British Airways Fighting Back on One Bag Rule
 

Let's hope it will have some good or people will continue to just avoid Heathrow. Shame.

http://tinyurl.com/39tbnf

I agree, I think the things the BA chief said are right. I don't even understand the whole concept as to why having people stuff their hangbags into another tote just to get through security with the magical one item improves security. I avoid Heathrow anyway for transit, but I am definitely avoiding it now when they have different rules than anyone else, and rules that are really too stringent. I try to pack lightly when on vacation for various reasons, and thus I don't have that much room in my small carryon to stuff in a full purse. And I don't want to have to take a larger carryon than I want or need just for that reason (to be able to stuff my purse in it), as that will make it larger than I want for the rest of my journey when I have to take care of my one checked suitcase and my small carryon by myself on trains, etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the eu adopt the same regulations for their airports which were supposed to take effect this past April?

It's NOT just Heathrow , it's a UK BAA rule for all airports

Heathrow's CEO resigned today to go to work for the contractor who's building the new Terminal 5. Business is business.

yes, xyz123, but they didn't take effect then, and for now..they still don't agree.

oh, well, it makes sense it is the entire UK -- but most international flights would go through Heathrow, so I suppose that's why it was the focus.

In my view, the one-bag rule has nothing to do with security. It's to speed up people going through security at UK airports. This way BAA doesn't need to increase manpower at security and doesn't need to refurbish the airport to add security lines and X-ray machines.

well if the 1 bag rule was meant to speed up the lines going through security at Heathrow, it simply doesn't work.
We wemt through in mid May and mid June... Mid May was a nightmare but mid June was worse - it took 1 and 1/2 hrs to get through, flying from Athens and on to SFO from the same terminal.
People were almost coming to blows (OK, that is childish behavior but the amount of time it was taking really was absurd), several people missed flights and finally officials (fed up with the stupid rule themselves) started to hustle people late for flights through a new line...
Heathrow is awful - we will not fly BA or take any flight that goes through heathrow again, for quite some time to come. And I don't think we're alone on this! Lets hope that Heathrow comes up in the world... even the Athens airport is 100% better and no, it does not get the traffic, but one would think that a UK airport might have it a bit more together than a Greek airport.... not so.

xyz123 wrote <b>Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the eu adopt the same regulations for their airports which were supposed to take effect this past April?</b>

No problems with two carry-ons at both Schiphol (Amsterdam) and CDG (Paris) recently (past few weeks, same as it ever was) ... I think the EU wanted to adapt a unified policy but couldn't agree on one vs two bags. Two bags (really one bag plus purse or laptop) is what business travelers want/need, so I think the issue is tabled for now and the UK is alone on the one-bag restriction.

Just came home from Malpensa (Italy), and was quite nervous from reading posts like these. Don't know what the UK is doing, but I had a carry-on and a handbag, and no problem with security. As long as I showed my magic baggie of liquids, I was fine.

EU, and the rest of world, did not adopt UK's one-bag policy in April. I then read a date for this fall, but I think that idea has been dropped altogether.

the EU was set to adopt the rules last April, then delayed implementation until this coming Nov. But have not follwed the news reports to see if the plan has changed again . . . .

Totally agree with Djuna. I'm fast-tracked at LHR &amp; returning last month it took longer than any other London trip I've taken to get through security with the new 1 bag only rule.

They also need to drop that extortion they call the departure tax.