Death Plane For Billy

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I'm guessing that whoever the late Billy Mays was, his death will not have been in vain. It seems something hit his head during a bad landing on Saturday ("I got a hard head", he said on Twitter) and when he woke up at home on Sunday he was dead. (In other words he didn't wake up, right? That was some E@L black humour there. No disrespect intended.) Most people (OK, me) are pre-empting the autopsy and think he suffered from a sub-dural haematoma (or an epidural: Sheesh, you thought, you thought! Three years of nursery school and you think you know it all?) from the landing incident.

I'm hoping this "celebrity" death will mean airlines will now actually enforce overhead luggage size and weight restrictions so that more people will have to check-in their huge, obviously over-size bags and a) not take up all the space for my briefcase and b) threaten my life if there is a bad landing or turbulence

I am so sick of getting on a plane and not being able to find somewhere to put my briefcase because some "frequent flier" guru thinks he is really smart and can escape fate. He thinks that a large bag taken on as hand-luggage will expedite his post-landing exit after the immigration queue and help get in first for the taxi queue. Ha!

When I come into most Asian airports, say HK or Changi, OK I usually have 32C or 32D - considered the best economy seats ont he plane, aisle, 2nd row of the front economy section, so I get off straight after those in Business Class - PLUS I go through the express queue at immigration (I love you, APEC card!) and STILL my checked in bag is usually there, already on the baggage-carousel! (I do have "Priority" luggage of course, being Gold Class. Tee-hee.) What's the point in rushing. Even if it's not there, big deal, I have a taxi queue coming up, then a traffic jam. Why stress out about a coupla minutes after a 7hr flight?

The only time I have ever been stopped and assessed for luggage size was in Melbourne. They weighed my overnight bag which would just squeeze in the steel frame of the size checking thingie, but it was overweight, so, as grumpily as you'd imagine, I had to go back and check it in. But that didn't hold me up at HK when I arrived, and it saved me searching for an overhead place to stow it in the already packed compartments. Therefore, WTF, am I in such a rush to get home or to my hotel? No. Calm... I always check my bag in now. I've only "lost" luggage four times, in over 10 years of frequent international travel.

Please check your bags, fellow travellers on life's journey, especially if you're on the same plane as me. Do not give me a slowly expanding Bill Mays sub-dural whenever we crashland with a bump.

E@L