Guys, with no personal experience of BA, this has been in the cards for a long time. And some if it is directly my fault.
For years the IATA standard has been max 32kg per bag. This has NOTHING to do with baggage allowances, excess baggage, etc etc etc... this is purely the maximum total weight that a baggage handler was allowed to lift.
This is NOWHERE NEAR in line with any other industry. My old man, at Telstra (think, whatever the national telecomunications company is in your neck of the woods) wasn't allowed to lift anything over 21kg, EVER without someone to assist, or a machine (forklift, sacktruck, whatever) to do it for him.
I used to be a baggage handler. I ****ed my back by continuously, repetitively, handling bags up to 32kg. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a scrawny little shit, I could HAPPILY walk around, with a 32kg bag in EACH hand, without raising a sweat, no problems. Till my back decided it didn't like me any more.
I stopped working Dec 19th 2004. Feb 12th 2005 I was told by a specialist that I would be in a wheelchair within 6 months. Thankfully I'm still walking, I have good days and bad days, but thats the way it goes.
I'm sorry, but this rule had to come in, sooner or later. As long as everyone wants cheaper air-fares, the airlines aren't going to roster extra staff, to make every 20kg+ bag a "two-person lift"... In a 30min turnaround, there isn't the time to get 2 blokes in the hold to stack every heavy bag. It just isn't practical.
We'd rather you had 5 10kg bags, than 1 30kg bag...
As I said before, this is NOTHING to do with excess / baggage allowances, etc etc etc... this is purely for the sake of the poor guys like me, and our backs.
The $$$$ values for excess baggage haven't changed. You just have to re-pack everything into smaller / lighter bags.
Just think, as you struggle to lift that dive tub into the car. You grunt and groan, and get it there, and think "glad I only have to do that once"... think of the poor blokes who have to do that to 250+ bags per flight!
/rant off. sorry guys, in one of them moods.