On tuesday, I flew back home on Continental Express and had to check one bag (too big for carry-on) while my fiancee and I carried two more bags. When we got to the plane, they had to gate check those two bags because they were too big to actually fit the overhead compartments of the small planes we we were on. Then, when you get off the plane, you have to wait for your gate checked bag to be retrieved, then make the walk to get you regular checked bag. What gets me is that it seems they put these bags in the same compartment as the actual checked bags. So I just want to know why we have to pay $20 to check a bag, but then they gate check a bag for free and put them in the same place? And with the self check-in that they do now where there is at best two employees helping out, but it seems like there is only one from what I could see of other airline check-ins, why do they need so much extra money? Didn't they save it by laying off other people? Ok...maybe I'm just ranting here, but it still irked me that my free carry-on was stored in the same place that I had to pay to put a checked bag.