Are Nuremberg check-in staff fobbing off BA passengers – one off or norm?

[trevor]

Headed off this half-term with the family of all silver members to Nuremberg on a hand baggage only fare. Great flight times for a long weekend away. BA924 from Heathrow was only about half-full so no issue with space for hand baggage even with us missing our priority boarding due to a call of nature.

I would recommend Nuremberg as a great place for a short break – good choice of hotels for all pockets, lovely architecture, lots of sightseeing opportunities/history/museums, largely pedestrianised old town, great variety of food and drink, good public transport with easy access to airport, reasonably priced.

Upon return for BA925, BA has outsourced ground staff at the airport. At check-in I handed across our passports to then be told by the assistant that she had been in personal communication with the crew on board the flight and had been advised by BA to hold check all cabin baggage as the flight was full. We could check the bags in now or at the gate.

I’ve flown enough HBO fares to know BA usually sends an email in this situation – none had been received. Also a key advantage of priority boarding is getting overhead locker space. I said we would take our chances at the gate and not hold check. The assistant then said this was not an option. That she would be manning the gate and would take our cabin bags off us regardless of onboard space. That we must hold check now. It was not a choice it was mandatory. Hold check cabin baggage now or we would not get on the flight. Despite my protests we were forced to hold check our hand baggage cases. Unpacking then required to take out teddy bears, etc.

Upon boarding I mentioned what had happened to the crew. As expected, they knew nothing of any instruction of needing to hold check cabin baggage. The flight was nowhere near full. A few cases had made it onboard but it looked as if most cabin baggage had ended up in the hold.

I felt we were fobbed off with misinformation to achieve some hidden agenda. Someone suggested it was the airport instructing staff to hold check cabin baggage post Covid as it minimised baggage handling and sped up security checks/ boarding for on time departure. If so, why not just tell passengers this. Anyone else have any experience at Nuremberg airport with HBO flying BA?

[tiriavpo]

Sounds more like a misunderstanding on a new route.

This often seems to work the other way round – in that it is often possible to check cabin baggage at this end, even on HBO – there are signs to that effect at Heathrow. But outstations don’t understand and won’t let you check in bags on HBO fares.

[PeteM]

This really isn’t ideal… And I could think of a few reasons for this, none of them in any way friendly to you as the customer!

They simply don’t want the hassle of offloading bags from the cabin if they don’t all fit once everyone has boarded. This is absolutely an issue on full flights, but they’d have known it wasn’t full. You really also shouldn’t be doing it to passengers with status who are boarding early.

Another option could be the ground handler is trying to check in more bags, to justify having more staff for these flights or perhaps some additional payments from BA? I’ve seen all sorts of weird contractual arrangements between airlines and ground handlers, so they could be chasing a few extra Euros…

Or she simply loved the power / had been told by someone to do it and didn’t question it – possibly for reasons 1 or 2 above, but didn’t apply any critical thinking herself…

[Lady London]

Had problems in USA and NZ whwn outsourced checkin staff wanted to apply the rules of the main airline at the airport, rather than the different rules specifically applying of the airline I was flying with.

Trouble is, combine that with some cultures and it can be very hard to have them accept to apply the way the airline you’re flying with works instead.

[E]

We had a weekend break in Nuremberg in the summer, flying with BA. We had no problems with two small cases and one small rucksack as cabin baggage. We weren’t asked to check them in. We were in Club though so maybe that made a difference. Didn’t see anyone else being asked to hand over cabin baggage though and people in Economy seemed to be boarding with the usual amount.

[trevor]

I did point out to the check in assistant that another desk seemed to be allowing passengers to walk away with their cabin baggage. Her response was that had we been flying business she would have allowed the bags on board.

I suggested as she was dealing with the business class/priority check-in passengers this was unlikely to be the reason. She then came up with another exception – had we been in transit she would have allowed us to take cabin baggage.

By this point my family were fed up with standing there and this was eating into their lounge time – I was told to give up and move on – which I did!