Originally Posted by
WestSideBilly
It's a lot different, to be honest, if you regularly have a carry on. It's not uncommon for SKY to be half of the flight or more, which means little to overhead space by the time Zone 1 gets called.
It's rare for it to come anywhere close to it running out just from SKY Zone. Perhaps not as close. I've never once had an issue (even with large SKY loading groups).
And since AS MVP+ are losing the free checked bags, this will probably be an issue. At least you can still check them for free at the gate.
Personally I couldn't care less about gate checking a bag, that is irrelevant to me. The single biggest reason I prefer checking a bag is to not deal with the stupid liquid restrictions through security.