That is precisely the segment where I propose modifying the aircraft architecture. Since most of the new 737s and A321s go to low cost airlines, it would make sense to reduce the under utilised freight space. I would then expand the overhead lockers.