Background: Last night (6/2) arrive in ATL then flyingto MCO. I want to get on an earlier flight so I run to the gate of the next departing flight. Flight is fully boarded, the Gate agent is frantic, 5 people are in line to get on this flight...Me, 2 pax, and 2 non-revs. Gate agent is super cool, says "give me whatever boarding pass you have, get ont eh plane, take any seat you want!" I was totally grateful, and we all head down the jet bridge...and are stopped by a FA that says, "you have to check those bags (everyone had a Rollaboard), there is no more room." I made a joke that we're pros we can find room, especially because this was a 767 with 45 empty seats (according to the screen). He says no...makes the gate agent check all our bags.

The 5 of us walk on the plane, tons of empty seats which was nice...and 7 empty and open overhead bins!!!! I'm 20 rows back and the FA ignores me when I point up to the bins. I sit down ...ac door shuts 2 minutes later, and the FA comes by and shuts all the bins.

So.....I'm happy to get on the plane. The gate agent was great under pressure and "Southwest efficient". But why would FAs just not even let you look, or look themselves to see if there was space?? Keep in mind these were open, completely empty bins. Does this happen to others that are forced to check a bag, just to walk on and see tons of obvious space?

 

The large number of empty seats notwithstanding, had you arrived at the gate earlier you probably would have heard the GA announcing "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a completely full flight, so we are going to ask those with rollaboards to....etc."

Not taking a shot at the GAs or FAs... I just hear this in far too many situations that turn out similar to yours.

I am starting to believe it is a spiel that they are required to say.

 

Yup. It's practice for when they start charging to gate check.

 

I agree with that. But why would you stop us at the boarding door, when we are the last pax and flat-out lie to us? I don't mind preemptive announcements for full flights..but really??

 

in the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal

 

Honestly, you're correct....but I'll also point out you must not know what it's like collecting checked bags in MCO....40+ mins.

The issues isn't "I could have found space"..the issue is that the bins were open and empty..that's BS.

 

I was watching FA's count bin space on Friday night going from Memphis to Atlanta and they were actually shuffling stuff to get more on.

I know that a lot of times they don't work as hard as this crew did but at least some of the time, they really do try and help.

 

looks like another example of "everything done by the book" with no application of common sense

I would have probably said something to the effect of "I can have my bag in the overhead and be buckled in my seat before the rampers can have it stowed in the bulk cargo compartment."

 

I see/hear this all the time. My recent flight to MCO had the same thing... completely full flight announcement and they were forcing people to check while the plane left with ~20 open seats and several unused overhead bins. Return flight was almost full but multiple overheads were still open despite them forcing people to gate check.

 

I do too and I am really starting to get sick of it. I have to think what I might say next time about it. Polite but firm and not accusatory. But we all know the FA's give a bunch of BS just to get the flight out.

 

It is a big deal. OP could have something fragile in the carry-on bag. Fact is it would waste more time stowing the bags below than on board.

FA should have double checked the space situation before lying. OP should write to DL about it.

 

+1

 

While the exact times aren't available, OP was done the favor of being boarded after the flight was fully boarded (OP's words).

No, the FA should not be running around looking to see if there's OH space and delaying the push.

While it would be better during the normal boarding process for the FA's to call or otherwise signal upfront when the OH's really are full, on this last second stuff, I'd rather push ontime than hold and lose the departure slot. Nobody knows if Operations was advising the Captain and thus the cabin crew that they needed to hotfoot it out.

 

Probably said in jest but IMHO, right on the money!

 

Valid point but allow me to clarify. By "fully boarded" I meant that all confirmed passengers were on board. There were 5 of us in line to be placed on the aircraft...so I guess we were waiting to be boarded?

Also a good point about having to leave quickly...but this was not the case as flights from ATL to MCO last night were 40-80 mins delayed due to weather and no one was in a rush to go anywhere. I could have walked on the plane and seen the open bins myself.