[FloridaDave]

The biggest issues I see with this and the restriction on the cheap basic fare to just carry on baggage and the potential issues that could cause.

I'm sure most who have travelled on a US carrier - especially on an internal flight have seen that although there are posted restrictions, you still see people getting on the plane (usually in front of you) with pretty much giant carry on bags stuff which by the time you get on there is no overhead room left for your carry on which is within the limits.

I wouldn't like to think that this is going to cause those types of issues if the rules aren't enforced - as I guess they are likely to be here in the UK - but when returning home from a US airport I don't think they will because they will be in the same US mind set of turning a blind eye. This could lead to issues then with people paying less for a ticket and pretty much trying to take luggage that should be in the hold onto the plane and restricting overhead room for everyone who has actually paid the normal fare.

Years back - we were travelling home on American Airlines where we were due to fly from Orlando up to Chicago and then home. When we were boarding at Orlando there were a lot of US passengers with giant holdalls in front of us and before we got to the gate they announced that everyone else would need to have their luggage checked into the hold which would have been to our destination. I flatly refused to do that because our luggage contained medication and I ended up having an brief discussion with the guy at the gate who tried to tell me that no-one is actually entitled to have cabin luggage, just hold luggage. I soon proved him wrong because I had my documents that clearly stated our entitlement in the T&C's and clearly stated the cabin allowance which we were still well under - that quickly shut him up. We ended up having to put our carry on under the seat in front which totally took our legroom away so it was an uncomfortable few hours on that journey - all because they didn't enforce their own rules about carry on and inconvenienced pretty much half the passengers because of it.

I wouldn't fly Virgin anyway to be honest unless they were clearly the cheapest which is never the case for us