American Airlines flight attendants are voicing their concerns about a corporate decision to remove the much-loathed bag sizers from gate areas, and while this is designed to be a win for the customer experience, I totally understand why flight attendants are so concerned.
The Fort Worth-based carrier started to remove bag sizers last month from gate areas, and while the ugly metal contraptions will remain present in check-in lobbies, passengers who skip check-in and head straight to the gate won’t ever have to face the indignity of trying to fit their luggage in a bag sizer.
That is, of course, the whole point of American Airlines removing the bag sizers. They are viewed by many passengers as a horrible and incredibly customer-unfriendly form of control that has set the scene for many an airport meltdown.
We’ve all seen those viral videos of irate passengers going beserk as they desperately try to squeeze their hand luggage into a bag sizer to avoid an additional fee… these are the kind of ugly scenes that American Airlines is no doubt trying to avoid.
Not that the carrier’s hand luggage restrictions are changing. It’s just that gate agents are now expected to guess whether someone’s hand luggage is within the limits or not.
Given that gate agents are meant to err on the side of the customer, and the fact that multiple studies have shown that 40% of people can’t accurately guess the size of an object, flight attendants are worried about more and more oversized hand luggage being brought onboard.
The very real concern is that hand luggage management is simply being shifted from the gate to the cabin, with flight attendants left fighting to find space for bags because passengers are being allowed to flout the rules.
In most cases, these kinds of issues are quickly resolved, but as a flight attendant, I’ve seen firsthand situations where all the overhead bins are already rammed full, and yet there are still dozens of large rollaboard cases cluttering the aisle, with passengers unable to move.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents crew members at American Airlines, rightly points out that this kind of situation could be disastrous in the event of an emergency evacuation. And the thing is, it’s so easily avoidable by managing hand luggage at the gate.
I’m not going to suggest that hand luggage should be banned from the airplane cabin, and everyone should be forced to check in their bags. That just isn’t going to happen, and I see the very real value of being able to travel with hand luggage only.
At the same time, giving passengers tacit approval to try their luck comes with obvious safety risks.
What’s likely to happen is that, as American Airlines becomes increasingly concerned about the risk of hand luggage issues delaying boarding, gate agents will be pressured to gate check even more bags.
And what does that mean? More customer frustration at the gate and onboard when passengers realize that there would have actually been plenty of space in the overhead bins for their hand luggage if the gate agents hadn’t been so overzealous in gate-checking bags.
The whole airport experience can be incredibly stressful, but don’t think that the removal of bag sizers at the gate is going to be the calming antidote to this… It’s likely just to create new sources of stress.
United removed sizers a couple years ago. Hasn’t been an issue at all.