Flying on some airlines around the world is an “interesting” experience. Why? Well, here are two recent experiences:
* just this week I needed to take a flight from Taipei to Seoul. The airline which was my carrier this time was Korean Airlines. I had not flown on Korean for a very long time – about 3 years (previous flight was Seoul to Beijing). So here I was at the airport check-in counter and once my boarding pass was ready, I was asked if I had luggage to check in. I always use my trusted 22inch roll-aboard suitcase as I prefer if at all possible NOT to check-in my luggage… (Believe me – it takes only once for your luggage not to make it with you and you start packing as efficiently as possible to avoid check-in luggage).
Well, this time my suitcase which has traveled over 1M miles by now, was deemed “must check-in” – so the big commotion started — a manager was called etc. as I did not want to relent… There was no way I was going to arrive in Seoul at 11pm and look for a lost suitcase. I made that point to the manager on duty and after about 5 min of air sucking and head scratching and once I made a comment to the effect of “Please give me your name card and you can check in my bag, but if it is lost I will be using you as a reference in a complaint to Korean Air”… That worked like a charm — the manager quickly decided that he can make an exception 
What worked me up was the fact that I have flown on tons of different airlines and unless I am in a small regional jet my suitcase works perfectly in the overhead bins — any Boeing 737 or Airbus A310 and above jet is just fine….Yet the Korean Air manager kept telling me “This is a small plane — a Boeing 737 — no space to put your suitcase”
Once I got on board — there was absolutely no problem — I put my suitcase even with wheels first fashion — the most challenging way — into the overhead bin and it closed just fine….
So word of advice — as long as you have a suitcase that was built for roll-aboard (i.e. not to exceed 22 inch) do not give up. You can win the argument. Remember — always use the card of “Who will be responsible for my lost luggage” or something similar….
What I have observed is that I am yet to find the manager who is willing to be the person who gets pointed to in a passenger complaint…
In my next posting I will summarize my other observation about how to deal with overzealous airport employees who want to separate you from your carry on luggage… Stay tuned
