If you think the airline carry-on luggage crisis is over, you should meet Jessimy McKown.
The former Marine was flying from Detroit to Portland, Oregon, on Northwest Airlines when a duffel bag fell out of the overhead bin where a passenger was trying to stuff it. The bag’s strap snagged McKown’s 10-week-old daughter, Madeline, and pulled the infant to the floor.
According to an emergency room CAT scan, the baby was unharmed. But three years after the incident, McKown says she remains concerned that the fall has had long-term effects on her daughter. When she hears about a Wichita State University/University of Nebraska study of airline quality that concludes there’s been a “slight improvement in baggage handling,” she remembers the accident and has her doubts.
Since Madeline’s fall, Northwest has instituted a “one-plus” carry-on rule, which prevents passengers from carrying duffel bags and other oversized items on board, says Northwest spokesman Jon Austin. The child’s mishap is not the sole cause of the policy change – the airline also has heard complaints from employees about too much luggage, for example – but Austin says Northwest hopes the new measures will free some overhead space and reduce the potential for injuries to passengers.
“In this case, it’s so unusual that a strap would get caught on a child that was this small, that I’m not sure there’s a general fix,” he says.
Perhaps not, but there’s a compelling argument that airlines need to do something to fix problems that stem from luggage, especially the bags travelers check before boarding.
The number of mishandled-baggage complaints to the United States Department of Transportation remains high: There were about 2.5 million incidents last year 52,177 more than in 1998. Put differently, on an average commercial flight, at least one passenger is likely to lose his or her checked luggage. In last year’s airline satisfaction survey, poorly handled baggage accounted for Southwest Airline’s descent in airline rankings.
Things are hardly better in the passenger compartment, where bins crowded with carry-on parcels may increase the likelihood of an injury like that the infant Madeline suffered. Airlines acknowledge at least two other comparable mishaps. Geraldine Margolis was left with brain damage after a metal frame rolled out of a compartment and onto her head on a United Airlines flight. And a case of rum fell out of a bin on a Delta Air Lines flight, felling Frances Hodges.
According to Russell Robison, the executive director of Injury Prevention Works, an Erie, Pennsylvania, industry-lobbying group, 12 passengers are hurt by falling overhead luggage every day in the United States alone.
Small wonder that the overhead bins are packed. Passengers’ mistrust of airline baggage handling runs so deep that few experienced travelers bother checking their luggage if they can avoid it. The result is often a confrontation at the gate or, worse still, in the cabin.
When Akiko Mitsui refused to check her regulation-size carry-on after she’d boarded a Continental Airlines flight, for example, a crewmember had her removed from the plane. That’s becoming a common remedy for handling travelers who would sooner sit with their luggage on their lap than entrust it to an airline.
In a previous column I proposed eliminating the overhead bins entirely which would not only remove the threat to passengers like Madeline McKown, but also prevent passengers such as Mitsui from missing her flight. Alas, airlines like Continental responded by increasing the size of the overhead bins. So much for that.
Fellow travel commentator David Kirby, who writes a weekly column for the Web site Ticked.com, believes airlines ought to at least reward passengers who carry no baggage. The minimalists should be allowed to board and depart the plane first, leaving the rest to wait patiently in their seats, he says.
I like the idea in principle, but given how passionately travelers feel about their right to haul as much luggage on the plane as they can carry, I’m afraid such a policy might instigate riots.
How about shipping the luggage? Well, a company called Virtual Bellhop does offer that kind of thing, but I’m not impressed by it. For close to half a year, its public-relations company has been hounding me to try the door-to-door service. When I finally agreed to give it a try on a recent trip from Baltimore to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Virtual Bellhop quoted me a round-trip rate of $600 for between 50 and 75 pounds of luggage. It was more expensive than my plane ticket. I couldn’t do that.
The answer is accountability – specifically, airlines holding themselves accountable for your luggage. It’s about airlines guaranteeing that the bags arrive when you do. It’s about them building a robust tracking system that’s sophisticated enough to pinpoint your bags from an airline Web site (Northwest is working on one). And it’s about airlines going above and beyond the federally mandated per-passenger liability of $2,500 for lost luggage; they also should offer vouchers and heartfelt apologies when they fail to meet your expectations – or your luggage fails to meet you at the right place.
Until then, we can expect the overhead bins to be nearly bursting.
Perhaps we should all consider flying with a helmet.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You praise Northwest for its “new” carry on limits. Too bad they DO NOT enforce them.
Asian airlines excel in most catagories compared to North American ones.
Not in terms of overhead luggage.
Few enforce any restrictions. I’ve been on flights where a passenger had televisions, microwaves, and other large items sitting on not just one but two additional seats besides his or her own seat, one belonging to me, but the cabin crew, um, “declined” to take action.
I eventually gave in and now will carry on one bag *slightly* too big, if appropriate, or maybe a regulation-size bag and a couple of shopping bags. Earlier this year, the passenger in front of me checked in with a mountaineering backpack, a rucksack, and ordinary backpack, and a garment bag — all of which he refused to check, which the agent accepted. Then she told me I had to check my lone, smaller-than-allowed-bag. I refused, but it was only when I began to [politely] raise cane after placing my bag in the “check-the-size” box that she relented.
I don’t want to see on-board luggage completely forbidden; I’ll be darned if I want to check in my expensive laptop, which is well below size and weight limits. But I *would* like to airlines enforce rules, unless a flight has relatively few passengers so check-in personnel can be expansive and generour. No problem in that case with me.
I agree that the items stored in overhead bins pose several problems. Recently, a woman with an overstuffed luggage had trouble lifting it into the overhead bin, which was several rows behind her seat. I assume that other passengers refused to pay $30 to check their luggage, thereby filling up most the bins. When the plane stopped, she jumped up from her seat and ran to the bin which was behind me. I was very uncomfortable, knowing that her bag was heavy and I stood up to keep from being beamed.
I have seen most people with carry ons jumping up before the plane stops to get their carry on with no consideration of others.
The bins are too lagre and should be smaller to allow more head room for passengers during turbulence. Carry ons should be strictly regulated by size and wieght.
“Bag wars” have made flying such an unpleasant ordeal that I only fly when absolutely necessary. Even a mental midget could predict what would happen when airlines started charging for checked bags. If airlines “must” charge for baggage (instead of simply raising ticket prices) they should charge a hefty fee for the “convenience” of carry on baggage and let checked bags fly free.