Originally Posted by
jsloan
Because the airlines govern the amount of "stuff" they're allowed to bring onto the airplane. You have no idea what's in the other passengers' bags, nor whether bringing it along is important or inefficient.
That "oversized carryon" may be full of professional camera equipment that can't be checked safely, fragile gifts for a sick relative, medicine, or 440 copies of The Economist. What difference does it make? You're still being selfish by using a shared resource before your individual resource.
It's not "your legroom" in the first place. You chose to bring a bag on board. If you value the legroom to that extent, check the bag.
Let me clarify my situation to make sure we are on the same page here.
My entire luggage load equals 1 small 26L backpack. No Checked luggage, no "personal item"... just a single bag. Are you seriously suggesting that another passenger who brings much more onboard AFTER I've boarded should be able to force me to give up the legroom under my seat to accommodate their bags in the overhead? Why don't THEY just gatecheck their bag?
To be clear. I am taking DRAMATICALLY LESS than the allowable amount of carryon luggage. I'd argue that by bringing dramatically less than 99% of the passengers on the plane, I've already done my bit for king and country, and am being demonstrably MORE considerate of the "shared" resource than others.