Originally Posted by
apodo77
The root cause of the carry-on madness is the airlines charging for checked bags.
Rubbish.
While I can't claim to have conducted a peer-review study of the phenomenon, it's the DYKIA's who think that a shiny plastic card that says that they are "elite" really means that they are "elite" who are the scammers here. Those folks don't pay to check a bag and are not checking because they don't know how to pack and don't want to wait to check bags or wait for them at the other end. The nice little old lady who travels 1x/year probably obeyed the rules.
If there are people scamming bags aboard, the quick way to end this is to check the bags to the baggage office and let those with over-size bags pay the checked bag fee on arrival so that boarding isn't delayed. Somebody who is charged a fee + a nice penalty will adjust their behavior the same way Pavlov's dogs managed.