A few of my flights this year suffered the plight of excessive carry-on luggage. At times it became a safety issue, where several bags had to be pile in an empty row of seats in the back.
My most recent flight was an Airbus A321. At a glance, it had 20 x 6 seats in economy class where us plebians were seated, and had capacity for around 60-80 bags in the overhead bins. These were short flights, 2hrs flight time, 6 hours round trip including transit, so most passengers had at most one carry-on suitcase. The flight was fully booked, so it was music-chair for luggage. A flight almost broke out.
First let’s concede that this is a real problem. By my observation, suitcase tetris added at least 30 minutes to boarding time.
Here’s the conundrum as I see it:
- Given it’s a short haul flight, the goal for most passengers is always to minimize travel time. Carry-one is more convenient than checked baggage. You can skip the check-in queue and the baggage pick-up. Also, justified or not, there’s always the fear that checked luggage will be subject to harm and or damage.
- There is no incentive, only perceived cost, to offer last minute baggage checks. Let’s say the overhead compartments are full and the flight attendant says: “Sorry Sir, the overhead compartments are full. Please let me give you the inconvenience of checking your baggage.” At least in my country, the culture is such that the last sucker will incessantly whine over the perceived unfairness of it all.
So, what can be done?
The fundamental issue is the tragedy of commons. Unlike seats, overhead space is in a grey area governed by etiquette and consideration, and at times plain old physics. Is there some way to encourage the following:
- People to carry less luggage on their flight?
- People to check-in their luggage (assuming this does substantially increase operating complexity and costs)?
- People to be more consider (like putting smaller bags under the seat in front of them)
Is there a pricing solution?
That is, does it make sense to allow some kind of space-auctioning?
Thinking in abstraction for a moment, planes essentially transport some volume of mass from point A to point B, and there is an estimated cost X for some ratio of mass and volume for each flight.
The strategy of the passenger is to pay the lowest amount for each unit of mass/volume. That is – let’s say you as a passenger weights X kilograms and occupies a space of V m3. The value in $ of your mass and volume is not distributed evenly: you are willing to pay a higher amount to transport your body than your luggage. Is there some way of introducing price discrimination to reflect this?
- For example, airlines could introduce ‘baggage-free’ seats at a very small discount. This way airlines are effectively auctioning luggage space.
Is there a behavioural solution?
Can we reward people who decide not to bring luggage on board by providing some form of convenience? A zero-luggage security queue for example?
I can’t wait for teleporters to be invented, but then it’s the same problem: I don’t want to pay the same to teleport my body and my luggage.
#00117F 