Originally Posted by
milty908
One of my biggest pet peeves are if I see luggage turned sideways in a standard sized bin. Think domestic or southwest flights with 3x3 configs. 21 in. carry ons are designed to fit straight into those bins, but people always seem to put it in sideways.
It's not that simple. On aircraft with 3/3 seating my 21" bag fits snugly in some bins, only wheels-out in some, and only sideways on others. It varies by aircraft (B737, B757, A320, etc) and airline. There is not a standard size or shape for these overhead bins. The variation is even greater on aircraft with different seating configs. There is also variation in how bag manufacturers measure their bags.
Shouldn't gate agents be experts on estimating the size of the luggage since they see hundreds of them every day now? Like how casino pit bosses can eye the chip tray in seconds and know how much is in it.
Casino pit bosses can estimate chip counts quickly because dealers are trained to put small spacers between groups of chips. The airline luggage equivalent of this would be a bag sizer. There
are a lot of these hanging around, and if you've ever tried fitting your bag in one you've probably noticed that they are
much smaller than what will fit on most aircraft. I'll take the system we've got at present, where the bag spacers are seldom used and FAs solve problems in real time. It's not ideal but it works better for me.