Originally Posted by
jsloan
Unless you’re going to outlaw cabin-size bags entirely, no narrowbody aircraft, save maybe the C500, has enough room for everyone to put even a single bag in the bins. If your bag is small enough to fit under the seat in front of you, that’s where it belongs. If your only concern is that you don’t want to pay to check it, they’ll be happy to check it at the gate for no charge. Some airlines will even allow you to board early if you do this, although (a) not UA and (b) I don’t know why you’d want to board early if you don’t have a bag that needs to go into the overhead.
If, after everyone has boarded, there’s room for your small bag in the overhead, go for it.
The idea that each passenger has some sort of dedicated overhead bin allotment is pure fantasy. They’re shared space. In fact, it is demonstrably untrue that each passenger has a “right” to put a bag in the overhead, because if each passenger tries to exercise that right, the bins won’t close.
Even the CR5 can run out of space in the right circumstances.
It's been made clear for years (decades?) that your primary storage location is under the seat in front of you and that bins are a finite and shared resource. Fill under the seat first then things that don't fit go in the overhead. Putting a small object in the bin when you have space under the seat is IMO an "rolling eyes infraction" on the DYKWIA scale (ranging from infractions, e.g. parking tickets, through felonies -- screaming at an agent, literally asking "Do you know who I am?"). I'm 6' rarely put things in the bin (stuck in a bulkhead or traveling with extra stuff that UA's CoC excludes liability for if in checked luggage). An aggravating factor, however would be throwing out status as an excuse. One trick for leg-room improvement without squatting on bin space: After takeoff move the bag behind your knees or to the aircraft sidewall... then you have plenty of legroom
and quick access to your bag if you want to.