I find the more and more I fly in recent years, the more I am seeing people really push it with the amount of stuff they are bringing on board with them in Y. Sure, charging for checking a bag doesn't help, but typically on all flights they offer to check bags for free anyway at the gate to alleviate the problem. Why not go one step further and actually have a better system to control how much (and what size) bags get brought on board?

I was on a UA flight 2 days ago from TPA - ORD. It was oversold (as usual) and the flight attendants could care less about the passengers, and instead put all their focus in getting stuff into the overhead bins. I find it ridiculous that the flight attendants have turned into on board baggage handlers! By the time the flight was underway, they were so frazzled and stressed that they couldn't be bothered to help people (like me and my family of 5) that were in jeopardy of missing their connecting flight because of a delay of over an hour.

On my connecting flight from ORD - YVR (which was luckily, in this case, delayed!), the flight attendants were more relaxed, more personable and helpful, and just less stressed in general because there were some empty seats and no carry-on hassles to contend with.

The boarding process is so harried and crazy to begin with, I just don't understand why there isn't tougher restrictions with the carry-on bags.

I'd be curious to see what other people think that fly Y regularly think of the overhead space situation and how they think it affects their flying experience. Of course this isn't unique to UA, I just really noticed how it affected the flight attendants this time around, that it really made an impression on me!