I figured that out several years ago. Lot easier to stop at a CVS or Walgreens than to worry about stuff spilling out etc. All I take is Clothes & my laptop/work.

What airline did this?
What was wrong with a pax near him, ie, row across or directly in front or back doing it?
Unbelievable.

Reasons to carry on:

1. Less risk of your bag being lost, delayed, or stolen.
2. If you avoid checking any bags, you do not have to wait at the baggage carousel.
3. If you avoid checking any bags, you have more options for doing standby, rebooking, etc..

If you are staying in a hotel, shampoo, conditioner, and soap are generally provided. For toothpaste, bring the small sample tubes that the dentist gives you at checkups. That will keep your liquids under the liquid limits, so you will not have to check bags solely due to the liquid limits.

Leisure traveler here (never traveled for business, never will)

When Mr HBB and I travel, we never check anything.....we put both 22' bags in overhead bin, anything else under our seats. The chaos of boarding, sitting in way less space then needed, and chaos of unloading will continue....just give in to the madness......and breathe.....

my .02$

plus, who said life is fair?

Charging really seems the way to go here. Firstly it makes sense and is equitable. Including exempting pax with status. (I believe most people don't object to status pax getting perks as long as those perks are transparent.) Secondly, airlines have opened up an iniquitous arbitrage opportunity by charging for checked luggage. ("Mabel, now you listen to me: you take that kitchen sink as hand luggage or the greedy airline will charge you for extra luggage.")

As for fairness, *A gives extra checked baggage allowance, I can't see the problem with extra hand luggage allowance (IMO a much more desirable perk).

I agree to a point. But actually I think the airlines have got it all wrong. They should have started charging for extra hand luaggage, not checked luggage. That way they would have had the sympathy of the other pax who (as evidenced by this thread) deeply resent the selfish behaviour of the bin hogs.

Currently the conversation at check-in goes like this:
GA: I'm afraid I will have to charge you for the second checked bag.
Pax: That's outrageous. In that case I'll take it as hand luggage.

How much better for all concerned if it went like this:
GA: Here's your label for the one piece of hand luggage you are allowed. Oh, you have more pieces... that will be $xx per piece unless you check them.
Pax: That's outrageous. In that case I'll check this and this.

I doubt they mind the handling if they get paid for it. Maybe they would even do it better if they were.

Support for my thesis.

All very valid. Why don't airlines realise that they are begging pax to take everything on board?

I must say, this thread has answered so many questions for me about where our society is. People complain about poor service, staff not being friendly or hard-working etc but from what I've read it seems neither are some pax!

It's been my experience that the business pax are just as bad as leisure pax about stowing baggage. They throw their bag sideways, throw in their little bag, take out their laptop and take their seats with NO regard for the way they used the space. I can't believe the egocentricity I see on the daily basis. All of this "I don't care if it's fair." "I earned it..."

Did YOU buy your tickets... or was it your company, because I'm sure those leisure pax with no place to stow their bags bought their own tickets out of pocket and to me they are just as entitled to the bin space as anyone else.

This attitude that people seem to carry around that they are the ONLY ones in the world seems to be eating away at the little that's left of our manners in today's society. Does it really impose on people to be kind or courteous to others? Is it so much to ask? Would you not want someone to do the same for you?

All airline have rules and regs and in terms of boarding and stowing luggage, if people would actually listen to announcements made by cabin crew instead of ignoring us then we might just be able to accommodate everyone's belongings.

Just today I was serving some business pax, going through offering beverages with a smile on my face (as usual) and when asking, "Sir/Miss can I offer you something to drink?" I get this evil stare and they wave me off with the hand. If they're sleeping and I try to gently wake them to offer something I get the same annoyed look and if I skip past without waking people then they ring the bell so say "Um, I was skipped, I need a Coke!" ...No... I didn't miss you, you missed ME.

Even being nice proves difficult and sometimes leaves me wondering WHAT emotion or attitude people are expecting from me! These days it seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Please remember that the plane IS public transportation and that while I certainly don't expect you to allow anyone to encroach on your seat space; the overhead bin space is shared space and purposefully being a hog, being rude about it, acting as though you're entitled to more (as seems common these days) just goes to show that we have all but lost our sense of grace. People talk about the "good ole days" of flying... I can assure you, these over-inflated self-entitled rude, egotistical attitudes weren't part of the experience.

*To those who ARE kind, courteous and appreciative of service, THANK YOU! YOU make me want to work harder. Today I was going through collecting refuse and this man dug ALL of his snack wrappers out of his seatback pocket. I was SHOCKED so jokingly I told him "You're hired! I really appreciate you taking all of that out!" He simply said, 'Well of course, I'm the one who put it there." WOW.... it's sad that this moment made me smile... something so simple that we all should do.

CABNcrew, thank you very much for your post. I couldn't have said it better myself. I especially enjoyed this:

Can you explain how this is relevant? Who cares who paid for the ticket? I am getting a bit fed up with the attitude that if the person flying is getting reimbursed for their fare, they are somehow less entitled or less deserving of the "perks" of air travel. If you're saying that everyone should be treated fairly, I agree. But status is earned by loyalty not by the source of the cash.

Personally, I fit into both categories as I AM my company and every dollar I spend on airfare is pretty much out of my pocket.

Same here, and I’m sure many others are as well.

I used to envy those who got free upgrades and always sat in first or had an exit row. Then I became a FF and got the perks and envied those who didn't have to travel two or three times a week. You flew the miles so you definitely earned the perks regardless of who footed the bill for the ticket.

Now I no longer have FF status *cough* GROUP 6 *cough*, but am still that guy boarding after the last person in first. You just have to look like you are PLATINUM or EXECPLAT. Well, your boarding pass does anyway.