Baggage left behind

CelticFire

Grumpy_chap said:

mr_stripey said:

In response to OP - t makes no sense that airlines would be deliberately and intentionally not loading bags onto aircraft. To what end exactly? They still have to ship the bags (at a greater cost no doubt as they will need to be delivered to individual addresses rather than unloaded at one point).

Operationally it makes no sense. Incidents and disruptions happen and by and large the system reunites bags with passengers reasonably quickly and efficiently.

While I don't think departure without luggage is a key plank of any airline business model, I think that comment about cost is exactly the point the OP was trying to make:

• A flight can leave late and trigger delay compensation, £200 or more per passenger.
• That flight being delayed might mean subsequent flights in the day also trigger delay compensation.
• OR, the flight can leave late but soon enough to avoid the delay compensation, but without baggage.  The cost for reuniting baggage with passenger only needs to be lower than the delay compensation for this to make financial business sense.
• The flight departing means there is not a knock-on impact to the subsequent flights scheduled for the same aircraft.
• In any event, it is quite likely that fewer passengers have hold baggage than there would be passenger on the flight, so the cost is only multiplied by a smaller number of times.

I still don't think airlines would be adopting this as a strategy on a wide basis.

If airlines do, then it is kind of what we get by developing the compensation culture.  I guess mail order delivery suppliers have to build something in to the cost for returns "for any or no reason" and some of those returns being unsellable.  Airlines must be similar in managing an allowance and mitigation for compensation payments.  Obviously, we all want everything for the lowest possible price as well.  And now, someone wants great service too.  These are not all compatible desires.

I offer three types of service, you can pick any two:

• good service fast won't be cheap
• good service cheap won't be fast
• fast service good won't be cheap
• fast service cheap won't be good
• cheap service fast won't be good
• cheap service good won't be fast

Thanks for actually reading what I had asked.  That’s exactly the point I was making.  It appeared that something that was a rare occurrence previously, seemed to be happening more frequently and I was curious as to how widespread the practice is.  Whilst I understand the economics of their risk assessment. On both occasions I’ve experienced, it has been around 100 suitcases each time.  Whilst it clearly saves money, there is also a reputational risk which could prove more costly. 

Grumpy_chap

CelticFire said:

On both occasions I’ve experienced, it has been around 100 suitcases each time.  

Well, that would make sense.
When suitcases are loaded onto a plane, they do not manually load each individual case.  The cases are conveyor-belted to drop into large steel crates and the relatively small number of crates are then loaded into the hold.  I don't know how many cases fit into one crate, but it would be a good number and not just a small handful of cases that fail to make the flight.

Pollycat

Grumpy_chap said:

CelticFire said:

On both occasions I’ve experienced, it has been around 100 suitcases each time.  

Well, that would make sense.
When suitcases are loaded onto a plane, they do not manually load each individual case.  The cases are conveyor-belted to drop into large steel crates and the relatively small number of crates are then loaded into the hold.  I don't know how many cases fit into one crate, but it would be a good number and not just a small handful of cases that fail to make the flight.

I've been sat on planes both here and abroad and have watched handlers load individual cases from trollies brought to the plane onto conveyer belts and into the hold.

Westin

Pollycat said:

Grumpy_chap said:

CelticFire said:

On both occasions I’ve experienced, it has been around 100 suitcases each time.  

Well, that would make sense.
When suitcases are loaded onto a plane, they do not manually load each individual case.  The cases are conveyor-belted to drop into large steel crates and the relatively small number of crates are then loaded into the hold.  I don't know how many cases fit into one crate, but it would be a good number and not just a small handful of cases that fail to make the flight.

I've been sat on planes both here and abroad and have watched handlers load individual cases from trollies brought to the plane onto conveyer belts and into the hold.

You are right @Pollycat.    Whilst larger aircraft will have containerised baggage, many aircraft still have manually loaded individual bags being placed in the cargo holds and secured with netting.  Non-containerised baggage is typical on most of our holiday charter/low-cost airline fleets such as the A319/A320/A321 Airbus and also the B737 Boeings.

NoodleDoodleMan

Pollycat said:

Grumpy_chap said:

CelticFire said:

On both occasions I’ve experienced, it has been around 100 suitcases each time.  

Well, that would make sense.
When suitcases are loaded onto a plane, they do not manually load each individual case.  The cases are conveyor-belted to drop into large steel crates and the relatively small number of crates are then loaded into the hold.  I don't know how many cases fit into one crate, but it would be a good number and not just a small handful of cases that fail to make the flight.

I've been sat on planes both here and abroad and have watched handlers load individual cases from trollies brought to the plane onto conveyer belts and into the hold.

Ditto - my my experience likewise.