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Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

Yeah the airlines don't like to let passengers back off the plane because boarding the plane takes so long.

But rather than the fix the root of the problem of why boarding takes so long(because nobody wants to check bags any more because fees), their solution is to repeal regulations that let people off the plane in the event of an extreme delay.

Chronic delays actually have an impact on the economy as a whole in loss of productivity. But the greater good never seems to be of interest any more. And here the concern is only to the airlines bottom line.

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> because nobody wants to check bags any more because fees

I hear this a lot but is there any truth to this? I would think the chance of loss and breakage is a much bigger problem than a few dollars. Aside from clothes and perhaps shoes there's little I am willing to risk checking in. And then again: my tshirts are carefully collected (I no longer wear conference tshirts) and would be hard to replace. My shoes and sandals are comfortable on unusual feet and can hold my arch support inserts well and it's unfeasible to replace them in a foreign city. Even in my base cities it takes a hell of a time to buy new footwear.

I'm sure both reasons contribute.

I plan all trips to be checked baggage free if possible.

You get charged more, the TSA and baggage handlers will steal and damage things, and it can add a lot of extra time for the airline to get the luggage to the carousel.

I am always just stunned about how ppl in the US fly mostly without luggage checked in because there are so many disincentives to do so.

People are absolutely trying to about baggage fees now, with the result being overhead bins being packed to the brim and causing delayed when people's stuff won't fit and had to be gate checked.

For a $300-400 ticket, baggage fees can amount to 10-20% of the cost of ticket so many people are in fact motivated to avoid the fees.

Ryanair used to be one of the worst for passengers avoiding the luggage fee. With flights costing as little as £5, but luggage being about £20, that's no surprise.

But last month, I flew Copenhagen-London with only an ordinary backpack. My print-at-home boarding pass clearly showed[1] that if my bag was larger than a normal backpack (i.e. too big to fit under a seat), it would probably be checked in at the gate during boarding.

With everyone aware of this, I saw no arguments, and boarding the plane was orderly and fast. There was a trolley for the gate-checked bags to be put on, as we walked to the plane.

[1] https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/help-centre/faq-ov...

For me it's a time thing. Assuming the checked bag arrives, you now have to wait at luggage claim to get the bag. This can end up taking a lot of time.

If your bag is lost, now your entire trip has blocks of wasted time trying to retrieve the bag.

The fees are only a small part of why I refuse to check bags.

Tangent aside, it's quite true - no one checks bags due to the fees and airlines are disinclined to enforce their rules. Last time I flew in the US I got into a near fight with a guy who was allowed to bring 3 large carry-on bags onto a fully packed flight and start to smash his bag against mine to make it fit. He did not respond to my objection well.

Now this is a case of an ass being an ass, true, but he refused to allow the attendant to check his bag because of "fees"; whether or not you pay them at that point is kind of irrelevant as it's the fear of the fees that get people riled up. Personally I'd be fine with the fees, but the airlines also mistake customer service with just not enforcing their own rules. So people who do pay fees or pack more appropriately end up getting screwed and those who try to skirt the fees bother the rest, and the airlines don't seem to care either way.

I don't know what the difference is with US domestic and EU International, but during my time abroad, I've never had this issue, but I've also noticed that the attendants for non-US airlines have no problem enforcing the rules.

So from my experience, it's just a matter of US Domestic flights trying to do as little as possible to be a service provider while charging the same as any other airline normally would. Even Aeroflot is better than US domestics.

Most European airlines have limits on the size of luggage you can take onboard. If you have baggage that is larger than the limit they’ll make you check it in, and charge you the airport fee which is a lot higher than if you booked it when you bought the ticket.

Well, US domestic flights do too (it's more generous than EU carriers I believe), but still limited. However, my point was more than during my time in various EU countries and Russia, this limit is much more carefully enforced, especially on crowded flights.

Domestic US carriers never seem to enforce such limits for whatever reason, and it's a personal annoyance. I'm a nerd who follows the rules and packs as light as possible for travel, so part of this is just annoyance that others don't have the same courtesy, but it really is frustrating based on my traveling experiences to see how much more you can get away with on US flights in terms of bending the rules.

>"I hear this a lot but is there any truth to this?"

Yes. In fact its not uncommon for flights to run out of overhead bin space before the plane is fully boarded. The carriers have now started offering premium boarding which ensures that you will have access to overhead bin space.

It has less to do with the thread of losing checked bags and more to do with the now standard $25.00 per checked bag fee that nearly all US carriers have.

Even if checked bags was free. And somehow there wasn't the precedent of damage.

I still wouldn't until they improved delays at final destination when you want to leave and have to wait.

Also it's still seemingly too common that bags are misplaced or lost for a little while.

A big motivator for me is the time it takes to both check a bag and retrieve it. I never check a bag for work travel, even though this is when I'm the least price sensitive. clearing customs without bags saves even more time.

I’m seeing a lot of comments here agreeing that it’s the fees, but I wonder how many consider that checking bags adds at least 20 minutes of walking to & waiting at the claim. If I can manage it, I’ll always opt to carry my bags, fees or not.

> (because nobody wants to check bags any more because fees)

I don't check bags because it is a huge hassle. Being able to walk off the airplane and right of the airport is nice. Not worrying about lost luggage is nice. Not spending an extra, worse case, 20-30 minutes at the airport is nice.

Airplanes that board back to front also load a lot faster, but people think it is "unfair" that people in the back get to go on first.

Heck all sorts of different loading patterns are better than the "front to back" system most often employed now days.

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