So I was in Sandakan on the East coast of Sabah to visit my relatives over the weekend. One of my uncles (elder brother of my late father) passed away while I was in New Zealand so I decided to visit the family after I returned to Kuala Lumpur despite having missed the funeral. But I’m not going to talk about the visit. It all went well. I did not get to tour Sandakan as much as I had wanted because time was very limited.
I am going to write about an announcement made by Air Asia – which I had first heard before boarding the flight back to KL and later mid-way through the flight. It was announced that starting on March 15 Air Asia will start weighing luggages carried by each passenger at the boarding gate. Only two bags are allowed – one is the main bag and another is small bag, small enough to be tucked under the front seat. I think there is a specific size limit for the main bag, but of course it should be small enough to be placed in the overhead compartment. The combination of weight between these two bags are not to exceed 7kg – and if it does, the passenger will be charged right there (as to how exactly they are going to implement it, I have no idea).
When I tweeted this announcement, it received a lot of mixed reactions from other twitterers. Some applaud the move, saying that it’s about time while most are not quite happy.
But then, that regulation has already been there for quite awhile actually. It’s only that people keep taking advantage of the loose enforcement. I did get turned away a few times, mostly because my bag looked bigger than it actually was, but most of the times I managed to get through without any problem at all. Some of the staff is quiet smart. They’d ask you to weigh your backpack at the check-in counter even though you are not checking your backpack in. But then passengers are smart too. They’d leave their backpack somewhere, probably with someone, so that the staff will not even see it.
I remember how my friend and I were approached by a Jet Star staff in the boarding hall at Christchurch airport while waiting to board a flight to Auckland. She pointed at my friend’s backpack, telling him that it might be too big to be carried on board. My bag was quite empty so she suggested that my friend transferred some of his luggage to my bag and we did as per suggested. We both boarded the flight without any problem.
All this while Air Asia has not been paying much attention to the weight of each luggage as long as it has the right size. Many of the passengers take advantage of that by bringing in more than 7 kg in their bags. But the problem comes when it comes to placing the bag in the overhead compartment. Many of the passengers struggle and quite so many times they expect the cabin crew to come and help them do it when it is actually not part of the cabin crew’s job. Of course others rely on the kindness of other passengers who are probably stronger to do it for them.
The size part can be quite tricky too. Some bags are designed to be able to accommodate probably up to 15 kg and yet it is fit-able in the overhead compartment because of their dimensions. This also causes problems. Quite more than not the overhead compartments can’t accommodate luggages by passengers because each luggage accommodates more space that it is supposed to. Some passengers are forced to put their bags away from their seats. Things can get quite chaotic and unnecessary argument among the passengers (and even with the cabin crew) can sometimes ensue.
I think Air Asia has had enough of those now. I mean, we all know that Air Asia is very much profit-oriented and there is no way this one is gonna get through without getting fierce backlashes from the public – but then Air Asia knows that things are gonna settle down eventually and people are gonna get used to it sooner or later.
Time to consider buying a smaller lap top.