I have taken at least 10 trips minimum each way from the US to Cancun and vice versa throughout the years. Only once or twice did I had put my carry on messenger bag in another area from my seat in the overhead bin once or maybe twice. Every other time, this was never an issue. Also, there has been many times when before the flight and you are in the waiting area, the person in the announcing booth would announce it's a packed flight. And almost always, there would be an announcement asking if anyone wants to gate check their bag for free. How often do you notice people gate check their bag because I rarely notice this? But in every single situation even in a packed flight, I always had space to my my carry on messenger bag in overhead bin space. So would you attribute that to luck or not? Lot of people say it's a gamble to buy basic economy for American or Delta because you are the last group to board but not one time this has ever happened even in packed flights. So what does that say then? Does it mean if take domestic flights, then it increases the chance much more? Some people mentioned how they notice almost basic economy group get asked to gate check in most of their flights from the last few years... but I got to assume these are domestic flights?



Is there a way I can measure my large messenger bag with it's electronics in it if it will fit under a seat to test it? Such as how high the dimensions are?


So let me ask you this. Let say you take a few electronics out of your large messenger bag like your laptop, power bank and few other bigger electronics like headphones etc. You then basically hold them or have them all in your tray table. You are now then able to put the large messenger bag completely underneath the seat in front of you. Is that good enough? The other question I have is this. How often do people board the plane and then notice there isn't any overhead bin space left? Or is the later group notified before they board... okay you have to gate check it? What if you tell them, you will remove your laptop, power bank and few other electronics and basically carry it or leave it in the tray table while the large messenger bag fit under the seat in front of you? Would that work or not? Or is it if they say everyone now has to gate check it, you can ask if you could do that? But if so, the big question is would they then measure how big your large messenger bag dimensions are before they let you board and let you know if it will fit underneath the seat ahead of you? That to me is a big question here.


So you are saying booking with American or Delta, go with main cabin and pay more. If you book with JetBlue, JetBlue blue is certainly more than enough right? JetBlue blue basic is lower but I can't buy that cheaper ticket because it doesn't allow any carry on bag which doesn't work for me. I know there is JetBlue extra but if I go with Jetblue, Jetblue blue is almost always enough right?