Stuff your pockets and stuff security
The law of unintended consequences
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Eugene Gold Thursday 8 July 2010 |
There is a law of unintended consequence. It is akin to Murphy’s law which deems buttered toast will always fall onto the carpet buttered-side down.
Ryanair must have known about this law when they introduced their silly new baggage charges. How else do you explain the sudden growth of highly padded people that are carrying their baggage in their pockets?
A neighbour of mine comes from an old poaching family – by which I mean his father used to take him poaching for rabbits and fish. He still has the old poachers’ coat with oversized pockets in which they hid their ill-gotten catches. I was wondering if I might borrow it for my next trip on Ryanair and stuff it full of all the clothing that I would otherwise have put into my suitcase.
As a travel writer, I criticise Ryanair but I also try to be fair and recognise Ryanair’s (and Easyjet’s) contribution to making air travel more affordable. Sadly, I think Ryanair have got their baggage policies badly wrong.
Firstly, they seem to have missed the point of what their passengers want from an air carrier. Travel bags are an essential part of travel.
Secondly, and this is where my real beef comes, they have added to the difficulties of anti-terrorism security. How on earth can we expect to bring down queues and speed up passenger scanning when people have their pockets stuffed full of their clothing?
I have written before in this column Airport security madness that I am personally dubious about the whole security system. I do wonder whether there is a better way than playing technology catch-up with the terrorists. The ethnic screening idea has been raised, argued about, and has not gone away. However, I am just one voice in a multi-faceted debate.
All that aside, what we do not need is Ryanair complicating and damaging the system. Please put your shoes through the scanner should not mean the shoes you are wearing plus the five pairs in your pockets. Do we want outbound queues for people with clean underwear and returning queues for those with dirty underwear? Do you really want to sit next to Michelin man or woman wearing five layers of clothing?
Common sense has gone out of the window and something has to give here before they rename the law of unintended consequence as Ryan’s law.
| Comments | Post a comment |
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Justin Martin, Cambridge 12 July 2010, 10:34AM | |
| This is a sad article. After all the fuss there has been about security, it is frankly amazing that any airline should be allowed to encourage people to be a walking wardrobe. I am just disgusted. | |
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Sarah, Reading 12 July 2010, 11:13AM | |
| I agree, travel bags are an essential part of travel. Ryanair are loosing the plot with these new charges. That being said I cannot believe there will be queues of over padded passengers at airports that is ludicrous. | |
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Pete Cody, Birmingham 12 July 2010, 02:02PM | |
| I do wonder if Ryanair are waiting for the security people to clamp down on passengers 'wearing their wardrobe'. This would be a win-win situation for Ryanair, they would stop people 'cheating' and it would not be them that was seen to be enforcing the rules. If I was a passenger in the security queue behind one of these overdressed people, I would be annoyed with them rather than with Ryanair. I think after, a while, people will realise that they are being a making a nuisance of themselves and just pay up for the luggage. | |
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Rebecca, Nottingham 13 July 2010, 05:00PM | |
| I agree, this would certainly be a security risk with the introduction of the full body scanners. I find the concept of Ryanair passengers waddling around in their wardrobe in the airport to prevent baggage costs an embarrassing one. | |
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Chris Green, Derby 14 July 2010, 01:36PM | |
| Airlines should consider weighing luggage AND passengers and then charge accordingly, then this 'wearing their wardrobe' nonsense would not occur. | |
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Darren Green, London 16 July 2010, 05:02PM | |
| Padded passengers could be the future. There are now companies making special travel vests and jackets for this specific purpose. They can be found by an Internet search, and most of them have a multitude of pockets, enabling heavy and/or bulky items such as books and even small laptops to be carried in them. Awkward and bulky? Yes, but an effective way of avoiding extra charges. | |
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| Chris, your comment is a good one, weighing passengers and luggage, and to charge I think is a fair concept, there are always going to be loopholes and people will always 'bend the rules as much as they can in order to avoid being charged. | |
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Lottie Jenkins, Ipswich 20 July 2010, 04:53PM | |
| This could get out of control and the amount passengers are taking on board aircrafts, surely there are weight restrictions? Ryan air seemed to have shot themselves in the foot of this one. | |
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Joanne Swann, Dorset 21 July 2010, 07:50AM | |
| I really don't see the problem here, I for one do not want to be carrying lots of bags if I am travelling a short distance, what is the problem in carrying it on your person? Really cannot see what all the fuss is about! | |
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Brian, Sidcup 23 July 2010, 04:20PM | |
| I hope that Ryanair retracts these baggage charges. I agree that travel bags are an essential part of travel. Consumers would not of batted an eyelid if Ryanair had just slightly increased the price of the standard ticket instead. | |
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Graham, Essex 26 July 2010, 07:56AM | |
| The queues are ever increasing at the airports and I agree with a lot of the comments above, it is going to slow things down even more, Ryan Air are overstepping the mark on this one I feel. | |
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| If this was not so serious then it would be funny. We really cannot have security made even more difficult because of the actions of this baggage policy. It is definitely the law of unintended consequences and needs to be stopped before it gets out of hand. | |
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| Everyone is right above with all their comments, it is tedious enough waiting in long queues trying to get through without waiting for someone to unload everything from their person, it is getting ridiculous to say the least. | |
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