United crimps big carry-ons

Passengers get pushy at security entries where their bags don't fit. The airline narrowed the openings.

[Times photo: Fraser Hale] Passengers load their bads on a belt at the security point at Tampa International's Airside D. United Airlines installed metal templates to restrict the size of carry-on bags.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000

TAMPA -- Debbie Forecki hoisted her red suitcase-on-wheels onto the airport security X-ray belt and looked perplexed when it wouldn't go through the opening.

Forecki pushed and prodded and pressed down on the bulging outside pocket that had the bag hung up. Nothing worked.

Finally, she lifted the faceplate on the conveyor, and her bag slid through.

"No, don't touch that," a security agent told her.

"It was stopping my bag," she said later. "What was I supposed to do?"

What baffled the Tampa woman and has confounded dozens of passengers at Tampa International's Airside D in recent months are metal templates with tiered openings installed by United Airlines over the mouths of the X-ray belts, restricting the openings by half. They ensure that carry-ons are no bigger than United wants them to be.

Bags that don't fit through the plates must be carried back to the main terminal and checked, which can take an hour or more during busy times.

"I would have been one angry woman if I'd had to go back to the terminal and miss my flight," Forecki said. "My bag looks about the same size as flight attendants use. As long as it fits in an overhead compartment, why isn't it okay?"

United's use of similar templates at more than two dozen airports around the country has created one lawsuit and threatened another. That's because passengers of other airlines use the same X-ray machines and are subject to the same strict size limitations as United passengers.

At Tampa, JetBlue, AirTran, Spirit and Air Canada share Airside D with United, and security screeners do not differentiate between United passengers and people such as Forecki, who was traveling to Atlanta on AirTran.

As the busiest carrier at Airside D, United is the "host" of the facility, meaning, among other things, that it is in charge of security. But no one at the airport could explain what the size of a carry-on bag has to do with security.

"I don't know," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.

United won't talk about the templates because they are the subject of litigation.

The most vocal opponent of United's templates is Continental Airlines.

"If United wants to do that to their customers, that's their business, but when they start doing it to our customers, we're going to have a major problem," said Dave Messing, a Continental spokesman in Houston.

Continental sued United over the templates at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and threatened a lawsuit in Denver before the matter was settled out of court.

"There is an alternate way to get to our gates at Denver, over a bridge, and United agreed to remove the templates from those belts," Messing said.

Continental also has sued Delta Air Lines over the use of similar templates in San Diego. Continental doesn't share an airside with United at TIA.

Continental says it has a more liberal sizing policy than other airlines because there is more room in its overhead compartments. The airline uses that fact as a marketing tool and claims the templates infringe on the company's ability to compete.

The United templates are shaped something like a hat. The "brim" is 24 inches wide, and the "crown" is 16 inches wide. The template is 113/4 inches at its tallest.

So far, the sizing devices haven't caused major problems at TIA, where they were installed late last year.

"I walked down and took a look at them, and they aren't that bad," Miller said. "We haven't heard any complaints, and if people were upset, believe me, we'd hear."

Bill Thro, station manager for JetBlue, said he expected the templates to cause problems, but they haven't.

"They were here when we started up service (in March), and I expected a lot of questions, but so far, we haven't had any," Thro said.

Nevertheless, on a recent morning at the Airside D security checkpoint, a lot of people were pummeling their bags and reshaping them to get them through the template. A cooler had to be laid on its side. A garment bag had to be opened and laid flat. A white cloth bag was mashed into a shape the manufacturer never foresaw.

"This is all very strange," Forecki said.

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