I'll agree with others here that there's no guarantee that there will be room for your carry-on. But since there were later flights that day available, and OP was willing to be moved to one, that's the reasonable and logical solution.

(That's not very game-able, few passengers would want to schlep out to the airport, wait for boarding, for the "benefit" of a free rebooking to a flight a few hours later. )

I wonder what would have happened if you explained that your carry-on was full of spare lithium batteries?

They can't force you to check your bag. They can however determine where your bag will be placed. It was your decision not to board the plane therefore you are a no show in their eyes and will be treated accordingly.

This was apparently a domestic flight, so the COC exclusions apply and excess valuation would not affect claims. Put in plain English, you can declare and pay for whatever you want, but the exclusions for valuables would still apply.

Might be helpful on international, but not that most carriers would require that the declaration be made by the baggage cutoff and that would likely have passed.

Bear in mind that nobody can force you to fly. But, that doesn't mean that your ticket retains value if you choose not to.

Nobody has an automatic right to bin / carry-on space. If the aircraft had been a CRJ200 this would not even be a discussion point... there's no room inside for a rollaboard. OP should have planned accordingly.

Not all airlines sell the right to board early.

Can I ask you how you did this? When my kids were babies, I always tried to gate check them, but the GAs said it wasn't allowed.

Mike

Thanks for all the answers. Since a few people have asked, this was UA SFO-LAX on a 737.

What bothers me is that the FA told me to just go out and ask to get put on the next flight, as if this was a common occurrence. When I went out, the GA seemed busy and didn't want to deal with me, so she passed me on to someone else.

Here is the airline's carry-on baggage page: https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/tra...eCarry-On.aspx It clearly says that "each traveler can bring on board one carry-on bag plus one personal item free of charge". There are no asterisks or disclaimers anywhere about room not being available. Perhaps it's in the fine print somewhere else.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that airlines will provide the service they advertise. Of course sometimes it's just not possible, but in those cases they should work with you to provide another alternative rather than saying sorry, you're out of luck.

In that case, were you not offered the option of standing by or even pay for a confirmed flight change? How hard did you push them?

I think UA did you wrong.

I've always wondered about that myself. If they know they don't have room in the overhead bins for that, and if they're not going to enforce the rule (because they often don't - how many times have all of us seen pax boarding with more bags than a Samsonite shop), then they shouldn't advertise it.

I've reached the point I just pay for priority these days because I don't want to deal with it anymore. Even on official travel, if I'm not in uniform or I know the airline doesn't let military in uniform board first (or I'm not flying in uniform), I pony up for Economy Plus out of pocket. It's worth it to me, especially if the uniform I need for the next day/first day of whatever I'm going to is IN my carry-on. So I suppose I'm paying to carry on a bag, really...

Can't really think of any mainline domestic carriers that do not offer some variation of priority boarding for a fee.

OP, if you don't have status on an airline, you should make sure to be first in line for whatever boarding group you are in.

I've heard of the demand for excess valuation insurance being used as a counterattack for this by others on FT. Might be worth a try next time.

The whole reason I even have a carry-on when I fly is for those items that are too valuable and fragile to be checked. In my case, that's mostly computer and camera gear.

Having seen a few instances of people being forced to gate-check their bags, I am now paranoid about it and go to great lengths to make sure I board early enough to secure overhead space. If I'm ever delayed or hit with some other circumstance that forces me into gate-checking, I think I'd probably do exactly what OP did and eat whatever charges are necessary.

Of course, if that happened, I'd also complain incessantly to the carrier until they refunded any extra charges I had to accrue.

That is not always possible. E.g. connecting flight is running late, held up unusually long at check-in/security/immigration.

In which case, the "bag-in-bag" scheme is a necessity. Dump the valuables into the small bag, carry that on and gate check the larger one. Unless you've just looted some museum, that ought to work.

Now, most airlines' baggage rules say that certain things should not be put in checked baggage. Specifically mentioned are medicines, valuable, and keys.

Also try calling the airline in advance to see what they suggest when it comes to valuable items being transported.