FIGHT BACK : IN BAGGAGE DEPARTMENT, AIRLINES QUICKLY GOING DOWNHILL.

Byline: David Horowitz 

The airlines are charting a hazardous course by lowering the boom on the amount of carry-on baggage. So much still is being stuffed into plane overheads, brought on in ``wheelies'' and stashed under seats, that planes are becoming like storage bins.

I've seen passengers fight over who gets the closed overhead compartment. They clog the aisles fiddling with bags and tick off fellow travelers who seem to wait longer and longer to exit the plane, not to mention getting off the ground on time due to baggage and seating hassles.

It was the airlines that brought this problem on themselves to compete with others for passengers who want to carry on luggage to save time on arrival. Some airlines are now taking away that privilege by charging extra if you check more than one or two bags in some cases.

They also assign ramp personal who sometimes act like drill sergeants by having passengers check excess luggage with them before they board. The suitcase supervisors even remove excess bags from overheads and under seats if planes get overcrowded.

I personally find the situation infuriating and irritating. Airlines seem to blame their customers for a problem they created as the friendly skies become more unfriendly.

Bag thief

I am shocked at how lax baggage security is at some major airports. I spotted inadequate checking at Washington, D.C.'s Reagan and Dulles airports, where people are rarely asked for baggage checks or identification. The same nonpolicy exists at Newark, La Guardia and Kennedy airports in the New York metropolitan area.

It is not much better at O'Hare in Chicago or in Denver. When small bags are checked, I saw with my own eyes how thieves can walk through the baggage checks without detection by security guards.

I watched such a scenario recently at the airport in Phoenix. A security guard was carefully checking claim tickets with baggage tags. I observed a well-dressed man watching as a guard went through his checking routine.

I thought the guy was a curious traveler waiting for his suitcase. Then, he eyed the luggage carousel as an expensive looking small bag with wheels came down the chute. The man intercepted it. Then, he leaned over the bag and pulled off the luggage tag. He raised the handle and wheeled it past the guard, who just assumed it was hand carried on the plane.

The real owner spotted his bag as the guy left the baggage area and shouted, ``Sir, I think you have my bag.'' The man moved quickly with the bag out of the terminal and then disappeared in a parking structure with the victim screaming, ``He stole my bag!'' But security personnel were too busy to help.

Travel robots

It's dog eat dog when you travel nowadays. Courtesy is often tough to find for passengers and crew alike. I became part of a lesson in courtesy.

On a recent flight, some guy switched his seat for mine after asking me politely for permission. Then, when we got to cruising altitude, I went through the motions of reclining the seat only to find the seat was broken and could not be moved from its frozen, straight-up position.

The guy next to me quickly stretched out and was relaxed, and had the nerve to dodge my questions about the broken seat. The flight attendant said there was nothing he could do.

I complained to customer service. The airline sent me a letter of apology and told me how glad it was to hear from passengers about problems. I thought, what a cop-out for sloppy maintenance and not dealing with a discourteous passenger.

Then recently, I waited in a ticket line for 20 minutes at the Los Angeles airport behind some talky character trying to impress the ticket agent with how many miles he flies.

I finally asked him politely if I could check in, since I might miss my flight. He told me flights to San Francisco leave every half hour, and he started to sound like an official airline guide. Another agent heard the conversation and checked me in with just minutes left for me to run to my gate and make my plane.

But one of the most irritating and annoying situations is to sit next to someone who uses the air telephone constantly. On a flight to Washington, D.C., from Chicago, my seatmate fought with his wife for most of the two hours we were in the air. It was sad, and it gave me a headache, not to mention that the conversation could be overheard by many others in the cabin.

And finally, the latest annoyance is getting into the plane cabin door with a flock of cell-phone users making ``that final call'' before they have to shut the power off and get aboard.

Well, I guess sometimes you just can't have it your way. Such is life in the not-so-friendly skies.