ftnoob

https://yourmileagemayvary.com/2023/...personal-bags/

The fine print on the relevant web page reads:I've noticed that aisle seats on most WN aircraft have very small under seat storage space.

Note: this is for the personal (second) carryon, not the luggage that goes in the overhead bin.

On the same page "Examples of personal items allowed" are given as I thought backpacks used to be on the list, but cannot swear to it.

zachary

It'll be interesting to see whether there is any change in the enforcement, or lack thereof, of the size limits on carry on bags and personal items. I find WN to be extremely lax in that area. People shove bags into the overhead bins that are clearly beyond the published size limit. Often, I see people with two carry on size bags, neither of which remotely qualifies as a personal item. Personally, I'm fine with the lack of enforcement, but I know others may disagree.

LegalTender

Plausible reasons:
___________________

• SWA in-seat power installers need the inches
• Roomier overhead bins on new livery
• Need to “gate check” anything.robs efficiency

New limits come with an asterisk.

iceman77_7

Of all the airlines, I feel that southwest has the most available bin space, likely because of no charge for checked bags.

joshua362

Technically from a cubic inch measurement, the reduction is only 12%

NoStressHere

I have never seen anyone worry about the size of personal items. Sometimes the carryon/overhead.

In my 100+ WN flights... I would say that less than 1% abuse this. So - NO BIG DEAL.

screeton

Perhaps people don't abuse the size limitations for personal items, but they certainly do abuse it with other carry-on items. How many times on any given flight have you seen the boarding line stalled while some passenger struggles with an obviously oversize bag, trying to force it into the available bin space? Usually that scenario happens multiple times on each flight. I would be delighted to see more aggressive enforcement of size limits in order to speed the boarding and deplaning process.

EAJuggalo

It has to fit under the seat in front of you. There have been reports on many airlines including Southwest that the area under the aisle seats has gotten smaller. I'm guessing some lawyer finally figured out that they should make that change in the CoC. I've never had a problem putting my stuffed backpack under a window seat, but I know my wife has had issues in aisle seats the last couple years.

seattlebruce

2123 to 1755 is a reduction of 17%.

WillCAD

This difference won't really affect me. My personal item is a large belt bag that's well within the new limits, 12x8x6 plus a bottle carrier. It easily fits in the underseat of the 800 series interiors with plenty of room to spare for my boats, er, shoes.

I'd be more upset if the overhead limits shrunk. My rollaboard is under the current limit, but not by much - 22x15x10 including wheels and handles. It fits easily in the OH wheels in, but since it's at the 10" height limit, I'd have to go hunting for a smaller bag if the limit ever shrunk.

In my experience, I'd say it's closer to three or five percent who abuse the carry-on restrictions. That is, one out of every twenty to thirty pax breaking the carry-on restrictions in some way - either with three items, or two items that are both too large for the underseat space, or items that exceed the max dimensions for overhead stowage.

The most extreme case I can recall was a BWI-MCO flight around 2012 or 2014 where there were something like a dozen bags that had to be gate checked (along with all the strollers), because the overheads were full, and every overhead had one or more items were too large to fit in wheels-in or wheels-out and had to be turned sideways. I remember on that flight someone boarded with a rollaboard that had to be 26" long; a 'carpet bag' style duffel of nearly the same size; and a shopping bag that looked to be about 22". These three items took up an entire OH compartment, displacing the items of everyone else in three rows of seats. Naturally, the owner of those three items shoved them in haphazardly, leaving later pax to re-arrange them in an attempt to fit anything else in the bin. And of course, the owner of the items also sat nowhere near them - they dropped off the bags in the second OH compartment on the starboard side and proceeded to sit much farther back in the cabin. Thankfully, cases that extreme are rare.

But on pretty much every flight I see people bring a rollaboard plus an overstuffed backpack aboard, neither of which would fit in the underseat, or two overstuffed backpacks, or an overstuffed backpack plus a duffel of some kind. Sometimes they'll also have a third item, such as a purse, fanny pack, or shopping bag, that does fit in the underseat, but their two larger items both go into the overhead.

I have seen a number of people bring a rollaboard plus a smaller backpack that seems like it might fit in the underseat, but when they get it down there it won't actually fit completely, and protrudes halfway into their foot space. That leaves their feet in the aisle or the foot space of the pax next to them, and presents an obstruction in case of restroom visit or emergency evac, especially if they're seated in an aisle or middle and other pax need to clamber past their protruding bag.

Again, I see this kind of envelope pushing in about one out of every twenty to thirty pax, or between five and eight pax per flight. That doesn't seem like many out of 175 people, but given the limited amount of overhead space, five to eight extra bags going in there instead of in the underseat can force five people in the C group to gate check bags full of valuable and/or fragile items like electronics.

NoStressHere

MCO is often an issue. Strollers, diaper bags, and all the other stuff. Then add in stuffed animals form Disney/Universal and it gets worse.

So glad we moved out of there. I used to take 6am business flights to avoid the family stuff.

sdsearch

Smaller in which direction(s)???

If you look at the change, the width (which I presume is what would be smaller at the aisle seat) isn't what changed, only the depth and height. So the reason might be, as someone else noted, because of additional things they're installing at the seats, such as power outlets.

I haven't seen the new power outlets on Southwest yet, but on many other airlines the power outlets use under-the-seat modules, which may have slightly lowered the height possible for bags under the seat.

FSF

Or it could even be said that the allowance used to be 21% larger than it is now.

joshua362

I stand corrected, thank you

What a big difference the 8.5 to 8.0 in the third dimension made, I missed that.

Hopefully this is still enough room to stuff a sandwich or salad bag underneath, they seem to be taking that right away too...

LegalTender

Load factors are 82%. Allegiant reported a July load factor (paid occupancy) of 91.2%.

That constricts all gaps.