Good point; flying CO was my first experience in the back of the plane in a long, long time.

With respect to baggage checking, I never did it in my first gazillion years of flying (even when going, say, JFK-HKG for a two-week trip). I was the master of carry on, hobbling down the jetway like a sherpa.

These days, however, it just seems like there's so much B.S. associated with trying to carry everything on. As an example, I recently got "tagged" to check a bag when I made the mistake of approaching the ticket counter with: my roll-aboard, a small paper bag and a shirt fresh from the dry cleaners on a hangar. In fairness, a large part of the problem may be due to my stupid decision to buy a gigantic and heavy Toshiba Satellite to use as my primary laptop. I obviously can't check the Toshiba, but if I throw in anything beyond a toothbrush together, it's like lugging a box of books.