I boarded Qantas 737 Melbourne to Adelaide last week, they didn't weigh or ask about our carry on luggage.

Once seated a number of announcements where made saying it will be a full plane and the overhead lockers will be full and if you could kindly place your carry on under the seats in front of you. The lockers where decently overflowing and bags where just not fitting anywhere and people where just dragging all there massive carry on up the isles looking for places to fit it....I wonder if the plane was actually going to get of the ground!

My next regional flight they announced after we where boarded that 8 suitcases are getting removed and could the following people (shortest straws) come forward and give details and collect any valuables within the cases they may need. What the hell is going on?

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southace said..
I boarded Qantas 737 Melbourne to Adelaide last week, they didn't weigh or ask about our carry on luggage.

Once seated a number of announcements where made saying it will be a full plane and the overhead lockers will be full and if you could kindly place your carry on under the seats in front of you. The lockers where decently overflowing and bags where just not fitting anywhere and people where just dragging all there massive carry on up the isles looking for places to fit it....I wonder if the plane was actually going to get of the ground!

My next regional flight they announced after we where boarded that 8 suitcases are getting removed and could the following people (shortest straws) come forward and give details and collect any valuables within the cases they may need. What the hell is going on?

Quaintarse just aint what they used to be, probably the result of getting rid of those that knew what was going on and keeping those that should have gone. (ex Qantas employee here though left long before the plague.)

Nobody wants to check luggage in if they can avoid it since the chance of it going astray is so high. So, lots more people are taking oversize bags onto the plane. QANTAS doesn't police carry-on bag sizes and weights (unlike Jetstar that hit you with a $50 surcharge for being 0.1kg over), so you just end up with waaay too much carry-on luggage. There's likely to still be plenty of room in the cargo hold.

I'm a regular flyer for work and QANTAS is woeful compared to what it was before COVID. Even the service in the lounge has dropped significantly. I used to go out of my way to book QANTAS, but not anymore. Probably prefer Virgin now and I won't touch Jetstar.

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Harrow said..
Nobody wants to check luggage in if they can avoid it since the chance of it going astray is so high. So, lots more people are taking oversize bags onto the plane. QANTAS doesn't police carry-on bag sizes and weights (unlike Jetstar that hit you with a $50 surcharge for being 0.1kg over), so you just end up with waaay too much carry-on luggage. There's likely to still be plenty of room in the cargo hold.

Right so that doesn't bother the pilots having all that excess un weighed bricks of lead or gold ingots dragged aboard and shoved somewhere where ever it fits on the passenger deck?

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southace said..
Right so that doesn't bother the pilots having all that excess un weighed bricks of lead or gold ingots dragged aboard and shoved somewhere where ever it fits on the passenger deck?

Probably more bother for the poor flight attendants? Every flight has been comical lately, watching them try to jam the bags in somehow. It is quite amazing what size bags people have the gall to bring as carry-on.

I experienced the same on a flight recently from Sydney to Perth. They announced that if possible people could give them their luggage to get stowed in the luggage hold. I was a bit surprised as I usually only carry a backpack with laptop in it and the minimum tech gear for the flight. Pretty small, and easy to jam into the overhead lockers.

When I looked around, there were a lot of people with mini suitcases as carry on. I think a lot of them wouldn't have fit the limits, and it looked like one family seated nearby had a mini suitcase for everyone including the kids. I can sort of understand people wanting to maximise the amount of luggage they can take, but extra pieces are not that expensive.

My bag ended up getting squeezed in on top of someone else's suitcase, but I did wonder why Qantas were not policing the carry on limits as there is no way you could fit in one mini suitcase for every person onboard.

From my experience, I can only guess that people are just trying to get the most luggage for the least amount of money.

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southace said..
What the hell is going on?

www.abc.net.au/4corners/flight-risk:-the-inside-story-of-the-chaos-at/14044048

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southace said..

Harrow said..
Nobody wants to check luggage in if they can avoid it since the chance of it going astray is so high. So, lots more people are taking oversize bags onto the plane. QANTAS doesn't police carry-on bag sizes and weights (unlike Jetstar that hit you with a $50 surcharge for being 0.1kg over), so you just end up with waaay too much carry-on luggage. There's likely to still be plenty of room in the cargo hold.

Right so that doesn't bother the pilots having all that excess un weighed bricks of lead or gold ingots dragged aboard and shoved somewhere where ever it fits on the passenger deck?

Probably not too much. Standard weights are allocated to the passengers and carry on. Some weigh more, some weigh less. In reality most passengers are probably more than the standard nowadays, but it's legal and the regulator is happy! There's a fair bit of fat in the performance numbers.

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Tequila ! said..

Happens on Qantas as well, though not quite like your pic, quite perturbing when one goes onto the flight deck to find both the pilots "napping". A discreet withdrawal followed by a phone call asking if they would like a fresh coffee saves the day, and face.

I have a feeling it's something to do with self check in and bag drop. Could easily drop your bags and have a 20kg carry on. I wonder if Jetstars A320 don't have as much power as the Qantas 737 400 hence why they are so strict on carry on weights. As I a yachtie and marine Captain I know where I want my carry on luggage stored! ??

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southace said..
I have a feeling it's something to do with self check in and bag drop.

To some degree that could be correct.

Airlines have brought this upon themselves with the LCC model. Give you a cheap ticket but charge for every conceivable extra (Ryan air was going to charge to use the toilet - Not sure how they got on with that one). So people started packing larger fuller carry on because checked luggage was expensive.

There are several 'check-points' along the way with check-in being the first to evaluate the size and weigh of cary-on luggage. But with airlines outsourcing to low paid contractors, the employees can't be bothered with the arguments with the 'entitled customer is always correct' brigade. The last stop is the cabin crew, but by that stage there is not a real lot that can be done without major disruptions.

'Controlled rest' as it is called is nothing new. It is allowed and in many cases encouraged, but there are mitigators and procedures that should be in the companies operating manuals for its use.