Cloudship

Was on a JetBlue flight yesterday, towards the back of the plane. It was a huge mess putting baggage into the overheads - one old guy who obviously had no idea what was going on was left holding a suitcase - the aisle was backed up because everyone was confused on where to put their bags, and the FA was in a grumpy mood.

I finally got sick of it and stood up, quickly saw how to rearrange the bags to get more bags in, asked a few people whose bags they were and if they minded if I moved them over, and was quickly able to get enough space to fit an extra 2 bags in.

Anyone else ever get so frustrated with people putting stuff in the overhead bins that they took control, or am I being a little too A-type personality here?

StuckInYYZ

It doesn't happen often, but I find it is usually the first time flyers that have this issue. They've never really done mass transport other than possibly the local public transit system. To keep things flowing, the more experienced flyers tend to jump in and help out (at least the nice ones are do). It tends to happen in places where the economy is still "rebalancing" itself (for example, China).

I wouldn't be so quick to claim that the FA was in a grumpy mood. They can easily get overwhelmed when dealing with all these people in a tight constraint area with multiple people asking (demanding) something. Best to get these things out of the way so you can take off sooner.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I am usually already sitting in my seat so I just watch with amusement. I would help but typically being in a window seat getting up would just make things worse.

On the other hand, if I arrive at a bin that can hold more bags (i.e. mine) and people have been less optimal I move bags within the bin without saying anything. The exception is when there was a hat, then I ask if it needs to be moved.

Doc Savage

Hats usually compact nicely when you slide your rollaboard in.

I've helped out rearranging several times. Did it just yesterday when someone put a rollaboard in sideways.

Annalisa12

Haven't taken control of the overhead bins but took control of the seats in economy once. My MO from flying from Sydney to Canada was fly midweek as often there were more empty seats. One flight it was less than 50% occupancy in economy and as people got on they were looking around at the empty seats. I knew from previous flights and a FA just said to me we could move anywhere after the seatbelt lights went off. I stood up and said.."everyone, you can move to any seat when the seatbelt light goes off.. so get comfy". One couple sitting said to me..."we're ok". As soon as the light went off it was a free for all. People ran. My husband and I had a row of 4 seats to ourselves each to lie down on. Later on when I went to the loo the people who wouldn't move were squished in the window and middle seat and I said to them lightheartedly..."I bet you are sorry now you didn't move"!

chipmaster

Seems very common affliction of both FA and passengers that helping fellow people isn't very important to them...

Agree amazed how many don't understand what direction to put things in, just throw it in if you are first and who cares about the later boarders.

You'd think the FA and airlines would be very motivated as if they could speed boarding that could mean for some squeezing an extra short flight for a multi segment...

Cloudship

This guy was grumpy - it wasn't just this situation, he was the whole flight. Mind you I could see why - we had one lady with a crying baby who decided to change the diaper right there on the seat, and some drugged out guy who decided to get up and go to the bathroom (for like the 5th time) while we were still taxiing on the runway. fortunately it is a small airport and we were the only plane there, otherwise I was expecting it to be another "incident".

Mr. Vker

I find confusion on SWA. Mostly because of inexperienced flyers-but also due to varying size of overhead bins. All 737's, but sometime rollers will fit in wheels first-sometimes not. This has people just putting their stuff in sideways without even trying.

Statman

Glad you did what you did to help sort out the mess.

Low Roller

There are some people who just don't care but I think there are alot more who just don't fly often, or generally fly on small aircraft where bags will only fit sideways. If you aren't familiar with the bins, it often doesn't look like they are deep enough to fit bags in wheels first. So, the airlines should do something. I've been on a few flights where announcements were made during boarding to put place bags with wheels in and I've seen the occasional FA take the initiative to ask people to place them properly before it became a problems for late boarders. Both led to a more efficient boarding process. Maybe even a label under the bins would help, because I think alot of people just don't know.

Cloudship

There is so much going on during boarding, especially for the infrequent flyers who are boarding in the middle of all the chaos and overhead bin space does not line up - most of them miss those announcements. And not all planes load them in handle or wheel first, for instance in this case it was a E190. MD80s are the same way, so it is pretty confusing. I know it flies in the face of both efficiency and the urge to get moving, but sometimes I think they need to spend a little more time boarding - give boarding groups more time to get their luggage loaded.

kb9522

Yes. And I opt to board first so I don't have to deal with it.

The solution is fairly simple: Place your appropriately sized carry-on in the overhead bin directly above your row with the wheels in, place your personal item under the seat in front of you, and sit down. Anything left that doesn't fit or is oversized, gets gate checked.

Until everyone can comprehend these simple instructions, this will always be a problem.

I have to admit, the whole overhead storage thing is my biggest pet peeve when flying in Y with no status. This stuff really isn't rocket science.

OskiBear

I think the FA's in the US are usually forbidden to do lift bags because of workers comp injury concerns. I had an FA friend mention this to me once.

It's interesting where you're outside of the US. When I was in Asia last month (Japan/Korea), the relatively smaller FA's were aggressively moving and arranging bags in the overheads to best utilize space. Then, when they were ready to depart, they rearranged the bags again to make sure they took up the open space and didn't slide around too much.

Annalisa12

Wha​​​​​​t other job says you cant lift anything at all as part of your workday because the company is scared you will claim workwrs comp.

Low Roller

They don't actually have to do the lifting. I saw one FA ask people to turns bags around when he saw them going in sideways. He didn't have to touch the bags and it really helped move things along.