Saw some of those people on my flights yesterday. A few business men with the 22" roller and large briefcases or backpacks. Put the roller in sideways AND added the 2nd item up in the overhead. The flight from SAV-ATL was a 919, so the "elites" hogged a bunch of the Comfort+ big-side compartments. The flight ATL-SLC was a 737-900, totally full. One "gentleman" in the row ahead of me in C+ put his nice Rimowa roller in sideways, then set his nice Rimowa briefcase in next to it, also sideways, thus taking up about 3/4s of that overhead. The couple who came next in the row only had space for 1 backpack and had to go further back to park a roller. So, I do not buy the statement that the elites know how to follow the rules on how to load bags in the overhead and that it is the kettles (of which I am one now) are the ones who need education.

The ATL-SLC flight had the pre-loading option going on. One young woman (probably a college summer intern) was wandering the area for awhile, asking people with rollers if she could load them above their seats for them. She had a good many takers on it. She did this well before the boarding started, so she was not holding up the process. On a totally full flight, even having 20-30 bags stored correctly would help before everyone else gets on board. Heck, if I were an infrequent flyer and relegated to Zone 2-4, I'd let them pre-board my bag!!!