Originally Posted by
cvision
Not really, if you are then just sitting at the gate waiting for your ATC slot. So many times I have sat on a fully boarded AA/DL flight 15 min before departure, with doors closed, only to wait for push back. The larger problem with checking bags in the US is that the risk of them getting banged up is pretty high and delivery taking long at times. So if there is no trust that my bag will make it quickly and safely to the belt, I won't check it - even if I have three bags allowance.
Yeah, there's certainly people that are packing above the limit on carry ons to avoid fees but from an individual passengers perspective it's hard to know how much is from that and how much is from people that don't want to deal with the time, hassle, and risks of bag checking even if they could check for no additional cost. I wonder if any airlines have made any attempt to gain insight on that.