New Baggage crackdown starts this week at VA

[pauly7]

That would at least be sensible. It is easy to see a concern over size. Weight makes no sense.

Size and number of pieces I think would be neat approach.

 

[pauly7]

Selective weigh ins today at Sydney. Staff also wandering gate and weighing bags before gate opened. They had pre printed tags ready to go.

I didn’t get stung out of Sydney on Thursday with VA. Brisbane appears to be a hot spot (perhaps closest to their HQ gets more attention....!)

 

[AviatorInsight]

I didn’t get stung out of Sydney on Thursday with VA. Brisbane appears to be a hot spot (perhaps closest to their HQ gets more attention....!)

CASA have been floating around the terminals this week, they’re watching closely.

 

[AIRwin]

Brisbane appears to be a hot spot (perhaps closest to their HQ gets more attention....!)

Saw a luggage put to a side for the hold as I was at the front of a queue boarding a full BNE-CNS flight last night...

 

[jase05]

No gate checking/sizing of luggage ADL-MEL and MEL-CBR yesterday

 

[Pleb Status]

No hand baggage weighing was evident in PER this morning, but with a PB system that actually works (complete with a dedicated 'enforcer'), I was only in the gate area for a total of about 15 seconds....

 

[Pleb Status]

No hand baggage weighing evident in MEL this afternoon either....

 

[Milefest]

2nd flight in a week and haven't been pinged. My luggage is always well overweight but within dimensions. It's possible they've been targeting general boarding pax.

 

[jasecao]

Flew SYD to OOL with checked baggag3, lady at priority boarding requested to weigh my carry on, couple before me were told to empty items to split across the both of them

 

[pauly7]

Flew SYD to OOL with checked baggag3, lady at priority boarding requested to weigh my carry on, couple before me were told to empty items to split across the both of them

Many others caught did you see?

 

[jasecao]

Many others caught did you see?

I think it was just that particular person at the checkin counter that was weighing carry on

 

[SeaWolf]

Flew PER-SYD on the 31st. They made an announcement prior to boarding starting and I decided I'd just front up and check before boarding started rather than mess around. Was a bit overweight. Gate agent absolutely ripped into me about it, got a scolding lecture. She checked it in, told me she would note my infraction and if I was ever caught again I'd be charged $70 for it.

Left a pretty negative impression, especially since those that just tried it on once boarding started and got caught had their bags checked in without comment, probably because it would have been too disruptive to the boarding process.

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Not sure why they just cant get their act together.. all the ranting about weight limit in the media and VA themselves...Flew SYD to BNE 10 days ago with the family and check in in SYD was continually announcing over the PA that 7kg is max and it will be checked. 5 of us all travelled HLO and mine was weighed not the others..what a joke.

Return out of Brisbane, nothing said, nothing weighed and the aircraft was full of the usual large carry on items that filled the cabin bins and they were asking for smaller items to be placed under seats to create more room for all the luggage. I don't know, but I am fairly confident that if overweight / larger items were checked in, there would have been plenty of room as the flight was not full of pax

 

[pauly7]

Flew PER-SYD on the 31st. They made an announcement prior to boarding starting and I decided I'd just front up and check before boarding started rather than mess around. Was a bit overweight. Gate agent absolutely ripped into me about it, got a scolding lecture. She checked it in, told me she would note my infraction and if I was ever caught again I'd be charged $70 for it.

Left a pretty negative impression, especially since those that just tried it on once boarding started and got caught had their bags checked in without comment, probably because it would have been too disruptive to the boarding process.

Is $70 the official VA fine? Seems steep, I thought Jetstars was $50.... (could be wrong)

 

[SeaWolf]

Is $70 the official VA fine? Seems steep, I thought Jetstars was $50.... (could be wrong)

I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else.

 

[Pleb Status]

Not sure why they just cant get their act together.. all the ranting about weight limit in the media and VA themselves...Flew SYD to BNE 10 days ago with the family and check in in SYD was continually announcing over the PA that 7kg is max and it will be checked. 5 of us all travelled HLO and mine was weighed not the others..what a joke.

Return out of Brisbane, nothing said, nothing weighed and the aircraft was full of the usual large carry on items that filled the cabin bins and they were asking for smaller items to be placed under seats to create more room for all the luggage. I don't know, but I am fairly confident that if overweight / larger items were checked in, there would have been plenty of room as the flight was not full of pax

This is exactly how it should be done. VA should be praised here, not criticised.

Make a lot of noise about an 'issue' so pax will self police. Weigh one or two bags randomly so it looks like something is happening but without causing any delays to operations.

VA will get 90% of the 'effect' for only 10% of the effort/disruption. Very smart move. I would prefer this approach over what has been reported on the 'Rat'....

 

[CJEMNMAC]

This is exactly how it should be done. VA should be praised here, not criticised.

Make a lot of noise about an 'issue' so pax will self police. Weigh one or two bags randomly so it looks like something is happening but without causing any delays to operations.

VA will get 90% of the 'effect' for only 10% of the effort/disruption. Very smart move. I would prefer this approach over what has been reported on the 'Rat'....

I don't agree with getting 90% of the effect for 10% of the effort/disruption but that's ok..... my point is, both directions IMO was not different really to the usual but I feel the return flight was worse. It does not take long for most people to see it is hit and miss and certainly not self policed.

I do support a crackdown as I think large / oversize etc wastes a fair bit of boarding time.

 

[Blinky]

I’ll be flying 5 VA sectors next week, so it will be interesting to see what happens. My carry on will be under 7kg, with a couple of kgs of paperwork and a laptop in my satchel, which the VA website tells me won’t be weighed.

 

[sven89]

Didn’t notice any announcements, additional signage or at-gate weighing happening in either MEL or ADL today. Did notice that in ADL there were scales at the gate, not sure if they were there previously, but didn’t see them being used

 

[Blinky]

Nothing on my five sectors this week. All I heard was warnings that bags needed to be under 7kg and may be weighed.

In my view VA has enough trouble with delays anyway (due to staffing/rostering issues IMO) that they don’t want to create further problems.

Interestingly I spoke to someone today who works on Jetstar boarding. This person confirms the bleeding obvious. That Jetstar offers lower fares purely because they make it up on over weight carry on baggage. He does not weigh small handbags, against Jetstar directions.

Anyone who contends that Jetstar acts out of concern for safety or OHS is deluding themselves.