Originally Posted by
14940674
No flight should ever require gate checks, yet all of them need it because of the absurd quantities of bags brought by passengers.
Mom told me a million times never to exaggerate.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons for gate checks. If every passenger brought "one plus" items of legal size, most aircraft wouldn't have the storage space to carry them. Passengers with wheelchairs or strollers are allowed to gate check those items to allow them to move through the airport with ease. Official size requirements ignore the smaller space capacities of RJs. And so on.
As has been noted up-thread ... the "absurdity" is in part caused by the airline's insistence on charging checked bag fees for the masses (excluding those with affiliate credit cards, elite status, etc.). If carry-on bags are such a problem, there are plenty of things the airlines can do to alleviate the problem. Eliminate (some) check bag fees. Improve issues related to the delivery of checked bags. Use sizers more consistently at the gate itself, in order to train passengers as to what size bags are really allowed.