Originally Posted by
ATOBTTR
And with seat pitch continuing to get tighter and tighter throughout much of the plane, there "simply isn't room" for my legs in the seat if my personal item is under the seat in front of me.
I must be missing the part where I'm supposed to care or feel sympathy that someone else now has to go to the same baggage claim that I do because I checked my roll-a-board, thus allowing me to put my one personal item in the OH bin, to give myself the best possible comfort.
Breaking it down:
Person A is 6'4 and brings only 1 "personal item" that could fit under seat.
Person B is 5'3 and brings 1 roll-a-board on the plane.
Per the logic of some on here, they think the most reasonable option is for Person A to put their "personal item" under the seat in front of them and have even less legroom while Person B, whose bag can only fit in the OH bin, should be more entitled to bin space and then have the space under the seat in front of them to better stretch their legs. Seems reasonable..... put another way several posters on here think I'm supposed to be miserable as possible on a 5-6 hour transcon so they can save 20-30 minutes at bag claim on the other end.
Many in this thread have said that there is room in the overhead bins for one item for every passenger. I'm pointing out that that's simply untrue.
Speaking as a tall person (though not quite as tall as you) who certainly does his best to have nothing under the seat in front of him, I don't think height gives any special privileges. I don't think expecting that someone else with lower status or who otherwise boarded later should have to gate check so I can put a bag that fits under my seat in the overhead bin is not particularly collegial.
Certainly, after everyone has boarded, I typically try to find space for my small bag in any empty space in the overhead bin, especially if I didn't bring or checked my rollaboard. But I don't feel entitled to the space.
As you say, if many items going in the overhead bin are significantly narrower than 14", there may in fact be room for everyone's bag in the overhead bin. But even many briefcases that fit under the seat that I see people put in the overhead bin are 14" wide or close, so they don't save any space relative to a rollaboard. I of course don't know what your bag in particular is like.