A congressman has introduced a bill which would regulate the size of airplane carry-on bags by measuring the same at the security checkpoints.
Three things occur to me. The first being – Duh! – that our elected officials clearly have no interest in or capacity for dealing with the major issues facing the country, if this is the kind of legislation they are working on in their offices.
Second, what happens to all the bags which don’t fit through the security point measuring device? Seems like there’d be a huge pile of bags which will never make it onto their destined flight.
Third, and what hits closest to home for me, is that this proposed regulation does nothing to change the underlying reasons for airline passengers to try and carry onto their flight as much of their personal belongings as possible:
Airlines are terrible at ensuring the safety, and location, of our bags.
Everyone who has ever flown has experienced one or more of the following:
- luggage doesn’t arrive at destination
- luggage is forever lost
- luggage is damaged in transit
- items are missing from luggage
An anecdote from my own flying history. This was when Shara and Egon were much younger, and Shara had her very own pull-behind suitcase, a small version of the classic roller bag, but in bright red and yellow and blue and green fabric. We’d been visiting somewhere, and were back at the Dane County Airport, awaiting our luggage at the carousel. My bag appeared, as did Daniel’s bag. But not Shara’s. We waited, and waited, and checked with the baggage-handling staff, who told us everything had come off our plane. Finally, up the ramp appeared a small, brightly colored suitcase.
Smashed flat. With a large tire track running across the length.
Shara was devastated. We were upset. We made our various states of mind known to the airline, which replied with the completely unsatisfactory offer of a $25 coupon for our next flight.
First of all, it was obvious that the bag was damaged beyond repair. This obviousness must have extended to whoever put the bag on the conveyer belt. Wouldn’t it have been better to bring the bag in to us directly, with an acknowledgement, and perhaps even an apology? Couldn’t they have offered to buy a new suitcase for our clearly upset child?
Until airlines can prove to us that they are worthy custodians of our personal belongings, we will continue to carry on multiple bags, overflowing with items that we dare not entrust to the bowels of the plane, regulations and laws be damned. It’s a populist uprising.
