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[Kevin Wood]

I won't fly on Ryanair.

Ever.

Even if it were the only airline left and the alternative was swimming to somewhere else in order to crawl to my destination using my plums to drag my luggage.

I think you'll find that costs extra. 

[Doctor Gollum]

If it means not flying with Ryanair,  then I would gladly sell my kidneys, spleen, liver and heart to pay the difference.

[Mister Rog]

You also have to bear in mind that hold baggage is weighed and counts towards the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft whereas cabin baggage is not, and there is a standard allowance per passenger used to calculate cabin loading. So, the less hold baggage an airline loads, the more "paying" baggage in the shape of mail, freight, "tankered" fuel, where that's an advantage, etc. they can load.

It's not surprising they make it as tedious and expensive as possible to put baggage in the hold.

Y'know, coming back to just one of my points, I don't give a toss about the reason for it. Having loads of people trying to cram bags into already full overhead lockers is a pain in the ass and for me, reinforces my dislike of flying.

My last flight was from Vienna and in the boarding waiting area quite a few people were approached by staff and told that they would need to check their bags in. The ""bags" were large full size suitcases. Oh the squeals of self righteous indignation ! (I just chuckled - self righteously! ).





 

[Doctor Gollum]

Quite... Charge an extra £10 per passenger per flight and not have any of the shit that goes with selfish, deluded morons who believe that it is their God given right to have more than one ruck sack/hand bag per person and bullocks to whoever has to sit next to them.

If you're paying to travel at the front, then two bags is fine as there's half the seats, ergo more space per passenger. And you get food.

[LC0112G]

Quite... Charge an extra £10 per passenger per flight and not have any of the shit that goes with selfish, deluded morons who believe that it is their God given right to have more than one ruck sack/hand bag per person and bullocks to whoever has to sit next to them.

That horse has long bolted, and that model has been shown not to work anymore - Why else would flag carriers like BA/Lufty et all who used to offer "free" bags and on-board food scrap these and descend to the levels of the Loco's? People want cheap and it's taken too long for idiots like Willie Walsh to wake up and smell the (half plastic) cup of (luke warm) coffee. Meanwhile Stellios and O'Leary allowed millions of people to travel for a fraction of the cost providing they learnt to jump through the hoops. And now the great unwashed have learnt to recognise those hoops they start applying the same rules to the big boys. Booho. 

[TheBoy]

The fella that was dragged off the United Airlines flight suffered a broken nose and lost teeth! 

Good. I bet the terms of the ticket did include being bumped to a later flight, but the arrogant little shit put up a fight instead.

Hope he gets SFA.

[Doctor Gollum]

I am off this weekend, and would be flying BA Club given a choice, but as they don't fly to my destination I choose Easyjet. Prebooked seat, so all the benefits of speedy queueing, and not an exit row, so I can place my bag at my feet and checked luggage so no gate arguments.

Oh, and if I know the crew, free drinks

[Viral_Jim]

ATM I do about 40-50 flights /yr and the hand baggage thing really pisses me off. I have 1 cabin case and a personal size laptop bag (both purchased for the job), if airlines actually enforced their own rules there would be no issue with cabin space.

Also, I won't fly BA. Total rip-off merchants, no better than sleazyjet. short haul is Lufthansa (for the lounge access I have) and long haul is emirates .

[Doctor Gollum]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

[Sir Tigger KC]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

I flew to Bangkok and back recently with Emirates for a decent price and they were very good, especially on the A380's. 

[Viral_Jim]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

I flew to Bangkok and back recently with Emirates for a decent price and they were very good, especially on the A380's. 

The man has a point. I had more space on emirates a380 business class than either of the 2 first class seats I've flown (lucky upgrades due to overbooking). Food and wine were excellent. Plus changing at DXB means you have a huge lounge to use including showers, beds etc.

[LC0112G]

I am off this weekend, and would be flying BA Club given a choice, but as they don't fly to my destination I choose Easyjet. Prebooked seat, so all the benefits of speedy queueing, and not an exit row, so I can place my bag at my feet and checked luggage so no gate arguments.

Oh, and if I know the crew, free drinks

Horses for courses. I used to prefer Easyjet and Ryanair when they offered a free seating policy. Now they charge for seat allocation it's more of a PITA.

I know you're an insider, but for us mere plebs my rules are...

Rows 1-3 are a PITA because the overheads are usually full of crew baggage and/or oxygen cylinders. You often end up with your bags in rows 4+, or at your feet (not row 1). You then have to swim against the tide during disembarkation to retrieve them.

Over-wing exit is usually fine for overhead storage, but no floor storage allowed so if you've got one of these make sure you get on early otherwise your bags could end up anywhere and you've got the swimming against the tide issue. Also, the bacon butties have usually run out by the time the trollies get to you.

People at the front of the plane are usually fussy bu99ers and once the cabin crew have given the flight crew their food/blow job/ whatever it takes ages for the trolley from the front to reach row 6+. People at the rear don't see the back trolley coming, so often it makes it from row 25+ to row 10 before the front trolley gets past row 6. If you want a bacon butty, go for the back of the plane - rows 25-20.

Know your airport. Those that use air bridges will often only let you board/disembark from the front, so if you're down the back  it'll take ages to get off. The smaller airports often let you get on/off both front and back, and it's usually quicker to get on/off at the back even if you're as far forward as row 8. Those speedy borders in the front take forever to sit down and get out of the effin way.

Many airports bus you to/from, the plane. Speedy boarding gives you little advantage here, providing you get on the first bus.

The cabin crew will have no change because it's the first flight of the day/middle of the day/last flight of the day (cross out the two options that don't apply to you).

[Kevin Wood]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

Yeah - I always worry about seat row zero in middle eastern airlines.

[Doctor Gollum]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

I flew to Bangkok and back recently with Emirates for a decent price and they were very good, especially on the A380's. 

I appreciate that on the 380 it's a relative notion, but did you slum it? Have heard some mixed reviews of service in Economy on the Lgw-Dxb/Dxb-Lgw flights... apparently crewing is a disproportionate 65/35 split in favour of the posh seats

[Doctor Gollum]

Not sure I would fly with Emirates either

Yeah - I always worry about seat row zero in middle eastern airlines.

Should the opportunity ever arise, I would fly west to Australasia...

And going to Africa or Asia, via Dubai is not a sensible route... if you're going scenic, then do it right; or go direct