This thought is from a passenger discussion I overheard in a flight a few days ago. The concept has merits and is possible to implement although I am not sure if it will ever happen. Hand over your carry-on-board luggage at the check-in counter. The luggage is scanned and checked and transported to the plane. There it is placed on a numbered-by-the-seat conveyor belt that moves each carry-on item to the appropriate compartment. When the plane lands the conveyor belt moves the luggage to the exit. No time wasted before or after the flight placing luggage in and out of the compartment. There is also less weight for the passengers to carry.

It's unrealistic to expect that, in bending to pick luggage up, people will always know to bend their knees first. The risk of applying undue stress on the spine or even injuring it by bending over too much will always be there. So what can we do to improve the design of the baggage claim carousels? We could control the level of comfort by setting the height of the carousel to a better height but what is a better height? People have differing heights and one height can't fit all. One option would be to design the carousel to come in a gradient of heights as it circles around and let people stand in the area of the carousel whose height best matches theirs. Another thought to improve the experience of picking up luggage is to take advantage of the tilted surface of the carousel and allow the protective bar that prevents the luggage from falling off to open and close with the press of a button and have the luggage drop directly into the trolley.

Before the plane is ready for take-off, flight attendants have to manually check and close all overhead luggage compartments. The process could be improved if the compartments could close and lock automatically. There should also be a button in the remote control by the passenger seat that opens and closes the compartment. This will make it easier for passengers of old-age or with back-problems to open and close them, especially if they are filled with heavy luggage.

Most airlines' baggage and ticketing systems are separate. Even though airline companies know right away if a passenger's luggage did not make it on the plane, the passenger usually finds out about it after landing and after waiting quite a long time in the luggage pick up area. This waiting time is inconvenient and unnecessary. Airline companies can notify passengers whose luggage didn't make it to the plane during boarding or just before take off. They can send text message directly to the cell phone of the passenger and/or have a flight attendant inform them that the company will send it at their place so they don't have to wait for it when they land. All airlines should meet that standard in service.

I wonder why only see TV screens displaying news, entertainment or ads in a gate lounge but not in the baggage claim area. Baggage claim involves waiting and thus it makes perfect sense to have TV screens to entertain or distract passengers while they wait for the luggage to come out. The only screen we see is the one displaying the number of your flight and carousel. Boring. I don't buy the argument that people will get so distracted by a news program that they will forget to collect their luggage, or that they are so tired and eager to pick up their luggage that they won't bother to watch TV. They're already waiting there. Hello!

If I can't afford to pay the full airfare why can't I just pay the luggage-overweight cost and fly baggage class? Or fly almost-free by spreading the extra overweight cost among a few other passengers who are flying under their maximum luggage limit. Obviously, I will pay each one of my flight's sponsors a small tip for sharing my weight and for letting me depend on their sharing my kilos again in another flight. (read more)

Most people know by now that new regulations are that you can't carry any liquid over 100ml with you in the plane. Yet some still don't know and many who do know also forget, carry it with them all the way to security check and then are told they have to leave it behind. Since the passenger already checked in their luggage that nice wine gift stays back with customs and most of the time it's never reclaimed. That's because it's not easy to do. How about the item that's left over is immediately tagged and the passenger is given a track number to trace their item online and order it to be shipped at special discount rates given by the airline company the customer flew with. This is a good idea to keep customers happy don't you think?

Imagine your reaction if the airline told you it would charge extra for tracking your luggage if it didn't make it into the flight. Why is it ok when the post office charges more to send a letter by registered post and not ok if an airline makes the same claim? What's so difficult in assigning a tracking number to every letter that gets sent out? It's not that the "simple-post" customer pays nothing for mailing a letter. The way I see it, assigning a tracking number to all mail is simple, inexpensive and should be included in the cost of sending simple mail.

No I'm not a pilot. I'm a writer and I always get my best thoughts and ideas when I'm flying. Something about being on air brings torrents of creativity in me. My imagination runs sweet and sour faster when I find myself traveling above cloud level. I really do work better when I'm flying. At the moment, I can't afford to travel as often as I would like but when my next best-seller surpasses the Da Vince code this is what I have in mind to do. (read more)