Alright, let's name names on this one. RyanAir (the usual suspect) wants "£35/€35" for any carry-on bag (you're only allowed one) that is too big (£35 is worth €38, which is $57, so pay in € if you can, and save about $5), but they also restrict bags to "10kg" with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. I just can't see a 737 filling the overheads with only 1 bag per passenger, when each bag weighs less than 22 lbs and is smaller than the standard 'roll aboard' that all US crew know so well.

I've NEVER seen a plane where the bins are full. I've seen plenty where the FAs called 'bins full', and they were, though with crew bags, jackets, and small personal items that could go under seats.

Who, other than RyanAir, would charge for a carry-on that won't fit b/c the bins are full (and do the bins really fill on RyanAir, considering the limits RyanAir puts on carry-on baggage already)?

 

Northwest (prior to the merger), ANC and they were charging at the gate for carry ons that wouldn't fit in the full bins. Saw it with my own eyes. They were even checking to see how many bags the customers had already checked, so they had to pay for the excess number of bags. I couldn't believe it.

 

Back to the original question.

Before the FAA upped the average weight of PAX+carry on from 185 -200lb, the 320 FACs always showed the plane weighed about 2K-6k more than the FAA WAGS. (about 2-5 knots difference in Vapp.

Now the weights are about right. Carry-ons are limited to space. I have not seen any difference in number of checked bags.

Now this is the New York- South Florida crowd, and they are cheap!

Now the New York-San Juan crowd, is another story.

Sometimes 30% gate checks, have people trying to stow motorcycle engines in the overhead, one checked bag set the record at 220lbs and it goes on and on.

The a320 is good, but you don't know what you really weigh until you are airborne.

 

From the ramp perspective I noticed this too. Here in ANC F9 had the most gate checks on a nightly basis, and it lead to most of our delays.

 

For we who fly non computerized planes, what is FAC?