Originally Posted by
Ordhater
I'm going to split the difference here. I actually agree with A's philosophy; it's a pet peeve of mine when a non-bulkhead first class passenger puts small bags in the overhead bin (although bigger pet peeve that just happened to me last week, the passenger in the window seat put his bag in the center section under the row in front of us, which cut into my legroom). But I would never actually ask someone to move their bag to under the seat in front of them. The most I would ever do is, if I was on a plane with 2-3 or 3-2 configuration and someone put a small bag on the deeper bin side, ask them if they minded if I moved that bag to the shallow bins on the other side. But even that I would typically leave to the flight attendant.
Serious question - why is this a "pet peeve" of yours? In other words, why is the passenger who brings on a roll-a-board's time worth more than my comfort, in your opinion? My philosophy is I check my roll-a-board so that my one other item (my backpack) can go into the OH bin, thus preserving the (already limited) legroom and comfort for myself (If I don't check my roll-a-board, then I do follow proper etiquette and put one bag under the seat in front of me). If you expect me to put my smaller bag at my feet (when I don't have a bag in the OH bin), you are expecting me to sacrifice my comfort for your convenience. And you get the double win. Your roll-a-board in the OH bin saves you the time of having to go to bag claim and you also get the benefit of having the space under your seat free (unless you also have another bag that you put under the seat in front of you). Meanwhile, I get a double-loss now. I accepted one "loss" by accepting the extra time of having to go to bag claim and wait on my bag (along with possibly having paid to check that bag and also the additional risk of having my bag lost or delayed) and now you've taken away my tradeoff for that by also believing I should be less comfortable.
This may drive more responsive behavior like the behavior I've already employed (and have observed from other FTers stating the same) - that I and others purposely pack their "smaller" items in a way so that it can still only go into the OH bin or just put it in a bigger bag that can't go under the seat so I/we can't be asked to pull it down, even if it means taking up more OH bin space then at the expense of bin space for others. Or since I’m already going to be asked to put my smaller item under the seat anyway, I’ll at least gain the benefit of avoiding bag claim and bring my roll-a—board as well, which again, takes up more OH bin space than my smaller item would have. A bit selfish on my part? Maybe. But it's a responsive behavior to someone else's selfish actions who decided their convenience of 15-20 min should have been worth my discomfort for several hours (fortunately in my case, I already had a small bag under my seat, but nonetheless, being asked to take my item down to make room for others who were too cheap to pay to check a bag caused me to rethink my behavior).